scholarly journals Elements of Precision Agriculture in Malting Barley Cultivation and the Use of Barley Straw for Energy Purposes

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-27
Author(s):  
Wiesław Denisiuk

AbstractThe paper presents the results of research on the mass and the energy potential of malting barley straw of the “Klas” variety. The research was designated on a 100 ha plantation located in Pojezierze Iławsko-Sztumskie region. Using the Yara N-Sensor processor, precise application of mineral fertilizers according to determined fertilization demand allowed increasing the grain yield by 26% and the straw biomass yield by 74% compared to the control sample. The resulting increase in bio-mass obtained in the form of straw impacts its possible partial use for energy purposes without negative effects on the environment. The tested energy value of malting barley straw as a function of moisture content allowed a conclusion that between 10 and 25% of water content the energy value drops from 13.1 to 7.4 GJ∙t−1. For an average water content of 15%, this yields an energy potential unit of 23.76 GJ∙ha−1. Following observations of the combustion process, it was concluded that barley straw cannot be used as a source of biomass for the large-scale power production since its ash melts at below 800ºC.

2020 ◽  
pp. 165-171
Author(s):  
Iryna Hryhoruk

Exhaustion of traditional energy resources, their uneven geographical location, and catastrophic changes in the environment necessitate the transition to renewable energy resources. Moreover, Ukraine's economy is critically dependent on energy exports, and in some cases, the dependence is not only economic but also political, which in itself poses a threat to national security. One of the ways to solve this problem is the large-scale introduction and use of renewable energy resources, bioenergy in particular. The article summarizes and offers methods for assessing the energy potential of agriculture. In our country, a significant amount of biomass is produced every year, which remains unused. A significant part is disposed of due to incineration, which significantly harms the environment and does not allow earning additional funds. It is investigated that the bioenergy potential of agriculture depends on the geographical distribution and varies in each region of Ukraine. Studies have shown that as of 2019 the smallest share in the total amount of conventional fuel that can be obtained from agricultural waste and products suitable for energy production accounts for Zakarpattya region - 172.5 thousand tons. (0.5% of the total) and Chernivtsi region - 291.3 thousand tons. (0.9%). Poltava region has the greatest potential - 2652.2 thousand tons. (7.8%) and Vinnytsia - 2623.7 thousand tons. (7.7%). It should be noted that the use of the energy potential of biomass in Ukraine can be called unsatisfactory. The share of biomass in the provision of primary energy consumption is very small. For bioenergy to occupy its niche in the general structure of the agro-industrial complex, it is necessary to develop mechanisms for its stimulation. In addition, an effective strategy for the development of the bioenergy sector of agriculture is needed. The article considers the general energy potential of agriculture, its indicative structure. The analysis is also made in terms of areas. In addition, an economic assessment of the possible use of existing potential is identified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1158
Author(s):  
Cecilia M. Onyango ◽  
Justine M. Nyaga ◽  
Johanna Wetterlind ◽  
Mats Söderström ◽  
Kristin Piikki

Opportunities exist for adoption of precision agriculture technologies in all parts of the world. The form of precision agriculture may vary from region to region depending on technologies available, knowledge levels and mindsets. The current review examined research articles in the English language on precision agriculture practices for increased productivity among smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 7715 articles were retrieved and after screening 128 were reviewed. The results indicate that a number of precision agriculture technologies have been tested under SSA conditions and show promising results. The most promising precision agriculture technologies identified were the use of soil and plant sensors for nutrient and water management, as well as use of satellite imagery, GIS and crop-soil simulation models for site-specific management. These technologies have been shown to be crucial in attainment of appropriate management strategies in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of resource use in SSA. These technologies are important in supporting sustainable agricultural development. Most of these technologies are, however, at the experimental stage, with only South Africa having applied them mainly in large-scale commercial farms. It is concluded that increased precision in input and management practices among SSA smallholder farmers can significantly improve productivity even without extra use of inputs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aura Pedrera-Parrilla ◽  
Eric C. Brevik ◽  
Juan V. Giráldez ◽  
Karl Vanderlinden

Abstract Understanding of soil spatial variability is needed to delimit areas for precision agriculture. Electromagnetic induction sensors which measure the soil apparent electrical conductivity reflect soil spatial variability. The objectives of this work were to see if a temporally stable component could be found in electrical conductivity, and to see if temporal stability information acquired from several electrical conductivity surveys could be used to better interpret the results of concurrent surveys of electrical conductivity and soil water content. The experimental work was performed in a commercial rainfed olive grove of 6.7 ha in the ‘La Manga’ catchment in SW Spain. Several soil surveys provided gravimetric soil water content and electrical conductivity data. Soil electrical conductivity values were used to spatially delimit three areas in the grove, based on the first principal component, which represented the time-stable dominant spatial electrical conductivity pattern and explained 86% of the total electrical conductivity variance. Significant differences in clay, stone and soil water contents were detected between the three areas. Relationships between electrical conductivity and soil water content were modelled with an exponential model. Parameters from the model showed a strong effect of the first principal component on the relationship between soil water content and electrical conductivity. Overall temporal stability of electrical conductivity reflects soil properties and manifests itself in spatial patterns of soil water content.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruomeng Wang ◽  
Nianpeng He ◽  
Shenggong Li ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Mingxu Li

AbstractLeaf water content (LWC) has important physiological and ecological significance for plant growth. However, it is still unclear how LWC varies over large spatial scale and with plant adaptation strategies. Here, we measured the LWC of 1365 grassland plants, along three comparative precipitation transects from meadow to desert on the Mongolia Plateau (MP), Loess Plateau, and Tibetan Plateau, respectively, to explore its spatial variation and the underlying mechanisms that determine this variation. The LWC data were normally distributed with an average value of 0.66 g g−1. LWC was not significantly different among the three plateaus, but it differed significantly among different plant life forms. Spatially, LWC in the three plateaus all decreased and then increased from meadow to desert grassland along a precipitation gradient. Unexpectedly, climate and genetic evolution only explained a small proportion of the spatial variation of LWC in all plateaus, and LWC was only weakly correlated with precipitation in the water-limited MP. Overall, the lasso variation in LWC with precipitation in all plateaus represented an underlying trade-off between structural investment and water income in plants, for better survival in various environments. In brief, plants should invest less to thrive in a humid environment (meadow), increase more investment to keep a relatively stable LWC in a drying environment, and have high investment to hold higher LWC in a dry environment (desert). Combined, these results indicate that LWC should be an important variable in future studies of large-scale trait variations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Kryzhova ◽  
◽  
O Deyak ◽  

The nature of nutrition is the most important factor determining human health. Proper healthy nutrition maintains health, plays an important role in preventing chronic diseases in modern humans. The level of food product quality must meet the human physiological needs for nutrients and energy, and healthy nutrition also includes the concept of the preventive effect of food, or food as a risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases. When nutrients are in improper proportions, nutrition is considered incorrect, unhealthy, irrational, and may play a role as a risk factor for the development of human diseases. The paper substantiates the use of beet syrup and beet in ketchup technology and the benefits of the developed recipes for human health. It also covers the physicochemical composition of beet syrup, which contains 93.5% dry matter, and sugar composition and content in beet syrup: glucose, fructose, sucrose, and maltose, the total sugar content is 48.8 g/100 g that is 50.2 g/100 g less than common sugar. The ratio of prescription ingredients, established by experimental investigations on organoleptic parameters, is substantiated. The water activity index was investigated, which constituted 0.92 in the second sample, 0.93 – in the first sample, and 0.93 – in the control sample, which will have a positive effect on their shelf life. The examination of the chemical composition showed that the protein content in the first sample increased by 33%, in the second sample – by 56% compared to the control sample; the sugar content reduced by 42.7% in the first sample and by 50.6% in the second sample; the vitamin C content increased; the fiber content increased 3 times; the developed products are enriched with iron, phosphorus, and potassium. The Nutri-score calculation showed that the samples developed according to formulas №1 and №2 belong to categories A and B and are more balanced and beneficial to human health, which indicates the high nutritional value of the products. In terms of the energy value, the developed samples have an advantage over the control. The energy value (kcal/100 g) of the first sample is 100, the second sample – 89.5, and the control sample – 104.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (22) ◽  
pp. 6427
Author(s):  
Haoyu Niu ◽  
Derek Hollenbeck ◽  
Tiebiao Zhao ◽  
Dong Wang ◽  
YangQuan Chen

Estimating evapotranspiration (ET) has been one of the most critical research areas in agriculture because of water scarcity, the growing population, and climate change. The accurate estimation and mapping of ET are necessary for crop water management. Traditionally, researchers use water balance, soil moisture, weighing lysimeters, or an energy balance approach, such as Bowen ratio or eddy covariance towers to estimate ET. However, these ET methods are point-specific or area-weighted measurements and cannot be extended to a large scale. With the advent of satellite technology, remote sensing images became able to provide spatially distributed measurements. However, the spatial resolution of multispectral satellite images is in the range of meters, tens of meters, or hundreds of meters, which is often not enough for crops with clumped canopy structures, such as trees and vines. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can mitigate these spatial and temporal limitations. Lightweight cameras and sensors can be mounted on the UAVs and take high-resolution images. Unlike satellite imagery, the spatial resolution of the UAV images can be at the centimeter-level. UAVs can also fly on-demand, which provides high temporal imagery. In this study, the authors examined different UAV-based approaches of ET estimation at first. Models and algorithms, such as mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC), the two-source energy balance (TSEB) model, and machine learning (ML) are analyzed and discussed herein. Second, challenges and opportunities for UAVs in ET estimation are also discussed, such as uncooled thermal camera calibration, UAV image collection, and image processing. Then, the authors share views on ET estimation with UAVs for future research and draw conclusive remarks.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Nilsson Jacobi ◽  
Steen Rasmussen ◽  
Kolbjørn Tunstrøm

This paper is a discussion on how reaction kinetics and three-dimensional (3D) lattice simulations can be used to elucidate the dynamical properties of micelles as a possible minimal protocell container. We start with a general discussion on the role of molecular self-assembly in prebiotic and contemporary biological systems. A simple reaction kinetic model of a micellation process of amphiphilic molecules in water is then presented and solved analytically. Amphiphilic molecules are polymers with hydrophobic (water-fearing), e.g. hydrocarbon tail groups, and hydrophilic (water-loving) head groups, e.g. fatty acids. By making a few simplifying assumptions an analytical expression for the size distribution of the resulting micelles can be derived. The main part of the paper presents and discusses a lattice gas technique for a more detailed 3D simulation of molecular self-assembly of amphiphilic polymers in aqueous environments. Water molecules, hydrocarbon tail groups and hydrophilic head groups are explicitly represented on a three-dimensional discrete lattice. Molecules move on the lattice proportional to their continuous momentum. Collision rules preserve momentum and kinetic energy. Potential energy from molecular interactions are also included explicitly. The non-trivial thermodynamics of large-scale and long-time dynamics are studied. In this paper we specifically demonstrate how, from a random initial distribution, micelles are formed and grow until they destabilize and can divide. Eventually a steady state of growing and dividing micelles is formed. Towards the end of the paper we discuss the relevance of the presented results to the design of a minimal artificial protocell.


2021 ◽  
Vol 939 (1) ◽  
pp. 012044
Author(s):  
A J Shokirov ◽  
S S Lapasov ◽  
K J Shokirov

Abstract At present, scientific research is underway to further develop vegetable growing in the secondary crop, in particular to further increase the yield and quality of white cabbage, to select a system of planting time-sowing scheme that maximizes the biological productivity of varieties, and to apply the most optimal standards of fertilization and irrigation. In this regard, the urgent task remains to determine the optimal varieties of cabbage that can be grown in repeated crops, their optimal planting scheme, timing, development and implementation of optimal standards for each variety of mineral fertilizers and irrigation, and its solution is large-scale throughout the country. Besides that a number of problematic issues are addressed, which could allow to get high and high-quality harvest of white cabbage in repeated sowing in grain-free areas.


Author(s):  
Ivan Voiku

The right way out of the crisis of the agro-based industries is the maximum use of the opportunities of scientific and technological progress and the orientation of the real economy to innovative development. One of the promising technologies of crop production is an innovative technology in potato growing, which provides for the co-culturing of potatoes with honey crops. Phacelia tanacetifolia (PhaceliatanacetifoliaBenth) is selected as honey crop, which is a valuable green manure. It allows to reduce the need for organic and mineral fertilizers, increases the ecological cleanness of products, favors the growth of potato yield, provides the additional honey yield. Phacelia significantly improves the soil structure, displacing a significant part of weeds, providing natural loosening of the soil, protection from drying out, from pests and parasites. The co-culturing of potatoes with phacelia protects the environment from the use of dangerous plant protection products. If the economic effect is defined as the difference between the profits of innovative and traditional technologies, then, according to preliminary calculations, the level of profitability of innovative technology in potato growing is 1.9 times higher, and the profit from 1 ha is 1.6 times higher compared with the traditional technology. Large-scale development of the proposed technology is hampered by the lack of potato planters and seed planters, which provide planting of potatoes and sowing seeds of honey crops simultaneously, in the Russian market and the markets of the European Union. An innovative technology - mounted seeder for potato planters was developed by the staff members of the Pskov State University. The article describes the main agro-technological requirements to this device. A general model and a kinematic scheme were developed to visualize the combination of the working elements of the potato planter and the mounted seeder. The developed model falls into the type of seed planters, which is designed to sowing in drills the seeds of honey crops (phacelia) in the furrow between potatoes at the time of the forthcoming closing of this furrow by soil, and can be used in agricultural engineering. Potential consumers of the proposed innovative technology in potato growing and the developed mounted seeder are farm enterprises and agricultural production cooperatives, which have small plots of land, use crop rotation systems in potato growing, and work for reducing costs and increasing the yield of potato cultivation.


Author(s):  
O.V. Sviridova ◽  
◽  
N.I. Vorobyov ◽  
Ya.V. Pukhalsky ◽  
O.N. Kurchak ◽  
...  

To identify microorganisms that can penetrate into the endophytic niche of the grain of barley plants, many years of vegetative experiments were conducted on sod-podzolic soil without the use of mineral fertilizers. In the non-growing season, a biological product, consisting of cellulolytic association of bacteria with genotypic passport, decomposed barley straw. Presowing treatment of seeds was not carried out, therefore, during the growing season; local microorganisms decomposing plant residues could be present in the barley rhizosphere. After six years of rotation of barley plants, the microbiological composition of its seed niche was studied. As a result, it was found that in the seeds of barley bacteria are present in an amount of 240 ± 20 CFU/g of grain. Isolated pure cultures of microorganisms were identified as Cellulomonas gelida, Micrococcus luteus and Bacillus licheniformis by the sequence of ITS fragments of 16S rRNA. These types of bacteria were also present in the used biological product. Based on the research conducted, it can be assumed, that permanent cultivation of barley plants and sowing of seeds of the previous year can contribute to the formation of effective microbial and plant biosystems that are resistant to environmental stress.


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