Mechanization of Ginger Slicing for Peasant Farmers
I. Abubakar *
Department of Agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering, Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria.
J. M. Ahmed
Department of Agricultural and Bio-Resources Engineering, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria.
M. Abubakar
Department of Agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering, Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria.
J. K. Agunsoye
Department of Agricultural and Bio-Resources Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
H. E. Audu
Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, Lafia, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Dual (cushion and spring) compartment ginger slicing machine was developed to address the dificulties associaed with manual slicing of ginger. However, there is no establisbed operational perfomance on record for this particular machine; thus, the need for this study. To achieve this, the machine perfomance was evaluated at the Department of Agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering, Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi in April, 2019 interms of Slicing Efficiency and Percent Broken and Bruises at a ginger moisture content of 80.2 and 78.5%, using completely randomized Design (CRD) with 5 x 2 x 2 factorial experiment. The experiment was conducted with one horse power petrol engine. The data collected were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for significance level of the experimental factors and their interactions and those found significant were further analyzed using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) for mean separations at (P0.05), respectively. The results showed that, the highest mean Slicing Efficiencies for cushion and spring compartments were: 61.2 and 45.1%, respectively. The lowest mean Percent Broken and Bruises was with cushion compartment as 38.8% and 54.9% spring compartment, respectively.
Keywords: Slicing efficiency, percent broken and bruises, evaluation, DMRT, ginger.