Utilization Of Crop Residues Research Articles

Farmers’ Agro-climatological Knowledge of Changes in Precipitation and Temperature Extremes in Semi-arid Nakasongola

Understanding agro-climatological knowledge of farmers to climate extremes provides useful information in developing appropriate adaptation strategies critical for enhancing resilience of agricultural systems to climate change. This study was conducted to establish farmers’ agro-climatological knowledge and perceptions to trends of climate extremes in semi-arid Nakasongola district. Climate extremes were derived by analyzing rainfall and temperature data sets from 1970 to 2013 using RClimdex software. Data to establish farmer’s knowledge were collected through face to face household interviews and analyzed using descriptive statistics by SPSS. Annual total precipitation (PRCPTOT) index showed increasing non significant trends (P > 0.05). Heavy precipitation days (R10mm) showed weak positive non significant increasing trend (P < 0.05). Consecutive wet days (CWDs) were decreasing (P < 0.05) while consecutive dry days (CDDs) were significantly increasing. Percentage hot days were positively increasing while warm nights revealed a declining trend. Farmers’ perceived changes in rainfall and temperature extremes compared well with the observed climatological trends. CDDs and heavy precipitation days were the most perceived extremes. Key adaptation strategies included; fencing of grazeable land, use of drought tolerant pasture species, utilization of crop residues and pasture conservation, water harvesting and change of grazing time. Limited access to climate information and insecure land ownership rights were key barriers constraining adaptation. Therefore policies that ensure secure land ownership rights while improving farmers’ access to early warning information on climate events can effectively facilitate adaptation to climate change. Key words: Trends, precipitation, temperature, extremes and climate change DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/11-20-05 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

Environmental, social, and economic assessment of energy utilization of crop residue in China

Environmental, social, and economic assessment of energy utilization of crop residue in China

An analysis of exo-polygalacturonase bioprocess in submerged and solid-state fermentation by Pleurotus ostreatus using pomelo peel powder as carbon source

BackgroundAs there has been an increasing trend in the effective utilization of plant and crop residues for microbial transformation into a desired product, an attempt was made to compare of exo-polygalacturonase production using logistic and Luedeking-Piret kinetic model by Pleurotus ostreatus in submerged (smf) or solid-state fermentation (ssf) using pomelo peel powder, an agro-forestry residue as carbon substrate. ResultsCultures grown in submerged fermentation produced a peak of exo-polygalacturonase activity as 6160 Ul-1 on the 4th day of culture as compared with 2410 Ul-1 on the 5th day of fermentation by solid-state fermentation. The enzyme yield coefficient (YE/X) is of higher value in smf vs. ssf system (YE/X = 1.05 × 103 vs. 0.622 × 103) indicating the more efficient product yield in smf as compared with ssf. The plots derived fromλ versusζ clearly demonstrate that the secondary product destruction is higher in smf than in ssf. ConclusionP. ostreatus performs much better in submerged fermentation as compared with solid-state fermentation in respect to exo-polygalacturonase production although ssf technique produced a more thermo-stable exo-polygalacturonase in crude extract, which is highly desirable in various industrial applications.

The Utilization of Crop Residues as Forest Protection: Predicting the Production of Wheat and Rapeseed Residues

Deforestation is a global threat in the form of the reduction of all of the ecosystem services provided to humans by forest ecosystems. For this reason, this article deals with the protection of forest ecosystem services by searching for a substitute for wood biomass. In recent years, the post-harvest residues of agricultural crops have been used mainly for energy and material uses. If this raw material is to be used industrially in the long term, we must have an idea of its future production. In most studies, predictions of future post-harvest residue productions are resolved in terms of the availability for energy sectors. This paper deals with the total amount of produced post-harvest residues that can be taken from the field; the post-harvest residue production for selected sectors is not subtracted from the overall prediction. Post-harvest residue production was estimated using the residue to product ratio (RPR), wherein the RPR coefficient was calculated for the monitored crops in each year, and the post-harvest residue production was subsequently calculated in each year according to the conversion rate characteristic for each year. The production of two widespread agricultural crops—wheat and rapeseed—was predicted. Linear regression models were used for the estimations. Based on these models, we predict the production of 58.3 million tonnes of post-harvest wheat residues and 22.4 million tonnes of post-harvest rapeseed residues in 2030 in the European Union. In the Czech Republic, we predict the production of 1.8 million tonnes of post-harvest wheat residues and 1.3 million tonnes of post-harvest rapeseed residues. The presented results can be used as the basis for further considerations of the material use of post-harvest residues and for the substitution of wood with these residues.

Techno-Economic Assessment of Three Modes of Large-Scale Crop Residue Utilization Projects in China

In China, the non-exploitation of bioenergy poses major problems and challenges. To solve bioenergy problems, considerable efforts have been made to expedite the construction of large-scale crop residue utilization projects. In this study, three principal supported modes of large-scale crop residue utilization projects were taken as empirical cases in Hubei province bioenergy planning. In terms of the overall benefit and sustainable development, a third-grade evaluation index system was established. The analysis was carried out using the analytical hierarchy process, principal component projection, and grey relational analysis. The conclusion indicates that according to the evaluation values, the sequence from best to worst was crop residue biogas project, crop residue briquette fuel project, and crop residue gasification project. Nevertheless, there was no remarkable difference in the overall evaluation values. The biogas project had certain advantages in terms of the production cost, soil improvement, and expenditure saving, whereas the gasification project was comparatively insufficient in environmental efficiency, product benefit, by-product disposal, and technical rationality. According to actual evaluation results, the unilateral determination approach of the single weight index can be seen as being overcome through the unified adaptation of the evaluation methods. The research results can serve as a reference for making investment decisions to build large-scale crop residue utilization projects.

Production and utilization of crop residues for ruminant feeding in Aliero Lga Of Kebbi State, Nigeria

An investigation of the production and utilization of crop residues for ruminant feeding in five villages within Aliero Local Government Area of Kebbi State was carried out using a structured questioner which was administered to 75 respondents. The data collected was analyzed by using simple statistical tool such as frequency distribution and percentage. The study revealed that 47.95% of the respondents were farmers with more than half (52.41%) had 5-8 members in their family. Mixed farming is common to all the respondents with cereal and legumes crops combination alongside with cattle, sheep, and goats rearing. Some crop residues such as maize stover, rice straw, etc are available all year round since they are generated both at rainy and dry season in the study area. Maize/sorghum/millet stovers and groundnut/cowpea straws plays a major part in ruminant feeding in the study area. The level of cultivation, production and utilization of crop residues as observed in this study depends on the land size, season of production and flock size amongst others. Most of the respondents (39.74%) source their crop residues from self-production and the type of crop residues are those from groundnut/cowpea straws, maize/millet/sorghum stovers and rice straws. The present study revealed the potential of crop residues not only as ruminant feeding but also as a means of livelihood among the respondents.&#x0D; Keywords: Production, Utilization, Crop residues, Livestock.

Rural households’ perceived value of energy utilization of crop residues: A case study from China

Based on the survey data onto rural households in China, taking biogas produced by crop residues as an example, this paper analyzed rural households’ perceived value of energy utilization of crop residues. Then, “interpersonal trust” and “institutional trust” variables are introduced to improve Zeithaml’s perceived value model to explore the key factors influencing rural households’ perceived value of energy utilization of crop residues. The results show that although the value of energy utilization of crop residues has been recognized by most rural households, there is still some room for improvement. We believe that strengthening the technical service level and creating an atmosphere of mutual trust in rural society will help to improve rural households’ perceived value of energy utilization of crop residues. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the improved perceived value model as a powerful method for better prediction of human psychological perception, and our findings have significant policy implications given that the government can take measures to improve rural households’ perceived value to make energy utilization of crop residues more competitive, thus hastening its deployment.

Dairying in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh: Constraints to realizing the potential

Dairying in Bundelkhand region continues to play a central role in providing livelihood security and coping mechanism to mitigate risks of the resource poor farmers. However, the development of this key sector has not progressed to the desired extent in comparison to other regions of Uttar Pradesh and also across other states. Thus, an attempt was made to study the present status and issues in dairying, analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) and propose strategies for dairy sector development in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh using primary and secondary data in this study. The study identified various issues and constraints, viz. presence of low yielding non-descript cattle, low milk yield, less breedable population, dependency on grazing and crop residues utilization, lack of veterinary services, dominance of middle men in marketing, poor scientific knowledge etc. in the region. Further, it was found that this region of Uttar Pradesh is facing a tentative annual loss of rs. 1,619 crores due to Anna pratha. There is also a need to calculate the losses like crop damage, indiscriminate animal breeding, high cost of production for unproductive animals, lack of milk availability leading to poor human nutrition, etc. Hence, there is a need to focus on short and long term strategies based on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) of dairy sector in Bundelkhand region. A need based research and extension activities by different organizations in the region may be emphasized for the benefit of farming community.

Climate adaptive crop-residue management for soil-function improvement; recommendations from field interventions at two agro-ecological zones in South Asia

Utilization of biomass energy from various agricultural wastes for local usages and its removal through open burning potentially increase emission of Green House Gases (GHGs), deteriorate air-quality, formation of tropospheric ozone and create trans-boundary health hazards in countries of South East Asia. The effect of common agro-waste management practices in soil quality and agricultural production system over this part of the world is not well documented. In the present three-years long study, spanning over two entirely different agro-ecological zones of India and Bhutan, highlights the impacts of the burning of agricultural waste in soil physio-chemical properties, biological properties and crop production. The current study also focuses on the alternative usage of crop residue to enhance soil organic carbon, soil moisture, soil nutrients and soil biological activity through the application of biochar and raw agricultural waste generated from the field. It was observed that crop residue used as raw mulch and biochar improved the agricultural production up to 36%–64% over the experimental fields of India and Bhutan. The results from the study disseminated among the local farmers and technological support were provided for practicing alternative crop residue management. Nearly 1450–1500 farmers in India and 100–125 farmers in Bhutan have adopted the agro-waste management practices of removal and re-application of agro-wastes in the field. A total of ~26000 t of CO2 emission has been reduced in two intervention sites during the study period. The present action-research helps to propose future guidelines for environmental friendly crop residue utilization and management and simultaneously help to improve agricultural yield along with soil quality.

Evaluation of different clean heat supply modes based on crop straws in the rural area of Northern China

This study evaluated eight different types of heat supply modes based on crop residues utilization in the rural area of Northern China, including straw densified solid fuel combustion, pyrolysis char combustion, biogas combustion, and pyrolysis gas combustion for single household heating; straw densified solid fuel combustion, baling straw combustion, biogas combustion, and pyrolysis gas combustion for centralized heating; centralized gas supply and centralized pyrolysis gas supply modes. Comprehensively evaluation was the cost of these different eight heat supply modes. The results showed that the cost of straw densified solid fuel combustion, pyrolysis char combustion for single household heating were 2346 RMB/household and 2390 RMB/household. With the heating scale of 200-500 households, the pipe network distance was 8 m/household, and the total annual heating cost was predicted at 2201-2992 RMB/household. Among them, the cost of straw baling combustion for centralized heating was the lowest, the cost of densified solid fuel, biogas, and pyrolysis for centralized heating was the second, and the cost of biogas and pyrolysis gas for centralized gas supply was the highest. For the increase in every 1 m of the pipeline distance, the investment cost will increase by about 645 RMB for each household. This study provides a basis for the implementation of clean heat supply technologies in less-developed areas and guidance of village heat-supply subsidy policies. Keywords: crop straw, biomass, clean heating, rural area, villages and towns, model, cost DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20201305.5600 Citation: Huo L L, Yao Z L, Jia J X, Zhao L X, Cong H B, Meng H B, et al. Evaluation of different clean heat supply modes based on crop straws in the rural area of Northern China. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2020; 13(5): 209–217.

Study of Selected Livestock Innovations in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is endowed with significant livestock resources and holds the largest livestock population in Africa, estimated at around 60 million cattle, 60 million sheep and goats, 52 million chickens, 4.5 million camels, 10 million bee colonies and 7.2 million equines. The livestock production and management system in Ethiopia is mainly extensive, where indigenous breeds are kept under low input/low-output husbandry practices. This study is part of a multi-country African livestock innovation study covering three East and West African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya and Mali) supported by the Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation (PARI). The purpose of the study was to provide guidance to policy makers and private and public investors on promising innovations in Ethiopian livestock value chains and their contexts, which could enable transformation of the livestock sector. The study also aimed at providing private and public decision-makers with guidance on investment opportunities building on a review of broad trends of Ethiopian livestock development and in-depth analyses of success stories from selected innovations to encourage wider lesson-learning and knowledge-sharing. The study is based on a desk review of important documents, key informant interviews, consultations with major stakeholders on respective innovations and analyses of official customs data and other data from the national statistical agency of the country. The study focused on four selected livestock innovations: beekeeping, feed production and marketing, integrated feedlot operation and index-based livestock insurance. These innovations were selected at an inception workshop held in Kenya, Nairobi, in October 2019. Results of the study reveal the possibility to increase honey production six fold through improved frame hive, from the current level of 15-20 kg/hive/year to 90-120 kg/hive/year by raising farmers’ skill and knowledge on apiary site management, and facilitating access to inputs. On the other hand, an assessment of feed innovations revealed attractive investment opportunities in the harvesting, conserving and proper utilization of crop residues, hay and other feed resources. Harvesting and conservation of crop residues alone can create employment opportunities for over 245,000 youths for two months a year. Investments in industries that produce feed premixes and additives to supply the Ethiopian livestock sector also hold promise, in light of imports over 4,000 tons of these feed ingredients per annum an. Investment in integrated feed production, feedlot operation, slaughter and export of beef is also indicated as an promising business opportunity to enhance benefits from the Ethiopian beef industry. Index-based livestock insurance is also found to be a scalable innovation in the Ethiopian livestock industry that can benefit both livestock producers and the financial sector actors. The study has shown adoption and impact, trade-offs/externalities, potential for scaling and broad policy and development implications of all the four selected livestock innovations in Ethiopia.

Utilization of Crop Residue for Power Generation: The Case of Ukraine

Renewable energy is expected to play a significant role in power generation. The European Union, the USA, China, and others, are striving to limit the use of energy crop for energy production and to increase the use of crop residue both on the field and for energy generation processes. Therefore, crop residue may become a major energy source, with Ukraine following this course. Currently in Ukraine, renewable power generation does not exceed 10% of total electricity production. Despite a highly developed agriculture sector, there are only a small number of biomass power plants which burn crop residues. To identify possibilities for renewable power generation, the quantity of crop residues, their energy potential, and potential electricity generation were appraised. Cluster analysis was used to identify regions with the highest electricity consumption and crop residue energy potential. The major crops (wheat, barley, rapeseed, sunflower, and soybean) were considered in this study. A national production of crop residue for energy production of 48.66 million tons was estimated for 2018. The availability of crop residues was analyzed taking into account the harvest, residue-to-crop ratio, and residue removal rate. The crop residue energy potential of Ukraine has been estimated at 774.46 PJ. Power generation technologies have been analyzed. This study clearly shows that crop residue may generate between 27 and 108 billion kWh of power. We have selected preferable regions for setting up crop residue power plants. The results may be useful for the development of energy policy and helpful for investors in considering power generation projects.

Utilization of banana crop residue as an agricultural bioresource for the production of acetone‐butanol‐ethanol byClostridium beijerinckiiYVU1

This study aimed to produce acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) using lignocellulosic crop residues as renewable bioresources. Butanol production from banana crop residue (BCR) was studied using a newly isolated solventogenic Clostridium beijerinckii YVU1. BCR is one of the abundant lignocellulosic substrates available in tropical countries containing 4·3±3·5% cellulose, 28·5±3·0% hemicellulose and 20·3±2·6% lignin. The sequential dilute alkali and acid pretreatments solubilized 69% of lignin and 73% of hemicellulose. Ten percent (w/v) of pretreated substrate was subjected to enzymatic saccharification with cellulase, and it was found to release 0·481±0·035g glucose per g pretreated biomass. In the batch fermentation process, 20·5gl-1 ABE (14·0gl-1 of butanol, 5·4gl-1 of acetone and 1·1gl-1 of ethanol) was obtained. The executed fermentation process yielded 0·39g ABE per g hydrolysate with 0·14gl-1 h-1 of volumetric productivity. On the basis of the results, we believe that sequential alkali and acid pretreatment on the enzymatic hydrolysis for butanol production is indeed a technology with the potential to be applied and newly isolated. C. beijerinckii YVU1 is also a potential candidate organism for butanol production agricultural residues. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This study demonstrates that a banana crop residue (BCR) can be successfully utilized as an inexpensive and alternative bioresource for the production of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE). The sequential pretreatment of BCR with alkali and acid solubilized lignin and hemicellulose leading to high glucose release during enzymatic hydrolysis. A newly isolated Clostridium beijerinckii YVU1 was able to produce comparable amount of ABE with previous reports. Therefore, we can state that the utilization of BCR as substrate for C. beijerinckii YVU1 leads to an economical bioprocess for the microbial production of ABE.

Investigation of additives in combustion of wheat straw pellets in a small scale boiler

Crop residues could provide a local, sustainable, and low-cost solid fuel alternative to woody biomass for heat supply in the agricultural community. However, utilization of crop residues on a small scale is associated with increased pollutant emissions, as well as ash-related operational problems. There is ongoing research on fuel conditioning measures, such as fuel leaching, fuel blending, and using mineral additives, as a manner to mitigate these issues. The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of additives in the combustion of crop residues under everyday conditions. To this end, wheat straw pellets were combusted in a 30 kW boiler with and without additives (kaolinite and MgO, 2 wt. % and 4 wt. %). Carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM) emissions have been monitored during combustion experiments, as well as changes in bottom ash behavior and composition. The results have shown that additives slightly decrease the heating value of the fuel (3%–6%). During experiments with additized wheat straw pellets, higher emissions of CO were observed. Combustion of pure not additized wheat straw pellets resulted in a PM emission of 568 mg/Nm3, which decreased with additives. Both researched additives increase the four characteristic ash deformation temperatures.

Optimal processing of greenhouse crop residues to use as energy and CO2 sources

This work presents the development of suitable strategies focusing on greenhouse crop residues as energy and CO2 sources for improved food production in greenhouses. The utilization of greenhouse crop residues in combustion processes for heating and carbonic enrichment in greenhouses has previously been developed and evaluated. Nevertheless, greenhouse crop residues present several problems that make it difficult to use them for these purposes. Among the characteristics that can impede their use are excessive moisture and ash contents as well as their low density. In this work, the relevant solid fuel properties for this type of biomass have been studied.In addition, three pre-treatment strategies are proposed and evaluated, which aim to enhance the fuel quality of this biomass. These strategies were: 1) first relates to the drying strategy employed for reducing greenhouse crop residue moisture. 2) the second one relates to a reduction in ash content by avoiding contact with greenhouse soil and 3) mixing with other biomass kinds with better quality as solid fuels.The assays performed showed that these strategies were successful, resulting in biomass with a high heating value, up to 26.9 MJ/kg, and a lower ash content than untreated residues, with values as low as 13.0% dry weight. This value is closer to that for the standard biomass most commonly employed in direct combustion applications. The biomass produced has been verified as suitable for conventional boilers with thermal efficiencies up to 70%. The methods developed allow to reuse greenhouse crop residues as greenhouse fuel, providing both heat and CO2; thus enhancing production and sustainability.

Fortified Groundnut Shells as a Soil Amendment for Improved Productivity in Oilseed Based Cropping System of Semi-arid Tropics (SAT) India

Soil degradation in semi-arid regions is alarming due to changed climate impacting the rainfall patterns and temperature affecting soil physico-biological properties adversely. In India, cattle shed bedding technology (CSBT) using crop residues is cheaper, easy-to-use residue recycling method for small holders in semi-arid regions. The present research work was carried out with a specific objective of soil improvement leading to resilience of land use system using indigenously available fortified crop residue for enhanced crop and cropping system yields under both rainy and post rainy conditions in semi-arid tropics of India. Thus, a study was conducted for 2 years (2013–2014 and 2014–2015) in the farmers fields with treatments having various fortifications like bedding material with groundnut shell and its manure, compost over existing practice among farmers on rainfed groundnut-fallow (L-F), castor-groundnut (NL-L) and groundnut–groundnut (L–L) oilseed based cropping systems. These systems were evaluated for soil quality parameters, productivity, fertility, soil moisture retention, compaction, crop land utilization and economics. In different cropping systems, use of fortified groundnut shell @ 16.3–22.6 t ha−1 year−1 was able to recoup the soil nutrient losses (183.0 kg N, 6.1 kg P, 227.0 kg K and 0.3 kg OC ha−1 year−1) closely followed by compost and distantly by inorganics application with additional benefit of enhanced crop yields by 20.2–33.1% during subsequent rainy and 20.0–25.0% during post-rainy season, improved available water content (10.7–20.3%) and increased irrigation interval by 3–5 days in NL-L and L–L system. Hence, the principle of fortifying crop residues through CSBT could be utilized globally in similar agro-ecological regions for addressing soil degradation and effective crop residue utilization for small and marginal landholders farmers.

Feeding effect of total mixed ration on milk yield, nutrient intake, digestibility and rumen environment in Red Chittagong Cows

Efficient utilization of crop residues is an alternative way to overcome feed shortage for livestock feeding. Hence, an experiment was conducted to determine the effect on nutrient intake, milk yield, nutrient digestibility and rumen parameters of total mixed ration (TMR) as mash or block form in comparison to conventional feeding system for a period of 45 days. Accoding to CRD 18 RCC early milking cows (Bos indicus) having average daily milk yield of 3.20±0.14 L/d and divided into three treatment groups. Existing feeding practice at the farm was considered as control group (T0) fed Napier-3 adlib. and concentrate mixture. In another two groups, animals fed TMR, where one fed as block (T1) and another as mash form (T2) with the same roughage and concentrate combination (50:50). All diets contained 16% CP. To determine digestibility of supplied feed, a digestibility trial at the middle of the feeding trial was conducted and also to study the rumen environment (pH, TVFA, NH3-N), rumen liquors were collected at post feeding intervals of 3, 6, 12, 24 and 36h. Study revealed that fresh feed intakes were significantly (p&lt;0.001) higher in T0. DMI and CPI were significantly (p&lt;0.001) higher in T1 group. Significantly (p&lt;0.05) highest milk yields were obtained in T1 (3.6 l/d) and T2 (3.49 l/d) and lowest in T0 (3.35l/d). Milk fat (p&lt;0.001) and SNF (p&lt;0.05) were significantly higher T1 and T2. Except ADF, digestibility for most of the nutrient was significantly higher in T1 and T2 than T0. Total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) were significantly (p&lt;0.01) higher in T1 and T2 groups than that of T0 group. Finally, it may be concluded that TMR, either in block or mash form gives better results in terms of milk yield, milk composition, digestibility and concentration of TVFA and NH3-N.&#x0D; Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. March 2019, 5(1): 71-77

The effectiveness of regulations and technologies on sustainable use of crop residue in Northeast China

Burning agricultural residue adversely affects air quality and results in a loss of valuable nutrients required to improve soil quality. Sustainable use of crop residue can reduce air pollution from open field burning. In addition to the mandatory regulation on burning crop residue, the Chinese government also promotes the sustainable use of crop residue by subsidizing residue chopper machines and establishing agricultural demonstration sites. This paper documents the trends of crop residue utilization and evaluates the effectiveness of different regulations and technology policies toward the sustainable use of crop residue in Northeast China. Using a unique household level panel dataset, our regression results show that the ban on burning crop residue does not reduce crop residue burning, while increased availability of residue choppers induces farmers to adopt residue retention. Establishing demonstration projects also helps promote the acceptance of residue retention. Given the low level of availability of residue choppers and demonstration projects and their effectiveness, our results recommend further supporting the spread of residue chopper machines through subsidization and establishing demonstration projects. This paper also lends experience to other developing countries that have similar issues.

Factors Affecting the Adoption of Agricultural By-Products as Feed by Beef Cattle Farmers in Maros Regency of South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The utilization of crop residue as a feed is very important because the arable land area is relatively limited. The study was aimed to examine the influence of adoption of crop-residue product as a feed. The research was conducted in Maros District by using survey methods from March to August 2015. The number of respondents was 96 farmers scattered throughout the Districts of Bantimurung and Camba as centers of rice, corn plant, and cattle productions. Questionnaires were used to collect data conducted by a trained enumerator. Survey was arranged using a logistic regression model to identify socio economic factors influencing the adoption of crop residue as a feed. Work perception (X2), contact with extension workers (X4), rice cultivated areas (X5), the number of livestock (X6), subjective norm (X7), and difficulty (X8) were socio-economic variables influencing the adoption of crop residue as a feed. However, the variables age (X1), farmer experiences (X3), and the number of family members (X9) had no effect on the adoption of this technology. In conclusion, extension workers play an important role in increasing the adoption of technology by using rice and corn straws as a feed. Likewise, not only the number of livestocks, but also the good perception of the farmers increased along with the increase of feed availability, such as utilization of rice and corn straws.

Effects of heating rate and gas atmosphere on the pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of different crop residues and the kinetics analysis

Abstract Efficient utilization of crop residues can help to solve the problem of global resource scarcity. The pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of 40 crop residues and 3 lignocellulosic components in different atmospheres by thermogravimetric analysis were analyzed. The results showed that with the increase of heating rate, the pyrolysis and combustion of cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin and crop residues shifted to higher temperature zones. Meanwhile, the comprehensive combustibility index increased significantly, indicating that a higher heating rate could intensify and improve the pyrolysis and combustion performances. At the heating rate of 20 °C/min, the variation ranges of ignition temperatures of crop residues in N2, air and O2 were 253–295 °C, 247–275 °C and 245–268 °C, and the variation ranges of burnout temperatures were 555–682 °C, 466–596 °C and 323–357 °C, respectively. The comprehensive combustibility index in O2 was 144.24 × 10−7, which were much higher than those in air and N2. The variation ranges of activation energies of crop residues were 25.52–36.84, 27.96–43.35 and 41.07–69.35 kJ/mol in N2, air and O2 at 20 °C/min, respectively, and the combustion of crop residues in O2 is the most intense. Overall, rape stalk showed the best comprehensive pyrolysis and combustion performance, and rice straw was the poorest.