Agricultural Machinery Engineering
http://ir.haramaya.edu.et//hru/handle/123456789/242
2024-03-29T10:57:39ZSTATUS AND CHALLENGES OF MECHANIZATION IN SMALL SCALE FARMING SYSTEM IN HARAMAYA DISTRICT, EASTERN HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA
http://ir.haramaya.edu.et//hru/handle/123456789/7701
STATUS AND CHALLENGES OF MECHANIZATION IN SMALL SCALE FARMING SYSTEM IN HARAMAYA DISTRICT, EASTERN HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA
Mohammed Usmail Yusuf; Professor Adesoji M. Olaniy; Dr. Solomon Abera PhD.
Ethiopian agriculture is dominated by a smallholder farming system, where the farmers rely
on traditional farming method, which is labor-intensive and prone to drudgery. Appropriate
mechanization should replace human labor in agriculture but, there is a low level of
mechanization in the country. Different factors affect the use of agricultural mechanization by
smallholder farmers. Thus, the main objective of this research was to assess the status and
challenges of mechanization in small-scale farms system in Haramaya district of the Oromia
region. To achieve the objective of this study, different methods were used. A total of 150 (126
farmers and 24 agricultural experts) were selected using multistage sampling techniques.
Interviews, observations, and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data.
Linear regression was used to predict the effect of mechanization input on crop
production. Finally, the mechanization status of the study area was determined by the degree,
level, and capacity of mechanization. The results indicated that using mechanization input has a
positive and significant effect on crop production. The level of mechanization in the study area
was 0.164 hp/ha, and to reach 1.5 hp/ha 111 tractors would be required. In general, agricultural
mechanization practices in smallholder farming systems have a significant contribution to
productivity, living standards, and sustainable growth. Therefore, the appropriate use of
mechanization input for the smallholder farmers in the study area is crucial. So, the government
and different stakeholders should facilitate the upgrading of the current traditional farming
systems to mechanized farming systems.
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2024-02-01T00:00:00ZDESIGN, MANUFACTURING AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LIVESTOCK FEED CHOPPER
http://ir.haramaya.edu.et//hru/handle/123456789/7687
DESIGN, MANUFACTURING AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LIVESTOCK FEED CHOPPER
Fami Abdi Ahmed; Prof. Adesoji M. Olaniyan (PhD)
A livestock feed chopper was designed, fabricated and evaluated for its performance using maize plant. Study of the engineering properties of maize plant, relevant for the design of the chopper were made. The chopper was tested using three levels of moisture content (56.38, 67.92 and 76.43% wet bases), feed roller speeds (145.00, 180.00 and 215.00 rpm) and cutting speeds (550.00, 700.00 and 850.00 rpm) with three replications. The effectiveness of chopping was assessed in terms of maize plant cut/chop length, cutting efficiency, chopper capacity, chopper efficiency and power consumption. The results indicated that decreasing feed roller speed or increasing both cutting head speed and maize plant moisture content, cut length/chops with less than 20.00 mm length increased while those between 20.00 and 30.00 mm and greater than 30.00 mm decreased. The findings revealed that the percentages cut length smaller than 20.00 mm ranging from 23.96 to 69.35% was recorded. The mean percentage cut length between 20.00 and 30.00 mm ranging from 21.50 to 52.54% was observed and the mean percentage of cut length greater than 30.00 mm ranging from 8.14 to 34.25% occurred. Furthermore, the results revealed that, mean cutting efficiency increased with increasing cutting head speed and maize plant moisture content, but decreased with increasing feed roller speed. The mean cutting efficiency ranged from 84.63 to 95.13%. The results also showed that increasing both feed roller speed and maize plant moisture content increased mean actual chopper capacity and mean chopper efficiency. For all treatment’s combinations, the mean actual chopper capacity and mean chopper efficiency were decreased with increase in cutting head speed. In general, the mean chopper capacity ranged from 357.12 to 609.39 kg/hr and the mean chopper efficiency ranged from 86.39 to 96.48%. The mean power consumption ranged from 0.015 to 0.021 kW/kg. From the performance indices of the maize plant chopper, it can be concluded that the performance of the prototype chopper is acceptable with high prospect for extending the technology for small and medium scale farmers.
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2024-02-01T00:00:00ZDESIGN, MANUFACTURING AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FABABEAN THRESHING MACHINE
http://ir.haramaya.edu.et//hru/handle/123456789/7653
DESIGN, MANUFACTURING AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FABABEAN THRESHING MACHINE
Desta Abera Senbeta; Dr. Habtamu Alemayehu
Favabean threshing, in Ethiopia at present, is predominantly done by employing animals to trample the
crop on the ground. Traditional methods of threshing favabean require high man-hours, cause fatigue to
workers, have low output, and reduce seed quality. In an effort to alleviate these problems, diesel engine driven favabean thresher was designed, fabricated, tested and evaluated. The performance evaluation of
the thresher was made in terms of threshing capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, mechanical
seed damage, and fuel consumption. The performance evaluation was carried out at three levels of
cylinder speeds (400, 450, and 500 rpm), concave clearances (25, 30 and 35 mm), and feed rates (8, 12
and 16 kg/min). The experimental design laid was a factorial, split–split plot design. The maximum
threshing capacity of 933.64 kg/hr was obtained at a cylinder speed of 500 rpm, concave clearance of 35
mm, and feeding rate of 16 kg/min. The threshing efficiency and percentage of un-threshed grain highly
depended on concave clearance rather than other factors. Maximum threshing efficiency of 96.67% was
achieved at a cylinder speed of 400 rpm and a concave clearance of 25 mm. Maximum cleaning efficiency
of 95.00% was achieved at a cylinder speed of 500 rpm and a concave clearance of 25 mm. Maximum
mechanical damage of 6.31% was recorded at a cylinder speed of 500 rpm, and a concave clearance of
25 mm, and a feeding rate of 16 kg/min.
82p.
2024-02-01T00:00:00ZOPTIMIZATION OF FARM MACHINERY SELECTION AND CROPLAND ALLOCATION USING LINEAR PROGRAMMING: The CASE OF LOLE STATE FARM
http://ir.haramaya.edu.et//hru/handle/123456789/7599
OPTIMIZATION OF FARM MACHINERY SELECTION AND CROPLAND ALLOCATION USING LINEAR PROGRAMMING: The CASE OF LOLE STATE FARM
Bilisuma Edea Moti; Girma Moges (PhD); Habtamu Alemayehu (PhD)
The agriculture sector plays a crucial role in the Ethiopian economy, providing income, employment, and revenue so mechanized farming is essential for increasing efficiency and productivity. Agriculture mechanization is not only to increase the number of farm machinery; it needs enhanced power and land input. This study was conducted at Lole State Farm and the main problem faced by the Farm was the mismatch of farm power or machinery and the total cultivated land, which led to operational delays, high costs, and low efficiency. The study aimed to optimize farm machinery selection and cropland allocation through a linear objective function and constraints. The two objective functions designed for Lole State Farm were to maximize farm operation efficiency per hour and crop profit per area by satisfying various constraints. The parameters of the objective function were machine field capacity (hectare per hour) and crop profit (Birr per hectare) for farm machinery selection and cropland allocation, respectively. In line with this, the constraints that were considered during the optimization of farm machinery selection were total machinery cost, area of cultivated land, working days, and hours. On the other hand, the constraints considered during cropland allocation were total production costs, (fertilizers, herbicides, chemicals such as, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, etc.! seed, labor, and machine hour cost, crop rotation, and total land area). By subjecting objective function to farm constraints, and using linear programming, optimization of farm machinery and land use was achieved via mathematical modeling. The result of the optimization indicated that, thirteen Messy Ferguson465 (150hp.each) and four John Deere 7230 tractors (230 hp. each), in total seventeen tractors, were proved adequate for primary tillage operation. These tractors can cover all farm operations after primary tillage. Regarding the combine harvesters, five Tucano5060s (150hp.) were selected as optimal. Regarding cropland allocation, the optimization results indicated that wheat and potato are the first and second profitable crops, respectively for Lole State Farm, followed by fava bean, food barley, and rapeseed as economic options. In conclusion, the LP model optimization process has improved decision-making on farm machinery selection and cropland allocation taking into account farm constraints
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2024-03-01T00:00:00Z