Original Article
ehsan Abdolalizadeh; hossein bakhoda; Morteza Almassi
Abstract
Reduced rainfall, the crisis of Lake Urmia, and the shortage of available agricultural water have intensified environmental concerns among farmers. These crises have adversely affected agriculture to the extent that the country has experienced a decline in food security at the production level. This ...
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Reduced rainfall, the crisis of Lake Urmia, and the shortage of available agricultural water have intensified environmental concerns among farmers. These crises have adversely affected agriculture to the extent that the country has experienced a decline in food security at the production level. This issue can be attributed to the utilization of Lake Urmia's water for selecting new crops. Therefore, it is essential to revisit the decision-making criteria of farmers in West Azerbaijan Province for crop selection. By collecting and coding data from semi-structured interviews with farmers from various regions of the province, five main criteria were identified: economic, environmental, technological, social, and political, along with their associated sub-criteria. Variance analysis of the data, conducted using Python programming, revealed that literacy level and age significantly influenced the prioritization of criteria at a one-percent significance level, while geographical location did not have a significant effect. The weighting of criteria and sub-criteria was performed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The results showed that "environment" and "economy," with weights of 0.398820 and 0.325670 respectively, were the most important criteria for farmers. Within the environmental criterion, "water requirements" was identified as the most important sub-criterion, while "land degradation and soil weakening" received the least importance. This could be due to water scarcity in recent years and the challenges farmers face in ensuring water availability. Considering the importance of profitability as a short-term necessity for farmers, there is a need to focus on long-term priorities that encompass ecosystem sustainability goals.
Original Article
Gholamreza Chegini; Sasan Aliniaeifard; Mohammadreza Khoramtabrizi
Abstract
Using controlled environments with stratified cultivation with artificial light is one of the alternative ways to produce agricultural products in controlled space. With the spectrum of different lights caused by LED lamps, the conditions of plant photosynthesis can be provided in the highest form along ...
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Using controlled environments with stratified cultivation with artificial light is one of the alternative ways to produce agricultural products in controlled space. With the spectrum of different lights caused by LED lamps, the conditions of plant photosynthesis can be provided in the highest form along with other important parameters of plant growth in these greenhouses. In this research, the growth of lettuce was evaluated in different spectrums of artificial light using a stratified culture medium. In this greenhouse, three different combinations of light spectra are produced in this greenhouse: (100% red), (75% red + 25% blue), (50% red + 25% blue + 25% far red), with three exposure treatments of 12, 18 and 24 hours with light intensity of 250 μmol/m2/s was evaluated for lettuce cultivation with hydroponic feeding system. 216 lettuce plants were fully grown in this greenhouse and the red light spectrum had the highest performance. By carefully examining the efficiency of the photosynthesis device and the mutual effects of light quality and exposure time on the performance of Pertavosi variety lettuce, it was concluded that the precise combination of light spectrum and appropriate photoperiod increases the yield of lettuce. The far-red light spectrum played the greatest role in plant height. The highest fresh and dry weight of shoot was obtained in 24-hour exposure and in red and blue-red treatments. The fresh and dry weight of the root was recorded with the lowest amount of exposure of 12 hours. َAlso permanent exposure increases the vegetative growth of plants.
Original Article
Omid Reza Roustapour; Aَbolfazl Golshan Tafti; Hamid Reza Gazor; Fatemeh Sefidkon
Abstract
Production of dried Rosa flower bud with high quality of color and essential oil is concerned for related industries. Six methods of drying process including shade drying (control), indirect solar dryer, cabinet dryer in three levels of inlet air temperature (40, 50, 60oC) and freeze dryer were compared ...
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Production of dried Rosa flower bud with high quality of color and essential oil is concerned for related industries. Six methods of drying process including shade drying (control), indirect solar dryer, cabinet dryer in three levels of inlet air temperature (40, 50, 60oC) and freeze dryer were compared in order to dry flower bud. Kinetics of drying, color indices and total phenol were determined in three replications and compared for the sixth drying methods. Results showed that the highest intensity of drying occurred in cabinet dryer (60oC) and the lowest intensity of drying occurred in freeze dryer. The phenol reduction in buds dried in cabinet dryer (40, 50, 60oC), solar dryer and freeze dryer were 12, 17, 21.7, 26 percent respectively, compared to control (shade drying). The maximum color index (L*) in the inner and outer petals of dried buds happened in freeze dryer. This index in the inner and outer petals of dried buds dried in cabinet dryer (50oC) was 5 and 1.93 percents less than the index in the petals dried in cabinet dryer (60oC). The prolongation of drying process caused decrease in the brightness of petals. The maximum value of a* index (25.61) was observed in the outer petal buds which dried in cabinet dryer (50oC). No significant difference was shown in the b* index in the outer and inner petal bud, dried in cabinet dryer (50oC), solar dryers and in shade.
Original Article
Shokoofeh Sarikhani Khorami; Sadegh Afzalinia; Seyed Abdolreza Kazemeini
Abstract
Implementing conservation tillage is important system to achieve sustainable agriculture by conserving water and soil resources. Experimental treatments were three-tillage practices—conventional tillage (CT), Minimum tillage (MT), and no tillage (NT)—and irrigation cutting at pollination, ...
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Implementing conservation tillage is important system to achieve sustainable agriculture by conserving water and soil resources. Experimental treatments were three-tillage practices—conventional tillage (CT), Minimum tillage (MT), and no tillage (NT)—and irrigation cutting at pollination, milky and seed dough developmental stages along with full irrigation were randomized in the main and subplots, respectively in a randomized complete block design arranged as split-plot with three replications. Wheat, Sirvan cultivar was sown in permanent plots during 2017–2020. Several agronomic traits including day to physical maturity, harvest index, thousand grain weight, and grain yield were measured during growing season and after harvest. The physical and chemical soil properties including soil bulk density, water infiltration, organic carbon, and nitrate content were also measured. Results showed that soil bulk density and water infiltiration were affected by tillage systems. MT system had lower soil bulk density at both soil layer (0-10 and 10-20 cm), and higher water infiltration (1.15 mm/min). Wheat grain yield under MT and NT systems was 14 and 20.4 % lower than CT system. Deep plowing and removing crop residue in CT system led to decrease soil organic matter by 6.2 and 13 % as compared to MT and NT, respectively. According to days to physiological maturity, and wheat grain yield was not significantly different between irrigation cutting of dough stage and full irrigation treatments, irrigation can be stopped at the end of grain filling without significant reduction in wheat growth duration, and grain yield under water limitation.
Original Article
vahid kahrizi; Ebrahim Ahmadi; Ali Reza Shoshtari
Abstract
The design and development of agricultural machinery is directly related to the biological properties of agricultural products. Without knowledge of the dynamic properties, engineers and designers must use experimental methods to design agricultural machinery and equipment, which is inefficient ...
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The design and development of agricultural machinery is directly related to the biological properties of agricultural products. Without knowledge of the dynamic properties, engineers and designers must use experimental methods to design agricultural machinery and equipment, which is inefficient in terms of time and cost. The aim of this study is to identify the natural frequencies in two small and large groups of Thomson oranges using finite element modal analysis and harmonic response function using ANSYS software. To obtain the data required for simulation, an impact test was performed with a pendulum device. A three-dimensional geometric model of the orange was drawn in ANSYS software, and the physical and mechanical properties of the peel and flesh of the orange were determined separately. In order to validate the natural frequencies obtained from the modal analysis using harmonic response analysis and triaxial accelerometer data by determining the frequency range and also entering the accelerometer data values into ANSYS software, a natural frequency versus acceleration diagram was drawn. The difference between experimental frequencies and modal analysis for both groups is highly reliable, so that the coefficient of determination (R2) resulting from the comparison of experimental frequencies and modal analysis for large and small group oranges is 0.9559 and 0.9682, respectively. Therefore, the finite element model and experimental method used in this study can be used as a cost-effective and reliable method for designing orange fruit harvesting machines and optimizing post-harvest and transportation mechanisms.
