An existing 1.5kW brush cutter was modified and evaluated with the view to adapt a low-cost rice harvesting machine. The modifications included replacing existing blade with circular saw blade, incorporating a guider and a driver to lay down the harvested crop in swath and attachment of a harness belt for easy and comfortable operation. The machine was evaluated keeping in view major influencing factors i.e., crop establishment (conventional transplanting, system of rice intensification (SRI), and mechanical transplanting), blade type (B1: 40 teeth, pitch 1.92 and B2: 80 teeth, pitch 0.96) and straw moisture content (38-42, 33-37 and 28-32%, w.b). The results showed that the height of cut was significantly affected (p<0.05) by the crop... |