Agriculture Department purchases peas harvesting new machine of Rs. 3.50 crore

Chandigarh, March 17, 2015: The Punjab Government has taken an initiative for peas farming by setting a right step in the track to bring 'Green Peas' harvesting technology. This is an effort for food processing industry to diversify agriculture in the state.

Disclosing this here today an official spokesperson of the Agriculture Department said that Government has acquired a new hi-tech machine called a “Green Peas Harvesting Ploeger Machine” with a cost of Rs. 3.50 crore which facilitate cutting and harvesting of peas. It is the first machine of this type in South East Asia which would not only curtail the labour cost but also enhance the value addition as the peas plucked through this machine would be 100% utilized for processing. The “PLOEGER Machine” has the capacity of cutting and harvesting peas up to 15 acres of farming in a day and per acre yield of peas is around 17-18 quintals. The use of the machine would definitely benefit the farmers at the cost of harvesting peas would be paise 50 per kg only. It may be recalled that against 40 lakh Metric Ton of Peas produced in India only 10% were processed resulting in 1.25 lakh metric ton of frozen peas.

He stated that the machine has been imported from Holland especially for harvesting of peas and it works like combine harvester used in harvesting of wheat and paddy. The idea for introducing this harvester in the Punjab was to mechanize green peas harvesting technologies. This effort of the state government would help the farmers/processors to enhance area under peas and also result in diversification in agriculture. It has also decided to develop indigenous harvester and successful working of above Holland make machine. The indigenous machines would be developed at much lower cost once a prototype was available.