International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Soil and water resources, used for the needs of farming production are strategically important on a regional, national and global scale. One of these resources – soils, has an extremely long recovery period, hence it is assumed practically unrecoverable. The second resource – water, has the property of not being wasted in nature; in fact, it only changes its physical state, and is purified if in movement. At the same time, due to considerably short-sighted human activity, a process of aeration sets over already fertile arable land, precipitation changes location, as well as intensity.
Analysing strengths and weaknesses of applying technological processes in farming, especially in the conditions of prolonged droughts and changing climate, will be crucial to making the right decisions, concerning the development of farming production technologies. But mere analyses, no matter how detailed and accurate they are, will be useless without the next step-planning.
Therefore, applying SWOT analysis as a tool can help the awareness of guidelines and failures during the strategic planning for the usage of
these irreplaceable natural resources.

The current interest in soil awareness is largely due to the increased importance of growing crops in a changing climate. It is characterized by prolonged droughts, followed by short but intense rainfall, often accompanied by strong winds and low temperatures. In a number of situations and due to insufficient information about the condition of the soil and the applied technologies for its treatment, the latter is not able to absorb rainwater, surface water runoff is formed, which exports large amounts of fertile soil and nutrients. An innovative approach is proposed to perform fast and accurate soil tests using its electromagnetic conductivity. A number of physical, chemical and biological properties can be determined by this method.

A Carbon Footprint (CF) is defined as the total emissions of greenhouse gases caused directly and indirectly by an individual, event, organization or product,expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eqv). The objective of this case study is to provide examples of strategies for low footprint of Apple Production and Apple Processing as well as best practices and guidance on the use of equipment for planting, fertilizing and harvesting for specific crops like apple orchards. It covers the general principles and provides guidance for these specific areas.

Agriculture is responsible for large part of the land use and the agricultural productivity increases significantly during the last decades. Important past is the mechanization which leads to a dramatic rise of labour productivity. Improved production techniques, intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides and progress of plant breeding helped to increase the yields. However, excesses use of these inputs has resulted in a variety of problems, such as eutrophication and toxicity. Agricultural production is the main source of several major emissions. Examples are ammonia (NO3). More than 90% comes from agricultural sectors, methane (CH4) and nitrate (NO3-). For these reasons, the study of the agricultural production systems (APS) and their influence on the environment is a major priority. Particularly apple
and apple juice production company was study to find the optimum solution for reduction of carbon emission.

Present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using water-soluble polymers as a protective coating and rate of influence of additional seed coat on the germination and emergence of seeds. There have been conducted series of experiments using aqueous solutions of high molecular weight polyethylene glycol at a concentration of 0.1 and 0, 05% for the preparation of polymeric coatings of varying thickness. The research have been performed in laboratory and field conditions. There have been reported values for air and soil temperature, soil humidity and precipitation during the investigation period as major factors affecting seed germination.

Field experimental studies of a new beet tops harvesting machine, which is front mounted on a wheeled tractor aggregating tractor, are carried out, carrying out a continuous non-sensing cut of the green massif of sugar beet tops. At the same time, a new laboratory-field installation was developed, which consists of a rotor type front mounted rotary type machine with a horizontal axis of rotation, a transverse screw for collecting the cutted leaves from all width, and a loading mechanism in the form of a paddlewheel and a loading nozzle. During the field experiments, the tractor moving with a specified speed regime fixed by track measuring wheel, the total cutting height was set in a predetermined interval by means of two pneumatic sensing wheels with adjustment mechanisms. The rotational speed of the rotary cutter, with arched knives mounted on the drive horizontal drum, was varied with the help of replacement asterisks. In the prepared area of sugar beet field, the beet tops was cut at various parameters of the harvesting process, which was then estimated by the size of the remaining tops remnants left on root crops heads and in the aisles. According to the developed program and methodology, statistical processing of the results of experimental studies with the help of a personal computer was subsequently carried out, which allowed obtaining graphical dependencies of the indicated tops residues on the root crops heads, which made it possible to establish performance of new harvesting machine for continuous cutting of sugar beet tops. The established dependencies made it possible to choose rational constructive and technological parameters for harvesting tops by front mounted harvesting machine.