1.Manual cane harvesting knife (IISR design)
IISR Lucknow has developed a cane knife. This manual cane harvester is similar to the popular (Pankati) cane knife used in Western Uttar Pradesh & Meerut. Keeping the essential features of Pankati, some improvements have been incorporated in IISR knife so that human fatigue is reduced. It consists of blade fitted to a curved wooden handle. During cane cutting, bending of the operator is minimum resulting in lesser fatigue. The cost of the knife is Rs. 150/
2.CARIB Sugarcane harvester
CARIB Sugarcane Harvester was imported by VSI Pune. This harvester has been assembled on a standard tractor base. It has two spiral scrolls to separate standing canes, which are either lodged or bent, and to gather the canes towards the center of the cutting row for base cutting. The base cutting is twin blade cutter harvesting adjustable depth wheels to take care of field undulations to maintain a constant height of cut. The cut cane stalks are windrowed beneath harvester along the direction of travel. Thus in this method, more labour is required to separate, pile up and clean harvested canes.
3.BUNMEI NB – 11 BB Sugarcane harvester
This is a walk behind whole stalk harvester having a 610 mm diameter disc cutter with 8 blades. This may be suitable for very small size, erect canes. The machine performs the functions of cutting and windrowing. Subsequent detopping and detrashing have to be carried out separately. This is a Japanese machine, which is marketed in India by M/s. Farm Implements India Private Ltd., Chennai. Operation of this machine is difficult under ridges and furrow condition. The output of the machine is very low.
4.BUNMEI Sugarcane detopper-cum-leaf stripper
This machine has been developed with the purpose of detrashing and detopping individual canes. This is also a Bunmei make, Japanese machine and is usually used along with the BUNMAI harvester as a supplementary unit. The low output of this machine is its limitation. There is a possibility for acceptability this design provided output per unit time is increased. The cost of the unit is Rs. 1,25,000/-.
5.GK – 75 whole stalk Sugarcane harvester
The Moller GK – 75 Whole Stock Cane Harvester is a low-cost machine specially designed to increase harvesting efficiency and reduce labour costs. This machine has been designed to cut erect standing cane with a lean of not exceeding 10 degrees.
6.AUSTOFT 7000 sugarcane chopper harvester
This is a chopper type sugarcane harvester. This has been imported by M/s. Shakthi Sugars Ltd., Erode, Tamil Nadu and is being used in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. During cane harvesting, only 15 % time is spent for harvesting and the rest 85% is used for dressing and sizing the cut cane into cane bits, bundling, carrying and gathering the cane bundles and finally loaded into the cane trucks.
In chopper harvester, all these functions are carried out in one go besides blowing out the dry cane trash into the field as a “Trash blanket” (Nagendran, 2012). This machine performs the functions of base cutting, detopping, detrashing, chopping of cane, removal of trash, green leaves, tops and blowing billets into a tractor trailer and transport trucks. The machine is suitable for sugarcane grown at 150 cm row to row spacing. Hence, the present method of sugarcane cultivation in India with a spacing of 90 cm row to row spacing is not suitable to use this machine. The cost of the machine is about 1.3 crore.
7.CLAAS Sugarcane harvester
This is a German make sugarcane combine, which is being imported and sold in India by M/ s. Escorts Ltd and is introduced by Cooperative Sugar Mills of Maharashtra on custom hiring. The salient feature of the machine is that the row spacing of header unit can be adjusted from narrow row spacing, i.e., 90 cm to 150 cm which makes the machine suitable for harvesting sugarcane cultivated in most parts of the country. This is also a chopper type harvester. The green top is detopped and pushed aside, which is collected manually for feeding to the cattle. The cost of the machine is about Rs. 1 crore.
8.CAMECO CH-2500, 3500 sugarcane harvester
This chopper type combine harvester is suitable for harvesting cane grown at 150 cm spacing.
9.CAMECO S 30 Sugarcane harvester
This is a whole stalk harvester imported by Vasantdada Patil Sugar mill, Sangli, Maharashtra. This is a single row machine having a single spiral scroll at the left to separate entangled and lodged cane stalks from adjoining rows of standing crops. It has upper and lower conveyors for gathering and conveying standing cane stalks for base cutting along the rows. The height of these conveyors can be adjusted independently.
The windrowing unit has a conveyor which can discharge detopped and base cut canes at the desired angle, to a maximum distance, perpendicular to the direction of travel. The topper detops the green leaves and shreds the immature canes. All functional components and sub systems are hydraulically powered. Since, it is a paired, wide row / staggered row crop harvester; it is not suitable for sugarcane harvesting in India. CAMECO S 32 whole stalk Sugarcane harvester is a two-row whole stalk harvester commercially manufactured by M/s. CAMECO, USA. Presently the design is out of production, however, on order basis, units are manufactured by M/s. Hone Iron Works, a subsidiary of CAMECO, USA.
10.AUSTOFT HX – 1800 sugarcane chopper harvester
This is a chopper type Ssugarcane harvester and is being marketed by M/s. Shakthi Sugars Ltd., Erode. This machine is being used in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. This machine carries out functions of base cutting, detopping, detrashing, chopping of cane, removal of trash and green leaf tops and loading billets into tractor trailer moving along with the machine. Later on, billets are loaded in the trucks for transport to the sugar mills for crushing. The machine is suitable for sugarcane grown at 100 cm row to row spacing (Singh et al., 2010). However, it is a very costly machine. Presently cost of operation of this machine per unit weight of cane is more as compared to traditional harvesting. In many respects, Austoft 7000 is more effective and balanced machine. The cost of the machine is aroundRs. 1 crore.
11.ORBACH tractor operated Sugarcane harvester
This machine is of South African origin being manufactured and marketed by M/s. Alternatively, back. It harvests the cane from ground level with a circular base cutter operated by tractor PTO. It also does Sugarcane detopping along with base cutting, conveys it and windrow in heaps with the help of a manually operated trolley by an operator in sitting posture on a seat fitted on the frame. Later on, Sugarcane is loaded on a trailer. The design is quite promising for erect harvesting cane. This machine is in use for the last 4-5 years. To reduce the trash, Sugarcane is burnt before using the harvester. Thereby trashes are removed. Otherwise, about 30 per cent of the cost of sugarcane harvesting will be required for detrashing of the cane.
12.Rane-NATP(ICAR)-VSI sugarcane chopper combine harvester
An indigenous sugarcane chopper combine harvester has been developed by the collaborative efforts of VSI-Pune, Rane Industries and ICAR under NATP on Sugarcane Mechanization. The unit can be used in Sugarcane fields cultivated with a row to row spacing of 90-100 cm. The expected capacity of the unit is 10 to 25 MT/hr. The unit is under extensive field trials. The cost of the unit may be around 75 lakhs.
Source-
- Sugarcane Breeding Institute
