ICAR-CIAE Cotton harvester with on-board pre-cleaner

Background

In India, cotton is predominantly hand-picked, making the harvesting labor-intensive, costly, and time-consuming. Labor shortages during the picking season have further reduced the area under cotton cultivation. Until recently, mechanical harvesters were not successful in India because of traditional practices such as multiple pickings and the lack of suitable varieties and defoliants. However, these limitations are now being addressed through improved cultivation practices, including high-density planting and the development of varieties suited for mechanical harvesting, making mechanization feasible. The present invention seeks to overcome existing challenges of cotton picking and promote efficient mechanical cotton harvesting.

Technology Details

The developed cotton stripper mechanizes the cotton harvesting operation, resulting in approximately 90%  time savings. The overall cost of cotton harvesting using the developed stripper is approximately ₹5 per kg, including cleaning charges, whereas manual picking typically costs between ₹10 and ₹15 per kg. The machine is also equipped with an onboard pre-cleaner that reduces trash content to below 15%, comparable to the levels achieved by spindle-type cotton pickers. This makes the machine a cost-effective alternative to costlier spindle pickers. Overall, the developed cotton stripper harvester presents a viable, economical, and efficient solution for large-scale adoption of mechanized harvesting in HDPS cotton cultivation systems.