Guizhou university develops cili harvest machine

Design of the cili harvest machine co-developed by Guizhou Normal University and Guizhou Mountainous Agricultural Machinery Research Institute. [Photo/Zhongwang news]

Cili, also known as the chestnut rose, is a delicious fruit abundant in Southwest China's Guizhou province. In 2022, Guizhou's cili industrial output exceeded 15 billion yuan ($2.21 billion), a year-on-year increase of more than 35 percent.

However, the thorns on the fruit make it difficult to pick by hand. To solve the problem, Guizhou Normal University and Guizhou Mountainous Agricultural Machinery Research Institute recently developed a cili harvest machine which can vibrate the cili trees and shake off the fruits.

The prototype of the harvest machine was tested in October last year. It adopts a crawler-type chassis in order to operate in mountainous areas and can harvest and collect the fruit at the same time.

Pilot tests showed that the harvest machine can harvest 94.42 percent of the fruit, and the damage rate is less than 0.97 percent. Its harvesting efficiency is dozens of times higher than manual harvesting.

Xiao Yuanping, Party secretary of Guizhou Normal University, said that the university has established a smart agricultural machinery application and promotion lab to tackle key issues such as the R&D of mountainous cili harvest machines based on the needs of agricultural development.

The lab has developed various agricultural machineries for chili peppers, cili and oil-tea camellia to support rural vitalization.