نشریه تحقیقات سامانه ها و مکانیزاسیون کشاورزی
پیاپی 84 (زمستان 1401)

Tomato moth is one of the most destructive pests in tomato farms. One of the methods to control this pest is the chemical spraying using different sprayers. In recent years, spraying drones have also been used for chemical control of pests, but the performance of these sprayers in tomato farms has not been evaluated yet. In this research, three different spraying methods were evaluated in controling the Tota pest in a tomato farm in Safadasht Karaj region in a completely randomized design (RCD) and in three replications. Experimental treatments included:  1- spraying with the tractor lancer sprayer, 2- spraying with a back knapsack sprayer (atomizer), and 3- spraying with Sprayer drone. The results obtained with Duncan's multi-range test at the level of significant of 1% showed that the consumption of solution of pesticide was 373.3, 207.1 and 8.4 liters per hectare, the rate of drift was 46.5%, 32.6% and 9.9%, the effective capacity of farm was 0.5, 0.4 and 4.9 hectares per hour, and the farm efficiency was 44.6%, 35.7% and 68.0% in tractor lancer sprayer, knapsck sprayer and sprayer drone, respectively. In terms of effectiveness, based on the number of tunnels made by larvae on fruits and the number of live larvae found after 3, 7 and 10 days of spraying, it has been found that the tractor lancer sprayer had the highest effectiveness with 82% in 10 days after spraying. The spraying quality coefficient in knapsack sprayer and drone sprayer was 2.92 and 1.22, respectively. From the economical point of view, the benefit - cost ratio was 1.93, 1.88 and 4.80, in tractor lancer sprayer, knapsck sprayer and sprayer drone respectively. which shows that the sprayer drone works better than the other two sprayers. Based on technical and economical results, our recommendation is to use sprayer drone to control the Tota pest, despite its lower effectiveness.

In this study, two methods of opening the pistachio shell (ice and mechanical methods) and natural opening at two storage temperatures (10°C and 25°C) and six months storage for Ouhadi pistachio cultivar, were compared in terms of peroxide index, acid number and sensory proprties. The results showed that the rate of changes in peroxide index during six months of storage varied from 2 to 3 mEq / kg, the changes in acid rate ranged from 0.51 to 0.85 mg / g and the moisture content of the samples varied from 4.36 % to 6.23 %. The highest amount of acidity (0.85 mg / g) and peroxide index (3.1 mEq /kg) in open shell samples was observed in the ice openenig method and storage tempreture of 25° C. The lowest acidity (0.51 mg / g) and peroxide index (2 mEq / kg) was observed in mechanical method opening and storage tempreture of 10 ° C. However, with the increasing of the storage time, peroxide index and acidity were incresed but the peroxide index at the end of storage in all treatments was found lower than the recommended safe limit (5 mEq /kg). The highest percentage (92%) and rate of shell opening (6.4 mm) were obtained by mechanical method. The percentage of pistachios that were crushed by the mechanical method was 2% and 3% higher than that in other two methods, respectively. According to the panel judges, the mechanical method was more desirable than the other two treatments with 86.5% of total acceptability. According to the significant effect of the appearance and chemical properties on the acceptability of the pistachio, it was concluded that the mechanical shell opening method was more acceptable method for artificially shell opening than the other methods.

Every year, more than 25,000 hectares of land in Hamedan province are allocated for cultivation of potato. Generally, tillage, planting, crop management and harvesting of this product are done by machines, and usually post-harvesting operations such as sorting are also mechanized and done by sorting machine. Due to the sensitivity of potato tubers to mechanical damages during harvesting time, a large number of potato tubers could be damaged, leading to more spoilage and increase in the percentage of damage during storage. Based on the results and recommendations mentioned in papers regarding the rate of mechanical damages to potatoes, a systematic review and meta-analysis method were used. Articles published in scientific journals, final reports of research projects, and related articles presented in congresses, as well as dissertations were reviewed using standard keywords. Then, we used those papers which met the criteria for entering the research. The results showed that the harvesting potato tubers in wet soil, compared to harvesting potato tubers in dry soil, could reduce mechanical damages up to 51.71 percent. If the plants are topped before harvesting, the damages can be reduced 1.62 percent. The results also showed that the Agria variety, comparing to Jilli, Sante, and Fontane varieties, is more sensitive to mechanical damages, so it should be harvested with more caution carefully.

Nowadays, due to the evaluation and high costs of maintenance and repair of sugarcane harvesting machines, it is necessary to monitor sugarcane harvester hydraulic oil using a faster and non-destructive method to determine contamination and TAN index. In this research, the ability of the visible spectroscopy method to non-destructively measure and predict the water content and TAN index in harvester Austoft 7000 hydraulic oil samples at different operating hours was investigated. For this purpose, spectra were taken from the samples in the spectral region of 400-780 nm. Multivariate Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression models were developed based on reference measurements and pre-processed spectra information by combining different pre-processing (Moving Average, Savitzky-Golay, Standard normal variate and First Derivative) methods to measure and to predict the water content and TAN index of hydraulic oil.  The results showed that the visible spectroscopy method could be used for quick and non-destructive measurement of water content and TAN index at different operating hours of harvester Austoft 7000 hydraulic oil. The best prediction results of water content in hydraulic oil were obtained with PLS model based on moving average (MA) preprocessing method (rcv=0.96, RMSECV=1.86, rp=0.89 and RMSEP=3.18), which had excellent accuracy (SDR=3.12). On the other hand, the PLS model based on the combination of moving average preprocessing and standard normal distribution (MA+SNV) was able to predict the TAN index with excellent accuracy (SDR=3.1) (rcv=0.94, RMSECV=0.007, rp=0.89 and RMSEP= 0.010). Therefore, the application of visible spectroscopy technology in agriculture and industries can be recommended for rapid monitoring of hydraulic oil quality and with the aim of controlling pollution.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of temperature (55, 65, and 75 ℃) and phase change materials (PCM) on four measurable factors: total energy consumption, specific energy consumption (SEC), drying time, and consistency of drying. Six treatments were achieved by combining independent variables. The pre-treatment for drying involved using an infrared power of 250 W for 10 minutes, followed by a microwave power of 400 W for 4 minutes. Enzyme removal was done in a layered fixed bed dryer. The research utilized a randomized complete block design with four replications for the variables of total energy consumption, specific energy consumption, and drying time. The variable of uniformity was repeated six times as part of the factorial experiment. The data analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program. Copeland's method integration approach was utilized to determine the optimal treatment. According to the findings, the treatments had an insignificant impact on total energy consumption. The most energy-efficient treatment was observed to be at 75°C without PCM, with a recorded value of 1.02 kWh/kg. The best treatment in terms of total energy consumption, specific energy consumption, and drying time was found to be at a temperature of 75℃ without the use of PCM.