This document discusses the opportunities for using combine harvesters as a resource conservation technology in India. It begins with an introduction to resource conservation technologies and common farm machines used in India. It then discusses the objective to design an add-on sowing machine that can attach to a combine harvester. Various furrow opener designs are evaluated for this purpose. The advantages of attaching a sowing machine to a combine harvester are presented. Finally, conceptual designs for the sowing attachment and straw spreader are shown and opportunities for using combine harvesters under resource conservation are concluded.

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2. Presented by
Utkarsh Dwivedi
Ph.D. 1st Year Farm Machinery and Power Engineering
E mail: utkarsh.ud555@gmail.com
Combine Harvester: Opportunities and
Prospects as Resource Conservation Technology
College of Agricultural Engineering and Post Harvest Technology
Central Agricultural University, Imphal
Ranipool, Gangtok-737135(Sikkim) 2

3. Topics to be discussed
 Introduction
 Objective
 Conservation machineries adopted under RCT
 Combine harvesting in India
 Conclusion
 References
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4. Introduction
 The technologies which conserve resources and ensure their
optimal utilization and input use-efficiency are termed as
resource conservation technology (RCT).
 Farm machines such as laser leveller, zero-till seed drill, paddy
drum seeder, bed planter, rice transplanter, rotavator, straw
reaper, happy seeder etc.
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5. Introduction
 According to MNRE (2009), the amount of crop residues
generated was 500 million tonnes (MT) and surplus was 141
MT. Out of 82 MT estimated surplus residues from the cereal
crops, 44 MT is from rice alone followed by 24.5 MT from
wheat.
 Farmers find it easier to opt for burning the residue in the
open field compared to other residue management techniques
to avoid delay of sowing of next crops.
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6. Objective
1. Potential of add-on sowing machine with combine
harvester.
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7. Conservation machineries adopted
under RCT
1. Zero till drill creates a narrow slit for the seed and does not
disturb or turn over the soil in the process of seeding the
crop.
2. This has resulted in uneven seed depth and thus poor crop
establishment. Therefore, research organizations have tried
with double disc openers, triple disc openers either with
powered or unpowered plain disc coulters as well as star
wheel type planter in place of inverted T-type furrow opener
of zero till drill.
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8. Conservation machineries adopted
under RCT
 Another machine which is commonly used in RCT is Happy
seeder which is a tractor-mounted machine that cuts and lifts
rice straw, sows wheat into the bare soil, and deposits the
straw over the sown area as mulch.
 Sidhu et al. (2015) reported in their study about low adoption
of the machine despite a 50% price subsidy.
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9. Conservation machineries adopted
under RCT
 The constraints to adoption which include the low window of
operation of the machine (25 days per year), the low machine
capacity compared with conventional seed drills, the inability
to operate in wet straw, and the lack of straw spreaders/ SMS
on combine harvesters.
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10. Combine harvesting in India
 The combine harvesters were introduced at the advent of
Green Revolution in India and their numbers grew from 800 in
1971-1972 to over 40,000 at present (Thakur, 2004 and
Damodaran, 2016).
 Every year 900-1000 combines are added on Indian farms.
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11. Comparison of farm mechanization
with other countries
Country Farm Power
(kW/ha)
Number of
tractors/1000 ha
Number of
combine
harvester/1000 ha
India 2.24 37 0.28
Japan 8.75 46.24 234.42
United Kingdom 2.5 88.46 8.32
France 2.65 68.52 4.93
Italy 3.01 201.90 6.24
Germany 2.35 87.26 11.43
Pakistan - 14.92 0.074
Egypt - 31.32 0.8311
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12. Study on type of furrow opener for
add-on sowing device
 A study was conducted in year 2015-16 at ICAR-IARI, New
Delhi in soil bin to assess force requirement in operation of
furrow openers at bulk density of 1.32 g/cc (db) in soil bin.
Three type of furrow openers namely runner type, single disc
type and double disc type were selected.
 An experimental set up was fabricated to mount the selected
furrow openers for force assessment. The disc diameter was
335mm. The force was measured using 981N load cell under
mulch and without mulch conditions
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13. Selected furrow openers- Runner type, single disc
and double disc type
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14. Experimental setup for measurement
of force in Soil bin
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15. Performance of different type of
furrow openers in soil bin
Types Of
Furrow
opener
Depth, mm Draft, N Cross
sectional
area, mm
Without
mulch
With Mulch Without
Mulch
With Mulch
Double Disc 25 25 60 80 20
50 50 75 95 50
Single Disc 50 50 140 170 120
Runner Tye 25 - 160 - 100
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16.  A load of about 800N was added on the frame of this furrow
opener. The performance of the double disc type furrow opener
showed similar trend as observed in soil bin with slightly more
furrow cross-section.
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17. DESIGN OF ADD-ON SOWING MACHINE
WITH COMBINE HARVESTER
 The findings and observations recorded with combine
harvesting clearly indicates its increasing trend in adoption by
the farmers since year 1972.
 Apart from ease to farmers in getting grain just after
harvesting of cereal crops, it has posed some residue problems
like cutting stalk height and left over residue in harvested field.
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18. The advantages for potential attachment
of sowing machine with combine harvester are
 Energy saving for preparation of field.
 Utilisation of residual moisture of field for next crops due to
very less time available for sowing of next crop.
 Reduced dependency on rain or irrigation water for
germination of seed and hence avoid terminal drought
condition.
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19. The advantages for potential attachment
of sowing machine with combine harvester are
 Providing option to avoid burning of straw that help in
protecting environment.
 Reduction of soil compaction due to heavy traffic in field
during subsequent operations.
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20. The design considerations for sowing machine with
straw spreader/ straw management system (SMS)
for combine harvester
 The sowing attachment is to be mounted type.
 Space available in combine harvester for attachment of sowing
machine is either between rear and front wheel or between
front wheel and cutter bar assembly.
 A single square axle may be provided for mounting of machine
by hinging to main frame of combine harvester.
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21. The design considerations for sowing machine with
straw spreader/ straw management system (SMS)
for combine harvester
 Amongst various types of furrow openers, double disk furrow
opener may reduce the entanglement of stalk in seed
placement at proper depth.
 Since plan is to provide furrow opener at variable spacing due
to different crop requirement, individual seed metering will
ensure its proper distribution of seed in each row.
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22. The design considerations for sowing machine with
straw spreader/ straw management system (SMS)
for combine harvester
 Development of optical sensor based speed synchronization
system may consist of optical encoder, DC motor drive,
microcontroller; battery pack and chain drive with suitable
programme to synchronize the speed of DC motor which
drives the seed metering mechanism with the forward speed
of combine harvester.
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23. The design considerations for sowing machine with
straw spreader/ straw management system (SMS)
for combine harvester
 This dropped straw in heap needs to be spread in its full width
of combine harvested area. Straw distribution can be made
with chopped or without chopped straw.
 Based on the above-points and design considerations, a
conceptual design of sowing attachment is shown
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24. Conceptual plan of Sowing attachment with
combine harvester.
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25. Conclusion
 Combine harvester has numerous advantages in the current
scenario of labour shortage, high wage rate during harvesting
season and uncertainty of weather and has wide potential for
its further utilization under resource conservation technology.
 The add-on sowing attachment with combine harvester would
help in timeliness of sowing of Rabi season crops apart from
utilization of residual moisture and reducing the number of
passes of heavy prime movers in the field, hence reducing
compaction.
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26. References
 Combine Harvester: Opportunities and Prospects as
Resource Conservation Technology M. K. Singh, S. P.
Singh, H. L. Kushwaha, Mukesh K Singh and Utpal Ekka.
 https://www.google.com/search.
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27. THANK YOU
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