PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A LOCALLY DEVELOPED PIGEON PEA THRESHER

A local pigeon pea thresher which will be affordabl e and easy to maintain by the local or small scale farmers was designed, constructed and evaluated for performance. The investigation includes the determination of t he threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency and perce ntage seed loss/damage during its operation. A very high threshing and cleaning/separation efficiencies of 9 9.97% and 97.01% respectively with an average minimal loss/damage of 0.2% under cylinder speed of 600rpm and feed rate of 2 to 3kg/min were obtained. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the results obtained revealed that both the cylinder speed and feed rate were high ly significant at 5% and 1% probability levels for the threshing and cleaning efficiencies. This machines suit the need of the peasant farmers and with proper maintenance and/or management it will alleviate their plig hts in pigeon pea production