Development and Performance Evaluation of a Hand-Pushed Tiger Nut Harvester

Harvesting is one of the major problems encountered by tiger nut farmers in Nigeria. Manual harvesting system is the most commonly used method. This process is costly, labour intensive and time-consuming. The process does not also give farmers adequate returns to enable them to break even due to huge losses encountered. The objective of this study was to design, construct and evaluate a hand-pushed harvester that would eliminate the challenges being faced by small and medium tiger nut farmers during harvesting. Materials selection for constructing the harvester were based on their durability and availability, affordability and ease of replacement if damaged. They include mild steel (3 mm, 5 mm), 30 mm galvanized steel hollow pipe, 10 mm diameter steel rod, and 400 mm steel tyre. The developed harvester was evaluated at the experimental farm of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR). Results of the study show that the average field capacity ranges from 0.28 – 0.33 ha/h while the average field efficiency was between 77.78 – 80.49% depending on operating speed, moisture content and other properties of the soil. No field damage was recorded when the harvester was used as against an approximate 10.50% damage recorded in the manual harvesting method.

Role of Raised Bed Technique on Water Productivity and Wheat and under the conditions of irrigated agriculture in central Iraq

"A field experiment was conducted during the agricultural season of 2017-2018 in the site is located at 82"" 10' 33ᵒ North, and longitude 51"" 32' 44ᵒ , East at an altitude of 33m above sea level. In order to evaluate the productivity of irrigation water by method of cultivation on irrigated furrows, when growing crops of wheat. Two factors were experienced in the cultivation of wheat, The first factor is the method of cultivation of five treatments were used included: Treatment of the cultivation of wheat in basins (B), treatment of the cultivation of wheat on bed with 50 cm width (S1), 60cm (S2), 70cm (S3) and 80cm (S4), The second factor is irrigation levels depletion included: 40, 60 and 80% of available water coded as W1, W2 and W3, respectively,. The results were as follows: Actual water consumption values for basin and bed treatments reached 389, 384, 365, 369.20, 367and 341mm for treatment BW1, BW2, BW3,SW1, SW2 and SW3 respectively. Treatment of wheat crops on bed with 80 cm width gave the highest average field water use efficiency reached 6.84 kg m-3 while BW3 treatment gave lowest average field water use efficiency reached 1.47 kg m-3. The highest average crop water use efficiency were found in S4W1ٚ S4W2 reached 2.06 and 2.07 kg m-3, respectively, It was lowest value for crop water use efficiency at BW3 reached 1.06 kg m-3. The percentage increase in the average efficiency of crop water using for bed treatments 40.37, 57.80, 73.39 and 85.32% for treatments S1, S2, S3 and S4 respectively Compared with basin treatment (B).The highest average total grains yield for Treatment of wheat crops on bed with 80 cm width was 7253kg ha-1 , Irrigation levels also affected the total grains yield, irrigation treatment of depletion 40% gave highest average 6300 kg ha-1 , That did not differ significantly from the irrigation treatments of depletion 60% In which the total grain yield was reached 6228 kg ha-1 ,In the interference factors between the cultivation method and the irrigation levels, the interference factors excelled S4W1, S3W2 and S4W2 Without significant differences in the total yield average 7600,7310 and 7600 kg ha-1, Respectively"

Hot Electron Plasmon-Resonant Grating Structures for Enhanced Photochemistry: A Theoretical Study

Metallic grating structures have been shown to provide an effective platform for generating hot electrons and driving electrochemical reactions. Here, we present a systematic theoretical study of the surface plasmon resonance in different corrugated metallic grating structures using computational electromagnetic tools (i.e., the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method). We identify the corrugation parameters that produce maximum resonant field enhancement at commonly used wavelengths for photocatalytic applications (633 nm and 785 nm) in different material systems, including Ag, Au, Cu, Al, and Pt. The absorption spectra of each grating structure have been fitted with the analytical equation obtained from Coupled Mode Theory. We then extracted the absorptive and radiative loss rates. The field enhancement can be maximized by matching the absorption and radiation losses via tuning the geometric parameters. We could improve the average field enhancement of 633 nm and 785 nm modes by a factor of 1.8× and 3.8× for Ag, 1.4× and 3.6× for Au, and 1.2× and 2.6× for Cu. The optimum structures are found to be shallower for Ag, Au, and Cu; deeper for Pt; and to almost remain the same for Al. The gratings become flat for all the metals for increasing the average field enhancement. Overall, Ag and Au were found to be the best in terms of overall field enhancement while Pt had the worst performance.

Energetics and Cost Economics of Laying Plastic Mulch in Vegetable Cultivation

The use of plastic mulch in agriculture is increasing day by day due for increasing crop yield. Mulch film are available in different types but plastic mulching requires less efforts. This paper highlights a new developed mulch laying machine for spreading of polyethylene black plastic mulch on soil. Animal drawn plastic mulch laying machine was developed at the SV College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, IGKV, Raipur and was evaluated for its performance by conducting field trials. The average field capacity and average field efficiency was found to be 0.115 ha/h and 71% respectively. The average speed of operation was found 1.35 km/h for developed machine and 0.226 km/h for traditional method of mulch laying. The cost of operation was found to be Rs.1343/ha. Energy requirement of developed machine in mulch laying operation was found 187.34 MJ/ha it was found very less than the energy requirement 754.60 MJ/ha of traditional method of mulch laying. This machine will avoid the wages of labours used for laying plastic mulch and covers the plastic mulch with the soil on its either side edges. Using the mechanical system, the accuracy and ease during plastic laying was achieved.

Metodologia preliminar de identificação de relações entre a brisa marítima e linhas de instabilidade amazônicas

The objective of this work was to present a preliminary methodology that is able to identify some characteristics of the relationship between the sea breeze circulation and the Amazonian squalline, aiming to understand a little more of the necessary conditions for the deepening of the associated cloudiness. The wavelet transform was applied to the wind and divergence data of ERA5 reanalysis, and a classification was afterwards developed to highlight exclusively the days considered the ideal active period to formation and intensification of the sea breeze circulation and initiation of the Amazonian squalline. The results showed that the relationship between the sea breeze circulation and the Amazonian squalline may be related to the influence of wind at 800 hPa and divergence at 200 hPa. The analysis of average field of the active period days ideal for formation and intensification of the sea breeze circulation and initiation of the Amazonian squalline was able to represent important wind-related characteristics (low level jet between 850 and 750 hPa) and divergence at 200 hPa, indicating that these characteristics, before being directly related to the Amazonian squalline, may first influence the sea breeze circulation performance and intensification.