COST ECONOMICS OF COTTON UPROOTER CUM SHREDDERK. Raju Yadav, A. Ashok Kumar, K. Madhusudhana Reddy, J. Gitanjali and Yallappa D.Abstract Cotton is the most important fibre and cash crop and it plays a significant part in the countryâs industrialand agricultural economy. One of the most difficult for cotton producers is the need to clear the groundandstalk odd cotton plants after final harvesting. In India, manual uprooting or cutting of the plant stalks isfollowed, which is highly labour intensive, time consuming and costly and needs about 50-65-man hr. ha-1. Cotton uprooter cum shredder performs both shredding and uprooting operations in two different rowssimultaneously in a single operation. The developed machineâs performance was evaluated in a cottoncrop. The cost has been estimated using standard procedures, and an assessment of labour savings hasbeen made to govern the economic feasibility of the machines. The break-even point (BEP) for cotton stalkuprooter cum shredder was evaluated on a time and area basis and was found to be 480 h and 158.4 ha,respectively. The cotton stalk uprooter cum shredder has a payback period of one year when calculated ona time basis. When compared to the united cost of existing uprooting and shredding methods, the cottonstalk uprooter cum shredder can save up to 49.1% in uprooting and shredding costs. |