Drying provides extended shelf life to agricultural crops in general and thus proper design of dryer will assist in drying them to acceptable level and quality. To design adequate dryer, necessary drying parameters of drying materials is necessary. This work involves experimental determination of effective drying parameters such as moisture content, moisture diffusion coefficient, density (true and bulk), specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of ginger and to analyze these parameters in relation to each other. Fresh ginger rhizomes were washed to remove soil from the field, peeled and washed again in clean water and sliced into thin pieces. The sliced ginger was heat-treated by adding 200ml of clean water and steaming for 5–8 minutes in an aluminum pot, to a temperature of 85–90 oC, and a light brown colour. Microwave oven, calorimeter, desiccators, thermometers, triple beams balance, micrometer screw gauge were used to determine the drying parameters of ginger. Effect of temperature and moisture content on some thermal properties was determined. The results of the experiments shows that average initial moisture content for the ginger samples was 72.31%, the true and bulk densities of the sample increased linearly from 0.5809 to 0.6338g/cm3 and 0.7405 to 0.7972 g/cm3 respectively between the temperatures of 45 – 75 °C. The specific heat capacity of ginger varied from a minimum of 1.568kJkg-1K-1 to a maximum of 2.026kJ kg-1K-1, with temperature in the range of 45oC to 75oC and moisture content in the range of 24.43 to 46.19 % (d.b). The thermal conductivity of ginger samples varied from 0.316×10-3 to 9.763×10-4 Jm-1S-1 oC; as the moisture content and temperature increased. Thermal diffusivity of the ginger increased linearly from 3.149×10-8 to 4.438×10-8 m2s-1 for ginger with increase in moisture content and temperature. Conclusively, the experimental study analysis show that specific heat of ginger varies with temperature. Also, there is variation in length, breath and thickness of ginger when subjected to temperature. Therefore, it can be said that ginger do shrinks when it is subjected to heat.
A field trial was conducted to investigate the effects of regulated dry season irrigation on tree water use, root zone moisture dynamics and yield of cacao in a rainforest zone of Nigeria. Following cessation of rainfall in November, irrigation commenced from December 2017 to May 2018. Irrigation amount was computed based on cumulative class A Pan evaporation. Irrigation treatments were coded as IrT1, IrT2 and IrT3, consisting of water application using EPan *Pan coefficients (Kcp) of 1.0; 0.70 and 0.50 (9.6, 6.8 and 4.8 l/tree/day). Irrigation water applied at 5-days interval was discharged via point source emitters (2.8 l/h discharge rate ) on drip lines laterally installed per row of trees. Irrigation requirements were on the average, 4.49, 3.14 and 2.44 mm, total water applied per irrigation events were 1009.88, 706.92 and 504.94 mm per plot ( 225 m2 ), total seasonal water applied were 33858, 23701 and 16929 mm, and soil moisture contents were 52, 45 and 28% for the respective IrT1, IrT2 and IrT3. Tree evapotranspiration (ETc) were 4.54, 3.19 and 2.32 mm/day while seasonal sums were 809, 566 and 404 mm while the ratio of ETc to EPan were 0.9, 0.69 and 0.53 for IrT1, IrT2 and IrT3. Tree water use efficiencies were 0.3 and 0.04 t/mm for Y/ETc and 0.16 to 0.19 kg/mm for Y/Irrigation respectively. Cacao pod and bean yields were 35.4, 22.1 and 10.3 t/ha and 2.29, 1.37 and 1.03 t/ha while yields decreased by 60 and 40% under IrT3 and IrT2 compared with IrT1. The study identified suitable Pan coefficients for scheduling irrigation during the dry season for cacao, full irrigation (EPan*1.0) applied at 9.6 l/tree/day will be needed to replenish soil water depletion to satisfy crop consumptive water use ( transpiration and soil evaporation components). The low pressure gravity-drip irrigation system alleviated climate stress during the dry season and improved cacao performance in a tropical rainforest environment.
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