Groundnut Case Study

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Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a monoecious annual legume grown as oilseed, food and feed, and is the chief crop rotation crop in many sub Saharan countries (Pande et al., 2003; Upadhyaya et al., 2006; Gbèhounou and Adango, 2003). The world average yield of groundnut is 1690 kg ha-1 though the yield in Africa is much lower 980 kg ha-1. Groundnut is cultivated on 26.4 million ha with production of 37.10 million metric tons worldwide. Developing countries constitute 97% of the global area and 94% of the global production of this crop (FAOSTAT, 2008). According to the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia (2009 E.C), oil crops used to cover about 0.86 million hectares, involving close to four million small holder producers in Oromia,…show more content…
The applied forces fall on the pod at random, breaking the pods stochastically, to free the enclosed kernels. The physical phenomena involved in shelling of groundnut include breakage of the pod which depends on the intensity of the applied force, the orientation of the pods, moisture content, freedom of the kernel from the pods and the passage of the kernels and broken pods through the concave openings. Groundnut shelling, in Ethiopia, at present is predominantly traditional, manual method, using a short wooden stick to beat it, or by pounding with pestle in mortar. These methods of shelling consume high man-hour with the associated fatigue and low output. The shelling operation is particularly tasking due to the thickness and hardness of the nut. Singh (1993) reported that the pod thickness influences shelling efficiency and percent kernel breakage. According to studies made by Kebede (1997), farmers’ loss substantial amount of the kernel produced during harvesting, shelling, transporting and storage due to use of obsolete practices. The total loss has been estimated at about 20-40% of the total production. Out of the total estimated loss 20-30% is due to poor land preparation, 30-40% is due to weeding infestation, 20-25% is harvesting and 20-30% is during postharvest

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