IMPROVEMENT OF POTATO HARVESTING EQUIPMENT
It is necessary for every sovereign country to be able to fully provide its citizens with food. To implement this, it is necessary that the agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation has not only extensive planting areas, high-quality seed material, but also modern and high-tech equipment. The lack of own production of agricultural machinery and the current difficulties with the purchase of imported models may provoke a number of problems in the agro-industrial complex of the country in the foreseeable future. At the same time, do not forget that the mass-produced potato harvesting equipment is able to work effectively only in favorable natural and climatic conditions. Otherwise, its performance indicators will not meet the agrotechnical requirements. Proceeding from this, the actual direction of scientific research will be the improvement of individual working bodies of potato harvesters. In this article, we analyze the efficiency of combine harvesters (special attention is paid to such things as the purity of tubers, in containers, damage and loss of tubers). Some results of scientific and technical research were considered, namely, improved separating working bodies of potato harvesters. The study also presents the results of field tests confirming the effectiveness of the improved designs