Grassroot Innovations

Mobile Groundnut Thresher

Details: Nileshbhai observed that farmers faced scarcity of labor at the time of groundnut harvesting. The use of conventional threshers, requires adequate labor to collect the harvested/dug groundnut stalk. Delay in collection of harvested stalk, which is allowed for drying after digging, results in loss of groundnut. To overcome this problem, Nilesh along with his friend Pankaj developed a modified tractor mounted PTO powered mobile automatic thresher, which consists of an endless chain for collecting pods and stalk, a threshing unit, a separation unit for groundnut pods and stalks and a separate chamber for storage of groundnut pods and stalk. It consumes 2 lit of diesel to cover 1 to 1.5 acres of land in 1 hour with a capacity to store 600kg of groundnut and 800kg of stalk. It has been successfully used for threshing groundnut with an efficiency of 90%. Its cost of operation is only Rs 280 to 300 per hectare. It can also be used for harvesting soya bean and pigeon pea.

Innovator: Nileshbhai Dobariya & Pankajbhai Lunagariya, Rajkot, Gujarat

State: Rajkot, Gujarat

Funding agency: Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India

Implementing institute: National Innovation Foundation India (NIF), info.nif@nifindia.org

Benefits

The Mobile Groundnut Thresher tackles labor shortages and groundnut loss. It harvests, threshes, and separates automatically, reducing labor needs and minimizing losses. This efficient machine offers fast operation, high yield, and affordability, with the versatility to handle soybean and pigeon pea harvests as well.

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