Handy harvester
Developed as an alternative to manual harvesting in small plots, the stripper-gatherer (sg) is a boon to farmers, particularly in Asia. Designed at the International Rice Research Institute in Philippines, it can harvest, thresh and clean about four tonnes of grain a day. Its simple stripper rotor, the teeth of which are made from old car tyres, spins in the crop as the machine moves forward and combs the grain from the plants. The rotor throws grain into a collection container where the mixture of grain and straw is then threshed and cleaned by the second in-built component, the tc800 thresher/cleaner.