Document Type : Original Article
Abstract
A major problem in olive production is picking the fruit from the trees. The cost of traditional harvesting of olives forms over half the cost of production. Selection of the appropriate method of olive harvesting depends on the planting system, orchard topography, labor, social, and economic factors, as well as the variety and size of trees. The present study compared mechanical harvesting of the Zard variety in Qazvin province and Local variety in Guilan province using four types of harvesting machine. These were the tractor mounted branch shaker, hand-held branch shaker, hand-held pneumatic comb, and electrical rotating comb. Two maturity indices (MI) were tested (3.5 = early time and 4.5 = suitable time). Machine performance parameters were percentage of fruit removed, mechanical and hand harvesting time, worker productivity, and damage to trees by mechanical harvester. The results showed that the effect of MI on the percentage of fruit removed for the Zard variety was significant (probably level = 1%), but not for the Local variety. Machine type had a significant effect (probably level = 1%) on all performance parameters. Worker productivity for harvesting of the Zard variety was 130.72 kg/h for the tractor-mounted branch shaker, 93.36 kg/h for the hand-held branch shaker, 50.73 kg/h for the pneumatic vibrating comb, 40.57 kg/h for the electrical rotating comb, and 22.15 kg/h for the traditional method. The corresponding values for the Local variety were 96.28, 57.97, 22.43, 23.24, 12.5 kg/h, respectively.
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