Journal of Nuts
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Winter 2011

The stochastic frontier production model is one of the most used ways to estimate efficiency and productivity. The purpose of this paper was to decompose the sources of total factor productivity (TFP) growth into technological progress, changes in technical efficiency and changes in economies of scale. In this paper, we also used Divisia index in order to estimate production function. A random sample of 298 farmers selected from Rafsanjan Township for three years, 2004, 2005 and 2006, which was a larger data set with a wider spatial coverage than used in previous studies of pistachio production. Sampling approach of this paper was "Two stage cluster sampling" and the data for outputs and inputs were obtained during 2007 and the spring and summer of 2008, by filling questionnaires and interviewing 298 farmers in the region. Results showed that technological progress includes the majority of TFP growth, but that differences in efficiency change explained cross-region differences in TFP growth. Efficiency in the 19 contiguous regions averaged 52.52% from 2005 to 2007. Experience and firm size were both positively associated with efficiency, whereas age, education and farm size, were negatively associated with efficiency.

The traditional method in Iran of cracking walnut manually, using harmer or knife cutter is labor- intensive, slow and tedious; besides, most mechanical crackers do not give satisfactory results in terms of kernel extraction quality. A prototype machine was developed to crack walnut. A walnut cracker was designed, constructed and tested to evaluate its performance. The cracker, which consists of a hopper fitted with a flow rate control device, a cracking unit, a sorter and power system, operates on the principle of attrition using crushing force from a cylinder and helix. The percentage of whole kernels produced was 66.66 %. The capacity of the machine was estimated to be about 25.2 kg/hr. A device of this nature can be manufactured for small entrepreneurs and industrial-level applications in the developing countries where bulk of the world walnut is produced. This paper describes the design and performance evaluation of the cracker as well as the implication of the results obtained.

Different experiments have showed that interruption in pollination is an important problem in most almond orchards. As most of the almond cultivars are self- incompatible, pollination cannot be performed desirably and as a result a failure in almond yield is occurred. Thus under this circumstance, determination of selective cultivars compatibility and choosing appropriate pollinizers are so important in almond orchards establishment. Thus, in order to select of best pollinizer and also determining of pollination time influence on fruit set of Ferragnes, an experiments in Horticulture Research Station of karaj, based on random complete block design with three replication on trees 8 years old. Four cultivars of Tuono, Fragiulio, Sahand and Shekofeh selected as the pollinizer treatments for pollinating the Ferragnes cultivar. In this test, used pollens, had high percent of germination (%85), before crossing. After pollination, in order to study of how formation of fruit, pollinated flowers were accounted in several times and did statistical accounts on them. Significant differences were also observed between pollination treatments for the mean values of the percentage of fruit set, with the higher value corresponding to fruit set from open-pollination 38.79% and it's lowest with Tuono pollenizer with average of percent fruit set was 22.60%. In final fruit set, not only there was more different between pollenizers for fruit setting in Ferragnes almond in each stage of pollination after flower opening, but also it was observed more different between pollenizers for fruit setting in various stages of pollination after a range of flower opening times.

Frost damage to the flowers and early developing fruits is one of the most limiting factors in almond cultivation regions of the world. This study was undertaken to understand almond response to frost damage concerning ion leakage in order to develop a criterion for the selection of frost-resistant cultivars in field experiments. In this work, 60 almond cultivars and genotypes on the basis frosts damage and ion leakage was studied. Results showed that the severity of frost damage was influenced by genotype. Genotypes that had the more resistant to frost damage had less ion leakage. It is suggested that ion leakage may serve as indicator of frost tolerance in almond breeding material.

Iran stands first both in production and export of Pistachio in the world and earns sizable income from its export. Despite such a position in global market, Farmers and traders in the country are suffering from a wide kind of bottlenecks. This study aimed to define the critical constraints and to suggest the best way to reduce them. Necessary data were collected through personal interview of randomly selected sample of farmers and exporters/ processors. One hundred farmers and ten processor/ exporters interviewed in Kerman province in the crop year 2007-08.The Garret ranking technique adopted to identify the constraints. Results indicated that; Inadequate irrigation, Unsuitable domestic market structure accompanied with low received prices and price fluctuations and Lack of appropriate chemical fertilizers were the major problems from the farmers point of view, while Aflatoxin contamination standards, Changing government policies toward export and Irregular supply of produce to the market during the year were the sole hinderances from the traders/exports point of view.

Iran is the biggest pistachio producer and exporter in the world. Surely, one of the most problems of pistachio industry is Aflatoxin contamination in recent years that treated exportation this valuable crop. This research was done in order to evaluate Aflatoxin contamination in indehiscence and mechanical splitting pistachios of Ouhadi cultivars in Rafsanjan region. Treatments of this research were indehiscence pistachios with soft irregular cracked hull (in proper harvest time), indehiscence pistachios with dry irregular cracked hull (in delay harvest time), indehiscence pistachios with soft irregular cracked hull delaying in dehulling after 72 hours, indehiscence pistachios with unstained shell, indehiscence pistachios with stained shell, mechanical splitting pistachios and indehiscence pistachios with intact hull (control). This research was done in 4 replications in complete randomized block design (CRBD). Results showed that mechanical splitting pistachio had the greatest Aflatoxin contamination; these pistachios had significant differences with other evaluated pistachios from the Aflatoxin point of view. The second rank of Aflatoxin contamination belonged to indehiscence pistachios with stained shell that had significant differences with other categories. Amount of Aflatoxin in indehiscence pistachios with dry irregular cracked hull (delay in harvest time) was negligible. Indehiscence pistachios with soft irregular cracked hull (in proper harvest time), indehiscence pistachios with soft irregular cracked hull (delaying in dehulling) and indehiscence pistachios with intact hull (control) had not detectable Aaflatoxin contamination.

Low- calorie pistachio butter is a novel food product which in its original form contains pistachio, sweetener and flavor improver. The viscous flow properties of low- calorie pistachio butter, as a novel food product, was studied by response surface methodology (RSM). The flow behavior of 42 formulas was assessed using Power law, Casson, Bingham and Herschel- Bulkley models. The Herschel-Bulkley model gave negative values for yield stress which has no physical meaning. The effects of three fat replacers (Balangu seed gum, Reihan seed gum, xanthan) and two sweeteners (isomalt and sucrose) on the rheological parameters of these models were investigated. All the samples showed a shear thinning behavior. The magnitudes of consistency coefficients and flow behavior indices in Power law model, the Casson yield stress and Casson viscosity and the Bingham yield stress and Bingham viscosity were 32.743- 388.645 Pa.sn and 0.106- 0.515, 42.306- 282.319 Pa and 0.477- 1.440 Pa.s and 94.599- 357.058 Pa and 1.042- 3.736 Pa.s, respectively.