Design and Fabrication of a Mechanical Cassava Harvester for Small and Medium Scale Farmers

Abstract

In Nigeria, cassava is consumed as major staple food in different forms, namely: starch, Garri, Fufu, Tapioca. Though harvesting is known to be one of the most difficult and cost-intensive field operations, use of technology for cassava harvesting is still very low in most cassava farming concerns and communities in Nigeria. This is mostly due to inadequate machines for process application. This product prototype address basic design and construction of a simple, effective, cheap, and easy to maintain Cassava harvester for local Cassava farmers in Nigeria. The principle of a simple lever was used as a basis for the design. The first effort applied by the operator will engage the fork while the second effort applied on the lever handle will overcome the uprooting load (load of the soil and Cassava). From the analysis, a little effort of 200N can overcome about
2000N of force and this gives a mechanical advantage of about 5. The total cost of design and fabrication at the time of production was One Hundred and Ninety Thousand Nigerian Naira (₦190,000, which is approximately $522 USD, as at the time of project execution in 2018).