HARVESTING AND PROCESSING

Harvesting

Harvesting is the process of removal of entire plants  or  economic  parts  after  maturity  from the field. The economic part may be fruit, grain, seed, leaf, root or entire plant.

Methods of harvesting

Harvesting is done either manually or by mechanical means. In manual harvesting, sickle is the most important tool. The sickle has to be sharp, curved  and  serrated  for  efficient  harvesting.  The other tool used for harvesting is knife especially for harvesting of plants with woody stems.

Harvesting of crops is done by several ways depending on the crop. Cutting of the crop with sickles leaving small stubbles near the ground is the common method of harvesting. This method is followed in crops whose maturity is almost uniform and occurs at a time.

In indeterminate plants, harvesting is done at intervals as the economic product comes to maturity at different periods. Pods or fruits are picked at periodical intervals. Harvesting green gram, black gram, cotton etc., is known as picking and is done at 15 days interval.

Important processing

1. Threshing and winnowing

Separating fruits or seeds from the plants or ears is called threshing. In cereals, straw and grain are separated and in pulse seeds are separated from the pods. Threshing is followed by winnowing. Separating grain or seed from chaff is known as winnowing.

2. Drying

Drying is a process by which moisture content from grain is reduced to safe limit. Drying is done either by using solar energy or by artificial heating. Moisture content of grain at the time of harvesting of crops is about 18 to 20 per cent. Moisture content for safe storage is 14 per cent for most of the crop seeds.

3. Storage

Harvesting of crops is seasonal, but consumption of the food grains is continuous. The market value of the produce is generally low at harvesting time. Therefore it is necessary to store the produce for different periods. The different categories of agricultural produces viz. food grains, legumes, oilseeds and fodder need storage.