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The effects of different mower speeds (2358, 2440 and 2553 rpm) and different knife angles (30deg, 40deg and 50deg) on sweet potato vine pulverization were studied. The results indicated that all the treatments were significant at p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 significance level for the pulverized percentage of sweet potato vine. The 30deg knife angle gave the best result with highest vine pulverized percentage of 54.60 %, and a mower speed of 2553 rpm had the finest vine pulverized percentage of 46.99 %. The best performance for interaction effect between knife angle and speed of mower was achieved by the 30deg knife angle and a mower speed of 2440 rpm resulting in an average percentage of 61.27% of pulverized vine.

In this study information on the development of combined sweet potato harvester is presented. The study focuses on the design, manufacture and choice of the best slasher for cutting and fragmentation of stems and leaves (vegetative portion) for the crop to facilitate the process of harvesting and extraction of tubers. A survey on various types and forms of cutters (mowers) and knives normally used for cutting vines and leaves was conducted and concluded that the vertical type and flail type mowers are the most effective in removing of the vegetative growth. In addition there is a need to design an integrated harvester, which combines both the cutting and digging in a single pass in order to reduce the time taken for harvesting, the fuel consumption and the number of machines used since this will give some economical advantages. In addition to the design requirements, it is recommended that number of tests should be conducted to select the suitable speed for the tractor, the velocity for cutters and the length of knives for both sides of the ridges to avoid damage to the tubers.