Agricultural technology

Agricultural technology colaterale (4)
Agricultural technology generale (291)
Agricultural technology tendinte (22)

Synopsis: Agricultural technology:

However, urbanisation, extensive irrigation and variations in rainfall patterns due to global climate change have led to serious water scarcity in many areas of the world.

and the human contribution can arise from activities such as mining, large construction works or water extraction for irrigation.

#BIOBROOM#Breeding flies to fight broomrape parasite weeds Can flies be bred as gardeners weeding undesirable pests from the crop?

herbicide-free control of parasitic weeds in all vulnerable crops. Tóth is assistant professor at the Slovak University of Agriculture in the city of Nitra where he teaches in agricultural entomology,

But now research is offering an intelligent irrigation system to monitor how much water is being held in the soil, automatically spraying when needed.

The waste is mainly down to inefficient irrigation systems. But better managed, it could mean more water resources for other basics like drinking, hygiene and cooking.

low power consumption wireless sensor network, sending the data to an intelligent web service software application for analysis. Once the numbers are crunched-taking due account for weather and other local parameters-it automatically activates the selected irrigation nodes in the areas

In The british trials, on Maris Piper potatoes, Waterbee used 56%less water than the local irrigation system in use.

through insecticide-treated bednets and indoor sprays, is one of the best ways to win the battle.

But mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides potentially reversing the gains made so far. In response, the EU-funded MCD project has developed three new weapons against them a special coating that transfers insecticides effectively to mosquitoes landing on it,

insecticide-laced ave tubesto direct them to the coating, and a bednet patch. The project began work in December 2012

and is now negotiating with a manufacturer in Tanzania to mass produce these low-cost devices

This has been repurposed for mosquito control using the netting coated with insecticide at one end of tubes that are placed in the walls of the households.

and make contact with the insecticide. Eave tubes are potentially more effective than indoor spraying,

and land on a wall covered with insecticide, leaving them time to infect a person. ith these tubes,

insecticide is applied only to a small area the netting, he explains. his means a major reduction in insecticide use, by about 95,

%which is better for people health and for the environment. The team initially tested the eave tubes in 2013 in large outdoor cages in Tanzania.

'where the plastic with the insecticide-coated netting replaces a brick removed from a wall.

The researchers have created a piece of insecticide-treated netting, a patch that, placed on this area of the bednet, would kill 62%of the mosquitoes in the room within a night,

about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, can turn an untreated net into one that starts killing mosquitoes without the need to coat the whole bednet with insecticide.

people are less likely to come into contact with insecticide. This opens the way for more powerful alternatives to be used insecticides that remain effective against mosquitoes.

The project partners made up of three small and medium-sized European companies, a health institute in Tanzania and a US university plan to commercialise the eave tubes

Everyday products such as coffee, corn flakes, nuts or fertilizer all depend on this field of knowledge known as multi-physics.

and scan for infection for exampleâ##synthetic gene circuits are especially useful for detecting things like contaminants pesticides heavy metals and counterfeit drugs.##

is contaminated the soil with pesticides? The gene circuits can answer these questions##says Pardee. But there s a problem.

#Iron-rich biochar filters arsenic from water Biochar may be a fast inexpensive and easy way to remove arsenicâ one of the world s most common pollutantsâ from water.

Because biochar can be produced from various waste biomass including agricultural residues this new technology provides an alternative

The resulting biochar which has the consistency of ground coffee was treated then with a saltwater bath to impregnate it with iron.

Plain biochar does not have the same effect Gao says. Current methods to remove arsenic include precipitation adding lime

Water treatment plants could use large biochar filters to extract the arsenic. Homeowners could use a small filter attached to their tap.

#Proteins could detox pesticides and sarin gas Scientists are developing a way to prevent brain damage among people exposed to poisonous chemicals found in pesticides and chemical weapons.

The work, published in the journal Chembiochem, centers on proteins called phosphotriesterases, which degrade chemicals in a class known as organophosphates.

Organophosphates are found in everything from industrial pesticides to the sarin gas used in chemical warfare. They permanently bond to neurotransmitters in the brain,

whether through exposure to pesticide or an intentional chemical warfare attack, explains Jin Kim Montclare, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the New york University School of engineering. ee known that phosphotriesterases had the power to detoxify these nerve agents,

or pesticide exposure and would likely be developed first for military use, these proteins also could be critical

#Iron-rich biochar filters arsenic from water Biochar may be a fast inexpensive and easy way to remove arsenic one of the world s most common pollutants from water.

and has been shown to cause cancer. ecause biochar can be produced from various waste biomass including agricultural residues this new technology provides an alternative and cost-effective way for arsenic removalsays Bin Gao associate professor of agricultural

The resulting biochar which has the consistency of ground coffee was treated then with a saltwater bath to impregnate it with iron.

Plain biochar does not have the same effect Gao says. Current methods to remove arsenic include precipitation adding lime

Water treatment plants could use large biochar filters to extract the arsenic. Homeowners could use a small filter attached to their tap.

#Biochar changes how water flows through soil Rice university rightoriginal Studyposted by Jade Boyd-Rice on September 25 2014new research could help settle the debate about one of biochar s biggest benefits#its seemingly contradictory ability

or biochar to soil to both boost crop yields and counter global climate change the study offers the first detailed explanation for this mystery. nderstanding the controls on water movement through biochar-amended soils is critical

to explaining other frequently reported benefits of biochar such as nutrient retention carbon sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emissionssays lead author Rebecca Barnes an assistant professor of environmental science at Colorado College who began the research as a postdoctoral research associate at Rice university.

Biochar can be produced from waste wood manure or leaves and its popularity among DIY types

and gardening buffs took off after archaeological studies found that biochar added to soils in the Amazon more than 1000 years ago was still improving the water-and nutrient-holding abilities of those poor soils today.

Studies over the past decade have found that biochar soil amendments can either increase or decrease the amount of water that soil holds

In the new study biogeochemists at Rice conducted side-by-side tests of the water-holding ability of three soil types#sand clay and topsoil#both with and without added biochar.

The biochar used in the experiments derived from Texas mesquite wood was prepared to exacting standards in the lab of Rice geochemist Caroline Masiello a study coauthor to ensure comparable results across soil types. ot all biochar

is created equal and one of the important lessons of recent studies is that the hydrological properties of biochar can vary widely depending on the temperature

and time in the reactormasiello says. t s important to use the right recipe for the biochar that you want to make

When biochar is added to clay it makes the soil less dense and it increases hydraulic conductivity

which makes intuitive sense. dding biochar to sand also makes it less dense so one would expect that soil to drain more quickly as well;

but in fact researchers have found that biochar-amended sand holds water longer. tudy coauthor Brandon Dugan assistant professor of Earth science at Rice says e hypothesize that this is likely due to the presence of two flow paths

for water through soil-biochar mixtures. One pathway is between the soil and biochar grains

and a second pathway is water moving through the biochar itself. arnes says the highly porous structure of biochar makes each of these pathways more tortuous than the pathway that water would take through sand alone.

Moreover the surface chemistry of biochar#both on external surfaces and inside pores#is likely to promote absorption

and further slow the movement of water. y adding our results to the growing body of literature we show that

when biochar is added to sand or other coarse-grained soils there is a simultaneous decrease in bulk density

It also extracts nutrients that can be reused as fertilizer. Currently the system produces about 50 gallons of water from 100 gallons of manure.

says Steve Safferman, an associate professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at Michigan State university, who is involved with the project. bout 90 percent of the manure is water

and can be reused as fertilizer . or example, wee able to capture a large percentage of the ammonia that would otherwise be lost in the atmosphere,

For example sophisticated vintners use precise irrigation to put regulated water stress on grapevines to create just the right grape composition for a premium cabernet or a chardonnay wine.

and coastal waters where fertilizer runoff and other organic waste can deplete oxygen levels and suffocate marine life.

#Use microbes, not pesticides, to boost crop yields Iowa State university Original Studyposted by Fred Love-Iowa State on September 9 2013.

The recommendations published in the Academy s Colloquium Reports set a goal of increasing yields by 20 percent over the next 20 years by enhancing the use of microbes while reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers by 20 percent.

and lessen the need for costly fertilizers and pesticides says team member Gwyn Beattie a professor of plant pathology and bacteriology at Iowa State university.

Reaching those goals would drastically cut input costs for farmers and produce a range of environmental benefits.

and you get a prototype device known as the Farm Level Optimal Water management Assistant for Irrigation under Deficit or FLOW-AID.

so they don run their irrigation systems unnecessarily. FLOW-AID was developed by a group of 11 European companies and research institutes

when levels drop to the point that irrigation is required, at which point they can start their irrigation system remotely via their phone.

As soon as they see that sufficient moisture levels have been restored they can use their phone to turn the irrigation back off.

The system also incorporates software that takes location-specific factors such as plant properties, soil characteristics and water rationing limits into account.

it can additionally advise users on how often fertilizer should be applied this stops farmers from wasting money by over-fertilizing,

and minimizes the amount of excess fertilizer entering the environment. It estimated that the system could lead to a reduction in fertilizer use of up to 30 percent

#Pi-powered Kinograph makes preserving film heritage affordable As the Raspberry Pi Foundation (RPF) has worked to make computing more accessible,

which is exposed to different types of pollution from agrochemical residues to metals from leather tanneries.

#Explosives and Pesticides Can Be detected by Using Bee venom Scientists from MIT have discovered that by coating carbon nanotubes in bee venom,

as well as at least two different types of pesticides. This means that bees and their stingers could become important to making better environmental sensors.

But the sensors aren just useful for explosives the researchers found that the coated nanotubes can also detect two pesticides that contain nitro-aromatic compounds.

especially after we recently saw that scorpion venom can be used to create pesticides. Strano has filed for a patent on the sensor,

Submissions ranged from self-filling water bottles, to extreme dehumidification, to a large-scale water sources for greenhouse drip irrigation, to emergency water for lifeboats, to self-filling canteens for the military,

presented a simple elegant design for the emerging aquaponics and hydroponics industries. These small-scale agricultural operations require high humidity environments,

Fogquest is a Canadian nonprofit that uses modern fog collectors to bring drinking water and water for irrigation and reforestation to rural communities in developing countries around the world.

the Airdrop irrigation concept was developed for poor agricultural conditions in periods of severe drought. Extensive research into droughts revealed an increase in soil evaporation

Airdrop Irrigation works to provide a solution to this problem. Moisture is harvested out of the air to irrigate crops through an efficient system that produces large amounts of condensation A turbine intake drives air underground through a network of piping that rapidly cools the air to the temperature of the soil where it reaches 100%humidity

and pumped to the roots of crops via sub surface drip irrigation hosing. Developed by Joe Ellsworth in Seattle,

The crisis is attributed generally to a mixture of disease, parasites, and pesticides. Other scientists are pursuing a different tack:

This includes a greater emphasis on urban agriculture such as vertical farming which, properly designed and planned, could provide the sustainable means to improve food supply we need.

Vertical farming is promising because it requires no soil, and can save space and energy and improve crop yield.

hydroponics or aeroponics, and environmental controls that regulate temperature, humidity and light to produce vegetables, fruits and other crops year-round.

Singapore has taken local urban farming to a high level Skygreens has built the world s first commercial vertical farm in large three-story greenhouses, providing a sustainable source of fresh vegetables.

The cost of growing Vertical farming s biggest limitation is energy consumption. Considerable energy is required to power a closed, indoor greenhouse facility s artificial lighting, heating and cooling

and hydroponic or aeroponic growing systems. The amount of energy required per unit of product is an important factor for ensuring

But the single technology that will be key to making vertical farms possible is lighting. New LED light technology is the key that makes it possible to build vertically integrated farms.

#Prescriptive planting technology is set to disrupt the farming industry The word innovation usually brings to mind small startups doing clever things with cutting-edge technology.

It could be the biggest change to agriculture in rich countries since genetically modified crops. And it is proving nearly as controversial

Last November another seed producer, Du pont Pioneer, linked up with a farm machinery maker, John Deere,

by introducing 100 percent pesticide free vegetable factories in Japan. The first Toshiba vegetable factory will open in a few months in Yokusuka, Japan.

creating a super-clean facility with plants that won need pesticides. Because of the clean environment, all plants will be germfree,

It certainly a good solution to providing nutrition in urban areas where fresh pesticide free produce is almost nonexistent

Building on existing geolocation technologies, future swath control could save on seed, minerals, fertilizer and herbicides by reducing overlapping inputs.

planting, irrigation, etc. Scientifically viable in 2018; mainstream in 2020; and financially viable in 2021.

Precision agriculture: Farming management based on observing (and responding to) intra-field variations. With satellite imagery and advanced sensors, farmers can optimize returns on inputs while preserving resources at ever larger scales.

Engineering Closed ecological systems: Ecosystems that do not rely on matter exchange outside the system. Such closed ecosystems would theoretically transform waste products into oxygen,

Vertical farming: A natural extension of urban agriculture, vertical farms would cultivate plant or animal life within dedicated

or mixed-use skyscrapers in urban settings. Using techniques similar to glass houses, vertical farms could augment natural light using energy-efficient lighting.

The advantages are numerous, including year-round crop production, protection from weather, support urban food autonomy and reduced transport costs.

#Precision farming Gains Global Foothold (Op-Ed) Lloyd Treinish leads the environmental science team in the Industry Solutions Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research center.

A co-developer of IBM's Deep Thunder precision agriculture system he contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices:

Fueling better farming is a practice known as precision agriculture which uses extensive data from a farmer's field

Precision agriculture can help farmers from Brunei to Brazil pinpoint the best time for harvesting to mitigate crop damage and loss;

Precision agriculture helps address that problem by improving weather forecasting and modeling and localizing it even within a particular farm.

At IBM we developed a precision agriculture weather-modeling service using Deep Thunder our Big data analytics technology for local customized high-resolution and rapid weather predictions.

For instance many farmers are now using methods like flow-through irrigation drip irrigation micro-sprinklers and more efficient use of groundwater to increase yields.

While the days of farmers using the divining rod to find water are passed long since many farmers especially in developing countries still rely too much on guesswork in making planting irrigation and harvesting decisions.

Graywater was used for irrigation, natural ash replaced half the foundation cement (production of which produces five percent of global CO2 EMISSIONS),

but breeding such mice is an expensive time-consuming process. Now MIT researchers have found an alternative:

so it can be used for irrigation, equipment washing, and other things. The system can treat 10,000 to 1 million gallons of wastewater daily.

for the agricultural industry. arth as a spaceshipecovolt is valuable today as a solution to Earth water issues.

pesticides, fungal infections, or exposure to bacterial toxins. They are also working on incorporating electronic nanomaterials, such as graphene, into plants. ight now,

which include pesticides and endocrine disruptors such as bisphenol A (BPA) with existing methods is often expensive and time-consuming.

and pesticides that are all present in the same sample, and we can do this in one step. nd the nanoparticleshigh surface-area-to-volume ratio means that only a small amount is needed to remove a relatively large quantity of pollutants.

banned for use as a pesticide in the U s . since 1972 but still widely used in other parts of the world,

It will certainly become fully affordable in the perspective of broad scale application mentioned by collaborators Vadim G. Kessler and Gulaim A. Seisenbaeva from the Swedish University of Agricultural sciences.

Swedish University of Agricultural sciences researchers Gulaim A. Seisenbaeva Geoffrey Daniel and Vadim G. Kessler; James Caruthers Purdue's Gerald and Sarah Skidmore Professor of Chemical engineering;

if biochar a byproduct of the a process that converts plants materials into biofuel could be used in place of expensive activated carbon to make electrodes for supercapacitors.

and the biochar nanoparticles can create an extremely large surface area which can then hold more charge.

He deposits the biochar on a substrate using a patent-pending electrochemical process he developed

Through this project Fan developed a faster way of treating the biochar particles using a new technology called plasma activation.

The plasma treatment activates the biochar in five minutes and at room temperature Fan explained. Conventional chemical activation takes several hours to complete

The technique that treats biochar electrodes for supercapacitors can also be used in making displays explained Fan who was a research scientist at Wintek more than 10 years ago.

As a result the mosquitoes were more prone to insecticides as they no longer had a sufficient amount of chitin for a normal functioning protective shell.

If the production of chitin can be reduced further the insects can be killed without using any toxic insecticides.

Even though metal nanoparticles are used variously in industrial, pharmaceutical and agricultural (fertilizer) applications as a catalyst, toxic liquids such as toluene and hexane are used usually as solvents in the carbon-carbon

Some of the digestate can be used as fertilizer, but then you have to make sure you have customers for fertilizers nearby (i e.,

, farmers. Anaerobic digestion is considered also a less favored way of dealing with excess food. From an environmental standpoint, it's better to chop food up into deli salad,

As workers in Japan agricultural industry age it is becoming more difficult to obtain safe and delicious vegetables through traditional farming techniques.

#Tiny ant takes on pesticide industry Few people like antshey bite and overrun kitchen counters.

%Curious whether weaver ants might be effective alternatives to pesticides in other situations and eager to see

a practice long forgotten with the invention of chemical pesticides. But now, two European companies are considering how to provide weaver ant nests to farmers,

#Crystal breeding factory uncovered A breakthrough in understanding the way in which crystals develop will have a major impact for the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries.

Lancaster University chemists in collaboration with international colleagues have uncovered a'Crystal Nuclei Breeding Factory'which, they say,

almost as if'breeding'is taking place. How this happens has never been understood. It's been a big question

and Professor Lennart Lindfors, of Astrazeneca, Sweden, have mapped out'in diagram format the actual movements made by chemical molecules on their breeding journey using computer simulations.

Professor Kobayashi says"This new technology can be applied to not only other gamma aminobutyric-acids acids and medicines but also various chemicals such as flavors, agricultural chemicals,

drinking water reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals, remediation and tailing ponds, and hydro electric dam reservoirs.

and combined to prevent the spread of agricultural chemicals and to capture toxic substances in liquids.

To prevent pesticides from harming the environment Frey and her students have encapsulated pesticides into biodegradable nanofibers.

This keeps them intact until needed or makes sure they do not wash away from the plants they protect.

the pesticide and polylactic acid a polymer derived from corn. The materials are derived biodegradable and from renewable resources. he chemical is protected,

and preventing agricultural chemical release into the environment, these nanofibers just might save a life, she said.

#Novel Nano-Dispenser Systems Uses Less Insecticide to Kill Citrus Greening Bugs It is a step forward in ridding groves of the insect that is threatening to destroy Florida $10. 7 billion citrus industry.

a standard insecticide used in the industry to kill the Asian citrus psyllid, among many other pests.

Using less insecticide could mean saving tens of thousands of dollars for small growers a make-or-break figure for those who are struggling with stunted production and less or no profit due to the disease. uring the past 15 years,

a unit in the University of Florida Institute of food and agricultural sciences. hey have opened a new era in delivery of pesticides through the development of micro

Using insecticides is one of the few ways farmers currently have to treat their groves for greening, also known as Huanglongbing or HLB.

Although current methods to control the spread of citrus greening are limited to the removal and destruction of infected trees and insecticide-based management of psyllid populations

Researchers also said that less insecticide could have beneficial environmental impacts. Further field tests are necessary to see how the nano-dispensers perform in sunlight

These pollutants, including pesticides and endocrine disruptors like bisphenol A, fight hard against natural degradation

or herbicides, just photosynthesizing can be deadly. Even in the absence of any of these assaults

US Court Bans Insecticide Linked to Deaths September 14, 2015 S

#New Material Made From 1 Billion Tiny Magnets Changes States Like Water Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) announced they have created a synthetic material with magnetic properties

Anne-Laure Fameau, National Institute of French Agricultural research; Michael Rubenstein, University of North carolina, Chapel hill Published:

and steric properties of various organic molecules, including biologically active compounds such as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals,

"We hope that this reaction would be applicable for making useful para-intermediates that would lead to the rapid discovery and optimization of lead compounds in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and materials industry

As an insecticide it is effective against ticks, mosquitoes or bedbugs. In the medical field, the substance has shown activity against cancer cell lines.

First, the laser pulse ploughs through a plasma consisting of positively charged atomic cores and their electrons like a ship through water, producing a wake of oscillating electrons.

The winners of the $125, 000 first prize were a group from MIT and Jain Irrigation systems.

And while the Internet of things has brought a number of water-conscious smart irrigation products into the agricultural market,

and creating Arduino-based irrigation valves, water pressure sensors and data loggers for controlling and monitoring the vineyard irrigation system.

In prototype stage is networked a, solar-powered sensor reading station that can report Vinduino sensor data via the Thingspeak platform.

and feed it back to the irrigation valves closing the loop on fully automated watering.

Cropx, Phytech, Open Garden, Smart Irrigation Controllersauthor: Ted Burnha r

#Eco-friendly 3d printed supercar Kevin Czinger of Divergent Microfactories has spent most of his career in the automotive industry.

The researchers combined expertise in oceanography, chemical engineering, agricultural engineering and biosystems engineering to come up with the solution

all the water you can see pouring out in the video isn't being wasted-it's being fed straight back into the system for irrigation, drinking water, swimming pools,

if it is suitable to use as fertilizer or manufacture construction materials. Subsequently, the water is conducted to a clarifier tank, to sediment the excess charge of dissolved elements;

#Biochar from manure waste enhances soils Researchers at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have obtained biochar using manure waste,

Biochar, a material obtained after thermal treatment of this waste through pyrolysis, is an organic fertilizer that applied in soils

This waste contains fertilizers, and its production has increased over the last years because of intensive farming and has been used traditionally in soils as an organic amendment.

However, its high-volume production and the generation of environmental problems (eutrophication and pollution of groundwater due to its high concentration of nutrients

It is highlighted the thermal treatment through pyrolysis for large scale production of biochar or biocarbon that can be defined as a carbonaceous material obtained through thermal treatment of biomass at low temperatures and under inert atmosphere.

and Mining engineering and Agricultural production of UPM shows that the biochar produced from manure of cattle,

These results give evidence of the positive effects of using biochar as a fertilizer on soils for better crop yields.

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