Effects of pretreatment and drying temperature on antioxidants and antinutrients of Justicia insularis and Jatropha tanjorensis leaves

Antioxidants and antinutrient contents of leafy vegetables may be influenced by post-harvest processing. The present study was carried out to assess the effect of pretreatments (P) and drying temperatures (T) on antioxidants and antinutrients of Justicia insularis and Jatropha tanjorensis leaves. Four groups of samples were prepared, namely: fresh sample (FR), UN-blanched and dried sample (UB), sample blanched in hot water and dried (BHW) and sample blanched in salt water and dried (BSW). Drying was conducted at 40 0C, 50 0C and 60 0C using hot air oven. Antioxidants and antinutrients of the samples were determined. The data collected were subjected to a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) as well as Dunnett t-test at 5% probability level. Based on the results, BHW between 500 C and 600 C increased the antioxidant activity in both vegetables. BHW 60 0C was able to reduce oxalate and phytate contents to reasonable level while BSW50 0C drastically decreased hydrogen cyanide and tannin contents. However, the overall, individualistic, and interactive effects of P and T had significant ( < 0.05) influence on majority of antioxidant activity and antinutrient contents in both vegetables.

Effect of soil moisture content, dynamic load and wheel slippage in measuring traction in an indoor traction bed

A study was conducted to determine the effect of soil moisture content, dynamic load and wheel slippage in measuring traction. A single wheel test rig was developed to enable fundamental research on traction studies on tropical soil at the department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering of Federal University of Technology, Akure. This facility consists of a moving carriage with a trolley that moves in either forward or reverse directions on rails well above a soil bin powered by 2.2 kW, three phase induction motor. The present facility set up was able to operate in either towing test mode for tire motion resistance studies or driving test mode for tire net traction and tractive efficiency studies. The test tire on the moving carriage was powered to rotate by a motor with additional pull provided by a cable-pulley mechanism connected to a tower with hanging dead weights. All controls on the moving carriage were activated from the main control console. The developed facility was successfully tested to determine tractive efficiency for narrow wheels at a particular inflation pressure on clay soil. The single wheel test rig facility worked well and the research indicates that wheel load, wheel slippage, soil moisture content and inflation pressure has great effect on traction efficiency. Traction efficiency decreased as the wheel load and wheel slippage increased. The developed single wheel testing facility can perform traction tests in controlled soil conditions to study the effect of soil, tire and moisture parameters on the performance of the system.

Movement of documentation as a part of the audit reporting of top agricultural company management

The movement of documentation as part of an implemented audit in the operations and management of an agricultural enterprise can contribute to improving the operation and management of an agricultural enterprise. This generally reduces the risk to the business of the agricultural enterprise. The movement of documentation within the company is done constantly. In this movement it is possible to make mistakes and omissions that will lead to worse business results of the company, which are essentially a consequence of poor internal factors of organization of work and business of top management. Therefore, the authors draw attention to the importance of establishing audit mechanisms that will contribute to improving the overall management of the agricultural enterprise, through better organization of the flow of documentation in the agricultural enterprise. The authors point out that their contribution in this paper is primarily focused on highlighting the importance of the movement of documentation within the company, which is the basis of audit monitoring and giving recommendations to the top management, who will then have the opportunity to make valid business decisions.

Research of the influence of spare parts quality on the work of a repair diesel engine

When repairing the internal combustion Diesel engine, a set of spare parts was installed: crankshaft-flywheel. After the overhauol, the engine was tested on a test bench. After a very short time of operation, an engine failure occurred. Re-overhaul was started, with another set of spare parts: crankshaft-flywheel. After a short time of operation, there were recurrences of engine failures, according to the same mechanisms of occurrence.

Determination of main parameters of ISOBUS system based agricultural machinery management

ISO organization (https://www.iso.org) in early 90s defined an industry standard for the communication protocol among electronic devices of different manufacturers of agricultural machines. After that, all of the market actors recognised that this technology would be very important for agricultural electronics. The appearance of ISOBUS products in the market was in the mid-2000s. ISOBUS description could be found in ISO-11783 (https://www.iso.org). Through the standards and the related technical background, the production processes and the operations could be followed and monitored by the extensive Data Management. Farmers' and users legitimate needs and developing goal is to elaborate a decision support systems that follow-up the utilisation of the machines and ensure the quality of operations. For this purpose, it is essential to determine which technical, economical, technological parameters detection, measurement, transmission, processing, and evaluation becomes necessary. In our work, we reviewed which mechanical characteristic, settings are monitored within the ISOBUS system by the major machine manufacturers. We developed the system of parameters and derived features that provide effective farm-, and land-management in case of attached equipment for spreading of input materials, plant protection and tillage implements.

The importance of operating agricultural equipment in use by fair value from the management situation in small and medium-sized enterprises in the transitional country: Example of the Republic of Serbia

This study highlights the importance of using real-life values of agricultural equipment in real financial statements in medium-sized enterprises. The authors have adopted the essence of nature related to the estimation of agricultural equipment, that is, he has stated that in the agricultural production of transition countries, agricultural equipment has been used for more than five decades. This was a key assumption adopted by the authors of this study. In addition, the presentation of realistic financial statements should include an account of the real value of agricultural equipment, which essentially leads to a periodic fair valuation of agricultural equipment available to agricultural producers in transition countries.

The use of solar plants for crop seeds drying

A grain drying complex based on solar energy, including a grain storage with a built-in solar drying system and a drum solar dryer for grain, is proposed. The construction and principle of operation of the grain drying complex is described. The basis of each of the solar drying systems of the complex is the presence of two solar collectors, one of which provides heating of the drying agent at the inlet into the drying chamber, and the second-heating of the used drying agent in the exhaust pipe to increase its flow rate and, accordingly, the intensification of grain drying. Availability of gravel or water heat accumulators allows to carry out the process of grain drying or grain storage, at night and under adverse weather conditions without the risk of self-heating. The optimum capacity of the gravel accumulator is 0.5-0.75 m 3 per 1 m 2 of solar collector area. Drum solar dryer provides guaranteed drying of a grain batch for 6-7 hours of the day time and a grain batch for the night time. It was found that the optimum thickness of the grain layer in the drying process is 50-70 cm and specific load is up to 100 kg of grain per square meter of the horizontal solar collector area.

Determinants of mobile phones usage for agricultural purposes among arable crop farmers in Iwo zone of Osun State, Nigeria

This study examined the socio-economic factors underlining arable crop famers' use of mobile phones for agricultural-related purposes in Iwo Agricultural Development Program (ADP) Zone of Osun State. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 150 arable crop farmers from whom primary data were collected with structured interview schedule. Data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and ordinary least square regression analysis. Findings from this study revealed that most frequently used applications include voice call (99.3%), calendar (96.7%), calculator (96%) and torch light (95.3%). Most of the farmers strongly consented that mobile phones facilitated timely access to needed services (𝑋̅ = 4.74), eased production decision making (𝑋̅ = 4.54), enhanced increased income and profit (𝑋̅ = 4.50) and accessing personalized information about new farming techniques (𝑋̅ = 4.44). Major constraints identified for limiting the usage of phones for agricultural purposes were poor internet access (𝑋̅ = 3.73), inadequate electricity to charge t he mobile phone (𝑋̅ = 3.55), poor network access (𝑋̅ = 3.54) and high charges on services (𝑋̅ = 3.41). Gender (b= 4.337; P˂ .01), level of education (b= 16.358; P˂ .01), years of farming (b= 0.513; P˂.05), information sources (b= 0.645; P˂.01) all jointly had positive influence on farmers' use of mobile phones for agricultural information. It was recommended that higher capacity of female and arable crop farmers with lower level of education should be energized to utilize their mobile phones for enhancing their production activities.

Equipment and engagement of mechanization on the family agricultural farm

The equipment and engagement of tractor and attached machines were examined on the example of the average family farm Šiljić in Serbia. The research was performed on a registered agricultural farm in the village of Selevac, municipality of Smederevska Palanka. The family farm Šiljić has a total of 5,4 ha of used agricultural land. In production season 2019/2020 wheat was sown on 2 ha and 1 ha of maize, sunflower and triticale each. On the area of 0,4 ha is a backyard and garden. The farm owns a tractor IMT-558, a plough, a disc harrow, a harrow, a sprayer and a trailer, purchased in 1979. The old machinery is in use. The registered family farm Šiljić is insufficiently equipped with mechanization. With a two-axle tractor with a power of 42.65 kW and 5 attached machines cultivates 5.4 ha, so the energy equipment is 8.5 kW/ha. The tractor is mostly engaged in the production of corn 10,0 h/ha, sunflower 9,5 h/ha, triticale 8,33 h/ha and the least is wheat 7,41 h/ha of effective work. On the farm Šiljić, on the area of 5 ha, out of a total of 42,66 hours of work, the tractor was mostly used in the basic tillage 17,0 h or 3,1 h/ha. The tractor is also engaged in pre-sowing soil preparation with a disc harrow 9 h (1,8 h/ha) and a harrow 7 hours (1,4 h/ha), in a transport 5,33 h (1,07 h/ha), in the application of pesticides with a sprayer 4,33 h (0,87 h/ha). In addition to the total effective work in the implementation of certain agro-technical measures in the production of field crops, the tractor was hired at 7,30 hours to leave and return from the plot (auxiliary working hours). Fuel consumption in basic tillage was 18 l/ha, in presowing preparation with a disc harrow 10 l/ha, harrow 5 l/ha and 5 l/ha in the application of pesticides and transport of products.

Developments of orchard tillers and their assessment of intercultural work quality for suitably in Tarai region of Pantnagar

Rotary tillers implements are now projected as important tillage machinery for better seedbed preparation; however the ordinary rotavator being in line with the tractor center line at the rear cannot be used in orchards due to the hindrance posed due to narrow space between the plants. Therefore, the concept of a rotary offset tiller in other words orchard tillers was proposed, which could perform finer intercultural operation between the plants. Since there are some models of Indians and Foreign made rotary offset tiller available and their work quality parameter significantly plays a crucial role in selection of efficient, effective and appropriate machine for orchards. Therefore, present study is carried out with a purpose of selection of suitable and efficient orchard tillers on the basis of intercultural work quality parameters. The various intercultural machines like Rineri offset tiller, Saktiman offset tiller and Side shift tiller selected for this study and finally, orchard tillers were analysed for intercultural work quality for their suitability in Pant Tarai region of Uttarakhand. The work quality assessments concluded that side shift tiller was supposed to be best among all other type of intercultural machines because of less fuel consumption 3.5 l/h, less mean weight diameter 42 mm, higher actual field capacity 0.47 and high field performance index 86 %. Therefore, side shift tiller can be recommended to farmers and found to be suitable for intercultural operation in Pant Tarai region.