A village-level pigeonpea processing machine for Sri Lanka

Pigeonpea processing machine

Abstract

Vegetable proteins occupy an important place innutritional securityin rural Sri Lanka; and theseprimarily come from different pulses and vegetables. Annual production of the traditionallygrown pulsesin the island falls shortof demand andto offsetthis deficit, a new pulse pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), was introduced from India. This pulse found good adaptation in the Dry and Intermediate rainfall zones of the country. Since pigeonpea grains need dehulling and splitting before consumption, it was found necessary to develop a processing machine so that the farmers´produce could be converted into dal (decorticated splits) for domestic consumption and local marketing. Hence, a small-scale pigeonpea processing machine was designed and fabricated bythe Department of Agriculture, using locally available resources. This machine is simple, compact, and easy to transport and operate using domestic power supply. Besides pigeonpea, it can also process other pulses such as cowpea, green gram, and black gram. The present paper describes key features of the machine in relation to its design, fabrication, operation, and maintenance.