Sweetpotatoes are important crops used for food, animal feed, industrial raw materials, and as a source of renewable energy. They are considered a safeguard crop in global food production and are also recognized as a high-quality anti-cancer health food. Additionally, sweetpotatoes serve as a major source of income in underdeveloped regions. China has the largest sweetpotato cultivation area in the world, with approximately 3.33 million hectares dedicated to sweetpotato farming,of which about 50% is planted in hilly areas.

To address the challenges faced in hilly regions, such as small field sizes, heavy and sticky soil, and complex terrain, the Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs collaborated with Shandong Star Agricultural Equipment Co., Ltd. to innovate and develop a solution. They successfully developed key technologies including floating depth-limited digging, low-vibration conveyance and separation with concave-convex bars, anti-blocking flexible smooth transitions, and fully hydraulic drive chassis. As a result, they created the first domestically produced light and compact self-propelled sweetpotato harvester suitable for clayey regions in hilly areas. This machine is capable of completing the entire sweetpotato harvesting process in one go, including digging, conveying, separating, cleaning, and loading into baskets. Two models of the self-propelled sweetpotato harvester, namely the 800 and 1000 series, have been introduced to accommodate different sweetpotato farming practices.

Recently, the machine underwent trial demonstrations for sweetpotato harvesting in the hilly red soil and clayey regions of Zhangshu City in Jiangxi Province and Lishui District in Jiangsu Province. The results of the trials demonstrated the smooth and reliable operation of the equipment, with excellent performance indicators. In the red soil region, the rate of skin-damaged sweatpotato was less than 1.5%, and the rate of lost sweatpotato was under 2%. The efficiency of the machine was nearly 20 times higher than manual labor.

The successful development of this machine will effectively address the shortage of sweetpotato harvesting equipment in hilly regions, reduce the reliance on manual labor, minimize skin damage and losses, and provide the capability to harvest other crops such as potatoes. It is a versatile machine suitable for hilly areas as well as small fields in plains and gentle slopes. Additionally, there is potential for exporting this equipment to other sweetpotato-producing countries in Asia and Africa, making it highly promising for widespread adoption and application.