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Post-harvest Losses (Grains)
Grains may be lost in the pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest stages. Pre-harvest losses occur before the process of harvesting begins, and may be due to insects, weeds, and rusts. Harvest losses occur between the beginning and completion of harvesting, and are primarily caused by losses due to shattering. Post-harvest losses occur between harvest and the moment of human consumption. They include on-farm losses, such as when grain is threshed, winnowed, and dried. Other on-farm losses include inadequate harvesting time, climatic conditions, practices applied at harvest and handling, and challenges in marketing produce. Significant losses are caused by inadequate storage conditions as well as decisions made at earlier stages of the supply chain, including transportation, storage, and processing, which predispose products to a shorter shelf life. Important in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, are on-farm losses during storage, when the grain is being stored fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mirrool Silos
Mirrool is a town in the northern part of the Riverina region of south-west New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Bland Shire local government area and adjacent to the Newell Highway, south west of the state capital, Sydney. At the , Mirrool and the surrounding area had a population of 234. The place name ''Mirrool'' is derived from the local Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal word meaning "Pipe Clay". Mirrool Post Office opened on 16 November 1911 and closed in 1982. A railway station opened with the opening of the Temora- Roto railway line, New South Wales, railway line in 1908, and closed in 1985 after passenger services ceased in 1983. The town's pub was built between 1913 and 1916 and opened in 1917. In recent times it was narrowly saved when a group of local farmers banded together to buy the licence just before it was sold off to Sydney (Liquor licences can be sold to another concern and then reinstated in a different location). The town also has a footbal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spores
In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, fungi and protozoa. Bacterial spores are not part of a sexual cycle, but are resistant structures used for survival under unfavourable conditions. Myxozoan spores release amoeboid infectious germs ("amoebulae") into their hosts for parasitic infection, but also reproduce within the hosts through the pairing of two nuclei within the plasmodium, which develops from the amoebula. In plants, spores are usually haploid and unicellular and are produced by meiosis in the sporangium of a diploid sporophyte. Under favourable conditions the spore can develop into a new organism using mitotic division, producing a multicellular gametophyte, which eventually goes on to produce gametes. Two gametes fuse to form a zygote which develops into a new spor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grain Production
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes. After being harvested, dry grains are more durable than other staple foods, such as starchy fruits (plantains, breadfruit, etc.) and tubers (sweet potatoes, cassava, and more). This durability has made grains well suited to industrial agriculture, since they can be mechanically harvested, transported by rail or ship, stored for long periods in silos, and milled for flour or pressed for oil. Thus, the grain market is a major global commodity market that includes crops such as maize, rice, soybeans, wheat and other grains. Grains and cereal Grains and cereal are synonymous with caryopses, the fruits of the grass family. In agronomy and commerce, seeds or fruits from other plant families are called grains if they resemble caryopses. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermetic Storage
Hermetic storage is a method of using sealed, airtight units to control moisture and insects in stored dry agricultural commodities. The hermetic storage restricts gas exchanges between the internal and external environments and the stored commodity, maintaining the initial levels of moisture and controlling pests by the lack of oxygen. The available oxygen in the internal ecosystem is reduced to lethal or limiting levels for any living organisms through the biological activity related to gas exchange of the respiration of grains and organisms, allowing the hermetic storage a way to reduce the attack of insects and fungi on the stored food. Hermetic storage also allows for organic storage without chemical pesticides. See also *Hay steaming Hay steaming is a method of treating hay to reduce the airborne respirable dust which naturally occurs in hay, causing respiratory problems in both humans and horses when in close contact. The method encompasses a steam generator which produces t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) Bags
Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags (formerly Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage bags) provide a simple, low-cost method of reducing post-harvest cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') losses due to bruchid infestations in west and central Africa. Bags have been demonstrated to be effective for several other crops. A PICS bag consists of two layers of polyethylene liners and a third layer made from woven polypropylene. When each layer is tied and closed separately, it creates a hermetically sealed environment for storing harvested grain. This oxygen-deprived environment proves fatal for ''Bruchidius atrolineatus''Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage - Technician Training Manual. Rep. Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage Project, 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. and ''Callosobruchus maculatus'' and other postharvest insects. The problem Insect pests pose a significant threat to the shelf-life of stored grain. Species like ''Bruchidius atrolineatus'' and ''Callosobruchus maculatus'',Baoua, I. B., V. Margam, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breeze Block
A concrete masonry unit (CMU) is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. CMUs are some of the most versatile building products available because of the wide variety of appearances that can be achieved using them. Those that use cinders (fly ash or bottom ash) as an aggregate material are called cinder blocks in the United States, breeze blocks (''breeze'' is a synonym of ''ash'') in the United Kingdom, and hollow blocks in the Philippines. In New Zealand and Canada they are known as concrete blocks (a name common in the United States also). In New Zealand, they are also called construction blocks. In Australia, they are known as Besser blocks or Besser bricks, because the Besser Company was a major supplier of machines that made concrete blocks. Clinker blocks use clinker as aggregate. In non-technical usage, the terms ''cinder block'' and ''breeze block'' are often generalized to cover all of these varieties. Composition Concrete blocks are made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Termites
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattodea (along with cockroaches). Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from cockroaches, as they are deeply nested within the group, and the sister group to wood eating cockroaches of the genus ''Cryptocercus''. Previous estimates suggested the divergence took place during the Jurassic or Triassic. More recent estimates suggest that they have an origin during the Late Jurassic, with the first fossil records in the Early Cretaceous. About 3,106 species are currently described, with a few hundred more left to be described. Although these insects are often called "white ants", they are not ants, and are not closely related to ants. Like ants and some bees an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mycotoxin
A mycotoxin (from the Greek μύκης , "fungus" and τοξίνη , "toxin") is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by organisms of kingdom Fungi and is capable of causing disease and death in both humans and other animals. The term 'mycotoxin' is usually reserved for the toxic chemical products produced by fungi that readily colonize crops. Examples of mycotoxins causing human and animal illness include aflatoxin, citrinin, fumonisins, ochratoxin A, patulin, trichothecenes, zearalenone, and ergot alkaloids such as ergotamine. One mold species may produce many different mycotoxins, and several species may produce the same mycotoxin. Production Most fungi are aerobic (use oxygen) and are found almost everywhere in extremely small quantities due to the diminute size of their spores. They consume organic matter wherever humidity and temperature are sufficient. Where conditions are right, fungi proliferate into colonies and mycotoxin levels become high. The reason for the product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smallholding
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology, involvement of family in labor and economic impact. Smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent, smallholdings may not be self-sufficient, but may be valued for the rural lifestyle. As the sustainable food and local food movements grow in affluent countries, some of these smallholdings are gaining increased economic viability. There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in developing countries of the world alone, supporting almost two billion people. Small-scale agriculture is often in tension with industrial agriculture, which finds efficiencies by increasing outputs, monoculture, consolidating land under big agricu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Food Programme
The World Food Programme; it, Programma alimentare mondiale; es, Programa Mundial de Alimentos; ar, برنامج الأغذية العالمي, translit=barnamaj al'aghdhiat alealami; russian: Всемирная продовольственная программа, translit=Vsemirnaya prodovol'stvennaya programma; zh , s = 世界粮食计划署 , p = Shìjiè Liángshí Jìhuà Shǔ (WFP) is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and the leading provider of school meals. Founded in 1961, WFP is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries. As of 2021, it supported over 128 million people across more than 120 countries and territories. In addition to emergency food relief, WFP offers technical and development assistance, such as building capacity for emergency preparedness and response, managing supply chains and logistics, promoting social safety progra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown Rat
The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Norwegian rat and Parisian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest muroids, it is a brown or grey rodent with a head and body length of up to long, and a tail slightly shorter than that. It weighs between . Thought to have originated in northern China and neighbouring areas, this rodent has now spread to all continents except Antarctica, and is the dominant rat in Europe and much of North America. With rare exceptions, the brown rat lives wherever humans live, particularly in urban areas. Selective breeding of the brown rat has produced the fancy rat (rats kept as pets), as well as the laboratory rat (rats used as model organisms in biological research). Both fancy rats and laboratory rats are of the domesticated subspecies ''Rattus norvegicus domestica''. Studies of wild rats in New York City have shown that populations livi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
