Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(3): 871-879 871 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.903.102 Development and Evaluation of a Hand Operated Double Chain-Sprocket Winnower for Cereal Crops Anup Behera*, Arjya Utkalini Sahoo, Jyoti Ranjan Swain, Suprava Kar and Markandeya Mahapatra Department of Farm Machinery and Power, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Rice is the most consumable staple food crop of India. India is the second largest producer of rice after China with a production of 172.8 million metric ton and share a global production of more than 11% (Anonymous 2020). In financial year 2019, the rice yield was estimated as 2.6 thousand kg/ha (Anonymous, 2020a). West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Bihar are the major rice producing states. In Odisha, rice area covers about70 % of total cultivated area, 63 percent of total area under food grains and about 90 % of area under cereals. In 2016-17, rice International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 3 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com A double chain-sprocket winnower was developed to reduce the hand drudgery and increase the efficiency of the winnower. The winnower consisted of two stage chain and sprocket transmission system with an overall speed increment ratio of 6. The performance and ergonomical evaluation of the developed winnower was carried out using anemometer and pulse oximeter, respectively. Both the evaluation parameters were compared with the pinion driven winnower and single chain-sprocket type winnower.The double chain sprocket developed highest wind speed with an average wind speed of 5.92 m/s followed by pinion driven type winnower with an average wind speed of 4.66 m/s and single chain sprocket type winnower with an average wind speed of 4.08 m/s. Further, the double chain sprocket required lowest energy expenditure with an average value of 13.23 kJ/min, whereas the energy required for single chain sprocket type and pinion driven type winnower was 15.76 kJ/min. and 17.38 kJ/min, respectively. The overall weight of the machine was only 23.5 kg and the production cost of the developed winnower was Rs. 4492 making it affordable for small and marginal farmers. Keywords Anemometer, Double chain- sprocket winnower, Drudgery, Energy expenditure, Pulse oximeter and Wind speed Accepted: 05 February 2020 Available Online: 10 March 2020 Article Info