Development of a Vertical Conveyor Reaper for Harvesting Chickpeas and Lentils in Morocco

In the absence of appropriate mechanization, harvesting of lentils and chickpeas is a major production problem in Morocco. Acute labor shortages at harvest time cause delays leading to high grain and straw losses. This article describes modifications made on a small commercial vertical conveyer reaper manufactured by Kubota Limited, Japan, and contains results from field evaluations of this machine for harvesting lentils and chickpeas. The modified reaper worked well on chickpeas. It also performed well on lentils when row spacings matched with the distance between the crop dividers on the machine. Potential labor saving was 6 man-days/ha (2.4 man-days/ac) for harvesting chickpeas by this machine compared to hand-harvesting. Additional modifications are still needed on the conveyor system of the reaper to eliminate the problem of blocking when tall weeds are encountered.