Kufa Journal for Agricultural Sciences

Fruit bruising is one of the most important factors which are limiting the mechanization and automation in harvesting, handling and transport of fruits and vegetables, including apple. Because of importance of dynamic loads in handling systems, it is useful to identify the conditions that cause in reducing the rate of bruising under impact loads. According to the results of this research, factors of temperature, type of impact surface and kinetic energy are affected on rate of bruised surface area (P<0.01). By increasing temperature of fruit tissue, the rate of bruise decreased, while the kinetic energy had the inverse effect. In addition, by increasing the hardness of impact surface the rate of bruise was increased, so that the minimum and maximum rate of bruise were related to corrugated carton (0.97%) and galvanized iron (2.26%), respectively. This result may be stated in the form of drop height, so that, in Red Delicious variety, the maximum value of critical drop height was related to corrugated carton and temperature of 10 °C, equal to 130 mm, while the minimum value was related to galvanized iron and 0 °C, equal to 26 mm. However, the results showed that Golden Delicious apple had more resistance to bruising than the Red Delicious.

An experiment was carried out in private farm in Radwaniah , 30 km westernsouth of Baghdad to test the impact of foliar spray by two organic fertilizers( Humistar and Vegeamino ) at three concentrations ( 0 , 1.0 and 1.5 ml.L-1 ) on three potato cultivars ( Ajiba , Riviera and Cardinal ) grade Elite . Plants were fertilized by using soil addition with N , P and K at rate of 120 : 60 : 200 kg.ha-1 applied to the soil. Foliar spray was applied twice to drip point , first at 45 days and second at 65 days post planting . Split – plot experiment design experiment was implemented where 15 treatment in each replication and three replicates were used.

The experiment was conducted to improve the microbial load and sensory characteristics of chicken meat using locally designed and manufactured an improved grill and compared it with traditional grill in the department of Agricultural Machines and Equipment/College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad in 2017. The study included test of complete roasted chicken samples that ready for sale consumption from the top and bottom rows of improved grill, also included incomplete roasted chicken samples from the top row in addition to complete roasted chicken that ready for sale and consumption from the bottom row of the traditional grill, as well as a control sample that was roasted chicken by putting it in traditional grill alone. Bacteriological included total number of aerobic bacteria (Aerobic Plate Count APC), total number Coliform, fecal E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella Spp, In addition to Molds and Yeasts were tested in this study. Despite the lack of microbial limits for roasted chicken in Iraqi standard specifications, the results showed that absence of all study samples, including control from the presence of Salmonella, but it showed the superiority of improved grill to reduce the mean of APC, coliform, yeasts and molds, which they are free of fecal coliform and Staphylococcus aureus, and recorded significant reducing. Also, high microbial load in complete roasted chicken samples that taken from the bottom row from traditional grill compared with improved grill demonstrates that the exudates fluids from the top row chicken on the bottom row chicken of the traditional grill has contributed to the rise of these microbial load, also demonstrates the erroneous practice adopted in the roasted method of chicken in the traditional grill, when the worker puts the chicken intended for roasting in the top rows of the grill and put the complete roasted chicken that ready for sale or consumption in the bottom of the grill, which contributes in contamination by exudates fluids that fall out of the raw and incomplete roasted chicken in the top row. The results of the current study also showed superiority of the improved grill to register the highest average in sensory evaluation scores of complete grilled chicken by the evaluators experts in a number of sensory qualities of odor, flavor, palatability and juiciness, it recorded significant differences compared with traditional grill, as well as it hood to get to complete roasting compared with samples of traditional grill and control.

Cyclone is one of the most important components of pneumatic conveying system which is used for separating particles from gas stream. A CFD study was conducted to investigate the effect of Cyclone’s dimensions on its efficiency during wheat separation process. The main aim was alignment of the particles from different parts of the input and understanding the movement and separation of wheat particles. Cyclone type was high efficiency Stair and. It was designed in Solid works 2010 and meshed using Gambit software. In Fluent software based on a comparison with experimental results, the second order Reynolds stress model (RSM) was selected as the most appropriate method to model cyclone separation performance. It was found that at ratio of De/D=0.45 resulted high collection efficiency for particle size less than 4mm. In general at high 0.5 the separation efficiency for small seeds (d<4mm) was significantly less in comparison with the other ratios. Results showed that for wheat grains with approximate size of 3 mm and more, the ratio of h/d= 0.75 was the most appropriate option. However, for seeds size less than 3 mm h/d=0.5 was more appropriate. Considering the numerical results of this study, it was found that the smaller outlet diameter cyclone has a high collecting efficiency in comparison with large diameter cyclones.

A laboratory experiment was designed with two factors by using completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates to determine the effect of saline stress and magnetized water on the germination of cotton seeds. The first factor included salt concentrations of (0, 3, 6, 9 ds.m-1), and the second factor included magnetized water with intensity of 1000 gauss and distilled water (control treatment). The seeds were planted on blotting paper and experimental units were placed inside germinator at temperature in the range of 20-30ºC for 12 days[9]. The results showed that the use of magnetized water caused a significant increase in the studied traits (germination percentage, germination speed, radicle length, plumule length, and the weight of seedlings)as compared to non-magnetized water. In addition, saline irrigation water has significantly reduced all studied traits as compared to the use of distilled water (0 ds.m-1). There was also a significant interaction between concentrations of salinity and magnetized water, in which magnetism has improved the properties of studied trails under saline conditions as compared to non-magnetized water.

The plant leaves of Common mallow plant were collected from the gardens of college of Agriculture ,University of Kufa to detect the active compounds of this plant. The plant was dried in the shade at room temperature and grinding a log of plant leaves and used to detect the active compounds in the laboratories of the Ministry of Science and Technology using GC-MS and HPLC. The results ofanalysis showed that commonmallow leaves contained many of active compounds such as kaempherol, Rutin, QurcetineandLuteolin when analyzed by a HPLC. Either When analyzeedby GC-MS the result showed that it contained 9,12-Octadecadioenaic acid(z,z),methyl ester and 10,13-Octadecadioenaic acid, methyl ester at a percentage of 70.58% and Hexadeanoic acid, methyl esterat a percentage 8.42%.

A experimental was conducted during summer season 2016 at Agricultural College- Baghdad University, Iraq to determine the actual consumptive use by okra crop (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) under deficit irrigation conditions and humic fertilizer, as well as the assessment the productivity of water and yield. Four irrigation treatments were used 1.Full irrigation (traditional - control), irrigation was imposed at 50% depletion of available water (T0). 2. Deficit irrigation: cutting or omitting irrigation for 15 days in initial vegetative growth stage (T1). 3. Deficit irrigation: cutting or omitting irrigation for 15 days in middle vegetative growth stage (T2). 4. Deficit irrigation: cutting or omitting irrigation for 15 days in flowering stage (T3). Humic acid treatments included application of 4 rates (0, 10, 20 and 40)kg ha-1. The results show the depth water applied was varied with irrigation treatment reached 1115, 1065, 1000 and 994 mm season-1 and water productivity recorder 0.60, 0.44, 0.65 and 0.56 kg m-3 for (T0, T1, T2 and T3) respectively. The humic fertilization increased N, P and K content in okra fruit and theses indicated the role of humic acid to increasing vegetative growth (plant height, leafs number and leaf width), and leading to increase the amount of processed food and fruit yield.

Japan’s area is a quarter of Iran’s and it has twice the population. The country has used agricultural and rural economic policies based on productive and patriotic culture and has prioritized national interest over individual interest to be able to produce most of its required agricultural products itself. Japan has used success in agriculture as a theme for its industrialization. On the other hand, Iran, despite its opulent natural resources, has been unsuccessful to do so. The country has relied on oil export income and has embarked upon extreme imports of agricultural products. It is not self-sufficient in food products and is dependent onindustrial sector. The present research has studied agricultural and rural policies in Iran and Japan and has considered the cultural roots of these decisions.