Characterization on Physical, Mechanical, and Morphological Properties of Indian Wheat Crop

The absence of scalable and economically viable alternatives for managing residues coupled with shorter planting window and growing labour shortages and energy prices requires a sustainable solution for the crop residue management in northern India. As per “Need of the Hour”, the present research work focused on physical, mechanical, and morphological characterizations of wheat, which will help in further design of the low-cost straw combine. For this purpose, two varieties of wheat (HD-2967 and WH-1105) were used for the present study, as these are the prevalent varieties of Haryana state. The straw specimens were collected at harvesting period from a farmer’s field, which is located at a longitude of 75.64 and latitude of 29.15. The physical characterization of the crops was conducted on the basis of diameter, length, and thickness of nodes of straws. In contrast, the mechanical characterizations was performed by calculating the tensile and shear strength of the straws. The morphological analysis was performed by using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The energy dispersive spectroscopy was performed to analyse the presence of constituting elements of straw. The statistical analysis showed that moisture content in the straw had a significant effect on tensile strength and shear strength.