Energy use and efficiency in selected rice-based cropping systems of the Middle-Indo Gangetic Plains in India

The use and cost of energy in agriculture have increased, making it necessary to make current agricultural practices more energy efficient. To do this, the prevailing systems must be thoroughly analysed. Studies have focused on assessing the energy performance of individual crops, but notably few studies have investigated different cropping systems. This paper aims to assess the energy performance of the two most used cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic plains in India, namely Paddy rice–Wheat (PW) and Paddy rice–Potato (PP). The PW system was more energy efficient with Energy Use Efficiency (EUE) of 6.87 ± 1.7 compared to 3.61 ± 0.58 for the PP system. Higher Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) (3.94 ± 1.30) and Specific Energy(4.39 ± 2.06) (SE) were reported for the PW system, compared to 2.62 ± 0.47 and 2.15 ± 0.35 respectively for the PP system. Fertiliser use accounted for the highest input energy consumption in both systems, accounting for 58% and 51% of the energy consumed in PW and PP systems respectively, followed by fuel, seeds and electricity. The net income from the PP system (2295.7 ± 457.4 USD.ha−1.yr−1) was higher than that from the PW system (1555.4 ± 856.6 USD.ha1.yr−1). The higher return of PP system was attributed to higher yield and better market price for the potato produce. There were no significant differences reported for various energy and economic parameters within different farm sizes in the PP system. However, for PW system, small farms were energy efficient while larger farms were economically efficient

Towards Sustainable Green Production: Exploring Automated Grading for Oil Palm Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) Using Machine Vision and Spectral Analysis

Over the last decade, Indonesian palm oil industry has become a leading producer of the world, and been able to generatenotable foreign export reserves. In spite of this, problems still persist in this industry, including low productivity due to mishandling of raw material in post-harvest operations. One of the prime causes of this is manual grading/sorting of fresh fruit bunches, which is prone to error and misjudgement, as well as subjectivity. High demand of oil palm establishes its high price in world market, which drives the industry to expand its plantation area to increase production. Ultimately, it compromise forests and agricultural land, resulting stagnation or decline in several food products. Alternatively, before expanding plantation extent, oil extraction productivity of existing plantation can be improved by carefully selecting appropriate FFBs for post-harvest processing through introduction of automation. The use of machine vision and spectral analysis has shown to assist productivity of agricultural processing industry. This study employs automation technology for FFB grading in oil palm mills, resulting in improved raw material quality, thereby increasing the oil extraction productivity, and simultaneously contributing to partly release the pressure of deforestation by maintaining green agricultural areas

Development Protected Cultivation in Horticulture Product: Feasibility Analysis in West Java Province

The development of agricultural system cannot be solved only through technological changes  but also necessary to change the strategy of agricultural system as a whole. The aim of this research was to assess the factor of  strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis that can be used to identify relevant economic, ecological and societal (EES) issues for the assessment of sustainable development in protected cultivation in West Java Province. The potential of protected cultivation was higher energy productivity than open field production, indirect energy and renewable energy were the main source of energy. The ratio of output to input energy was higher in greenhouse production (0.85, 0.45 and 0.49) than open field (OF) vegetable production (0.52, 0.175 and 0.186) for tomato, and chili. Financial analysis revealed higher mean net returns from greenhouse vegetable production as 7043 $/ha (922-15,299$/ha) when compared to 563 $/ha (43-1,172$/ha) from open field vegetable production. Among the greenhouse vegetables, tomato cultivation was the most profitable in terms of energy efficiency and financial productivity. Generally, reducing pest and disease in vegetable production is a main expectation from newly adopted technology. Limited land holding size of agricultural fields, high capital investment and lack of infrastructure were the constraints in improving their production through new technology. Low price of the product and lack of adequate market were also the other problems with vegetable production. Inadequate government support in term of training and financial support to farmers in certain areas make it difficult in protected cultivation technology. Capacity building of farmers, research and development on protected cultivation, manufacturing and financial sector support, supporting an efficient and adequate marketing system of protected cultivation product, and development of an agribusiness area especially for export commodities are the strategies suggested to develop and improve technology in cultivation toward sustainable agriculture

The Effect of Pod Storage on Chemical and Microbiological Characteristics of Organic and Non–organic Balinese Cacao Pulps

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Organic and Non-Organic Balinese Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) storage duration on chemical and microbiological levels in order to know the exact storage period to get a good substrate for fermentation. This research is the first step in preparing Specialty Cocoa. Chemical parameters such as reducing sugar, total sugar, protein content, moisture content, and pH along the pod storage were determined in this study. The ideal substrate condition for cocoa fermentation was suggested on the 4th d, in which the pulp contained total sugar of 12.5 % and moisture content of 86 %. Meanwhile, the statistical analysis was done to test whether the duration of pod storage has a significant effect on the presence of bacteria related to fermentation. The test showed that the duration of pod storage did not have a significant effect on either lactic acid bacteria or acetic acid bacteria content (P value > 0.05). Nevertheless, the research found that lactic acid bacteria content was up to 1.9 log CFU mL–1 and acetic acid bacteria content was up to 2.72 log CFU mL–1 during the 5 d of pod storage

Effect of Screen Porosity on Selected Microclimatic Parameters of Naturally Ventilated Tropical Greenhouses

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 7 (2005): Effect of Screen Porosity on Selected Microclimatic Parameters of Naturally Ventilated Tropical Greenhouses by Peeyush Soni , Vilas M. Salokhe, H. J. Tanta

Anthropometry and Agricultural Hand Tool Design for Javanese and Madurese Farmers in East Java, Indonesia

AbstractThis study revealed that anthropometric measurements of Javanese farmers are mostly higher than that of Madurese farmers. The minimum, mean, and the maximum stature values are 146.3, 159.0, 174.6cm for Javanese male farmers and 143.0, 156.3, 173.8cm for Madurese male farmers, respectively. The minimum, mean, and the maximum stature of Javanese and Madures female farmers are 137.7, 152.5, 167.3cm and 137.4, 150.1, 167.7cm, respectively. The mean of Relative Sitting Height (RSH) of Javanese and Madurese, male is 0.49, 0.49, respectively, whereas the mean of RSH of Javanese and Madurese female is 0.52, 0.51, respectively. The mean values of body surface area (BSA) of Javanese, Madurese, male are 1.57, 1.54, and for female are 1.47, 1.44 m2, respectively. Whereas, the body mass index (BMI) is 22.4, 22.88 for male and 22.38, 22.75kg/m2 for female Javanese and Madurese farmers, respectively. By using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation, the first rank preference of farmers is safety for hand tools, and then followed by good fit in hand, easy to use, reliable and to no inflamed skin in the last. For agricultural hand tools, farmers prefer utilitarian performance than hedonic performance