Development of Smart Irrigation Equipment for Soilless Crops Based on the Current Most Representative Water-Demand Sensors.

Due to the edaphoclimatic conditions in southeast Spain, which are expected to worsen due to climate change, more efficient ways of using water must be found to maintain sustainable agriculture. Due to the current high price of irrigation control systems in southern Europe, 60-80% of soilless crops are still irrigated, based on the experience of the grower or advisor. The hypothesis of this work is that the development of a low-cost, high-performance control system will allow small farmers to improve the efficiency of water use by obtaining better control of soilless crops. The objective of the present study was to design and develop a cost-effective control system for the optimization of soilless crop irrigation after evaluating the three most commonly used irrigation control systems to determine the most efficient. Based on the agronomic results comparing these methods, a prototype of a commercial smart gravimetric tray was developed. The device records the irrigation and drainage volumes and drainage pH and EC. It also offers the possibility of determining the temperature, EC, and humidity of the substrate. This new design is scalable thanks to the use of an implemented data acquisition system called SDB and the development of software in the Codesys programming environment based on function blocks and variable structures. The reduced wiring achieved by the Modbus-RTU communication protocols means the system is cost-effective even with multiple control zones. It is also compatible with any type of fertigation controller through external activation. Its design and features solve the problems in similar systems available on the market at an affordable cost. The idea is to allow farmers to increase their productivity without having to make a large outlay. The impact of this work will make it possible for small-scale farmers to have access to affordable, state-of-the-art technology for soilless irrigation management leading to a considerable improvement in productivity.

Effect of flaxseed and flaxseed oil supplemented in caiman diet on meat fatty acids.

Increasing polyunsaturated or long-chain fatty acids in meat for human consumption improves both nutritional quality and consumer perception. The increase could occur through the addition of rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids (such as flaxseed or flaxseed oil) to the animal diet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplement with two presentations of flax (crushed seeds or oil) on the change of FA content in two cuts of caiman meat (tail and neck). We measured fatty profile in two different caiman meat cuts (neck and tail) from 30 animals (total length 96.7 ± 4.9 cm, snout-vent length 47.8 ± 3 cm, weight 4.2 ± 0.6 kg), raised in individual enclosures, fed three a week for 50 days with crushed chicken head and a dry food formulated for these reptiles in a 70/30 ratio (C, n = 10), control diet with 10% crushed flaxseed (FS, n = 10), and control diet with 10% flaxseed oil (FO, n = 10), while the remaining days animals were fed the control diet. Meats from animals fed both enrichment diet (FS and FO) showed an increase of C18:3n-3 and ΣUFA with respect to control diet. Although both enriched diets raised the levels of C18:3n-3, the neck showed higher values than the tail. We observed that the neck is more susceptible than the tail to be improved by FO, which could suggest that it is more beneficial to consume neck meat. In order to be implemented in caiman farms, flaxseed oil is more expensive than seed, but more effective, easier to manage, and is practical for application on caiman farms.

Real-Time Monitoring System for Shelf Life Estimation of Fruit and Vegetables.

The control of the main environmental factors that influence the quality of perishable products is one of the main challenges of the food industry. Temperature is the main factor affecting quality, but other factors like relative humidity and gas concentrations (mainly C2H4, O2 and CO2) also play an important role in maintaining the postharvest quality of horticultural products. For this reason, monitoring such environmental factors is a key procedure to assure quality throughout shelf life and evaluate losses. Therefore, in order to estimate the quality losses that a perishable product can suffer during storage and transportation, a real-time monitoring system has been developed. This system can be used in all post-harvest steps thanks to its Wi-Fi wireless communication architecture. Several laboratory trials were conducted, using lettuce as a model, to determine quality-rating scales during shelf life under different storage temperature conditions. As a result, a multiple non-linear regression (MNLR) model is proposed relating the temperature and the maximum shelf life. This proposed model would allow to predict the days the commodities will reduce their theoretical shelf-life when an improper temperature during storage or in-transit occurs. The system, developed as a sensor-based tool, has been tested during several land transportation trips around Europe.