ABSTRACT

Agriculture remains one of the main backbones of live hood and economy in every country, and therefore it is vital to make it a sustainable practice. One of the ways is by making availability farm machinery which are labor-saving technology that could help to reduce drudgery in the farming community. However, it is also very crucial to consider that the machines are safe and efficient for use especially for a country like Bhutan where agriculture lands are of smaller sizes and lying on rugged terrain. Five different types of Yukato Mini power tiller brands were evaluated for their performance in terms of engine power reduction, sound level, vibration level, and field capacity in context to Bhutanese agricultural field. The highest engine power reduction of 38.02±0.86 % was recorded for engine model BS270 of YKT 110G model and lowest of 19.87±2.31for BS418 of YKT 140D mini tiller model. It can also be noted that the percentage of engine power reductions recorded are highest for engine driven by petrol compared to the engine driven by diesel. The highest vibration and sound level recorded are 10.12±0.40 m/s2 and 90.81±0.26 dB(A) for UGT YUVA 7P and YKT 100G models respectively. In addition to the parameters above, fuel consumption for each of the machines were measured with YKT 140D as the most fuel efficient of 5.62 ± 1.43 l/day. Based on the performance ranking, mini power tiller model YKT110D is recommended to be the best among all the models. However, since this study didn’t consider all other types of machine models, it is recommended to evaluate all types of existing models to recommend the most feasible and suitable machine for the agriculture land of Bhutan.