Preface

Abstract

International conference “Agricultural Science and Engineering (ASAE 2021)” was successfully held at Michurinsk State Agrarian University, Michurinsk, Russia on 14-16 April 2021. ASAE 2021 aimed to develop the scientific cooperation in the field of agricultural engineering, crop farming technologies, and food preservation and storage.Topical issues of agroengineering, crop science and agricultural machinery were discussed. The speakers presented innovative solutions for automated crop production, cattle breeding, and environmental engineering. A range of technological advances for treatment, processing, and storage of vegetal raw materials and livestock products has been presented. Environmentally-friendly agricultural solutions were quite a pressing issue to discuss.More than 200 papers were submitted for reviewing, of which 150 were selected and approved for publication in the ASAE 2021 proceedings. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was held in a mixed format. Most of the participants took part in presentia and about 50 people made presentations via videoconferencing.Virtual participation was organized on the Zoom platform. Zoom was used as a short-term trial period, which determined the tight timing of the conference meetings. Distance technologies made it possible to make presentations for participants from Belgorod State Agricultural University, Voronezh State Agrarian University, Kurgan State Agricultural Academy, Samara State Agrarian University and other higher institutions of Russia.Links for participation in virtual meetings were sent by the speakers freely. Speakers were encouraged to invite their colleagues as listeners. Registration of listeners was not carried out, so it is not possible to accurately estimate their number. Four conference rooms equipped for videoconferencing were used. A group of volunteer moderators was created to navigate the speakers and the listeners. Moderators helped the audience to ask questions and get full answers to them.We would like to express our gratitude to the editorial team and reviewers as well as to the conference organizers. We are glad that we were able to prepare the ASAE 2021 proceedings, despite all the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.List of Program Committee are available in the pdf