Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is being developed in livestock farms to relieve the human workload and to help farmers to optimize production and management procedure. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the consequences in energy intens...
Closed plant production systems are generally considered sustainable. Such systems are capable of minimizing externalities due to resource recycling. There are two systems, apparently diverging, recently considered as the counterparts of today’...
The threat of zoonoses (i.e., human infectious diseases transmitted from animals) because of industrial animal farming may be receiving less attention in society due to the putative wildlife origin of COVID-19. To identify societal responses to COVID...
Recently, the interest in the plant factory-based crop production technologies is rising following the application of the smart farm technology to the agricultural arena. A lettuce production system platform is proposed in this study considering the...
Wind energy is a vital renewable resource with substantial economic and environmental benefits, yet its spatial variability poses significant optimization challenges. This study advances wind farm layout optimization by employing a systematic genetic...
Improving edible biomass space use efficacy (EBSUE) is important for sustainably producing edamame and dwarf tomatoes in plant factories with artificial light. Photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) may increase EBSUE and space use efficacy (SUE)....
Plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs) are indoor crop production systems aiming at the growth of high-value products in terms of yield and quality, while maximizing resource use efficiency. The emergence of PFALs opened a new world for cro...
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is an unconventional production system that is resource efficient, uses less space, and produces higher yields. Deep learning (DL) has recently been introduced in CEA for different applications including crop...
Infectious diseases are rooted in unsustainable and unjust human–animal relationships. Zoonoses are facilitated by human proximity to animals, epidemiological risk embedded within factory farms, and exploitation of animals and humans in these intensi...
The extreme heat and water scarcity of the desert southwest in the United States of America present significant challenges for growing food crops. However, controlled-environment agriculture offers a promising solution for plant production in these h...
Ever-growing cities constantly increase the distance between suburban regions and semi-urban areas on the perimeter of the cities, where traditional crop production can take place with relatively fewer restrictions. The implementation of ultra-short...
Different strategies are reported in the literature for energy saving in Closed Plant Production Systems (CPPS). However, not reliable evidences about energy consumption with the use of pulsed LED light technique in lighting system available in Plant...
Vertical farming has been proposed as a solution for diminishing arable land as it significantly reduces the footprint of farming. Most contemporary solutions use a low level of automation; however, automation of vertical farming is currently attract...
The agricultural sector faces significant challenges, including resource depletion, climate change, and a growing global population projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, requiring a 70% increase in food production. Innovative techniques like soilless...
A digital twin (DT) system is a virtual system that can provide a comprehensive description of a real physical system. The DT system continuously receives data from physical sensors and user input information and provides information feedback to the...
Differences in individual plant growth are affected by the spatial variation of light intensity, reducing the homogeneity of microgreen crops. Identifying the tradeoffs between light uniformity and crop quality is challenging due to the confounding e...
Far-red light (FR; wavelength: 700–800 nm) is known for its effects on plant morphology and photosynthesis. However, its effects on stomatal responses and transpiration are not well understood. This study investigated the effects of FR on stoma...
RNA interference (RNAi)-based pesticides are pest control agents that use RNAi mechanisms as the basis of their action. They are regarded as environmentally friendly and are a promising alternative to conventional chemical pesticides. The effective s...
Vertical farming is on its way to becoming an addition to conventional agricultural practices, improving sustainable food production for the growing world population under increasing climate stress. While the early development of vertical farming sys...
This perspective paper examines the research and development challenges faced by plant factories with artificial lighting (plant factories hereafter). The global and local challenges facing our planet can be divided into the following four categories...
Crop production in open fields is increasingly limited by weather extremes and water shortages, in addition to pests and soil-borne diseases. In order to increase crop yield, quality, and productivity, controlled environment agriculture (CEA) can pla...
Common ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L.) is a novel edible plant with a succulent and savory flavor emerging as new crop for greenhouse and plant factory growers. Currently very limited information is available on the response of ice plant...
The growing demands for food with high quality standards and high nutritional value have caused agriculture to evolve towards agricultural innovation go hand in hand with technological development, as is the case of vertical farming (VF) development....
With an expanding population and changing dynamics in global food markets, it is important to find solutions for more resilient food production methods closer to urban environments. Recently, vertical farming systems have emerged as a potential solut...
The objective of this study was to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven model for the detection of helmet usage among workers in tractor and agricultural machinery factories with the aim of enhancing occupational safety. A transfer learning...
Container farms (CFs), a controlled environment agricultural technology designed to solve food insecurity, are receiving increasing attention from researchers. However, the complex geometric structures and artificial lighting used in CFs present chal...
Genus Mentha, a member of Lamiaceae family, encompasses a series of species used on an industrial scale and with a well-described and developed culture process. Extracts of this genus are traditionally used as foods and are highly valued due to the p...
The emergence of commercial fish farming has stimulated the establishment of fish feed factories in Uganda. However, no information is available on the safety of the feed, mainly due to lack of mycotoxin testing facilities and weak regulatory systems...
Estimations of world population growth urgently require improving the efficiency of agricultural processes, as well as improving safety for people and environmental sustainability, which can be opposing characteristics. Industry is pursuing these obj...
Plant Factory is a newly emerging industry aiming at transforming crop production to an unprecedented model by leveraging industrial automation and informatics. However, today’s plant factory and vertical farming industry are still in a primiti...
16 June 2016
China was attacked by a serious influenza A (H7N9) virus in 2013. The first human infection case was confirmed in Shanghai City and soon spread across most of eastern China. Using the methods of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and ecological nic...
Lighting is a major component of energy consumption in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) operations. Skyscraper farms (multilevel production in buildings with transparent glazing) have been proposed as alternatives to greenhouse or plant facto...
Poverty alleviation and environmental preservation are very important issues to many governments. Alley farming is beneficial to the environment because it conserves soil and sustains yields over time. Specifically, alley farming reduces soil erosion...
According to the needs of sustainability, a new sustainable banana chip value chain, which is a combination of the traditional banana chip value chain and the banana waste value chain, was designed. Scenarios were created assuming that an anaerobic d...
This study aimed to investigate the possibility of rearing newly hatched chicks with immediate access to feed and water in the same hatching unit one week prior to transferring them to the conventional broiler house with special regards to foot pad h...
Heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd) pollute the environment. Heavy metal pollution endangers the Nile River since it serves as an irrigation and freshwater source for the cities and farms that line its banks. Water and sediment samples from the Nile Ri...
In many countries, bulk tank milk (BTM) has been used for examining milk and analyzed as an important part of milk quality assurance programs. The objectives of this study were to investigate milk quality and the presence of major mastitis pathogens...
If we aim to increase the sustainability of farming, we must be able to measure the sustainability of individual farms and relate this sustainability to the characteristics of the farm and its management. We hypothesized that (i) sustainability can b...
Lactoperoxidase systems (LPSs) can enhance the microbiological quality of raw milk when there is lack of cooling facilities. In this study, a total of 250 milk samples were collected from farmers, collectors, and factories. Experimental samples were...
Yeasts are always present in any type of cheese, as well as in the factories where it is produced. However, the role of the yeast community in the cheese making process, as well as the routes of contamination used by yeast species to contaminate milk...
Managing a milk zone in the dairy industry is demanding. Data necessary for efficient management are difficult to acquire because they usually must be collected in organized and standardized ways. On the other hand, software practices constantly prov...
23 August 2021
The current study investigated the distribution of microbial populations and diversity in treated wastewater used for irrigation at the University of Limpopo Experimental Farm (ULEF), from different stages of post treatment disposal at Mankweng Waste...
The milk transformation process, in the last thirty years, moved from on-farm to centralised cheese factories, affecting the management of transport logistics. In Sardinia, the presence of about 12,000 dairy sheep farms, located in rural areas with p...
The new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2023–2027 commits farmers towards achieving ambitious environmental objectives through farm organization and management. This European agricultural policy has adapted to the contemporary c...
The implementation of new technologies and best practices on factory farms is crucial for reducing the environmental pollution burden. This study aimed to evaluate the use of natural sorbents in the cows’ diet to reduce gaseous pollutants relea...
Nowadays, women’s contribution to society through their social and human involvement at the household level in terms of education, care, and nutrition, as well as their added value to economic functioning, is increasingly recognized. However, m...
Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology is an emerging technique to reprogram somatic cells into iPSCs that have revolutionary benefits in the fields of drug discovery, cellular therapy, and personalized medicine. However, these applications...
The effect of different group sizes of pigs (3, 5, and 10 pigs) during handling on physiological parameters, carcasses, and pork quality traits at the farm and slaughterhouse were evaluated in 360 pigs from five farms (four repetitions or group/treat...
A plant factory with artificial light (PFAL) is defined as an advanced agricultural production system with a precisely controlled environment, playing an important role in vertical farming and urban food supply. Artificial light is one of the core te...
Hock lesions in dairy cows are an important indicator of animal welfare, in particular housing conditions. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of hock lesions in dairy cows kept in cubicle housing systems in three structurally differen...
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