design development and evaluation of equipments for stem and root cutting and peeling of shallot

Abstract

Aggregatum onion (Allium cepaL. var. aggregation) or shallots is one of bulb crops newlineknown to consumed and grown in India especially southern part of India. They are among newlinethe most important commercial vegetable and spice crops, widely used in the south Indian newlinekitchen mainly for seasoning of curries. Shallot onion invariably forms afresh cluster of newlinebulbs, often as many as 10 or 15 per cluster. In India, presently about 35 to 40 percent of newlinethe onion is estimated to be lost by post-harvest practices during various operations newlineincluding handling and storage.The mature shallot consists of root, bulb, leaves, stalks, newlineand flowers. The leaf and stalk are usually combined with high intact. After harvesting, newlinethe shallots are destalked before marketing, by the farmers, manually using a knife or by newlinehand. The bulb is considered as the edible part, and the bulb of the shallot is the newlinemarketable produce. Based on market demand and price fluctuations, farmers bring the newlineshallot to the market or store the shallot until to get a desirable price in the market. After newlineharvesting the shallot, it is arranged along with the stalk/foliage in the field itself for newlinecuring. The manual process requires more labor and time, further increasing the cost of newlineproduction. Also, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find sufficient labor to do the newlineii newlinejob in recent times. Farmers are looking forward to having an appropriate agricultural newlineproduce processing machine to alleviate the labor shortage, save time, and improve its newlinequality. The need for automation in the agricultural sector is necessitated due to the higher newlinecompetition worldwide. Field harvesters and trimmers for root crop harvesting and newlinecutting foliage and crowns for crops such as onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, beetroot, newlineturnips, cabbages, cauliflower are available to some extent. Such processing machinery newlineto cut stem, root and peel shallot onion is not currently available in the field. Owing to newlinethe practical problem in the shallot onion processing, a stem cutting and peeling machine newlinefor