Studies on Machine-Crop Parameters for Chickpea Seed Crop Threshing

Abstract

Seed crop of legumes are very critical to mechanical abuses. Even minor injury to seed reduces major seed quality considerably. The protruding structure of chickpea makes it more critical. Also, timeliness is important factor in seed production system in light of weather vagaries. Further, conventional threshing operations always coupled with reduced recovery, labor consuming and uneconomical. The present study was conducted in view of to optimize important operational and crop parameters influencing the threshing of chickpea seed crop. Moisture content, concave clearance and cylinder speed were taken as independent parameters and visible injury, internal injury, germination percentage and threshing efficiency was studied as dependent parameters. Cylinder speed was found the most critical factor for affecting visible and internal injury extent. Moisture content adversely affected the internal injury levels in threshed seed. Cylinder speed: 8.94 m/s, concave clearance: 14 mm and moisture content: 10 per cent were resulted seed of optimum quality with minimal visible and internal injury coupled with optimum threshing efficiency.