Asian Jr. of Microbiol. Biotech. Env. Sc. Vol. 24, No. (4) : 2022 : 767-770 © Global Science Publications ISSN-0972-3005 ( 2 Research Scholar) DEVELOPMENT OF A BULLOCK–DRAWN DIGGER ELEVATOR FOR HARVESTING POTATO ASHOKSURAJ B. S* 1 ., SRINIVAS YARRAKULA 2 , K. N. HANUMANTHARAJU 3 AND ABDUL REHMAN 2 1 Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, India 2 National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur, India 3 Department of Food Technology, Ramaiah University of Applied Science, Bengaluru, India (Received 11 June, 2022; Accepted 18 August, 2022) Key words : Potato, Bullock drawn, Potato harvester, Harvesting efficiency Abstract – Potato, after corn, rice, and wheat, is the world’s fourth most major food crop, producing 321 MT on 19.5 million hectares. Potato cultivation covers 1.86 million hectares in India. Potatoes are a labor- intensive crop. It is currently facing a labour shortage. The harvesting of potato tubers is the most important aspect of potato cultivation. AnAnimal-drawn potato digger has been developed to reduce drudgery and labour when harvesting potato tubers. The performance of the potato digger was evaluated in the field with soil moisture content of 8% (db), bulk density of 1.38 g/cc. The implement has a field capacity of 0.16 ha/h with field efficiency 85 per cent and turning losses 5.7 per cent when the harvesting of potato was done using the developed digger as the 5 per cent of the harvested potato was damaged and 4.7 per cent were left within the soil. For its efficient operation, this implement can be widely adopted by potato farmers, and it is best suited for small and marginal farmers. INTRODUCTION In India, the total area under cultivation is 329 million hectares, of which 1.86 million hectares are devoted to potato cultivation. The potato is a tuberous, starchy crop derived from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum L (Hawkes, 1992). The potato, also known as “the king of vegetables,” has risen to become India’s 4 th most important food crop after wheat, rice,and maize (Kloosterman et al., 2013). India has topped China to become the world’s second largest producer of potatoes. During 2018- 2019, India produced 42.34 million tonnes of potato with an average yield of 22.72 T ha -1 from 1.86 million ha area under the crop (National Horticulture Board, 2018). Though potato productivity in India has recently increased, it is unclear whether this level can be maintained or increased in the future. Knowledge of previous trends in area, production, and productivity will help planners determine the growth rates needed to meet the planned targets. Aside from that, trends in area, production, and productivity can be used to forecast future supply. Several studies attempted to estimate growth rates (Järvan and Edesi, 2009). The yield trend, as shown in Table 1, can be used to assess the state’s technological development. Given the variability in yield from year to year, the relationship between yield and yield variability must be investigated. As shown in Fig. 1, which depicts potato productivity in important Indian states, the relative contribution of area and yield on Table 1. Major Potato Producing States in India Sl. No. State Production (Tonnes) 1 Uttar Pradesh 13,869.94 2 West Bengal 11,550.00 3 Bihar 6,842.92 4 Gujarat 2,499.73 5 Punjab 2,129.79 6 Madhya Pradesh 1,998.35 7 Assam 975.27 8 Karnataka 698.30 9 Haryana 676.01 10 Jharkhand 659.61 Source: National Horticulture Board DOI No.: http://doi.org/10.53550/AJMBES.2022.v24i04.025