Evaluation of yield monitoring system installed on indigenous grain combine harvester for rice crop

Abstract

Precision agriculture is a methodology to identify and exploit variability within an agricultural field.  In India, a yield is measured during marketing of harvested crop and as a gross yield of the land owned by the farmer.  The yield monitor mounted over grain combine harvester measures and records information such as grain flow, grain moisture, area covered and location.  An automated yield monitoring system consisting of a yield sensor, global positioning system (GPS), field computer with custom software was mounted on a self propelled indigenous grain combine harvester for real-time crop yield mapping along with moisture data.  By means of optical sensors (light emitter and detector), the height of the grain on the elevator paddles was measured and converted in the grain mass flow.  Three rice fields were harvested to evaluate the performance of the yield monitor for grain yield and moisture mapping of harvested grains.  The actual yield maps were generated by using Arc GIS software from the data collected for three different rice fields.  The total area harvested by using indigenous combine harvester fitted with yield monitor and moisture sensor was 0.84 ha comprising three fields (1, 2 and 3) having areas 0.3, 0.22 and 0.32 ha respectively.  On an average, yields for all the three fields (1, 2 and 3) were 4,325.91, 5,093.14 and 4,287.66    kg ha^-1 with moisture content of 21.42%, 22.78% and 20.42% (wet basis) recorded respectively.  On an average, yield variations recorded for all the three fields (1, 2 and 3) were having 30.59%, 40.80% and 40.39% coefficient of variation respectively.  The minimum and maximum yields recorded within all the fields harvested were 577.08 and 7,661.48 kg ha^-1 with an average yield of 4,287.66 kg ha^-1 having 37.26% coefficient of variation (CV) in all the three fields.

Keywords: Combine harvester, precision agriculture, sensor; yield maps, yield monitor