Harvesting and Threshing Methods for Paddy-I: A Review

Harvesting methods adopted for paddy crop are largely dependent on the land size of the farmers. Mechanized methods are completely implemented by the farmers of medium and large categories. On the other hand, the marginal and small farmers are struggling between manual and mechanized methods because of unavailability of implements that can suit to their land size an economic level. Cutting and threshing operations are performed separately which are responsible for more input cost and grain loss. Various methods of harvesting were studied and the loss of grain associated with the methods is emphasized. In manual method, before threshing, the cutting, collecting, bundling and transportation operation requires which consumes time, energy and cost and increase the grain loss significantly. In mechanized methods, the time, energy and input cost can be minimized. The manual crop cutting requires about 8 to 12 and 25 to 45 times, respectively, more man-hours per hectare compared to rotary blade cutter and vertical conveyor reaper. The field capacity of manual harvesting methods is 4 to 10 times less than the mechanized methods.