First trials on mechanical harvesting of apricots at Kargil in Trans-Himalayan region

In Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh UTs the total area under apricot is 3953 ha producing 6604 MT of fresh apricots. A major part of the area and production come from Kargil and Leh, the twin districts of Ladakh region, with an annual production of 3694 MT from an area of about 1798 ha. Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) is the primary cash crop for the farmers of Kargil. The harvesting period is very short, around two weeks and hand harvesting of apricots is a time-consuming task, accounting for more than 60% of the total labor time of the crop. Traditionally, apricot fruits are harvested by manually shaking or beating branches with long stick, which results in splitting, bruising, and sticking of dirt, grit,and sand particles to the apricot fruits. Mechanization of fruit harvesting has been the major goal of the agricultural engineering profession. The most serious problem with mechanization of apricots is variability of fruit maturity. Apricots typically have a wide variation in maturity both between trees and within individual trees. Under horticulture technology mini-mission project (HTMM-3.27) an apricot harvest/catch net was developed at the Division of Agricultural Engineering SKUAST-Kashmir and its feasibility to catch the harvested apricots during the harvesting seasons (2012-14) with a Cifarelli make branch vibrator/shaker (SC800, 62 mm stroke) was done at Apricot Research Station Kargil and surrounding villages. It was observed that average harvesting time of each outward branch was 2 to 2.8 seconds as compared to 5-10 minutes/branch by manual harvesting (using long stick) and handpicking, respectively. It was concluded that introduction and adaption of mechanical harvesting of apricots has great prospect and scope in Ladakh region if the apricot trees are properly trained and pruned under modern plantation management system.