Abhay B. Lingayat, V. Chandramohan, V. Raju
et al.
Abstract Inadequate preservation techniques and poor storage provisions lead to deterioration in the quality of agricultural products. Advanced processing techniques have been used to reduce postharvest losses of agricultural goods. Drying is a processing technique used for food product preservation. Drying by solar energy is an ancient food preservation technique. Solar dryers of various sizes, capacities and designs are available for drying applications in agricultural industries. Indirect type solar dryer (ITSD) is one of the prominent dryers used to dry food products and this type of dryer with its unique features, types, and different technique incorporated to improve its performance has not been investigated so far in any detail. The purpose of this work is to review the features and benefits of ITSD. A commonly used classification of different types of solar dryers is also presented. Heat transfer enhancement on ITSD and the influence of pre-treatment before drying are also effectively reviewed. Payback period and cost analysis of ITSD are discussed. Important findings on ITSD have been reviewed, discussed and tabulated. The most dominant parameters affecting the drying rate are air temperature and velocity, followed by solar radiation, type of product, initial moisture content and total mass of the product. Passive solar dyers were easy to fabricate compared to active dryers. The drying rate of pre-treated foods was high and the quality of the product remained intact after drying.
Abstract Background The process of quality evaluation is a challenging concern in food industries to ensure the maximum level of food safety in relation to consumer preference. Growing development has taken place in the detection of agricultural and food product quality based on volatile organic compounds that involve distinct and unique characteristics. Scope and approach Quality evaluation is a challenging concern to ensure the maximum level of food safety since it is one of the important key attributes in determining consumer preference. However, until today, suppliers and retailers are still relying on the traditional methods which are labour skill intensive, subjective, and mostly destructive. In this review, the potential and ability of an electronic nose (e-nose) application as a monitoring device in quality evaluation of agricultural and food products are investigated. Key findings and conclusions Attention to the e-nose device has greatly increased due to the promising alternative in the quality inspection of agricultural and food products. The characteristics of aroma and flavour in relation to volatile compounds are also discussed. Further, this paper provides critical insight into the challenges and future trends in the development of an e-nose as a reliable non-destructive evaluation in the food supply chain of different agricultural and food products.
Henning Schulte, Christian Ammon, Frauke Hagenkamp-Korth
et al.
Previous studies have shown that ammonia emissions can be continuously reduced through the application of a urease inhibitor (UI) in cattle and pig farming. However, there is no information on whether the use of these inhibitors also has an effect on other emissions, and whether it leads to an increase or decrease in these emissions.
In this study, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide and odour emissions were measured in three mechanically ventilated, fully slatted pig fattening houses in Germany during 2019–2020. The UI was applied daily to compartments, and effects on emission values were comparatively analysed using four different calculation approaches: linear mixed model, direct case-control, case-control in time and a novel ratio-difference approach.
As expected, a significant reduction in ammonia emissions of 22–24 % was observed across all four calculation approaches and all three farms, confirming the effectiveness of the UI; no decisive effects on carbon dioxide, methane or odour emissions were found. Effects on nitrous oxide emissions could not be reliably analysed due to low concentrations which were below the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) quantification limit.
It is recommended to calculate the reduction effect using a combined approach so that over- and underestimation of the effect can be avoided. Two approaches are available for this purpose: the ratio-difference and linear mixed model. The ratio-difference approach has a simplicity of calculation and the ability to achieve results very similar to those of the linear mixed model.
Chlorophyll content measured by a Soil and Plant Analyzer Development (SPAD) meter is a key indicator of nitrogen status and photosynthetic capacity in greenhouse-grown tomatoes. However, hyperspectral data collected under greenhouse conditions are strongly affected by leaf posture, illumination variability, high-dimensional redundancy, and multicollinearity, which make small-sample modeling unstable To address these challenges, this study proposes an advanced and lightweight inversion framework integrating multiscale spectral enhancement, deep latent compression, ensemble modeling, and output calibration. A total of 240 leaf spectra (450–950 nm) were processed using Savitzky-Golay (SG) smoothing, fractional-order differentiation (FOD), and Morlet-L7 continuous wavelet transform (CWT) to enhance chlorophyll-sensitive structural features. A convolutional autoencoder (CAE) was used to extract 64-dimensional latent representations, which were fused with red-edge parameters, vegetation indices, and wavelet statistics to form a multi-source feature set. Support vector regression (SVR), gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT), kernel ridge regression (KRR), partial least squares regression (PLSR), and a lightweight Lightformer model were trained, and their out-of-fold (OOF) predictions were integrated through Ridge Stacking, followed by linear calibration. The proposed “Stacking + LinearCal” framework achieved R² = 0.782, RMSE = 1.451, and RPD = 2.156 on the independent test set (n = 72), outperforming all single models. SHAP analysis showed that CAE features, red-edge slope, red-edge inflection point (REIP), and near-infrared tail statistics within 940–950 nm contributed most to prediction. The framework demonstrates high accuracy, stability and interpretability, providing a practical basis for nutrient monitoring in greenhouse tomato production.
<p dir="ltr">The purpose of the Social Accounting Matrices (SAM) is to enhance the quality of the data base for modelling, including, but not limited to policy analysis, price analysis, decomposition analysis and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE).</p>
<p dir="ltr">The purpose of the Social Accounting Matrices (SAM) is to enhance the quality of the data base for modelling, including, but not limited to policy analysis, price analysis, decomposition analysis and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE).</p>
I n r e c e n t d e c a d e s , t h e a g r i c u l t u r a l f o o d s e c t o r h a s u n d e r g o n e r a p i d transformations in food production and distribution. The tangible value of the farm food sector's activities has diminished, but the value of intangibles — data, information, insights — has increased. The need for data protection and security escalates in rela tion to the system's integrity as precision agriculture becomes prevalent, utilizing global positioning systems and RFIDs to enhance traceability a n d s a f e t y . T h e i n d u s t r y ' s a d v a n c e m e n t o v e r t h e g e n e r a l e c o n o m y i n t h e implementation of autonomous robots and artificial intelligence indicates that the critical valuation within the sector will be on data generation, organization, analytics, and machine learning. This study is an exploratory endeavor aimed at understanding the potential risks of infiltrating the agricultural food sector. It examines the nature, characteristics, and framework of these cybersecurity risks, h i g h l i g h t i n g t h e s k i l l s a n d r e s o u r c e s n e c e s s a r y f o r t h e i n d u s t r y t o c o n t i n u e delivering value to its consumers while maintaining competitiveness . All firms are progressively facing significant challenges from cyber security breaches. The a g r i c u l t u r a l f o o d b u s i n e s s i s a l s o s u s c e p t i b l e t o t h e h a z a r d s i t p r e s e n t s. Preparation is crucial to ensure the industry's future.
Ivona Veličković, Stevan Samardžić, Marina T. Milenković
et al.
Reducing agricultural waste through reuse has become one of the most important strategies to minimise impact on the environment—an emerging global issue. Sunflower ranks fourth in the world in the production of vegetable oilseeds and therefore generates large amounts of agricultural waste. The aim of this study was to investigate the phytochemical composition and bioactivity of sunflower crop residues in order to open up new opportunities for waste management. TPC and TFC were determined spectrophotometrically, while the dominant compounds were identified by LC-DAD-ESI-MS as <i>ent</i>-kaur-16-en-19-oic acid (KA) and 6Ac-7OH-dimethylchromone (DMC). Both compounds were present in higher concentrations in the ethyl acetate fraction (245.5 and 16.8 mg/g, respectively) than in the ethanol extract. None of the tested samples showed antimicrobial effects in the microdilution test. DMC showed remarkable antioxidant activity by DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and TRC in vitro assays, while both compounds proved to be promising enzyme inhibitory agents, being particularly efficient in inhibiting anti-neurodegenerative enzymes (IC<sub>50</sub> values of DMC and KA were 1.20/1.37 mg/mL and 1.44/1.63 mg/mL for AChE/BChE, respectively) and tyrosinase. The results presented indicate that sunflower crop residues are a good candidate for the extraction of bioactive compounds with potential application in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
Currently, agricultural production generates large amounts of organic waste, both from the maintenance of farms and crops (agricultural wastes) and from the industrialization of the product (food industry waste). In the case of Actinidia cultivation, agricultural waste groups together leaves, flowers, stems and roots while food industry by-products are represented by discarded fruits, skin and seeds. All these matrices are now underexploited and so, they can be revalued as a natural source of ingredients to be applied in food, cosmetic or pharmaceutical industries. Kiwifruit composition (phenolic compounds, volatile compounds, vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, etc.) is an outstanding basis, especially for its high content in vitamin C and phenolic compounds. These compounds possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial activities, among other beneficial properties for health, but stand out for their digestive enhancement and prebiotic role. Although the biological properties of kiwi fruit have been analyzed, few studies show the high content of compounds with biological functions present in these by-products. Therefore, agricultural and food industry wastes derived from processing kiwi are regarded as useful matrices for the development of innovative applications in the food (pectins, softeners, milk coagulants, and colorants), cosmetic (ecological pigments) and pharmaceutical industry (fortified, functional, nutraceutical, or prebiotic foods). This strategy will provide economic and environmental benefits, turning this industry into a sustainable and environmentally friendly production system, promoting a circular and sustainable economy.
Osei-Agyeman Yeboah, Nicholas Mensah Amoah, Kwadwo Antwi-Wiafe
The high price of energy due to the green energy policy will cause adjustments across the U.S. economy is predicted in the present computable general equilibrium with specific factors model. This includes energy input, especially electricity with capital and labor to produce manufacturing and service goods. 2022 labor, energy, and sector-specific capital input data on U.S. manufacturing, service, and agricultural sectors is applied to specific factors of the computable general equilibrium model. The model, which assumes constant returns, full employment, competitive pricing, and perfect labor mobility across industries hypothesizes a range of price changes due to project potential adjustments in factor prices and outputs. The U.S manufacturing sector is revealed to have a higher degree of noncompetitive pricing for energy factor inputs, but not on labor and capital as advocates for green energy tout by the new technology. The policy has virtually no significant impact on the service and agricultural sectors. The high price of green energy will cause an elastic decrease in all energy inputs. The output from energy-intensive manufacturing only rises in the long run by 4 % while service and agriculture fall. Clear winners are the owners of energy resources through their price-searching behavior. This includes the government, which owns a large share of hydrocarbon reserves.
Under the “two-carbon” goal, the green and low-carbon development of agriculture is a critical way to consummate agricultural modernization and high-quality economic establishment. Digital inclusive finance eases credit restrictions. It enhances the availability of funds for farmers. It promotes the integration of agricultural industries and talent gathering through digitalization, improves the standard of agricultural production and promotes the development of green and low-carbon agricultural modernization in China. This paper uses panel data for 2011–2021, which includes 31 provinces in China. Green and low-carbon development indicators of agriculture were constructed and calculated, and the comprehensive horizontal spatial differentiation map of GIS technology was used for analysis. A spatial panel model was set up at the same time, to explore the impact and mechanism test of digital financial inclusion on the green and low-carbon development of agriculture, and regional heterogeneity was analyzed. (1) Digital financial inclusion can promote the green and low-carbon development of agriculture, and its influence has a positive spatial spillover effect. (2) The education level of the labor force plays an intermediary role and is the transmission mechanism of digital financial inclusion and the green and low-carbon development of agriculture. (3) The impact of digital financial inclusion on green and low-carbon agricultural development has regional heterogeneity.
M. D. Vijayakumar, G. Surendhar, L. Natrayan
et al.
Nanotechnology is an emerging technology in the field of food and agriculture; every individual molecule and atom can be modified or controlled by this technology. Everything that exists on the earth is made up of atoms and molecules. Problems in all the fields can easily be overcome by modifying or altering their nanosize. Similarly, nanotechnology could address many issues in the agriculture and food industries. Nanomaterials play a keen role in the place of pesticides, fertilizers, and biosensors. Nutrition enhancement, safe delivery of bioactive components and micronutrients, and food preservations were facilitated by the applications of nanotechnologies. Efforts have to be taken to create awareness among the public in this nanotechnology field. Future research directions were identified in this review to improve the nanoembedded agriculture system. This article reviews the recent development in the agriculture and food industries through nanotechnology, application of nanotechnology in the food and agricultural sectors, and research backlogs in such sectors.
Firstly, based on the data of China’s noncompetitive input–output tables from 2002 to 2017, this paper comprehensively grasps the integration trend of China’s agriculture-related industries and digital economy industries by constructing integration contribution and interaction indicators. Secondly, the correlation between the two industries is analyzed more intuitively with the help of the APL (Average Propagation Length) model. Finally, it analyzes the coordination of the digital economy industry and the transformation of the agriculture industry with the help of the grey correlation method. The results show that the digital economy industries contribute the most in absolute terms, compared to other industries, to the agro-processing industry and have the highest degree of integration and interaction with the agricultural product transportation and marketing industry. In terms of the breakdown of the digital economy industries, digital product manufacturing is weakly linked to agriculture-related industries, but the coordination among the transformation and upgrading of agriculture is gradually improving. Compared to digital product manufacturing, the digital technology application industry has a higher direct contribution to the agriculture-related industry. After 2012, the overall driving and pulling effect on the agriculture-related industry is basically the same, and the coordination with agricultural transformation and upgrading is optimal. The contribution of the digital factor-driven industry to agriculture-related industries experienced an explosive period after 2012, with the highest overall contribution and strongest industrial linkage between the two, while coordination with the transformation and upgrading of agriculture decreases. Therefore, in combination with the No. 1 document of the Central Government in 2022, which specifically calls for the implementation of the “digital business to promote agriculture” project and the promotion of e-commerce in the countryside, this paper puts forward suggestions to give full play to the role of digital technology in the sustainable development of agriculture-related industries.
Risma Neswati, Nurfadila Jamaluddin Suppe, Sumbangan Baja
et al.
The success of agricultural operations is highly dependent on the site selected, which affects sustainability, and it is important to solve problems associated with activities and efficient land use. However, many researchers have selected sites based solely on climate and soil characteristics and have ignored farmer preferences, which has resulted in the failure to meet sustainable agriculture goals, and a proper strategy is therefore required to anticipate related problems. This study was conducted to: (1) analyze plantation development priorities based on the hierarchy of farmers’ preferences, (2) identify the relationship between successful plantations, climate, and soil fertility. The attributes employed to assess farmers’ preferences included price, production, and price stability over the past five years, while annual rainfall, annual temperature, and soil fertility were used to assess land suitability. Farmers’ preferences were analyzed using the discrete choice experiment (DCE) method, and land suitability was analyzed using the fuzzy method. The farmer preference analysis showed that coffee was the priority crop of farmers in most of the research areas, and cocoa was the lowest cultivation priority. Coffee had a higher land suitability index than other plants, ranging from 0.62 to 0.92, and it was dominant within the optimal suitability class. Clove, pepper, and cocoa plants belonged to the moderate land suitability class with indexes of 0.6–0.91, 0.56–0.88, and 0.4–0.86 for pepper, clove, and cocoa, respectively. A regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between the priority of cultivated plants based on farmers’ preference and land suitability, and a positive relationship (moderate strength) was determined. These research results show that when selecting priority crops, 21% of farmers’ decisions are influenced by land suitability.
Karen Ferreira Da Silva, Ella Burnham, Joe Louis
et al.
Leadership development is a universally important goal across the agricultural plant science disciplines. Although previous studies have identified a need for leadership skills, less is known about leadership skill development in graduate programs. To address this, we constructed a mixed-method study to identify the most significant graduate school leadership experiences of scientists in the agricultural plant science disciplines. The survey was deployed to 6,728 people in the U.S. and received 1,086 responses (16.1% response rate). The majority of respondents reported that they were from one of the major agricultural states and employed at one of the agricultural plant science related doctoral universities, industries, or government. Results from this survey suggest that recent graduates were more engaged in graduate school activities that offered leadership development. Key experiences in graduate school were also identified that may be used to develop future leaders. Additionally, respondents reported the greatest barrier to providing leadership development for graduate students was that it is not part of their program curriculum, however current graduate students responded differently, and identifying lack of funding to support experiences as the greatest barrier. This survey also identified the top ranked professional skills considered most important for effective leaders in agricultural plant sciences as well as respondent-driven recommendations on how graduate programs can improve leadership development. Collectively, these results can be used in the future to identify priorities for skill development and opportunities for leadership training among graduate students within the plant science disciplines.