Design and Development of Agricultural Wastes Shredder - Farm Power and Machinery

Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Agrarian Studies, grade: 7.31, Junagadh Agricultural University (College of Agriculture), course: Farm Power and Machinery, language: English, abstract: It is seen that large quantities of agricultural crop residues are being wasted. A major disadvantage of most recyclable waste is their bulk i.e. it requires a large space for accommodation. It has been observed by bio-scientists that if the waste is burnt, this affects the soil microflora, results in loss of nitrogen and organic matter. Most bulky residues need some type of pre-incorporated physical processing or shredding to facilitate their rapid decomposition and mixing with the soil. It has been an established fact that finer particles (4 to 5 cm) decompose faster as compared to large particles. Shredder is ideal for disposal of course leaves, garden and agricultural wastes. Such as twinges, small branches, flower stalks straw, tree pruning etc. This scientific way returns the nutrients back to the soil in natural ways. Therefore the efforts must be concentrated towards effective utilization of all the wastes.Serious efforts in this direction provide rich dividends to the farmers as well as solve the disposal problems, minimize pollution effects, open up evens for starting rural industries and self-employment or gainful employment for rural youth. It is more relevant way to avoid migration of youth from villages to the urban area in search of employment. Despite their potential economic uses, the valuable natural resources have remained, more or less commercially unexploited. If the technologies developed are properly adopted particularly in the rural area of our country, it will provide supplementary occupation and means of uplift of the financial conditions and living standards of our villages. Therefore besides use as fuel, it can utilized for the production of boards, animal feeds,etc.Bulk density of agricultural wastes are very low hence for the industries based on it there is a problems of handling and transportation as this increases the cost of final products. Hence the size reduction or volume reduction is very much important for effective utilization of all these sort of wastes. Looking all these aspects and to utilize agricultural waste in industries as well as in manure effectively, the research work on 'Design and development of agricultural wastes shredder' was carried out with the following objectives.