A residue management machine for chopping paddy residues in combine harvested paddy field

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays, Combine Harvesters are the most commonly used device for harvesting crops; as a result, a large amount of plant material and crop residue is concentrated into a narrow band of plant material that exits the combine, challenging the residue management task. This paper aims to develop a crop residue management machine that can chop paddy residues and mix them with the soil of the combined harvested paddy field. For this purpose, two important units are attached to the developed machine: the chopping and incorporation units. The tractor operates this machine as the main source, with a power range of about 55.95 kW. The four independent parameters selected for the study were rotary speed (R1 = 900 & R2 = 1100 rpm), forward speed (F1 = 2.1 & F2 = 3.0 Kmph), horizontal adjustment (H1 = 550 & H2 = 650 mm), and vertical adjustment (V1 = 100 & V2 = 200 mm) between the straw chopper shaft and rotavator shaft and its effect was found on incorporation efficiency, shredding efficiency, and trash size reduction of chopped paddy residues. The incorporation of residue and shredding efficiency was highest at V1H2F1R2 (95.31%) and V1H2F1R2 (61.92%) arrangements. The trash reduction of chopped paddy residue was recorded maximum at V1H2F2R2 (40.58%). Therefore, this study concludes that the developed residue management machine with some modifications in power transmission can be suggested to the farmers to overcome the paddy residue issue in combined harvested paddy fields.