Author(s): S. K. SWAIN, A. K. DASH, A. K. MOHAPATRA, D. BEHERA AND B. K. BEHERA

Abstract: The small and marginal farmers in many parts of the state of Odisha still depend upon the animal energy for accomplishment of agricultural operations because of small and fragmented land holding as well as poor socio-economic status. Of late, the maintenance cost of a pair of bullocks proves to be a burden on these farmers with increase in labour cost. Astudy on use of animal energy for two post harvest operations such as paddy threshing and chaff cutting with rotary gear system was made to increase the annual use of the bullocks so as to reduce the owning cost of bullocks.The results on operation of thresher indicated that the average output of the thresher was 143.23 q h-1 with mean threshing efficiency of 93.12%. The mean draft was 420 N which was 6.9 % of the bodyweight of the bullocks indicating that the bullocks were underutilized as far as power utilization is concerned. The results on operation of chaff cutter through bullock operated rotary unit indicated that the mean draft requirement was 250 N varying from 275 to 216 N which was 4.1 % equivalent to the bodyweight. The average output was found to be 69.43 kg h-1. The power output was observed to be 0.207 kW. The cost of operation of the thresher and chaff cutter in rotary mode suggests that rotary unit is not economical compared to threshing and chaff cutting if operated by electrical power source but surely it will increase the utilization of animal which otherwise would have been sitting idle and can save time in threshing compared to traditional bullock treading.

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