Professional Documents
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Module No. 10
Mechanized agriculture entails the utilization of farm power and machinery in farming
operations to increase productivity and profitability of farming enterprises. It offers a lot of
potential benefits not only to farmers and consumers but to Philippine economy as well.
Agricultural machinery is any mechanical device used in the farm to ease farming
activities and operations. It includes a great variety of devices with a wide range of complexity
from simple hand-held implements used since prehistoric times to the complex harvesters of
modern mechanized agriculture. The farm operations for which power and machinery are used
are diverse. They include:
land preparation with the use of farm tractor and tillage equipment;
seeding, planting, and transplanting;
cultivation and weeding;
fertilizer application;
irrigation;
pest control;
harvesting;
transport;
storage; and
postharvest processing.
In this module, agricultural machinery and equipment used in various farm operations
from land preparation through postharvest processing are enumerated. A brief description of
each is also included.
After thorough and diligent study of this module, you should be able to:
a. Describe the different farm operations and enumerate the machineries and equipment
to accomplish said operations;
b. Explain the distinguishing features between a two-wheel drive (2WD) and a four-wheel
drive (4WD) four-wheel farm tractors;
c. Appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of both two-wheel and four-wheel farm
tractors;
e. Evaluate and describe the current status of agricultural mechanization in your community
insofar as availability and use of agricultural machinery and equipment are concern.
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I. Land Preparation
A. Four-wheel farm tractor
The terms “two-wheel tractor” and “walking tractor” are generic, which refer to self-
propelled, single axle, and multi-attachment operable equipment. It has a forward mounted
engine which is counter-balanced by the implement attached behind the two drive wheels. The
operator walks behind the tractor. The pull-type and rotary tilling-type two-wheel walking
tractors are shown in Figures 3 and 4, respectively.
Rotary tiller or power tiller (Figure 5) is equipped with rotary blades that cuts, breaks up,
and mixes the soil and plant residues. It is specifically designed for paddy preparation in rice
production. Due to confusion in the use of the proper term, a distinction should be made
between a “two-wheel farm tractor” and a “rotary tiller.” The two-wheel farm tractor has the
ability to provide power and operate various types of agricultural equipment through its PTO;
while a rotary tiller is smaller in size, fitted with cage wheels, and attached with a rotary blade
assembly through its axle. When a two-wheel farm tractor is attached with a PTO-driven
rotovator, it operates like a power tiller. The two-wheel farm tractor is best suited in dry field
condition and can be used also in wet condition when fitted with cage wheels; while the rotary
tiller is only for wet and muddy condition.
D. Float-assist tiller
1. Moldboard plow
A moldboard plow (Figure 8) is a sliding primary tillage implement that cuts, lifts, inverts
and throws to one side a layer of soil (furrow slice) to bury surface materials. Its main component
consists of share, moldboard and landside.
2. Disc plow
A disc plow is a primary tillage implement with individually mounted concave disc blades
which cut, partially or completely invert soil slices to bury surface material, and pulverize the soil.
Blades are attached to the frame in a tilted position relative to the frame and to the direction of
travel for proper penetration and soil displacement. The disc plows can be attached either to a
two-wheel walking tractor, or a four-wheel farm tractor (Figure 9).
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3. Disc harrow
A disc harrow (Figure 10) is used to pulverize the soil to attain a better soil tilth for seed
germination and growth. It is hitched to a four-wheel farm tractor equipped with hydraulic three-
point hitch lift systems. It consists of two or four gangs of concave steel disc. Disc harrows are
classified according to: (a) gang orientation either single-action, tandem, or offset; and (b)
manner of hitching to the tractor either tractor-mounted, or trailing.
4. Spring-tooth harrow
A spring-tooth harrow (Figure 11) is a secondary tillage implement consisting of long and
curved teeth made of spring steel which are fastened on the transverse toolbars with the other
end pointed to give good soil penetration. The cutting tip could be permanent or replaceable.
The spring-tooth harrow can be towed behind either a two-wheel walking tractor, or a four-
wheel tractor, which comes in two types: (a) the trailing-type; and (b) the three-point hitch-
mounted type.
5. Furrower
A furrower (Figure 12), also called lister, ridger, or bedder, is a secondary tillage
implement resembling a double moldboard (one left wing and one right wing) used to make
ridges and beds for planting and trenches for irrigation and drainage purposes.
6. Field cultivator
Field cultivator (Figure 13) is a secondary tillage implement for seedbed preparation,
weed eradication, or fallow cultivation subsequent to some form of primary tillage, equipped
with spring steel shanks. It is either pulled or pushed by a two-wheel or four-wheel tractor to cut
through the soil. The desired operating depth is set by adjusting the gauge wheels or through the
action of hydraulic cylinders.
7. Weeder
Figure 14. Manually-operated weeder for wet fields and its components
8. Sub-soiler
A mechanical rice transplanter (Figure 16) is designed for transplanting rice seedlings
onto a puddled and levelled field. Its operation requires that rice seedlings are grown on mats
and placed on a tray, which are fitted on the transplanter. As the rice transplanter travels along
the puddled field, the grasping fork of the transplanting arm detaches or picks a pre-set number
of seedlings from the seedling mat as the fork travels downward toward the puddled paddy. The
transplanting arm is actuated by a cam assembly connected to the PTO of the tractor. As the
grasping fork travels upward for the next stroke, the seedlings are released and subsequently
transplanted onto puddled soil. The transplanting arm resets as it further travels back to its
original position for the next stroke and the cycle begins anew.
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It is planting equipment used for pre-germinated rice seeds for wet fields. The rice drum
seeder (Figure 17) uses a simple metering system in which the perforations on the periphery at
both ends of the cylinder (drum hopper) meter the seeds. As the machine is pulled, the cylinder
driven by a ground wheel rotates. As it rotates, seeds fall from the holes to the sliding surface in
rows. Seeding can be set at three different rates through adjusting the sliding ring which is
attached to the hopper. Seeds are placed on the surface or at a few millimeters under the soil.
In the absence of a row marker, skids may also serve as a row marker.
C. Grain seeder
It is a planting equipment used to deposit seeds (also rice seeds but not pre-germinated)
in the soil for crop production. A grain seeder can be manually-operated, animal-drawn, or
tractor power-driven seeder. Manually-operated or hand seeder is a type of seeder which
deposits the seeds in holes with spacing set by the operator. It comes in two types: (a) the hand
jabber type; and (b) the single row push type. Animal-drawn seeder (Figure 18) is pulled by a
cow or carabao and is guided and controlled by the operator from behind.
Tractor power-driven seeders are of three types: (a) the seed drill type which drills and
deposits the seeds at a specified rate and depth and in narrow-spaced rows. However, it
cannot deposit the seeds in hills or even in check rows; (b) the row-crop planter which can
deposit the seeds at a specified rate in hills and rows spaced to permit inter-row cultivation and
also functions as a seed drill if required; and (c) the precision seeder which is a row-crop planter
designed to deposit a single seed at equal row intervals.
It is a device for applying granular fertilizers. There are two types, namely: (a) the row
fertilizer applicator which applies fertilizer in rows; and (b) the broadcaster which is used to
spread fertilizer uniformly in the field without rows (Figure 19).
B. Power sprayer
IV. Irrigation
Centrifugal pump is the most common irrigation equipment almost all farmers have for
irrigation when there in not enough rainfall or surface water available during the production
period to provide the irrigation water needs of the crop being grown. It is driven by an internal
combustion engine or by an electric motor. Centrifugal pump is a type of pump with impellers
rotating inside a closed casing which draws water into the pump through a central inlet opening
and forces water out through a discharge outlet at the periphery of the housing by means of
centrifugal force. There are two types: (a) the volute type which has a casing made in the form
of a spiral or volute curve (Figure 21a); and (b) the diffuser or turbine type wherein the impeller is
surrounded by diffuser vanes (Figure 21b).
V. Pest Control
A. Lever-operated knapsack sprayer
Figure 22. Typical lever-operated knapsack sprayer (piston type) and its components
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VI. Harvesting
A. Rice reaper
Rice reaper (Figure 23) is a self-propelled machine that cuts and lays stalks of planted
rice crop. There are two distinct designs of its cutting mechanism: (a) the rotary knife consisting
of planetary type circular saw-toothed blade which rotates at the same time with the pick-up
triangular frame; and (b) the reciprocating cutter knife consisting of fixed lower knife and
reciprocating upper knife wherein its movement is controlled by the crank connected to the
gear box or belt drive.
Figure 23. Rice reaper with reciprocating cutter knife and its components
B. Rice combine
Rice combine (Figure 24) is a self-propelled rice harvesting machine capable for cutting,
picking, stripping or picking up crop, threshing, separating, cleaning and conveying grain into a
grain hopper and depositing harvest residue onto the ground in one passing. It comes in either
wheeled type, or track type.
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A corn picker (Figure 25) is a machine attached to the side of a tractor designed for
picking corn cobs from standing crop through its fluted snapping rolls.
VII. Transport
An agricultural trailer is a transport equipment designed to carry load for agricultural
purposes without power of its own. Figure 26 shows a kuliglig with attached trailer for transport.
Axial flow thresher is a machine used to detach grains/ears from the panicle/cob by the
threshing cylinder of either: (a) peg-tooth wherein spikes or pegs are attached on the periphery
of the cylinder in tandem or in helical arrangements, or (b) rasp-bar cylinder wherein threshing is
done between bar-like protrusions in parallel orientation laid on the periphery of the cylinder
and stationary bars built into or attached to the concave grate. The throw-in type thresher
(Figure 27) allows the cut plant parts to move in a helical manner around the threshing cylinder
with a net effect of moving the material axially between the feeding and discharge outlets.
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B. Peanut sheller
A peanut sheller (Figure 28) is a machine used to remove kernels from the shell by
breaking/splitting the pods. The shelling mechanism is either in reciprocating motion, or in rotary
motion.
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IX. Drying
A. Mechanical grain dryer
It is a device used to remove grain moisture by forcing heated air through the grain mass
until the desired moisture content is attained. Heated-air mechanical grain dryers come in either
batch type or continuous flow type. The batch type is further classified as: (a) flatbed type
(Figure 29) wherein a fixed amount of grain is held stationary in a horizontal grain holding bin;
and (b) recirculating type which is designed to circulate and/or mix fixed amount of grain during
the drying operation.
Figure 29. Batch-type flatbed mechanical grain dryer and its components
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In the continuous flow type, the material being dried moves through the drying chamber
in a substantially continuous stream and is discharged without being recirculated and where the
drying and tempering processes are accomplished in another holding bin or column.
It is a device for removing excess moisture from the fruits, generally by forced or natural
convection with or without addition of heat. Fruit dryers (Figure 30) are classified as batch or
tunnel type and tray or cabinet type. In batch or tunnel type, the sliced fruits in fixed volume are
held in the drying chamber in batches until it reaches the desired moisture content. In tray or
cabinet type, fixed volume of sliced fruits are placed on perforated trays in the drying chamber
until it reaches the desired moisture content.
The heating system can be either: (a) direct in which the products of combustion come
into direct contact with the product being dried, or (b) indirect in which the products of
combustion do not come in contact with the products being dried.
C. Solar dryer
There are a variety of solar dryer designs. Principally, solar dryers can be categorized into
two groups: (a) natural convection dryers, which are solar dryers that use the natural vertical
convection that occurs when air is heated; and (b) forced convection dryers, in which the
convection is forced over the product being dried through the use of a fan.
The basic components of a solar dryer are shown in Figure 31. In the case of a forced
convection dryer, an additional component would be the fan.
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X. Cleaning
A. Paddy seed cleaner
A paddy seed cleaner (Figure 32) is a machine that is used to remove foreign matters
from the seed mass through oscillation, blowing, and aspirating. Oscillation is the process where
the screens move back and forth through a given axis to separate the large and small size
foreign matters from the seed mass. Blowing is a process of removing light impurities by air blast
through the seed mass. Aspirating is a process of introducing air blast through suction to remove
light foreign matters from the seed mass.
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B. Multi-crop washer-peeler
It is a machine that peels outer skin, or cleans and removes undesirable debris of ginger
rhizomes, sweet potato, potato, arrow root, radish and carrot (Figure 33).
XI. Milling
A. Rice mill
It is a machine used to remove the hull and bran of palay to produce milled rice and
consists mainly of hulling and whitening assembly. Rice mills come in different capacities ranging
from a few hundred kilograms per hour (usually a steel huller commonly known as kiskisan) to as
much as a few tons per hour (usually a rubber roll).
For steel huller or kiskisan, the hulling and whitening processes are combined in one
operation. It consists of a solid steel cylinder with a screwed portion which serves as feeder to the
milling chamber. The portion of the solid steel cylinder at the milling chamber is provided with
rectangular protrusions and screen housing. Two blades are provided and positioned parallel at
each side of the steel cylinder. The hull and subsequently the bran of the paddy fed between
the concentric cylinders are removed through the abrasive action among the paddy grains and
the friction action between the rotating cylinder and the grains. The bran is discharged from the
milling chamber through the slots in the mill screen while milled rice is discharged through an
outlet chute with screen for removing brewer’s rice.
The rubber roll type is a rice mill using rubber roll huller and utilizes friction and/or
combination of other types of whitener. Its components are shown in Figure 34.
Figure 34. Rubber roll type rice mill and its components
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Multi-crop micromill (Figure 35) is a machine that grinds dried product meal of various
crops into finer particles suitable for the purpose of food seasoning or as flour. Based on milling
mechanism, multi-crop micromills are of different types, namely: hammer mill; attrition mill; and
roller mill.
Hammer mill consists of a rotating beater and a heavy perforated screen. Size reduction
of materials is done due to impact. Attrition mill consists of two roughed plates, one stationary
and the other rotating. The material is reduced by crushing and shears. Roller mill consists of
rollers, with or without serrated surfaces. It reduces the material by pressing or squeezing until the
material breaks.
B. Biomass Shredder
It is a machine used to cut biomass materials into strips. Its components are shown in
Figure 36.
C. Chipping machine
A chipping machine or chipper (Figure 37) is a size reduction machine either power or
manually operated which is used to cut or slice root crops or banana into small thin pieces
called chips. The chipping mechanism is either: (a) flywheel type wherein the knives are
mounted radially with the cutting edges describing a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation,
or (b) drum type wherein the knives are mounted on a cylinder such that the cutting edges of
the knives are essentially parallel to the axis of rotation.
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D. Forage chopper
It is a machine used to cut the crop into short parallel lengths. The components of a
forage chopper is shown in Figure 38.
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If space is not enough, continue at the left-side directly opposite the item being answered.
1. Describe briefly the different farm operations and enumerate the machineries and
equipment to accomplish said operations. (30 pts)
31
2. What are the distinguishing features between a two-wheel drive (2WD) and a four-wheel
drive (4WD) four-wheel farm tractors? (10 pts)
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both the two-wheel and four-wheel farm
tractors? Explain. (10 pts)
4. Evaluate and describe the current status of agricultural mechanization in your community
insofar as availability and use of agricultural machinery and equipment are concern. (10 pts)
32
5. In the world-wide-web (www) or elsewhere, find drawings, figures, or pictures showing the
components of the following agricultural machinery and equipment. Label them
accordingly. (40 pts)
Copy, print, cut and paste in word format. The name of the machinery and equipment should
be handwritten below the image/picture. Indicate also the source.
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34
Clipart Library. (n.d). Agricultural and biosystems engineering [Logo]. Retrieved from
http://clipa.cash/agricultural-biosystems-engineering-logo.html
____________________ 201. (2015). Agricultural machinery – Heated air mechanical grain dryer –
specifications.
p-hubtechnologies. (n.d). Rubber roll type rice mill [Picture]. Retrieved from http://www.p-
hubtechnologies,com
TripAdvisor LLC. (2018). Hill tribe village market [Picture]. Retrieved from
https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g293917-d11660281-i227874751-
Chiang_Mai_Experience-Chiang_Mai.html