Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2015 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 8 Articles
Settling depth of orange fruits and vegetables with the density lower than the density of water is an important\nhydrodynamic property important in hydraulic sorting and transporting. In this research, settling depth of orange fruit with\nregular shapes was experimentally modeled. The considered parameters in multivariate modeling were fruit characteristics,\ndensity, mass and volume, and dropping height of the fruits. The characteristics were determined by standard methods. The\nsettling depth was determined by a water column and a digital camera. The models were obtained in MATLAB software. The\nbest model was based on the density, volume and dropping height with coefficient of determination (R2) and mean squire\nerror (MSE) of 0.89 and 4.67Ã?â??10-7, respectively....
This study is aimed to evaluate the effect of multiple tillage practices on the wheat yield in rainfed fields. The\nexperiment was conducted in three field preparation and planting treatments including conventional tillage (moldboard plow,\ndisc harrow, and centrifugal seed spreader) indicated as T1, chisel plow, disc harrow, and planting with deep drill as T2, and\nconservation tillage (plowing with heavy disc on last year�s crop residues, and planting with deep drill) as T3.The\nperformance characteristics as well as agronomic and crop yield parameters were measured and analyzed for two consecutive\nyears. The design of experiments was carried out base on Randomized Complete Blocks Design with four replications. The\nanalysis of results showed that the conservation tillage had desirable effects on soil moisture content, field capacity, energy\nconsumption, seed distribution uniformity, number of grains per spike, number of spikes per unit area, grain yield and\nproduction cost when compared to the other treatments. As a comparable result, the minimum field efficiency and the\nminimum field capacity belonged to T1 as 0.57 and 0.39 ha/h, respectively. While the maximum values were recorded for T3\ntreatment as 0.72 and 0.58 ha/h, respectively. The fuel consumption for T3 was measured 23.3 L/ha as the lowest fuel\nconsumption due to reduce of tillage and planting practices. Furthermore, T2 operation condition consumed diesel fuel at an\naverage range of 39.2 L/ha. Besides, the maximum fuel consumption (46.7 L/ha) was in T1 treatment owing to use the\nmoldboard plow....
An investigation into the maintenance culture of industrial generators in the agro-based industries in Ibadan,\nSouth-West Nigeria has been carried out. The instrument used for this survey includes: interview, market survey direct\nobservation and questionnaires. The study investigated the status of agro based industries with reference to electrical energy\ncarrying capacity, level of compliance with service schedule, response time to failure and repair as well as cost implications in\nmaintenance of such installations. Investigation revealed that over 75% of the agro-based industries in the South-West town\nof Ibadan are predominantly medium scale in status with a carrying capacity of less than 550KVA electricity generating\nequipment. There is high level compliance (92.5%) in keeping of daily maintenance record, negligence on long time fuel\nkeeping (up to 5 weeks at times), a greater degree of negligence in mean time to repairs (MTTR) on malfunctioned\ncomponents and poor response time to servicing the generator at the recommended hours of use. Therefore, the industries\nshould greatly improve on their attitude to wake-up calls on equipment servicing if recurrent failure and excessive spending\non generator is to be kept low. The continuous use of generator with malfunctioned part should be stopped. A stop and check\napproach is recommended immediately when abnormality is noticed in operation; there should be immediate stoppage,\nconfirmation and correction of the fault just developed...
Phosphorous is one of the major nutrients needed to dry plants and micro organisms for performing in crop fields. The aim of this study was to perform an isolation and screening of native phosphofungi from forest soil and also study the effect phosphofungi on seed germination and seedling vigour (green gram and groundnut seed). The phosphofungi were screened using Pikovskaya’s agar medium with tricalcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2) as the phosphorus source. Five promising fungal strains were screened such as Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma viride, Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium sp1 and Penicillium sp2. The soluble phosphorus, phosphate solubilizing activity, titrable acidity, pH and fungal biomass were determined. Aspergillus niger (28±4.6 mm) and Trichoderma viride (22±2.6 mm) showed the more phosphate solubilising index than compared to other fungal isolates. Mineral phosphate solubilizing (MPS) activities of five isolates were tested in tricalcium phosphate medium by analyzing the possible phosphorus release, from 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th day of incubation. Maximum phosphate solubilizing activity was showed by Penicillium sp1 (765±15 µg/ml) and Penicillium chrysogenum (425±14 µg/ml) on 6th and 12th day after incubation. Antagonistic effect of phosphofungi Penicillium chrysogenum (75±10 mm) and Trichoderma viride (60±8.6 mm) showed more effective against Colletotrichum sp than compared to other fungal isolates. Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma viride and Penicillium chrysogenum showed the more effectiveness on seed germination and seedling vigour for green gram and ground nut seeds. Hence, the potentials of phosphofungi could be effectively exploited in the future for the production of eco-friendly phosphate solubilizing biofertilizer for sustainable agriculture....
Jute retting process is one of the important responsible factors for quality of jute fiber. Scarcity of jute retting water\nin some areas of Bangladesh is one of the major issues. The main purpose of this study was provided information about the\nstatus of present jute retting process as well as mentioned the advantages and disadvantages of different jute retting processes.\nData about traditional jute retting process and ribbon retting process were collected through personal interview of jute\ngrowers. The farmers are involved in jute cultivation and majority of them use the traditional method and time consuming\napproach of retting in ponds/canals. The traditional method hampers the quality of the jute fiber, fish cultivation and pollutes\nthe environment as it decomposes bio-mass. For minimizing the problems of jute retting process, the farmers are now more\ninterested on ribbon retting process. Therefore, forgetting quality jute fiber, a low cost ribbon retting technique is essential\nand farmers could able to produce high quality jute fiber....
Considering the importance of organic manures, a novel helical wet manure distributer was developed in this study,\nthat capable to speared manure with maximum distribution width at different moisture of manure. The machine performance\nwas modeled as well. Main systems of machine were conveying system, distribution system and drawbar coupling system.\nEffect of speed of drum(450-950 rpm) and six level of particle mass of manure(5, 10, 20, 50, 80 and 100 g) on distribution\nwidth were considered. The power requirement of auger was calculated in different rotational speed of auger(90-660 rpm) and\nthree level of manure-manure friction(0.45, 0.50 and 0.55). Drawbar power of machine was evaluated as well. The results\nshowed that maximum distribution width was 14 m for mass of manure. Tractor speed was 5-10 km.hr-1 and consumed\nmanure rate was 20-60 ton.ha-1.Volume of hopper was designed for 6m3. The maximum value of PTO power requirement\nand drawbar power obtained was 28.9kW and 8.5 kW, respectively....
This study employed artificial neural network method for predicting the sprayer drift under different conditions\nusing image processing technique. A wind tunnel was used for providing air flow in different velocities. Water Sensitive\nPaper (WSP) was used to absorb spray droplets and an automatic algorithm processed the images of WSPs for measuring\ndroplet properties including volume median diameter (Dv0.5) and Surface Coverage Percent (SCP). Four\nLevenberg-Marqurdt models were developed to correlate the sprayer drift (output parameter) to the input parameters (height,\npressure, wind velocity and Dv0.5). The ANN models were capable of predicting the output variables in different conditions\nof spraying with a high performance. Both models predicted the output variables with R2 values higher than 0.96 indicating\nthe accuracy of the selected networks. Therefore, the developed predictor models can be used in precision agriculture for\ndecreasing spray costs and losses and also environmental contamination....
A combined dewatered cassava mash lump pulverizing and sifting machine was developed to determine the effect\nof moisture content, operating speed, and mash quantity on the performance of the machine using historical data experimental\ndesign of response surface methodology. The independent variable sof the experiments were moisture content, operating speed,\nand mash quantity, while the dependent variables were sifting efficiency, input capacity, and output capacity for both 3 and 5\nmm aperture sieves. The results of the analysis revealed that sifting efficiency for 5 mm aperture sieve ranged from 78.8% to\n89.0%, sifting efficiency for 3 mm aperture sieve ranged from 62.8% to 79.9%, input capacity ranged from 232.29 to 405.25\nkg/hr, output capacity for 5 mm aperture sieve ranged from 56.2 to 97.4 kg/hr, while output capacity for 3 mm aperture sieve\nranged from 45.10 to 87.8 kg/hr.Also,the independent variables were significant (p<0.05) oneach dependent variable. In\naddition, from the model summary statistics, the adequacy of best fit of the model was obtained from the highest value of\ncoefficient of determination (R2), and the least value of standard deviation (SD) and Predicted Residual Sum of\nSquares(PRESS) values.The respective R2, SD, and PRESS values of 0.9759, 0.55, 13.44for sifting efficiency for 5 mm\naperture sieve; 0.9165, 1.52, 114.71for sifting efficiency for 3 mm aperture sieve; 0.9828, 6.98, 2440.04 for input capacity;\n0.9885, 1.57, 103.41for output capacity for 5 mm aperture sieve; and 0.9847, 1.90, 155.91for output capacity for 3 mm\naperture sieve were obtained.Therefore, from the results obtained, the machine is recommended for small and medium scale\ngari processors....
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