DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A SMALL-SCALE GROUNDNUT SHELLING MACHINE

Food serves as one of the requirements for the survival of every living being. It exists in various forms and one of this is Groundnut. Groundnut (Arachis hypogea), apart from being considered for food, creates jobs and sources of income for the teeming populace and contributes to GDP of the countries where grown; its contributions to the national growth increase when its production is mechanized. However, in spite of the use of mechanized method of farming, the contributions are still low in developing countries, compared to the developed countries. Some of the factors responsible for this center on the fact that the available machineries are for turkey projects, which are expensive and as such they are viewed irrelevant among the small scale stakeholders in the developing nations, based on the quantity of their produce. In order to find solution to some of these challenges, the present study utilizes the characteristics of both nuts and shells of groundnuts to develop and evaluate the performance of a 20 kg/h groundnut shelling machine. The machine comprises five basic units, namely: the hopper, neck, shelling unit, power transmission unit and frame. The developed machine with a theoretically loading capacity of 2.5 kg/batch, required average of 58.02 minutes to shell the rated capacity to attain shelling efficiency of 80.39 % with loss of 3.125 % due to crushing. Findings show that the minimum productivity of the machine is 20.666 kg/hr, which improves as the moisture content of the feedstock reduces.

Beneficial microorganisms enhance the growth of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) under greenhouse conditions

The integration of healthy management alternatives continues to be a challenge in the organic production of aromatic and medicinal plants, including of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of three beneficial microorganisms (1) Trichoderma harzianum (TH), (2) Bacillus subtilis (BS), (3) Glomus cubense (GC) and their combinations on the growth of basil. A completely randomised design was used with a control and seven treatments with six repetitions. The control (1) was with no microorganism inoculation and the seven treatments were inoculations with the single or the combined microorganisms as follows: (2) TH, (3) BS, (4) GC, (5) TH+BS, (6) TH+GC, (7) BS+GC and (8) TH+BS+GC. Three harvests of fresh biomass were made and a number of growth variables were recorded: fresh and dry biomass, leaf area, number of commercial stems, stem length and thickness, Leaf length and width, relative chlorophyll concentration (SPAD readings) and the levels of N, P, K, Ca and Mg. Overall growth increased by 58% with TH+GC compared with the control and by 55% compared with the single inoculations (TH, BS and GC) and with the triple inoculation (TH+BS+GC). A growth increase of 51% was obtained with BS+GC compared with the control and of 38% compared with the other treatments. These results indicate co-inoculation of TH+GC or of BS+GC are useful alternative managements to increase greenhouse production of basil.

PH of nutrient media for the cultivation of fungi

A. Mallinkrodt-Haupt (Derm. Ztschr. Bd. 55, H. 5/6, 1929), studying the effect of the reaction of the nutrient medium on the growth of fungi (various types of trichophytosis, favus and others), as well as the change in this reaction under the influence of the growth of various fungi, the surface tension of the nutrient medium and, finally, enzyme formation, comes to the conclusion that the strains of fungi in the process of their growth increase the alkalinity of the medium, in parallel with which there is an increase in the surface tension; enzyme formation occurs in an alkaline environment and further increases with the growth of fungi.

Влияние света разного спектрального состава на рост и продуктивность сортов-дифференциаторов рака картофеля в культуре in vitro

The effectiveness of the use of red light was determined. The test tube varieties Slavyanka, Glazurna, Chervona Ruta was recorded the growth increase . The number of internodes decreased in plants under the blue light, and at the same time the total number of microtubers increase was also record-ed by varieties Glazurna and Chervona Ruta.

Enrichment of polyunsaturated fatty acids in black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) fortified with squid liver oil

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL; Hermetia illucens) are known as an alternative feed for livestock, but their lack of polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)) makes it less valuable. To overcome these problems, BSFL substrate (chicken feed) was fortified with squid liver oil (SLO) at five different concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20%). The growth rate, feed conversion, and nutritional content of BSFL were evaluated at day 15 of rearing. Of the five concentrations, SLO 5% showed the highest growth increase (25.82-fold) among the other treatments (20.63-22.98-fold; P<0.05). The fortification of SLO 5% did not result in differences in survival and feed conversion of larvae compared to larvae fed the control substrate. By rearing BSFL in a substrate containing SLO 5%, the lipid content of the larvae was 32% higher than that of larvae fed the control substrate (P<0.05). The accumulation of lipids was faster in the substrate containing SLO 5% (33.20% for 8 days) than in the control substrate (24.36% for 15 days). The control group of BSFL contained no DHA or EPA, but after rearing on the SLO 5% fortified substrate, the larvae contained DHA at an average level of 2.99 g/100 g lipid and EPA was 2.68 g/100 g lipid. Harvested larvae from SLO 5% treatment was within safe levels of Pb, Cd, As, and Hg (840, 370, 860, and 26.7 μg/kg, respectively), under the EU threshold for animal feed. Based on our results, it concluded that BSFL enriched with PUFAs, DHA and EPA can be considered as important nutritional components of animal feed without excessive heavy metals accumulation by feeding SLO in an appropriate amount.

Wet vs. dry inoculation methods have a significant effect of Listeria monocytogenes growth on many types of whole intact fresh produce

L. monocytogenes causes relatively few outbreaks linked to whole fresh produce but triggers recalls each year in the US. There are limited data on the influence of wet vs. dry methods on pathogen growth on whole produce. A cocktail of five L. monocytogenes strains that included clinical, food, or environmental isolates associated with foodborne outbreaks and recalls was used. Cultures were combined to target a final wet inoculum concentration of 4-5 log CFU/mL. The dry inoculum was prepared by mixing wet inoculum with 100 g of sterile sand and drying for 24 h. Produce investigated belonged to major commodity families: Ericaceae (blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry), Rutaceae (lemon and mandarin orange), Roseaceae (sweet cherry), Solanaceae (tomato), Brassaceae (cauliflower and broccoli) and Apiaceae (carrot). Intact, whole inoculated fruit and vegetable commodities were incubated at 2, 12, 22 and 35±2°C. Commodities were sampled for up to 28 days, and the experiment was replicated 6 times. The average maximum growth increase was obtained by measuring the maximum absolute increase for each replicate within a specific commodity, temperature, and inoculation method. Data for each commodity, replicate and temperature was used to create primary growth or survival models, describing the lag phase and growth or shoulder and decline as a function of time. Use of a liquid inoculum (vs. dry inoculum) resulted in markedly increased L. monocytogenes growth rate and growth magnitude on whole produce surfaces. This difference was highly influenced by temperature with a greater effect seen with more commodities at higher temperatures (22 and 35°C), versus lower temperatures (2 and 12 °C). These findings need to be explored for other commodities and pathogens. The degree to which wet or dry inoculation techniques more realistically mimic contamination conditions throughout the supply chain (e.g., production, harvest, post-harvest, transportation, or retail) should be investigated.

Ways To Develop Inbound Tourism In Uzbekistan

This article analysis way to develop inbound tourism in Uzbekistan and also its regions. As we know after pandemic situation in the whole world, most countries are trying develop tourism industry through local people and it is important nowadays to improve inbound tourism in regions. At the same time, according to the article, the main goal of research is to clarify the achievements high peaks in the domestic tourism sector and ensure economic growth, increase the number of job places, tax revenues, international exchange inflows. It is the implementation of analyzes on the formation and development of a competitive tourism market, which will make a significant contribution to the development of the Tourism Product and the Government Economy. In addition, we have to develop the infrastructure of domestic tourism, introduce certain standards for them, and further improve the service sector.

Event Tourism Demand and Selected Macroeconomic Variables: An Econometrics View of the Long-Run and Short-Run Relationships

Assessing the substantial economic benefits of event tourism will provide insight into the effectiveness of tourism event in Malaysia.The significance of the tourism event sector has the potential to boost Malaysia’s economic growth, increase the arrivalof international tourists, increase tourist expenditure and further job creations.This study empirically investigates determinantsof event tourism demand in Malaysia during the period of 1991Q1to 2016Q4. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) techniqueis used to find the long-run cointegration relationshipsof the model. The model is further tested by employing diagnostic tests(Normality test, Serial Autocorrelation, Heteroscedasticity and Ramsey’s RESET test) and stability tests(CUSUM and CUSUMSQ). The empirical analysis of the boundstest indicatesthat there is a long-run cointegration among the variables under study. Besides that, the ARDL model produces reliable results,as all of the computed coefficientsof the independent variables are statistically significant with the expected signs. The findings are consistent witheconomic theory and the model passed all of the diagnostic tests.The findings of this study imply that event demand can be improved significantly when government spending,theexchange rate and tourist receipts increaseand the crude oil price decreases. Hence, government authorities and the private sector should createan integrated plan to enhancethe profit gained through the Malaysian economyfrom event tourism.

Tree-Ring Based Chronology of Landslides in the Shirakami Mountains, Japan

The N-Ohkawa landslide, and the southern section of the Ohkawa landslide, occurred during the snow-melt seasons of 1999 and 2006, respectively, in the Shirakami Mountains, Japan. This paper examines the response of trees in the Shirakami Mountains to landslides, and also investigates the spatio-temporal occurrence patterns of landslide events in the area. Dendrogeomorphological analysis was used to identify growth suppression and growth increase (GD) markers in tilted deciduous broadleaved trees and also to reveal the timing of the establishment of shade-intolerant tree species. Analysis of the GD markers detected in tree-ring width series revealed confirmatory evidence of landslide events that occurred in 1999 and 2006 and were observed by eyewitnesses, as well as signals from eight additional (previously unrecorded) landslide events during 1986–2005. Furthermore, shade-intolerant species were found to have become established on the N-Ohkawa and southern Ohkawa landslides, but with a lag of up to seven years following the landslide events causing the canopy opening.