A Review on Solar Powered Maize Dehusker cum Sheller for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays) in India ranks third in total production and productivity and fifth in total area. Since last one decade, maize cultivation area is continuously increasing to encounter the rising demand in the world. Shelling is one of the most important post harvesting operation which is used to separate the grains from ear heads and prepare its quality for the market. Maize grain harvesting consist of the dehusking operation for removal of outer cover and shelling operation for separations of grains from ear heads. This review aims to collate and present an overview of design, fabrication, and performance of a maize dehusker cum sheller consisting of feed hopper with a flow rate control device, dehusking unit, shelling unit, cleaning unit and power system. The performance of the machine was evaluated in terms of throughput capacity, dehusking efficiency, shelling efficiency, cleaning efficiency and mechanical damage. Solar power is ideally used in India due to location factor and also gives the benefit to the environment as renewable energy. Solar power operated maize dehusker cum sheller gives a significance in many rural locations of most developing countries were grid connected electricity is either unavailable or unreliable or too expensive so using of solar power is beneficial.