Tahir Iqbal

Peanut also called groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed and cash crop that is grown in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Nowadays, tractor mounted peanut threshers without grading systems are commonly used to thresh the harvested groundnut plants, which results in the mixing of standard quality groundnut pods with immature/dead pods, mud/clods, and other impurities. To address this challenge, the conventional thresher was incorporated with a grader. The modified thresher was evaluated during the threshing season of 2023-24 in district Rawalpindi, Pothwar region of Punjab, Pakistan. The performance of the newly developed groundnut thresher (TH₁) was compared with conventional thresher (TH₂) based on threshing productivity (capacity) (kg h-1), pod breakage percentage (%), cleaning efficiency (%), and threshing efficiency (%) at three different ranges of moisture contents viz. M₁ = 19-23%, M₂ = 14-17%, M₃ = 8-12%. Experimental data were collected and statistically analyzed at a 5% level of probability. The experimental results revealed that maximum cleaning efficiency in the improved (TH₁) and conventional (TH₂) threshers were 97.88% and 84.92% respectively at the minimum moisture content (8-12%) while the minimum pod damage percentage was observed 2.24% and 4.44% at higher moisture content (19-23%). The overall performance of improved groundnut thresher was more satisfactory than the conventional thresher based on cleaning efficiency and pod damage percentage while it performed equally for threshing productivity and threshing efficiency. From the experimental results, it reveals that the modified groundnut thresher performed better to clean and grade the groundnut pods in one operation.

To speed up the olive harvesting process, a tractor-driven olive harvesting machine was designed and manufactured at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (AEI), Islamabad. This newly developed equipment was tested on the Bari Zaitoon-I cultivar for its performance evaluation. This innovative technology has proven valuable in efficiently replacing expensive manual harvesting operations with timely and economic alternative. It was experimentally evaluated at different PTO speeds, stroke lengths (SL), and vertical clamp positions (CP) on the tree to find the harvested and leftover fruit (%) and field capacity (trees/h) of the machine. Data collected was statistically analyzed by using “Statistix 8.1” software at a 5 % le vel of probability. The best results were recorded as 92.4 % harvested fruit, 7.6 % leftover fruit and 23.6 trees/h field capacity at the PTO speed of 300 rpm along with the stroke length of 10 cm and clamp position of 1 m on the tree trunk from the ground. The use of the developed equipment will make it possible to harvest olives in a shorter time than with manual harves ting without reducing the quality and weight of the obtained products.

Pakistan faces water scarcity and high operational costs for traditional irrigation systems, hindering agricultural productivity. Solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) can potentially provide a sustainable and affordable solution, but face technical, financial and policy barriers to adoption. A comprehensive study is needed to examine feasibility and identify barriers. Therefore, a comprehensive review study is conducted to identify the potential for solar irrigation, key issues and challenges related to its implementation in Pakistan. The analysis is based on published studies, technical reports and a survey of solar-powered drip irrigation systems. The use of SPIS in Pakistan is becoming a cost-effective and sustainable option for irrigation, particularly in remote and off-grid areas. However, these systems also have their challenges, such as high initial costs, maintenance and repairs, limited access to spare parts, lack of government policies and regulations, lack of technical expertise, lack of financing options and social acceptance. The most pressing issue is the risk of groundwater exploitation by using SPIS. Based on the analysis of the energy and water situation in Pakistan, it is important to sustainably use both solar energy and groundwater resources, through the implementation of effective management strategies and policies. With the right policies and investment in research and development of SPIS and groundwater, farmers can benefit by increasing crop yields, conserving water resources, reducing the cost of energy, increasing productivity and improving the standard of living and access to electricity in remote and off-grid areas. It is recommended that the adoption of solar energy be promoted to run high efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS) with urgent capacity improvement among farmers, advisors and system installers to sustainably manage water resources in SPIS. This would not only help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and associated environmental impacts, but also increase farmers’ income and reduce their operational costs. Moreover, the use of SPIS can improve crop yields, leading to food security and poverty reduction. Thus, the government and policymakers should consider implementing policies and incentives to encourage the large-scale adoption of solar energy in the agricultural sector.

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Precision agriculture is getting immense attention from researchers and farmers across the world due to the threatening situation of the demand and production gap. Evolution in the electromechanical system and the emergence of intelligent monitoring and conditioning systems have enabled closing the gap to make agronomy quicker, lesser prone to infestations, and still profitable at the same time. Whereas the Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled access to relevant data remotely and automates essential response systems to any threat or requirement by a plant in a particular environment. This study concentrates on gathering such advanced mechatronic techniques in the agricultural sector and analyses of the benefits and disadvantages of the modern method.

Due to the intense seasonality, high labor intensity, and high cost, picking fruit and vegetables typically requires a significant amount of personnel, material resources, and time. The fruit and vegetable picking is a critical role in the agricultural production chain. At the same time, the world is facing the challenge of an aging population. As a result, the requirements of current agricultural output cannot be addressed by using the traditional ways of picking. The robots picking have been widely utilized in the domains of fruit and vegetable production due to increases in labor productivity, picking efficiency, cost, and other aspects related to the industry. Therefore, the structural characteristics and target recognition methods for the end-effectors of picking robots will be thoroughly summarized. This study will ensure that the future direction of structural development and recognition methods that are matched with fruit and vegetable picking are more visible.

Reliable precipitation data at appropriate resolutions are essential for crop irrigation scheduling, climate change assessments, and mitigating floods and droughts. However, information on precipitation at acceptable spatial and temporal scales is lacking in Pakistan, particularly in undulating areas such as the Potohar region. Therefore, an investigation was conducted to check the accuracies of two satellite-based precipitation products (SPPs), PERSIANN-CDR and TRMM, concerning the gauge-based data obtained from the Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD). At the pixel and regional scales, the uncertainty in satellite-based daily, monthly, and annual precipitation estimates was investigated. Statistical indices were used for the spatio-temporal assessment of SPPs. The results reveal that both SPPs performed better on the monthly and daily scales. The TRMM precipitation product was in better agreement with in situ gauge-based data (with CC > 0.7). Therefore, we recommend using TRMM data for hydro-climatic applications in the Potohar region of Pakistan.