Published 2021-01-27
Keywords
- collector systems,
- harvesting damage,
- manual harvest,
- mechanical harvesting,
- olive tree
How to Cite
Abstract
The objective of this study was to measure and evaluate the performance of a New Pneumatic Harvester (NPH) for harvesting the olives fruit and compare the results with those of similar cases. The study involves two sections, namely, the NPH and the collector system. Two oily types of olive (‘Mari’ and ‘Yellow’) were selected to evaluate the NPH and the collector system. The randomized complete block design and Duncan’s multi-scope test were used for variance analysis and means comparison purposes, respectively. The dependent parameters used to evaluate the NPH were harvesting productivity, harvesting efficiency, and leave downfall percent. Also, the fruit damage was selected for the collector system. Results showed that the NPH can harvest 92% of olive fruits. The highest amount of harvesting productivity belongs to NPH of 29.47 kg/h. The percent of leaves downfall in the harvesting process was found to be 2.55%. Using the collector system can reduce the level of damaged fruit from 60.8% to 25.12% and from 60.54% to 24.54% in the Mari and Yellow variety.