Background: Mechanization is a multi-dimensional concept and widely used in agriculture. There is, however, a major difference between the application of mechanization in developed and developing countries The developing countries tend to design their own strategies in food security given the challenges they face in all aspects of their economy including feeding a growing population, reducing poverty, protecting the environment, managing the effects of climate change and fighting malnutrition all which may further contribute to a reduction in economic growth and political instability. The goal of the strategies, with the help of appropriate technologies, is to lead to a sustainable agricultural development and, ultimately, food security. The policy making in each country should be based on its own conditions. This article uses Iran as an example of a developing country and considers the country's specific climate as well as political and economic conditions to present development-oriented policies for achieving sustainable food security based on agricultural mechanization that may be adaptable to other developing countries. The main objective of this paper is to identify and provide guidelines to the current and future challenges of Iran's food security, and it argues that for any strategy to succeed in producing a sustainable agricultural production, it will need a proper analysis and a formulation of an appropriate mechanization plan. Methods: To achieve the objective of a self-sustaining agricultural mechanization strategy, a SWOT analysis technique was used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and help us provide a framework by which policies can be defined. The framework includes internal and external factors that affect the development of agricultural mechanization and seek to provide ideas for agricultural development with the help of mechanization. These factors were then prioritized using the Hierarchical Analysis Method, and based on the obtained results, the final strategies were extracted and prioritized by the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria decision analysis method. Results and conclusion: According to the results, weaknesses and threats were the most important factors. Environmental threats, especially water shortages, economic problems as well as availability of the mechanization fleet and compatibility of the equipment within the country's agricultural system were identified as the most important factors affecting the agricultural development. In order to achieve sustainable food security, with regards to the identified factors the necessary recommendations and Governmental-support policies in the agricultural sector were presented: 1. reforming the country's planting pattern according to the climatic conditions considering the relative advantage of agricultural production, 2. modernizing the mechanization fleet; 3. investing in research and development of agriculture and modern knowledge; the production and ...

The effect of modification of sodium alginate on the beads properties was investigated and compared with unmodified alginate beads. The effect of storage conditions on the shelf life of the beads was determined. The modification of sodium alginate was achieved with octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA). Antioxidant activity and total phenolic compounds of the jujube extract was evaluated. Some physical and structural properties yield and encapsulation efficiency of the beads were measured. The encapsulation yield of the beads was significantly affected by modification of sodium alginate. The highest yield was observed in the alginate stored at ambient temperature on the day 14th which was 35.21%. The average beads size of alginate was 5.10 and 4.68 mm in modified and unmodified alginate beads, respectively. Modification also had a significant effect on the hardness of the beads. Higher Tg which ensures good product stability in thermal process was clearly seen in the modified beads maintained at ambient temperature. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) revealed the existence of OH groups in the extract-loaded beads. These findings have important implications on designing preservation and delivery systems of soluble bioactive compounds of jujube extract to apply in development of new functional foods and drinks.

This research reports on the studied effect of the intensity of ultrasound (24 kHz) on the quality characteristics of olive oil, sesame oil, sunflower seed oil, and tallow olein. These characteristics (free acidity, peroxide value, conjugated dienes concentration, viscosity, iodine value, turbidity, color values, and melting behavior) were determined in oil samples before and after ultrasonic treatment. Changes in the oxidation parameters showed that the highintensity ultrasound treatment accelerated the deterioration of oils. In most cases, extra-virgin sesame oil was most resistant to deterioration from sonicating treatments. The decreases in β-carotene content and Hunter values revealed that ultrasound might have good potential for bleaching oils at an appropriate intensity and frequency. The differential scanning calorimeter thermograms, viscosity, and turbidity results indicated that ultrasound probably accelerates the polymerization of the oils. The present study has confirmed that some changes in the physicochemical parameters or structures of oil components had occurred. These changes depended on the sources and initial conditions of the oils as well as the intensity of the applied ultrasound.

The aim of this work was to explore the possibility of the application of cloud point extraction (CPE) method in micelle media to recovery betaine from beet molasses. Response surface method was employed to assess the effects of surfactant concentration, molasses concentration, incubation time, pH, electrolyte concentration, mixing time, and surfactant type on efficiency of betaine recovery from beet molasses. Also, a mathematical model was developed to predict the effect of each variable and their interactions on the efficiency of betaine recovery. The model showed that best surfactant was Triton X-114 and under the optimum conditions, betaine recovery from beet molasses was achieved up to 80% when three CPE steps with total of 1.5% (w/v) of surfactant were used. Subsequently, betaine was recovered nearly 100% from surfactant rich phase after adjusting pH at 2.5 and re-incubation at 40 °C. The results showed that the proposed method is suitable for extraction of betaine from beet molasses.

Functional beverage with suspended gel beads made with Jujube extract (as phenolic compounds source), whey protein isolated and chickpea protein concentrated was investigated in this study. There were three types of beads including sodium alginate/insoluble fraction of Persian gum (IFPG), sodium alginate/ IFPG/whey protein isolated and sodium alginate/IFPG/pea protein concentrated. The evaluation included pH, acidity, Brix, turbidity, viscosity and sensory properties. The acidity and pH of beverages had a reverse relation as the increase in pH can be due to partial release of the extract. The outcomes showed that the highest viscosity was related to beverages containing chickpea and alginate/IFPG beads. There was a vice versa relation between the spindle round and viscosity. Moreover, the most turbidity was shown in alginate/IFPG/PPC beads' beverage on 14 th day (232 NTU). Finally, the resulting beverages also showed good sensory properties.