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Abstract
The most important aspect of post-harvest operation of maize is threshing, which involves detaching of the maize grain from its cobs (Kama 1992). The traditional method of grain threshing is by heating with stick which is laborious, time consuming, loss of grains and low output. The performance of an improved pedal maize threshing machine consisting of the threshing unit, chain and sprocket drive system, bearing, handles, seat and machine stand in other to meet the demand of rural farmers. When the machine is turned manually, the threshing spike disc rotate inside the threshing unit as the cobs of maize passes through a spring controlled space between the rotating disc and a stationary plate. The grain spreads through the grain outlet. The result shows that the machine can shell about 81.03kg/hour of maize while using the traditional method (hand) only 25.00kg/hour of the maize could be shelled. The threshing efficiency of the machine obtained is 86.6%.
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