Field Performance and Economic Feasibility of Self-Propelled Vertical Conveyor Reaper (VCR) for Harvesting of Rice in West Sikkim and A Technological Strategy for Mitigation of Air Pollution through Crop Residue Burning in India

Sikkim is a small Indian state located in the Himalayan region with 10.67 thousand hectares under cultivation and rice production of 19.69 thousand tonnes. Mechanized rice harvesting can play a crucial role in reducing grain loss and operational cost. To mechanize rice harvesting in hilly areas, a feasibility study has been undertaken to evaluate the field performance of self-propelled Vertical Conveyor Reaper (VCR) for the harvesting of rice as well as economically in terraces of Daramdin Government farm, Sikkim. In India, out of total 488 MT crop residue, about 24% of it was burnt in agricultural fields during 2017, resulting in emissions of particulate matter (PM2.5), elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) and additionally CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) were also added to the atmosphere. VCR has been evaluated under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) code in field & laboratory conditions. The pre and post-harvesting field parameters for operating the VCR have been determined. The field capacity and efficiency of VCR were 0.1203 ha/h and 72.03% at 1.52 km/h, compared to 0.0178 ha/h in manual operation. At lower speed and better control, terrace-1 losses were 0.58% less than terrace-2. The harvesting cost/ha calculated considering the field capacity was Rs.1140.59/ha (US$16.44) and Rs. 1368.61/ha (US$19.73) for gear-1 and gear-2 respectively, which leads to considerable savings in time and labour which was 85.2% and 30.8% for the operational cost (gear-1) giving maximum efficiency. Also, instead of manual operation where stubble height remains at 70 mm, VCR harvest the crop at a maximum height of 11-13 mm, which further reduces the crop residue burning in fields and results in mitigation of air pollution. Therefore, in hilly terraces or plane areas where the use of reaper is feasible, its use may be promoted as efficient harvesting and environmental strategy both.