SEMI-MECHANICAL HARVESTING OF JATROPHA (JATROPHA CURCAS L.) IN MOROCCO

摘要

Harvesting of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) is a challenging issue owing to the presence of ripe andrnunripe fruits on the same bunch. Although widely diffused,the manual collection is labor-demanding. Severalrnmachines for fully mechanized harvesting are available, but their sustainability is debatable. The use of a semimechanicalrnapproach can be an affordable solution. Within the 4-year demonstration project JatroMed, CREA-INGrnanalyzed modified pickers mounting different type of rake. A first study carried out in Morocco was aimed atrnanalyzing the applicability of the method and evaluating the efficiency of different combinations rake/beating speed.rnA commercial olive picker with pneumatic system was used. Two beating's speeds (S1 and S2) per three differentrnrakes (R1, R2 and R3) were tested on cultivar Michoacan in order to determine the most suitable combination tornharvest jatropha fruits. The number of fallen leaves was adopted as discriminating parameter for identifying the lessrndamaging combination. Then the best rake-speed combination was tested also on JCL Max, QVP and Malirnvarieties.All the treatments (rake/speed) allowed to harvest the ripe fruits of the cultivar Michoacán. However, therncombination R1-S1 showed the lowest number of fallen leaves and the treatment R3-S2 assured the highestrnpercentage of unfallen unripe fruits. From these first evidences emerges that the semi-mechanical harvesting throughrnrakes is suitable for the collection of ripe fruits of Jatropha and it is independent from the type of rake used. For arnselective harvest, however, the integration of the system with the physiological traits of the variety is highlydesirable.