Agricultural production can achieve sustainability by appropriately applying agricultural mechanization, especially in developing countries where smallholding farmers lack sufficient agricultural machinery for their farming operations. This paper aimed to study the extent to which small-, medium-, and large-scale farms in the Delta of Egypt use agricultural mechanization in their wheat crop farming operations. K-means clustering was used to aggregate and analyze the scenarios implemented by farmers for wheat cultivation so as to suggest guidelines for each cluster of farmers on how to mechanize their indoor wheat agricultural operations to maximize production. The study is divided into two parts: Firstly, data were collected regarding the percentage of small, medium, and large farms; the cultivated area of wheat crops in small-, medium-, and large-scale farms; and the size of tractors, as an indicator of the mechanization available in the governorates of Egypt’s Delta. Secondly, data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 2652 smallholding farmers, 328 medium-holding farmers, and 354 large-holding farmers from Egypt’s Delta governorates. Based on the surveyed data, 14, 14, and 12 scenarios (indexes) were established for small-, medium-, and large-scale farms, respectively, related to various agricultural operations involved in wheat crop production. These scenarios were analyzed based on the centroids using K-means clustering. The identified scenarios were divided into three clusters for the three levels of farms. The data obtained showed the need for smallholding farmers to implement mechanization, which could be achieved through renting services. These findings, if implemented, would have huge social and economic effects on farmers’ lives, in addition to increasing production, saving time and effort, and reducing dependence on labor.
The introduction of ridge tillage and beans as a cover crop was investigated as a means of management for mitigating soil erosion and increasing the physical functionalities of soil. In a completely randomized design, four treatments were applied to twelve plots, three with ridges introduced (T1), three with beans as the cover crop (T2), three with cover crops combined with ridges (T3), and another three as controls without intervention (T4). Four physical properties were monitored, i.e., soil moisture content, bulk density, infiltration rate, and aggregate stability. Data were collected from two seasons with beans as the cover crop, with each season lasting three months. The results showed that T3 resulted in the highest soil moisture content at 34.87 ± 6.78%, followed by T2 and T1 with 34.20 ± 0.65% and 32.65 ± 1.71%, respectively, while T4 had the minimum value of 28.28 ± 5.30%. The bulk density of the soil was found to be lowest at T2 and T3, both having a value of 0.92 g cm−3 with standard deviations of ±0.03 and ±0.11, respectively. This was followed by T1 with 0.98 ± 0.05 g cm−3 while T4 had the highest bulk density of 1.17 ± 0.13 g cm−3. A similar trend was observed for both the basic infiltration rate and aggregate stability, except that, in terms of the latter, T1 was ranking second after T3, with 64.07% of water stable aggregates greater than 0.25 mm diameter. The interventions introduced in coffee plantations had significant effects on the bulk density and infiltration rate; however, there was no significant difference in the moisture content and aggregate stability. Further investigation is needed to quantify the environmental effects of these interventions, e.g., greenhouse gas emissions and yields.
The productivity and efficiency of harvesting forage crops depend on the sharpness and quality of the mower blades. Therefore, studying blades wear during the harvesting process is crucial to sharpening and maintaining blades. The research aims to create mathematical models to predict the wear of mower blades and assess the wear rate of mower blades, fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions during harvesting operations. The wear of blades was measured and characterized by the weight loss method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after the field experiment. The results showed that the weight of the mower blade decreased from 103.82 to 98.39 g after 37.5 working hours. In addition, the wear of blades increased fuel consumption and operation cost with time. Also, CO2 emissions were 17.672 kg/h at the beginning of the experiment and increased to 29.516 kg/h after 37.5 working hours. From the obtained mathematical equations, the wear of the blade sharp part occurs after 34±3 work hours have passed, so the blades must be resharpened after this period.
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