Strategies to Reduce Mechanical Harvesting Costs in Traditional Olive Orchards

Almeida, Arlindo; Fernandes-Silva, Anabela

http://hdl.handle.net/10198/31103

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Authors

Almeida, Arlindo

Fernandes-Silva, Anabela

Abstract(s)

In Mediterranean basin, traditional olive orchards have an important economic value. In this type of olive orchards planting densities are 100 to 240 trees per hectare, and over 30 years old. In these olive orchards, the most used mechanical harvesting system is based on a trunk shaker to detach fruits, and an inverted umbrella to collect them. With this harvesting system it is usual to collect 70% to 90% of the production. The olives that remain in the tree is a problem. To solve it, farmers adopt manual harvesting as a complementary task. This procedure increases the cost of harvesting with the addition of labour and reduces the mechanical harvesting system work rate (trees hour-1). It is important to assess if olives manual removal remaining on the tree after the trunk shaker work has a compensatory cost. However, this does not seem to be the case, given the results presented. Complementary manual harvesting may be a solution, but an evaluation of other agronomic and mechanical solutions is recommended.

Keywords

Olive orchard Mechanization Trunk shaker Costs Labour Research Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGY::Chemical engineering::Food technology

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10198/31103

Citation

Almeida, Arlindo; Fernandes-Silva, Anabela (2024). Strategies to Reduce Mechanical Harvesting Costs in Traditional Olive Orchards. In AgEng 2024 - Agricultural Engineering challenges in existing and new agroecosystems. Atenas