Low Labor Requirements Research Articles

Thermal performance and life cycle analysis of 3D printed concrete wall building

Automated construction process with extrusion-based 3D concrete printing (3DCP) is widely recognised due to its ability to construct complex freeform geometrical shapes. Furthermore, the automation process reduces labour and minimises material wastage, thus improving productivity. The structural performance of printed structures has been widely discussed; however, addressing the knowledge gap in energy performance and their environmental impact needs further investigation. Thus, this study investigated and compared the insulation characteristics, life cycle cost and environmental impact assessment of 3DCP structures with traditional reinforced concrete members. The evaluation of the insulation properties of 3D printable concrete allows the characterisation of operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions incurred from the additional heating and cooling systems. Furthermore, this study also suggested a method to enhance the thermal resistance of 3DCP with recycled fibre recovered from face mask waste. A comparison between face mask fibre-reinforced 3D-printed wall element and conventional reinforced concrete wall is also performed across the thermal, life cycle cost and environmental impact parameters. The results showed that the insulation properties of 3DCP walls were increased by 49.5% with the addition of face mask fibres compared to RC walls. This results in reduced energy consumption from additional heating and cooling systems along with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, thereby improving the energy performance of the building. Further, face mask fibre-reinforced printed walls showed a reduction in the life cycle cost, mainly in the operation stage, due to the low labour requirement and elimination of formwork. Moreover, a significant reduction in the depletion of resources and ozone depletion was observed for 3DCP face mask fibre-reinforced walls, along with the reduced impact on human health and ecosystem damage. Consequently, the incorporation of face mask fibres into the 3DCP process paves the way for its potential in constructing energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable buildings.

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 evolution by a centralised pipeline and weekly focused sequencing, Austria, January 2021 to March 2023

Background The COVID-19 pandemic was largely driven by genetic mutations of SARS-CoV-2, leading in some instances to enhanced infectiousness of the virus or its capacity to evade the host immune system. To closely monitor SARS-CoV-2 evolution and resulting variants at genomic-level, an innovative pipeline termed SARSeq was developed in Austria. Aim We discuss technical aspects of the SARSeq pipeline, describe its performance and present noteworthy results it enabled during the pandemic in Austria. Methods The SARSeq pipeline was set up as a collaboration between private and public clinical diagnostic laboratories, a public health agency, and an academic institution. Representative SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens from each of the nine Austrian provinces were obtained from SARS-CoV-2 testing laboratories and processed centrally in an academic setting for S-gene sequencing and analysis. Results SARS-CoV-2 sequences from up to 2,880 cases weekly resulted in 222,784 characterised case samples in January 2021–March 2023. Consequently, Austria delivered the fourth densest genomic surveillance worldwide in a very resource-efficient manner. While most SARS-CoV-2 variants during the study showed comparable kinetic behaviour in all of Austria, some, like Beta, had a more focused spread. This highlighted multifaceted aspects of local population-level acquired immunity. The nationwide surveillance system enabled reliable nowcasting. Measured early growth kinetics of variants were predictive of later incidence peaks. Conclusion With low automation, labour, and cost requirements, SARSeq is adaptable to monitor other pathogens and advantageous even for resource-limited countries. This multiplexed genomic surveillance system has potential as a rapid response tool for future emerging threats.

Agroforestry in temperate-climate commercial agriculture: Feedback from agroforestry practitioners in the Mid-Atlantic United States

Industrially managed annual monocultures are the primary agricultural system used to grow most crops in developed countries. These systems necessitate the destruction of natural ecological complexity for their management and contribute substantially to the environmental problems facing society in the 21st century, including climate change, biodiversity and habitat loss, water pollution, topsoil loss, and desertification. Agroforestry is a promising set of alternative practices that involve integrating trees into agricultural systems to optimize biophysical system interactions and achieve a range of environmental and economic benefits. Much of the agroforestry literature has focused on potential adopters rather than farmers who have implemented agroforestry, but researchers and farmers alike stand to gain from insights into farmer experiences. This study aims to address that gap through qualitative interviews with farmers in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland who utilize production-oriented agroforestry. Perceived benefits of agroforestry included: improved climate resilience; lifestyle and mental health benefits; improved water management; improved soil health; increased presence of wildlife; improved livestock wellbeing; improved business resilience; provision of food, fuel, or fiber; improved ecological connectivity; reduced need for purchased inputs; low labor requirements; improved yields; improved pasture or crop health; and high product quality. Perceived challenges included: early setbacks; negative interactions within agroforestry systems; high labor requirements; difficulty mechanizing; tree establishment work; delayed or uncertain yields; novel crop challenges; meat processing challenges; difficulty planning for the future; high startup costs; and high management complexity. Farmers identified the value of both farmer–farmer networking and government support in the form of flexible and context-specific grant funding, system examples, business planning, and technical assistance. Many of the challenges farmers face can be overcome with agroforestry system designs that optimize early cash flow, balance labor productivity and environmental outcomes, and allow for harmonious integration of animals and appropriate-scale machinery.

Evaluation of the deposition and distribution of spray droplets in citrus orchards by plant protection drones

Plant protection drone spraying technology is widely used to prevent and control crop diseases and pests due to its advantages of being unaffected by crop growth patterns and terrain restrictions, high operational efficiency, and low labor requirements. The operational parameters of plant protection drones significantly impact the distribution of spray droplets, thereby affecting pesticide utilization. In this study, a field experiment was conducted to determine the working modes of two representative plant protection drones and an electric backpack sprayer as a control to explore the characteristics of droplet deposition with different spray volumes in the citrus canopy. The results showed that the spraying volume significantly affected the number of droplets and the spray coverage. The number of droplets and the spray coverage area on the leaf surface were significantly increased by increasing the spray volume from 60 L/ha to 120 L/ha in plant protection drones. Particularly for the DJI T30, the mid-lower canopy showed a spray coverage increase of 52.5%. The droplet density demonstrated the most significant variations in the lower inner canopy, ranging from 18.7 droplets/cm2 to 41.7 droplets/cm2 by XAG V40. From the deposition distribution on fruit trees, the plant protection drones exhibit good penetration ability, as the droplets can achieve a relatively even distribution in different canopy layers of citrus trees. The droplet distribution uniformity inside the canopy is similar for XAG V40 and DJI T30, with a variation coefficient of approximately 50%-100%. Compared to the plant protection drones, the knapsack electric sprayer is suitable for pest and disease control in the mid-lower canopy, but they face challenges of insufficient deposition capability in the upper canopy and overall poor spray uniformity. The distribution of deposition determined in this study provides data support for the selection of spraying agents for fruit trees by plant protection drones and for the control of different pests and diseases.

The Adaptation Assessment of Different Sunflower Cultivars under Kabul Agro Climatic Conditions

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is one of the most important oilseeds crops due to its wide adaptability, mechanization potential, low labor requirements, and high oil and protein content. The present study was conducted to evaluate the performance of elite sunflower cultivars under Kabul agro-ecological conditions. The main objective of this research is to identify superior genotypes best adapted to Kabul agro-ecological conditions. Three improved cultivars of sunflowers, two from France (Robiacs and Imeriacs) and a local one were tested for two years, 2018-19, on the farm of Agriculture faculty at Kabul University. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data were collected on achene's yield and other parameters. Analysis revealed a highly significant difference among cultivars for all parameters under study except the number of days to complete emergence, number of plants m-2, plant height and leaf area index. Among the cultivars examined, there were significant differences in achene yield. Local cultivar (4696.92kg ha-1) followed by Robiacs (4346.62 kg ha-1) yielded significantly higher than Imeriacs cultivar (3029). These cultivars have shown to be the best local and exotic genotypes in terms of achene's yield. With additional tastings, these potential lines could be released for specific environments in Afghanistan similar to the Kabul agro-ecology.

A unified DNA- and RNA-based NGS strategy for the analysis of multiple types of variants at the dual nucleic acid level in solid tumors.

Targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a powerful and suitable approach to comprehensively identify multiple types of variants in tumors. RNA-based NGS is increasingly playing an important role in precision oncology. Both parallel and sequential DNA- and RNA-based approaches are expensive, burdensome, and have long turnaround times, which can be impractical in clinical practice. A streamlined, unified DNA- and RNA-based NGS approach is urgently needed in clinical practice. A DNA/RNA co-hybrid capture sequencing (DRCC-Seq) approach was designed to capture pre-capture DNA and RNA libraries in a single tube and convert them into one NGS library. The performance of the DRCC-Seq approach was evaluated by a panel of reference standards and clinical samples. The average depth, DNA data ratio, capture ratio, and target coverage 250 (×) of the DNA panel data had a negative correlation with an increase in the proportion of RNA probes. The SNVs, indels, fusions, and MSI status were not affected by the proportion of RNA probes, but the copy numbers of the target genes were higher than expected in the standard materials, and many unexpected gene amplifications were found using D:R (1:2) and D:R (1:4) probe panels. The optimal ratio of DNA and RNA probes in the combined probe panel was 1:1 using the DRCC-Seq approach. The DRCC-Seq approach was feasible and reliable for detecting multiple types of variants in reference standards and real-world clinical samples. The DRCC-Seq approach is more cost-effective, with a shorter turnaround time and lower labor requirements than either parallel or sequential targeted DNA NGS and RNA NGS. It is feasible to identify multiple genetic variations at the DNA and RNA levels simultaneously in clinical practice.

Comparison of System of Rice Intensification Applications and Alternatives in India: Agronomic, Economic, Environmental, Energy, and Other Effects

Initial evaluations of the System of Rice Intensification in India and elsewhere focused mainly on its impacts on yield and income, and usually covered just one or two seasons. Researchers at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research have conducted a more comprehensive evaluation of SRI methods over six years (six wet and six dry seasons), comparing them with three alternatives: modified, partially mechanized SRI (MSRI) to reduce labor requirements; direct-seeded rice (DSR) as an alternative method for growing rice; and conventional transplanting of rice with flooding of fields (CTF). Grain yield with SRI methods was found to be about 50% higher than with CTF (6.35 t ha−1 vs. 4.27 t ha−1), while the MSRI yield was essentially the same (6.34 t ha−1), 16% more than with DSR (5.45 t ha−1). Water productivity with SRI methods was 5.32–6.85 kg ha-mm−1, followed by 4.14–5.72 kg ha-mm−1 for MSRI, 5.06–5.11 kg ha-mm−1 for DSR, and 3.52–4.56 kg ha-mm−1 for CTF. In comparison with CTF, SRI methods significantly enhanced soil microbial populations over time: bacteria by 12%, fungi by 8%, and actinomycetes by 20%. Biological activity in the rhizosphere was also higher as indicated by 8.5% greater dehydrogenase and 16% more FDA enzymes in soil under SRI management. Similarly, an indicator of soil organic matter, glucosidase activity, was 78% higher compared to CTF. SRI enhanced the relative abundance of beneficial microbial-feeding nematodes by 7.5% compared to CTF, while that of plant-pathogenic nematodes was 7.5% lower under SRI. Relative to conventional methods, SRI management reduced GHG emissions by 21%, while DSR reduced them by 23%, and MSRI by 13%, compared to standard rice-growing practice. Economic analysis showed both gross and net economic returns to be higher with SRI than with the other management systems evaluated. While the six-year study documented many advantages of SRI crop management, it also showed that MSRI is a promising adaptation that provides similar benefits but with lower labor requirements.

Dairy goat production in Kenya: A review

In sub-Saharan Africa, dairy goat farming presents a viable option to ensure food and nutrition security in addition to playing an important socio-economic function among rural farmer households. Dairy goat production can improve people’s livelihoods mainly by providing milk for household nutrition and agro-income. Additionally, the dairy goat enterprise supplies breeding stock, meat, skins, fibre (hair), manure, and also acts as an insurance against emergencies. Further, in most rural households, dairy goats also serve socio-cultural functions including weddings, blessing ceremonies and circumcision rites, among others. In 2009, the dairy goat sub sector contributed about 15.2% of the total livestock and 4.8% of the overall household incomes in Kenya. Milk production is a high-priority function for those involved in dairy goat production. In the year 2006, exotic dairy goat genotypes (Alpines, Toggenburg and Saanen) were introduced in various semi-arid lands of Kenya which were characterised by low, erratic rainfall amounts (below 750 mm annually), high day temperatures (29o to 35o Celsius), insufficient and low quality feeds, inadequate health care and inappropriate husbandry practices. Dairy goats are more adapted to semi arid conditions and climate change in general than dairy cows due to their smaller body size and physiology and thus they are becoming more important to the dairy industry. Goat milk is more nutritious than cow milk, is more digestible and is thus recommended for young children, the sick and the aged. Besides, dairy goats can survive a myriad of biotic stresses including diseases and parasites, have low feed and labour requirements, need little start-up capital and thus can be raised by the vulnerable members of the society. This review was aimed at describing dairy goat production and related husbandry practices among dairy goat farmers in Kenya. Policy guidance on the necessary interventions to improve the sub-sector is provided based on identified opportunities and constraints. Key words: Kenya, dairy goats, production systems, productive performance, constraints, opportunities

A review of sewage sludge dewatering and stabilisation in reed bed system: towards the process-based modelling

AbstractThe sludge treatment reed bed is a sustainable sewage sludge management technology that offers promising sludge dewatering and stabilisation, due to its low energy and labour requirements, and minimal operating and maintenance costs. Despite numerous existing studies and increasing applications of sludge treatment reed bed in both developed and developing countries, the lack of standard system configurations and operating regimes led to several operational problems, including bed clogging and poor dewatering and mineralisation efficiency. Sludge dewatering and stabilisation in STBRs are complex processes governed by system- and operation-related factors such as the substrate media, macrophytes, loading regime, sludge characteristics, and climate conditions. Rather than the complex experimental study, process-based modelling has become a promising approach to investigating the influence of specific factors on the efficiency of sludge dewatering and stabilisation. This paper presents an overview of the critical system and operating parameters in sludge treatment reed beds and a summary of the interactions between the factors. Then, a framework of process-based modelling is proposed, which provides a useful platform to study the interactions of operating parameters and other factors in the complex processes of sludge dewatering and stabilisation, which supports the system design and optimisation of sludge treatment reed beds.

Beyond wax printing: The future of paper analytical device fabrication

Many microfluidic “lab on paper” devices have been demonstrated for point-of-use applications, but scalable fabrication methods are necessary for these devices to make it past the proof-of-concept stage and become viable commercial products. Commercially available wax printers such as the Xerox ColorQube presented a near-ideal compromise between cost, ease of prototyping, and throughput, but in 2016, these printers were discontinued, and now, alternative methods are needed. In this review, we survey current paper analytical device (PAD) fabrication methods through the lens of scalability, focusing on the tradeoffs between resolution, ease of prototyping, cost, and throughput. Categories discussed include handmade, semi-automated, batch, laboratory-based, printer-based, and roll-to-roll fabrication methods. Hand-, batch-, semi-automated, and laboratory-based fabrication methods suffer from low throughput and high hands-on labor requirements. Roll-to-roll methods are high throughput but costly, while printer-based methods offer a compromise between cost and throughput. By highlighting the comparative merits of existing methods, we hope to offer insight into what makes a method “scalable” or “manufacturable.”

Artificial intelligence as a smart approach to develop antimicrobial drug molecules: A paradigm to combat drug-resistant infections.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a silent pandemic with the third highest global mortality. The antibiotic development pipeline is scarce even though AMR has escalated uncontrollably. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a revolutionary approach, accelerating drug discovery because of its fast pace, cost efficiency, lower labor requirements, and fewer chances of failure. AI has been used to discover several beta-lactamase inhibitors and antibiotic alternatives from antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), nonribosomal peptides, bacteriocins, and marine natural products. The significant recent increase in the use of AI platforms by pharmaceutical companies could result in the discovery of efficient antibiotic alternatives with lower chances of resistance generation.

Factoring labour when comparing in situ rainwater harvesting technologies for semi-arid areas of central Tanzania

ABSTRACT Erratic rainfall, high evapotranspiration rates and droughts are major factors limiting crop production in semi-arid areas. Tied ridges that have crossed ties within the furrow are among the physical soil and water conservation measures. During the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons, we examined the efficacy of repaired tied ridges for maize crop (Zea mays) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) in Kongwa district of Tanzania as an alternate labour saving strategy for managing climate risks associated with variable rainfall. Treatments consisted of three tillage methods: conventional tillage (CT) which involved the preparation of a flat seedbed using handhoe, annually constructed tied ridges (ATR) and tied ridges that had been constructed during the previous season and had been repaired (residual tied ridges–RTR). Data were collected on labour requirements and crop performance. RTR increased economic returns by 29% and 80% over ATR and CT, respectively. Maize grain yield shows a trend of RTR >ATR>CT with values ranging from 2465 kg ha−1 to 4185 kg ha−1 (P < 0.01). While tillage and/or variety did not influence sorghum grain yield significantly (P > 0.05). The use of RTR is recommended because of low labour requirements and greater economic benefits than CT and ATR under maize cropping systems.

Trends in Bioremediation of Heavy Metal Contaminations

Heavy metal contamination of the ecosystem remains one of the severe global threats. Even in trace quantities, heavy metals and metalloids such as chromium, lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel, and cobalt are toxic and carcinogenic, posing a serious threat to human life. Certain microbes and plants have evolved detoxifying pathways to fight the harmful effects of these inorganic metals, paving the door for bioremediation. Because of its environmentally benign nature, economic viability, and low labor and effort requirements, bioremediation outperforms other approaches in eliminating heavy metals. This review highlights the potential of microbes on remediation of heavy metals in the context of environmental protection and also focuses on the critical tolerance mechanisms used by these microbes in combating heavy metal contaminations. Furthermore, the bioremediation potential of bacteria, fungus, algae, plants, biosurfactants, biofilms and genetically altered microorganisms for the removal of these heavy metals was reviewed in this study. Applying these techniques as a sustainable environmental technology in the near future has shown synergistic benefits with a many-fold increase in the removal of heavy metals.

Review on the Mutual effects of Conservation Agriculture and Integrated Pest Management on Pest and Disease Control in Agriculture

Crop pests and pathogens have caused a serious significant yield loss of more than 40% in major crops worldwide in recent years. It is projected that many important crop producing countries will be fully saturated with pests and pathogens in next few years. Endevours to control pests using conventional methods have failed to achieve the goals of sustainable yield in agriculture. This is due to negative effects associated with the used modern agriculture inputs to control insect pests and pathogens. The failure to supply enough food to feed the growing population calls for identifying appropriate method that will sustain yield without harming the environment, human and other organisms. This review used online materials to identify the advantages of combined integrated pest management (IPM) and conservation agriculture (CA) in the agricultural crop production. The benefits farmers accrue as the result of combined appropriate IPM and CA management strategies includes; reduced production cost, slower development of resistance to chemicals. Achieving long term pest, pathogens and weeds control, reduce risks due to pesticides or herbicides use, reduction of emergence of cultivar resistant breaking species/isolates/tribes/strains, ultimately improves yield. Others are low labour requirement, increase water conservation, fertility increase and reduced land degradation. The job that is yet to be done is research on appropriate IPM and CA for specific crops is needed. It is concluded that the appropriate solutions will depend on the effective promotion, monitoring and evaluation of changes in farming practices. This calls for stakeholders including researchers, scientists, political class, the government and farmers come together to discuss issues and lay down laws and regulation that will help the implementation of IPM and CA to rescue the world vulnerable community and the environment.

Soil microbial diversity and functional capacity associated with the production of edible mushroom Stropharia rugosoannulata in croplands.

In recent years, a rare edible mushroom Stropharia rugosoannulata has become popular. S. rugosoannulata has the characteristics of easy cultivation, low cost, high output value, and low labor requirement, making its economic benefits significantly superior to those of other planting industries. Accumulating research demonstrates that cultivating edible fungus is advantageous for farming soil. The present experiment used idle croplands in winter for S. rugosoannulata cultivation. We explored the effects of S. rugosoannulata cultivation on soil properties and soil microbial community structure in paddy and dry fields, respectively. We cultivated S. rugosoannulata in the fields after planting chili and rice, respectively. The results showed that Chili-S. rugosoannulata and Rice-S. rugosoannulata planting patterns increased the yield, quality and amino acid content of S. rugosoannulata. By analyzing the soil properties, we found that the Chili-S. rugosoannulata and Rice-S. rugosoannulata cropping patterns increased the total nitrogen, available phosphorus, soil organic carbon, and available potassium content of the soil. We used 16s amplicons for bacteria and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region for fungi to analyze the microbial communities in rhizosphere soils. Notably, S. rugosoannulata cultivation significantly increased the abundance of beneficial microorganisms such as Chloroflexi, Cladosporium and Mortierella and reduce the abundance of Botryotrichumin and Archaeorhizomyces. We consider S. rugosoannulata cultivation in cropland can improve soil properties, regulate the community structure of soil microorganisms, increase the expression abundance of beneficial organisms and ultimately improve the S. rugosoannulata yield and lay a good foundation for a new round of crops after this edible mushroom cultivation.

Design of Automatic Feeder for Shrimp Farming Based on Internet of Things Technology

&lt;p class="02abstracttext"&gt;In shrimp farming, feeding is an important activity to achieve good shrimp growth. Manual feeding manually using hand is less effective due to unequal food distribution. Thus, an automatic feeder is required to dispense feed at predetermined time. The advantages of automatic feeder are cost-effective, low labour requirement, and can be applicable for large volumes of feed. Design of automatic feeder machine can influence the capacity and time controlling of the feeder. In this research, the automatic feeder was designed using a controlling time system based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology. During plant trial, The automatic feeding was scheduled at 7 am, 11 am, 4 pm, and 8 pm. This machine could throw shrimp food homogeneously up to 10 m far for 2,500 m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; pond area. In shrimp farming, distribution of shrimp food in predetermined time becomes an important rule to achieve good shrimp growth.&lt;/p&gt;

Yield and economic advantage of direct seeded rice: empirical evidence from Nepal

Puddled transplanted rice (TPR) has been gradually replaced by direct-seeded rice (DSR) because of its low labor requirements and less cost of cultivation. Whether and how DSR can be as productive and profitable as TPR has received widespread attention. Thus a comprehensive analysis was made to quantify the effects of direct seeding on rice yield and profitability under different tillage, residues, varieties, and nitrogen management options. The results revealed that, overall, the yield of DSR was 2.4% lower than that of TPR due to a significant reduction in the number of grains per panicle and a significant increment of sterility percentage. However, the yield loss of DSR relative to TPR was highly variable depending on different tillage and residue management options, ranging from yield advantage of +6.0% to yield penalty of 16.0%. The yield gap between CT-DSR and TPR could be narrowed by not incorporating the residues while more yield could be obtained with the residues retention on the ZT-DSR. Among the different forms of the DSR, ZT with residue retention and CT without residue retention were better in terms of profitability. Adoption of improved or hybrid varieties played the less important role in yield gain and loss under DSR. With respect to nitrogen levels, the yield penalty was eliminated by the higher nitrogen application (&gt;120 kg N ha-1) resulted in the yield advantage of 6.6% for the DSR as compared to the puddled TPR. In conclusion, DSR could produce comparable yields and more profits to TPR, but special attention should be given to optimizing management practices to improve DSR yield performance and narrow down the yield gap. Therefore, there is an urgent need to test, verify, and scale-out the DSR technologies across the different agro-ecologies of Nepal through a farmer-centered partnership among the international institutions, public and private sectors of Nepal.

Development of a decorticator for Buchanania lanzan nuts and its process optimization

AbstractThe study was aimed to develop a decorticator and to standardize the process for separation kernels from nuts. The developed machine was optimized using independent parameters, that is, cold water soaking, steaming, and sand roasting, different moisture levels (7 and 9%), cylinder speed (150 and 300 rpm), and concave clearances (7.5 and 8 mm). The optimum performance of a developed decorticator was obtained when sand roasted nuts (7% moisture content) fed at a cylinder speed of 300 rpm and a concave clearance of 8 mm. At this condition, decortication efficiency, capacity, and whole kernel recovery were 96.10, 64.15, and 12.60%, respectively. The decorticator produced 126 g whole kernels (56.71%) from 1 kg of nuts. The independent process parameters have significant effect on response variables. The machine had low labor requirement, high efficiency, and ease to operate; thus, the results will be useful for processing of nuts and in other studies.Practical applicationsThe chironji nut decorticator has application to decorticate nuts to produce kernel at manufacturing site of food, flavor, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. The kernels have very short shelf‐life because they are very soft and susceptible to mechanical damage and spoilage. The available decorticators have very limited efficiency and more breakage thus the results can be utilized to fill existing gap to obtain increased efficiency and less damage. The results of different treatments to nuts will assist future studies as well.

Improving smallholder farmers’ gross margins and labor-use efficiency across a range of cropping systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia is a region of high rural poverty and low agronomic productivity, with crops grown using traditional management practices which are labor-intensive and uneconomical. Poor agronomic productivity is largely caused by unintentional, inefficient management practices which are exacerbated by labor shortages caused by increased migration away from rural areas as households require additional income from remittances. These labor shortages increase the cost of hiring labor, further contributing to low gross margins from cropping systems. The climates, soils and available water across the region indicate that, with improved management practices, this region has the potential to produce high yields for low production costs and labor requirements, ensuring high gross margins for smallholder farmers. We conducted on-farm participatory trials to compare the performance of traditional and improved conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification management practices to understand which used less labor, had lower production costs and returned higher gross margins to smallholder farmers. Our study showed that compared to traditional management practices, conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices reduced both labor use and total cropping system production costs by around 40% and increased gross margins by up to 25%. Trials were conducted on over 400 farms and thus our results are both statistically rigorous and representative of a range of common crop production management across the Eastern Gangetic Plains. These results show there is potential to increase livelihoods and reduce the impact of labor shortages for smallholder farmers living in diverse climatic, edaphic and social circumstances across the region. They have broader applications in labor-constrained smallholder cropping systems throughout South Asia and worldwide.

Ratoon rice production in central China: Environmental sustainability and food production

Rice is an important strategic food crop for China concerning food security and environmental sustainability. Ratoon rice (RR) is proposed as a promising rice system to increase grain yield via improving multiple crop index. It is increasingly attractive for farmers due to its high resource efficiency and low labor requirement. Nevertheless, little information is known about the environmental profile of RR production. A comprehensive assessment regarding productivity and sustainability is of urgent importance. This paper aims to investigate the productivity and environmental impact of RR production and to identify its environmental hotspots through life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The analysis was conducted based on land-based and yield-based function units (FUs) using on-farm data from 561 RR producers in Hubei Province, China. The results, which were calculated using the land-based FU, showed that the yields for RR production were an average of 25.3% higher than the yields for traditional single rice production. However, the environmental impacts of RR production disproportionally increased, leading to 23.5% to 35.1% higher pollutant emissions. Opposite results were obtained from the comparisons based on the yield-based FU. The worse environmental results per hectare were canceled out because of its higher yields in RR production, leading to lower environmental impacts per ton of rice. If 18% of the current area that should be planted with traditional double rice shifted into RR instead of traditional single rice, a considerable increase in total rice production would be achieved with minimal environmental impacts. The major contributors to pollutions were methane emissions produced from flooded fields, emissions related to fertilizer and pesticide application, and diesel fuel for machinery. Increased environmental burdens in RR compared to the traditional single rice production were mainly attributed to the additional fertilizers and longer growing period. The study's results indicate that RR can be a viable alternative option to increase productivity with minimal environmental impact in rice production.