Advances in Agricultural Machinery and Technologies

The agricultural industry is dealing with enormous challenges across the globe, including the limited availability of arable lands and fresh water, as well as the effect of climate change. Machinery plays a crucial role in agriculture and farming systems, in order to feed the world’s growing population. In the last decade, we have witnessed major advances in agricultural machinery and technologies, particularly as manufacturers and researchers develop and apply various novel ways of automation as well as the data and information gathering and analyzing capabilities of their machinery. This book presents the state-of-the-art information on the important innovations in the agricultural and horticultural industry. It reviews and presents different novel technologies and implementation of these technologies to optimize farming processes and food production. There are four sections, each addressing a specific area of development. Section I discusses the recent development of farm machinery and technology. Section II focuses on water and irrigation engineering. Section III covers harvesting and post-harvest technology. Section IV describes computer modelling and simulation. Each section highlights current industry trends and latest research progress. This book is ideal for those working in or are associated with the fields of agriculture, agri-food chain and technology development and promotion.

Section I: Farm machinery and technology Mechanisation of agricultural production in developing countries Developments in mechanisation technology: controlled traffic farming Mechanisation of vegetable production Development in energy generation technologies and alternative fuels for agriculture Applied machine vision in agriculture Advances in unmanned aerial systems and payload technologies for precision agriculture Agricultural robotics Development of precision livestock farming technologies Section II: Water and irrigation engineering 9. Efficient use of energy in irrigation 10. Advances in surface irrigation technology 11. Advanced tools for irrigation scheduling 12. Minimising evaporation loss from irrigation storages Section III: Harvesting and post-harvest technology 13. Advances in silage harvest operations 14. Drying of agricultural crops 15. The fruit and vegetable packhouse: technologies for assessing fruit quantity and quality Section VI: Computer modelling 16. Crop modelling for agricultural machinery design 17. Three-dimensional numerical modelling of morphogenesis in dehydrated fruits and vegetables

Dr Guangnan Chen is currently an Associate Professor in agricultural engineering at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a PhD degree in 1994. Before joining the University of Southern Queensland in early 2002, he worked for two years as a post-doctoral fellow and more than five years in a private consulting company based in New Zealand. Dr Chen teaches and researches in the subjects of agricultural machinery, agricultural materials and post-harvest technologies, agricultural soil mechanics, and sustainable agriculture. He has so far published more than 100 papers in various international journals and conferences, including two edited books and 10 invited book chapters. He is currently also the Secretary of Board of Technical Section IV (Energy in Agriculture), CIGR (Commission Internationale du Genie Rural), which is one of the world’s top professional bodies in agricultural and biosystems engineering.