Agricultural systems engineering (greenhouse, fish farming, mushroom production)
B. Mohammadi; A. R. Yousefi; M. Namdari; M. Heydari
Abstract
This study evaluates the energy consumption and economic performance of three different weed control methods employed in olive orchards in Tarom County, Zanjan Province, Iran, with an emphasis on sustainable agriculture. The objective is to assess the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of different ...
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This study evaluates the energy consumption and economic performance of three different weed control methods employed in olive orchards in Tarom County, Zanjan Province, Iran, with an emphasis on sustainable agriculture. The objective is to assess the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of different weed management systems. The analysis includes chemical weed control (System I), mechanical control (System II), and integrated weed management (System III). Data were collected through interviews with 50 olive farmers, supplemented by official agricultural records. Results show that total energy consumption was highest in System III (93,069.16 MJ ha-1), and lowest in System I (64,297.16 MJ ha-1). System I also demonstrated superior energy efficiency (0.74), output energy (47,648.40 MJ ha-1), and energy productivity (0.06 kg MJ-1), making it the most viable option for optimizing energy consumption. Economically, System I generated the highest net profit (4,662.28 $ ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (2.66), outperforming Systems II (3,073.31 $ ha-1; BCR: 2.16) and III (2,953.57 $ ha-1; BCR: 1.97). The study concludes that System I, with its efficient use of renewable energy, is the most viable option in terms of both energy and economic performance, providing a balance between low energy input and high yield, thus maximizing profits and minimizing production costs. These findings emphasize the importance of selecting appropriate weed control methods to optimize energy use and reduce overall production costs in olive cultivation.
M. Namdari; Sh. Rafiee; A. Jafari
Abstract
Farm management needs creative methods to success. FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) is a new method to analyze potential reliability problems in the development cycle of the project, making it easier to take actions to overcome such issues, thus enhancing the reliability through design or process. ...
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Farm management needs creative methods to success. FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) is a new method to analyze potential reliability problems in the development cycle of the project, making it easier to take actions to overcome such issues, thus enhancing the reliability through design or process. Anticipating these failure modes, being the central step in the analysis, needs to be carried on extensively, in order to prepare a list of maximum potential failure modes. Risk is measured in terms of Risk Priority Number (RPN) that is a product of occurrence, severity, and detection difficulty. This study attempted to improve clod mean weight diameter and soil inversion as indicators of tillage quality by FMEA methodology. The results showed that low soil moisture, slow speed of ploughing and great depth of ploughing is the most important factors that increase clod MWD with 900, 630 and 560 RPN, respectively. Also for soil inversion the slow speed of ploughing, not using coulter, low soil moisture and great depth of ploughing are important factors with 720, 648, 490 and 420 RPN. Using a split - split factorial experiment with 16 treatments and three replications also acknowledged the results of this method. After reforming the conditions and re-testing the experiment, results showed that clod MWD was reduced 20% and soil inversion increased 2% approximately. This study proposes the use of this technique in agricultural management.
