Finger millet also known as “KODO” is a staple food in many hilly regions of the country. It is a nutritious food containing high amount of carbohydrate that can be eaten as dhido or roti. Harvesting is done by cutting the earheads with sickle first and then the straw is cut close to the ground. The project designed and fabricated a functional, efficient and affordable millet harvesting machine which cuts both ear heads and straw of millet. The machine cuts earhead and straw separately and also reduces labor and time of farmers. The grass having strong stem was used for test and the result showed that blades of lower cutter were not able to cut stem easily at 0.7kW power and 1440rpm speed.
The prototype was developed by the Sanjita Wasti, Rabina Awal, Prabin Paneru, and Praveen Bokati, students of Department of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, Thapathali Campus, IOE in 2017.