A Review of Research Progress on Soil Organic Cover Machinery in China

Abstract

Soil organic cover technology is an effective way to solve agricultural productivity and agro-environmental issues. However, some factors limit the widespread adoption of its application, including unclear soil organic cover effects and the lack of high-performance soil organic cover machinery. Aiming to solve the existing problems, improve soil organic cover quality, and reduce energy consumption, this article reviewed the common and commercial machines by reviewing the existing literature and company products. The current problems and technical difficulties of the machines were expounded. Simultaneously, the method of design and optimization of the device (chopper, spreader, rotary tiller, and plow) and its key parts (blades, discs, and plows) were reviewed. Furthermore, the features and differences of the devices and their key parts were compared, and their advantages and disadvantages were analyzed. In conclusion, the future directions for soil organic cover technology and machinery development were suggested, including clarifying the soil organic cover effect, selecting the suitable soil organic cover patterns, and developing soil organic cover machinery.

Research on Agricultural Machine Scheduling in Hilly Areas Based on Improved Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-III

“…Where Equation ( 1) is the scheduling objective to minimum total scheduling time. Constraint (2) indicates that the operation time to complete each task in i F . Constraint (3) indicates that the time spent by i F to perform the task a with traveling time, work time, and ready time, respectively.…”

“…In China, hilly areas account for more than 50% of the total area, and their topography is more complex than that of the plains. The dispersed area of farmland is small, and the fields cannot be connected to each other to form a piece, which leads to the problems such as a large scope of transfer of agricultural machinery and equipment, and difficulty in ensuring the timeliness of operations [1][2][3]. Especially in the busy season, farmers need to complete a series of agronomic operations in a relatively short period of time, such as plowing, ridging, sowing, field management and irrigation, etc.…”

Targeting optimal power consumption: Optimizing operational parameters for orchard furrowing and fertilizing machine

“…China's mechanized management of orchards has seen gradual improvements in recent years. There has been considerable advancement in the technology and equipment employed for orchard furrowing and fertilization, making them an area of focus for industry research [ [2] , [25] , [27] ]. Orchard furrowing-fertilizer machines are capable of completing the processes of furrowing, fertilizing, and soil covering in a single operation [ 3 ].…”