• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.260-265
• /
• 2007

Testing a large number of samples from field monitoring and routine indexing is cumbersome and the available virus detection tools were labor intensive and expensive. To circumvent these problems we established tissue blot immunoassay (TBIA) method an alternative detection tool to detect Barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV) and Barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV) infection in the field and greenhouse inoculated plants for monitoring and routine indexing applications, respectively. Initially, leaf and stem were tested to determine suitable plant tissue for direct blotting on nitrocellulose membrane. The dilutions of antibodies were optimized for more efficient and economical purposes. Results showed that stem tissue was more suitable for direct blotting for it had no background that interferes in the reaction. Therefore, this technique was referred as direct stem blot immunoassay or DSBIA, in this study. Re-used diluted (1:1000) antiserum and conjugate up to 3 times with the addition of half strength amount of concentrated antibodies was more effective in detecting the virus. The virus blotted on the nitrocellulose membrane from stem tissues kept at room temperature for 3 days were still detectable. The efficiency of DSBIA and RT-PCR in detecting BaMMV and BaYMV were relatively comparable. Results further proved that DSBIA is a rapid, reliable and economical detection method suitable for monitoring BaMMV and BaYMV infection in the field and practical method in indexing large scale of barley materials for virus resistance screening.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.22-28
• /
• 2022

Silkworms are very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, and unless it is a suitable temperature and humidity to grow, the productivity and quality of silkworms are greatly reduced. Therefore, it is very important to manage temperature and humidity for silkworm feeding facilities. In particular, it is essential to install heating facilities in Asian countries with distinct seasonal changes. During the feeding period, many farms manage the temperature and humidity of feeding facilities by installing and using electric heaters inside the facilities. However, it is very difficult to manage the room temperature stably by the heaters. In addition, unlike the temperature inside the facility, silkworms could undergo severe temperature changes as the inside of the rearing tray could not be warm enough. In this study, in order to improve the previous heating method, the new rearing method that directly heats the bottom of the rearing tray was developed. Compared to the previous room-heating system, the novel heater-installed tray (HIT) system significantly reduced the change in temperature during the experimental period. In addition, the number of days of silkworm growth up to harvest was shortened, which was effective in growth performance, and it was also found that silkworms grew more uniformly in HIT system than in previous system. Moreover, as the heater tubes were installed directly under the rearing tray, it quickly dried mulberry leaves and silkworm feces after feeding, and as a result, the environment in the tray was greatly improved with decrease the labor of breeder. In conclusion, these results suggest that the heater-installed rearing tray method greatly improves silkworm quality, increases weight of silkworms, and final profits compared to the previous room heating system with electric heaters.

• Journal of Drive and Control
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.23-29
• /
• 2024

Potatoes are one of the world's four major crops, and domestic consumption is currently increasing in Korea. However, the mechanization rate of potatoes is very low, and especially, harvesting is the most labor-intensive task in potato production. In Korea, potato-collecting work depends on manpower, so it is necessary to develop a gathering-type harvester that can be used for processes from digging to harvesting. Therefore, in this study, a self-propelled-type potato harvester was developed, and its performance was analyzed to mechanize harvesting. The potato harvester was developed to have a crawler-type driving part with a 60 hp diesel engine and consisted of a digging part that digs potatoes from the ground, a vertical transporting part that transfers the dug potatoes to the height of the collection bag, a separating part that separates debris, such as stones and soil, and a collecting part that loads the collection box. A field test of the potato harvester was conducted, and performance was evaluated by the damage, loss, and debris mixing proportions, which were 2.5%, 2.8%, and 2.6%, respectively. The working capacity was 1.2 h/10 a. The economic analysis results showed that the cost of harvesting work could be reduced by 12.7% compared to manual harvesting.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.122-129
• /
• 2012

Purpose: Recent mechatronics technology is the most appropriate high technology in agricultural applications to save repetitious labor. Method: Cow's body parameters were measured by several traditional measurers. Image processing technology was used to measure automatically their parameters to reduce labor and time. The parameters were measured form a small model cow which is easily measured, instead to a real cow. The image processing system designed and built for this project was composed of a PC, grabber card, and two cameras, which are located on the side and the top of the model cow. Tests of verification had measured 10 dairy cows. Result: Nine parameters of the model cow's body were measured, and the difference between the real data and the data by image processing was less than 16.7%. Based on the results of the research, the parameters of a real cow had measured of chest depth, withers height, Pelvic arch height, body length, slope body length, chest width, hip width, thurl width, and pin bone width were compared with image processing data. Conclusions: In the Demonstration test, Result had obtained similar data of cow model experiments, and the most of errors were shown less than 5% relatively good result.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.235-241
• /
• 2017

Purpose: It is to develop an agricultural three-directional dumping vehicle that can help farmers reduce intensive labor when carrying heavy loads and for easy dumping. In addition, a novel mechanism was applied for controlling the direction of the tilting cargo box by using a single hydraulic cylinder and simple apparatus. The overturning safety was analyzed to provide safe-use ground slope region of the vehicle to be used at upland fields and orchards. Methods: The developed three-directional dumping vehicle was constructed using a cargo box, vehicle frame, driving components, lifting components, and controller. The novel mechanism of controlling the dumping direction involves the operation of two latching bars, which selectively release or collapse the connecting edge between the vehicle frame and cargo box. A multibody dynamics analysis software (RecurDynV8R5) was used to determine the safe-use ground slope area when tilting the cargo box at slopes. A computer analysis was conducted by increasing the ground slope while rotating the vehicle when the cargo box comprised loads of 300 and 500 kg and stacking heights of 40 and 80 cm, respectively. Results: The three-directional dumping vehicle was successfully manufactured, and the cargo box was tilted at $37^{\circ}$ and $35^{\circ}$ for dumping forward and sideways. The latching bars were manually and selectively collapsed with the vehicle frame to control the dumping direction. When forward dumping, the safe-use ground slope was over $20^{\circ}$ in all vehicle directions and loaded conditions. Conclusions: A three-directional dumping vehicle was developed to reduce labor-intensive work in the farming environment. The user can easily control the dumping direction by using the control panel. The vehicle was safe to be used in most of the Korean upland fields and orchards (area over 96%) for the forward dumping.

• FLOWER RESEARCH JOURNAL
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.67-73
• /
• 2009

This study was conducted to establish a strategy to improve the grafted cacti export which has been stagnated in these year. To promote its exporting, first of all, Korean cactus producer needs to save the cost of labor by using bottom nutriculture system for the greater national competitiveness. Second, it is desired to diversify the export cactus items such as a new variety of Epiphyllum truncatum, big size of perfect brand, a finished package production to satisfy foreigner's demand coping with international market change of grafted cacti. On the other hand, Korean cultivar protection and national negotiation for a reducing tariff rate or an efficient plant inspection system are also needed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.839-845
• /
• 2018

As a solution to the rural shortage of labor, mechanization crop production is necessary, but in some cases, the mechanization can cause problems such as a decrease in products due to the expansion of the necessary moderate workspace. The purpose of this study was to compare the yields of pepper by the planting-density for the mechanization of pepper cultivation. Experiments were done with three planting-density levels of $900{\times}300mm^2$(A-T), $1200{\times}450mm^2$(B-T), and $1500{\times}600mm^2$(C-T). In the analysis of growth, the highest values in plant height and thickness and the number of branches were observed with the B-T. C-T showed the highest values in the number of green-pepper and red-pepper and weight of the green-pepper and red-pepper, followed by B-T and A-T. In the analysis of growth, it was concluded that the proportion of the pepper body to the total length increased as the planting-density decreased. C-T had the biggest maximum diameter of the body, followed by B-T and A-T. On the other hand, A-T had the biggest minimum diameter of the body, followed by B-T and C-T. It was judged that the larger the planting-density was, the shorter the length was and the thicker the form was. As a result of measuring the chromaticity, there was no significant statistical difference in quality. Based on the experiment results, the ranking in total yields was in the order of C-T, B-T, and A-T. The reduced planting-density seemed to increase the productivity, while the labor intensity and time were reduced due to the improvement of the working environment.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.273-288
• /
• 2018

The protected horticulture sector was evaluated as achieving the highest level of agricultural industrialization, this study examined the structural changes in the field of Korea oriental melon farming, where cultivation under structure has advanced through its long history, with the focus on intensification and concentration of agriculture. From the 1970's, the oriental melon farming labor were replaced by capital due to the increase of dependence on input industries and the decrease in labor input, thus intensification improved the productivity. Through the development, Seongju-gun of Gyeongsangbuk-do, experienced faster growth of cultivation compared to other regions, and gained a competitive edge in productivity which led to the spatial concentration as well as the concentration of farms. In this restructuring process of oriental melon farming, spatial inequality intensified throughout the agricultural development as the existing farming spaces underwent a dynamic shift.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.373-382
• /
• 2023

The task of sorting and excluding blemished apples and others that lack commercial appeal is currently performed manually by human eye sorting, which not only causes musculoskeletal disorders in workers but also requires a significant amount of time and labor. In this study, an automated apple-sorting machine was developed to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in apple production workers and to streamline the process of sorting blemished and non-marketable apples from the better quality fruit. The apple-sorting machine is composed of an arm-rest, a main body, and a height-adjustable part, and uses object detection through a machine learning technology called 'You Only Look Once (YOLO)' to sort the apples. The machine was initially trained using apple image data, RoboFlow, and Google Colab, and the resulting images were analyzed using Jetson Nano. An algorithm was developed to link the Jetson Nano outputs and the conveyor belt to classify the analyzed apple images. This apple-sorting machine can immediately sort and exclude apples with surface defects, thereby reducing the time needed to sort the fruit and, accordingly, achieving cuts in labor costs. Furthermore, the apple-sorting machine can produce uniform quality sorting with a high level of accuracy compared with the subjective judgment of manual sorting by eye. This is expected to improve the productivity of apple growing operations and increase profitability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2023.04a
• /
• pp.79-79
• /
• 2023

With the development of digital technology, the size of the smart agriculture market at home and abroad is rapidly expanding. It is necessary to establish a foundation for sustainable precision agriculture in order to respond to the aging of rural areas and labor shortages. This study was conducted to establish an automated digital agricultural test bed for soybean production management using data suitable for agricultural environmental conditions in Korea and to demonstrate the field of leading complexes. In order to manage water smartly, we installed a subsurface drip irrigation system in the upland field and an underground water level control system in the paddy field. Based on data collected from sensors, water management was controlled by utilizing an integrated control system. Irrigation was carried out when the soil moisture was less than 20%. For effective water management, soil moisture was measured at the surface, 15cm, and 30cm depth. The main growth characteristics and yield, such as stem length, number of branches, and number of nodes of the main stem, were investigated during the main growth period. During the operation of the test bed, drought appeared during the early vegetative growth period and maturity period, but in the open field smart agriculture test bed, water was automatically supplied, reducing labor by 53% and increasing yield by 2%. A test bed was installed for each field digital farming element technology, and it is planned to verify it once more this year. In the future, we plan to expand the field digital farming technology developed for leading farmers to the field.