1Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Engineering, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Bapatla-522 101, Andhra Pradesh, India
2Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 679573, Kerala, India
*Corresponding Author’s Email: aryakthankappan72@gmail.com
Online Published on 26 May, 2023.
Agricultural practices in large fields were declining habitually due to the scarcity of land holdings and growing demands of shelters. As scarcity of land is the major barrier for farmers, they are forced to do cultivation in the available area. Hence, farmers were intended to cultivate around the immediate surroundings of their house. It requires suitable machinery that caters for that suits the needs of small scale farmers. One among the tools needed is the earth auger. Hence, an earth auger operated with a brush cutter engine was developed to dig small pits required to plant small saplings and for fixing support poles for banana. Earth auger consist of an auger bit, a gear unit and a supporting handle. The performance evaluation of earth auger revealed that the maximum depth of pit dug by the earth auger was 45 cm with a diameter of 15 cm. Moreover, capacity of auger was measured as 8 pits per minute with an average fuel consumption of 1.69 liters per hour of operation.
Brush cutter, Digging capacity, Earth auger, Homestead, Kerala
