Executive Summary : | Cotton also known as “White Gold” is most important fiber as well as cash crop of India with a commanding role in the industrial and agricultural economy. Cotton production has been increasing quantitatively in the country over the years which is estimated to be around 13 million hectares with productivity of 486 kg ha-1”and a production of 371 lakh bales in the year 2020-21 (COCPC, 2021). Escalation in the cost of cultivation has drastically reduced the net income. Major factor responsible for the cost of cotton cultivation is the increase in wage rate of human labour which accounts for 30-40 %”of the total cost of cultivation (Reddy et al., 2018). Rise in the wage rate is not specific to cotton cultivation alone as agricultural wages rose steeply after 2007-08. Also with accelerated economic growth, job opportunities in non-agricultural sector are created much faster that leads to a pull on labour away from agriculture where productivity and wages are relatively high (FICCI 2015). Hence, the key in reducing the cost of cultivation of cotton is by reducing the dependence of human power which can be achieved by the advent of mechanization. Cotton picking is still one of the most costly operations representing about 30% of total cotton production cost. In general, it is done either by hand picking or by machines. Only 30 percent of the total cotton produced in the world is picked mechanically. And India, being one of the five largest cotton producing countries in the world, the entire 100% cotton is picked manually. This is because the commercially available mechanical cotton harvesters are not suitable for multi picking practice and needed huge investment which farmers in India couldn't afford. Maneuverability of these machinery is also difficult due to small and fragmented land holdings. At the same time, these pickers are intended for single pick cotton varieties which highly differ from our Bt cotton varieties. In the present situation manual pickers are paid with Rs. 10 per kg of cotton picked or 300 Rs day-1 which reflects in the production cost. Since agricultural lands in India are mostly small and fragmented, and cotton varieties are multiple yielding type, this has led to seek alternative ways of mechanical picking. Hence by the advent of cotton picker affordable by small scale farmers, the efficiency (acre h-1) will be increased substantially and the costs will be reduced compared to manual picking. In view of these, a research work has been initiated i.e., “Design and development of tractor powered single row parasol cotton picker for multi-picking practice of Indian farmer”. The proposed design consists of rotating roller type converging picker shafts (designed with 6 picking units) arranged like a parasol, collecting trough, suction chamber and storage unit. Picking rollers rotate about their own axis arranged offset to collecting trough. Spindles are embedded into the roller shaft assist in precise picking of cotton bolls. |