Development and performance evaluation of fruit harvesting device for lime

Harvesting of lime fruit is one of the important operations carried out using manually operated inefficient traditional devices or by shaking the tree branches and then collecting the fruits from the ground surface. However, lime fruits get damaged when it fall on the ground surface. Also it is difficult to collect the fruits fallen on the ground surface, because of narrow clearance between the branches and ground surface. Hence, efforts have made to develop a hand tool for harvesting of lime fruits. Initially, survey was done to collect the data regarding traditional Kagzi lime fruit harvesting device adopted by the farmers. After considering the collected information and problems faced for harvesting lime fruit, the device was developed, tested and modified according to test results. The problems faced with the traditional tool for lime fruit harvesting are alleviated in the JAU–Lime harvester by providing catching unit, fruit collecting mouth and conveyance pipe which reduces losses in terms of immature lime fall out and spoilage. It was compared with the traditional one in terms of number of fruits harvested per unit time, spoilage and immature fruit losses during harvesting. The average fruit harvesting capacity was recorded as 6.85 kg/hr and 7.83 kg/hr for JAU–Lime harvester and traditional harvester respectively. The collected fruits were kept in same environment for 11 days to find the number of fruits spoiled. It was observed that up to 8^th day after harvesting, no spoilage was recorded in the lime harvested by JAU-Lime harvester. It was also recorded that after 11 days nearly 36.67% of limes were spoiled from the lots which were harvested by the traditional harvester. Average fruit spoilage was observed to be 15.45% and 2.12% in traditional harvester and JAU–Lime harvester respectively. It was also observed that due to pulling effect an average 3.84% immature fruits fall on the ground surface while harvesting by traditional harvester compared to 1.37% in case of JAU– Lime harvester. The economic was worked out for the JAU–Lime harvester and traditional harvester. The average cost of harvesting is 1.83 and 1.60 Rs/kg for JAU–Lime harvester and traditional harvester respectively. Result revealed that JAU–Lime harvester reduced the per cent of immature fruit fall on the ground surface and spoilage of the lime.