The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of grain moisture, temperature, and storage time on biochemical, digestibility, and technological parameters of carioca beans. The grains were stored at 16.7% and 13.8% of moisture at 12, 20, 28, and 36°C for 240 days. It was observed that a reduction in the storage temperature maintained the germination and vigor of the grains. The temperature of 36°C causes between 3.81% and 4.52% reduction in weight of a thousand grains and significant darkening. Carioca beans stored at 36°C exhibited hard‐to‐cook (HTC) defect at 80 days and increases in hardness after 240 days. The best digestibility indexes of carioca beans were obtained with refrigerated storage. The refrigerated storage (12°C) provides the best preservability of the grains throughout the storage, verified by the parameters biochemical, digestibility, and technological parameters. Practical applications Carioca beans are among the most consumed beans in Brazil and their quality for consumption is directly influenced by storage conditions that alter color, nutritional value, bioactive, and cooking properties. Thus, this study seeks to present a practical and viable solution for stockist of bean grains, so that they can store these grains for long periods, maintaining the quality standards for commercialization. In addition, this technology allows the stockist to identify the best time for commercialization of the carioca beans, which has high added value.

The present study aimed to assess the efficiency of sowing at variable rates for soybean cultivation in two management zones (MZs) which were defined based on stable attributes and correlated with productivity using the Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm and the kriging interpolation.Seeding was carried out in the 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 crops with a variation of 20% of seeds and crop row spacing of 0.70m. In each MZ, 8 plots with higher and lower seed density were established. Productivity was measured using a harvest monitor connected to a harvester. Data were filtered and submitted to descriptive analysis. Productivity maps were generated using the inverse square distance interpolation for each seeding density. In the MZ with the highest productive potential (MZ 1), the productivity was 3.39 and 3.18t ha-1, and in the MZ with the lowest productive potential (MZ 2) the productivity was 3.30 and 3.11t ha-1 for the years 2016 and 2018, respectively. Interpolation estimated higher productivity with the application of 15 plants m-1. Based on the economic analysis, it is suggested in this study the application of 214,000 plants ha-1 in both MZs.

Grain drying processes have been improved to reduce costs and losses of coffee beverage quality. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the quality of coffee dried using air partially dehumidified before entering drying units (DUs) in four coffee-producing farms, as well as the effects of such process on coffee commercial value. The method consisted of obtaining three samples (triplicates) of coffee dried in both DUs and concrete terraces (control) for mean multiple comparisons. The following variables were analyzed for sieve #13 and hand-picked beans: defect number, cupping test, and pricing. Evaluations were carried out by three professional graders. The results showed that coffee dried in the DUs presented fewer broken grains, higher cupping score, and less negative factors of handsorting and defects. As a conclusion, it should be emphasized an average increase of 12.11% in price for coffee beans previously dehumidified.

New grain drying techniques have been improved to reduce post-harvest losses. The electric air dehumidifier (UTA 60®) is an example; it was installed at the ELLITT Seed Company for drying soybean seeds (TEC 7849) with random sample collection (DIC). Our objective was to evaluate the immediate and latent effects of the dehumidified air on the vigour of the seeds. Our vigour analysis method was based on the Rules for Seed Analysis (RAS), and our results showed an immediate significant difference in seedling percentage, but the germination level did not have an effect at 5% (Dunnett's test). In latent effects, at 5% (Tukey test), there was a reduction in the germination percentage and emergence rate, but it was not possible link such variations to the drying process. The germination potential was classified as "highest vigour", and it was possible to conclude that dehydrating drying air with UTA constituted a method capable of maintaining seed quality and germinative vigour.