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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Liviu DEJEU, Georgeta Mihaela BUCUR, Ion DAMIAN

Pietroasa is known by two local treasures: the treasure „Hen with golden chickens” and the wines produced here, especially the Tamâioasa româneasca and Grasa. In 1893, thus 120 years, at Pietroasa, one of the first nurseries in the countries was created, as a measure taken by the state for the production of viticultural planting material. From here, new solutions and methods of viticultural planting material production, choosing new varieties, establishing plantations, vine growing and wine production, continuously started growing, in the Romanian vitiviniculture. Extensive experiments performed here allowed the publication of valuable works by many leading personalities for the viticulture and agriculture of the country: G. Nicoleanu, I.C. Teodorescu, Gh. Constantinescu, T. Savulescu and others. Pietroasa Research and Development Station for Viticulture and Enology distinguished itself the last decades, also by enriching the assortment by new and valuable grapes varieties: Otilia, Timpuriu of Pietroasa, Centenar Pietroasa, Istrita and Alb aromat.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Alexandra POPA (JURCOANE), Petru NICULIŢĂ

The success of newly developed food products on the market mainly depends on how they are perceived by consumers. Thus, the aim of this research paper is to explore consumer perception of food innovation in order to improve marketing strategies of new product development. This paper is part of an on-going doctoral research project POSDRU/ 107/ 1.5/ S/ 76888. Methodology - Past behaviour, habits and hedonic appreciation appear in literature as good predictors of food choice. Thus, consumer ethnography drawing on eating habits is used to explore evolving consumer behaviour with regard to purchasing and consumption of novel food products. Triangulated qualitative in-depth interviews involving 12 participants in Bucharest, Romania, combined with in-home visits and 7-day food diaries, were employed. Results and Discussion - Romanian consumers seem to explore less when buying or cooking food, as they struggle with lack of time and daily stress. In other words, consumers prefer the ‘safer’ and more time-efficient familiar foods to new culinary experiences. Nonetheless, consumers seek variety in their diets, but cautiously: products already tested and recommended by friends and family or slightly different forms of known foods (e.g. new flavours of preferred brand, frozen or pre-cooked familiar products). Food innovation is generally related to value-adding benefits in terms of health and convenience, and to some concerns regarding perceived naturalness and sensory qualities, as it is the case of functional food products. Conclusions - The study concludes that in a fairly traditional culture as the case of Romania, positioning new food products as line extensions of well-known brands or as new value-added offers from typical food categories could ease innovation adoption and increase consumer acceptance. This study adds to the scarce literature that focuses on Romanian consumers’ views, attitudes and perceptions with regard to food innovation.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Violeta PETRE, Marian PETRE

As a result of our recent scientific studies, the biotechnological controlled cultivation of edible mushrooms was tested through the submerged fermentation of different fruit wastes from organic horticulture that provided a fast growth as well as high biomass productivity of investigated strains in comparison with the sample. The research works were carried out by using the pure cultures of two edible mushroom species, namely Lentinulaedodes (Shiitake) and Pleurotusostreatus (Oyster Mushroom), which are well known as biological sources of proteins, carbohydrates and mineral elements with beneficial effects on human nutrition and health. All culture media used in experiments were prepared from different sorts of organic fruit wastes such as juice and pulps, resulted from the industrial processing of apples, pears and plums. The submerged fermentation was carried out inside the culture vessel of an automatic laboratory-scale bioreactor, all main cultivation parameters being set up at the following values: temperature, 23- 23.5°C; agitation speed, 90-100 rev. min-1; pH level, 5.5-6.7 units; dissolved oxygen tension within the range of 50- 70%. During the cultivating cycles through submerged fermentation, lasting between 120-140 h, the mushroom biomass developed inside the culture media as fresh mycelia pellets. All registered results of these experiments were used to set up a laboratory-scale biotechnology for producing mycelia biomass of edible mushrooms in order to be used as raw biomass of natural fertilizer producing.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Hristo STOYANOV

Natural hybrids between wild species in Triticeae and common winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) are important part of breeding due to the mechanism of their creation, and because of the opportunity various qualities from the wild species to be more easily transferred into the genome of cultural plant. At the same time their detection in natural environment is difficult due to limited opportunities for interspecific and intergeneric pollination, fertilization and seed formation. One of the most common wide natural hybrids in wheat agrocenoses resulting from crosses between Aegilops cylindrica as a maternal component and bread wheat as a paternal component. In the survey conducted during 2008 the natural hybrid EXO F1 (Aegilops cylindrica x Triticum aestivum) was found, and its spikes were collected and analyzed for the presence of fertility. From the 10 found seeds only one seed germinated in 2009, and developed into second generation hybrid plant (EXO F2) which reached maturity. The flowering is an open type and continues for a long period of time. Obtained 11 spikes were observed and all of them were determined as completely sterile. Throughout the period of its growth EXO F2 does not give indications of attack by pathogens of powdery mildew and brown rust. There have not been monitored any symptoms and lesions of the same pathogens when collecting EXO F1. Natural hybrids were distinguished by resistance to herbicides transferred from cultural plant because EXO F1 was found in agrocenosis, where treatment against all weed groups was applied. Despite their negative specifications, natural hybrids are a valuable source of genes encoding resistance to biotic and abiotic stress and they could become a good source of breeding material.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Michele BELLEZZA, Luca CASAGRANDE, Arnaldo PIERLEONI, Stefano CASADEI

The issue of water resources management requires more and more approaches in which multiple skills and capacities are nested together (Integrated water resources management process), especially when critical situations are taken into account, such as climate change scenarios. The various disciplines involved can be climatology, meteorology, hydrology, ecology, environmental science, agricultural science, water resources engineering, socioeconomics, law and public policy. I n this context, Decision Support Systems (DSS), applied to the management of water resources, play an essential role since they must allow the different stakeholders and competencies involved to summarize results and produce decisions on a common and shared basis. The RIVER software is a DSS for water resource allocation and management which portraits the hydraulic situation in the catchment area with a simple intuitive "node-arc" sketch, at the same time uses simulation algorithms to allow the user to take into consideration many different scenarios of water use according to the principle of "priority-balanced" criteria shared by all stakeholders involved. The case study for the Montedoglio reservoir in the Tiber River Basin, highlights how these principles can be applied for a proactive management of critical scenarios in periods of drought due to climate change hypothesis. In particular, time series of hydrological flow, modulated with drought and climate trends, have been simulated and, as output of the system, indications for preventive interventions to be planned for a correct use of water for irrigation, civil and environmental use have been obtained.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Gabriela BUEMA, Sorin Mihai CÎMPEANU, Răzvan TEODORESCU, Marilena BĂRBUŢA, Daniel SUTIMAN, Roxana Dana BUCUR, Ramona Carla CIOCINTA, Maria HARJA

Ash from thermal power plant was used as raw material for new adsorbents synthesis using alkaline attack and ultrasonic methods. In detail, it was mixed with 5M NaOH solution and treated at different contact time. The ash and the adsorbents were characterized by electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). The new materials based on ash were applied as water sorbent to remove copper ions. The determination of copper ions was performed by atomic absorption. The results showed that these types of new adsorbents have a good capacity to remove copper ions from aqueous solution. For all synthesized adsorbents the predominant mechanism can be described by pseudo-second order kinetics. The alkaline attack method seems to be the most effective compared with the ultrasonic method and could present application potential for the copper removal.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Mariana IONIŢĂ, Marius Cătălin BUZATU, Violeta ENACHESCU, Ioan Liviu MITREA

Gastrointestinal parasites are a significant threat to health of horses and can cause irreparable internal damage as fifty percent of the deaths in horses may be related to internal parasites. In Romania, despite of the importance of horses in various activities (agriculture, sport, or as companion animal), knowledge and research studies on equines are sparse and fragmentary. Therefore, the present study aimed to provide an insight into the internal parasite burdens in Romanian horses, using coprological examination. A total of 158 horses from the breeds Shagya Arabian (n= 90) and Lipizzan (n= 68) residing at two studs, one in the northeastern and the second one in the center Romania were included in the study. Fresh fecal samples collected in September - November 2012, were analyzed for presence of gastrointestinal parasites using sodium chloride flotation technique, and additionally, for a subset of 56 samples, fecal worm eggs counts (FWECs), described as the number of eggs per gramme (epg) of feces, were determined using McMaster method. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites eggs and oocyst in the positive horses were: strongyles 87.97 % (139/158) Parascaris equorum 13.9 % (22/158), Strongyloides westeri 5.06% (8/158), and Eimeria leuckarti 1.90 % (3/158). One hundred eleven positive horses (79.85%) were infected with a single parasite type, 27 (19.42%) and 1 (0.72%) of horses had multiple infections with two and three parasites, respectively. The highest prevalence and intensity rate belonged to strongyles, with the EPG counts varying from 25 to 3800, while for ascarids the EPG values varied from 75 to 1200. These findings emphasize high rate of infection with gastrointestinal parasites in Romanian horses, particular with strongyles, and will be the basis for further in-depth studies on the epidemiology and control of the equine parasites in Romanian horses.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Tarek FOUDA, Assad DERBALA, Adel ELMETWALLI, Shimaa SALAH

The objective of this study is to propose a computer vision and image analysis program to fined of essay and suitable technique for external fruit inspection and predicting orange fruits maturity through the color analysis of images samples which evaluated by Envi program. Also tests the relationships between R/G ratio band, average of RGB bands and VARI indices with chlorophyll a&b and carotenoids were determined by spectrophotometer used absorption of wave length 470, 645 and 662 nm. The research revealed that: -The computer vision and image analysis program could be used to differentiate orange properties; -The results showed there are response between chlorophyll and carotenoids of orange fruits; -R/G band, average of RGB and VARI indices showed a sensitive band ratio to different orange properties such as chlorophyll and carotenoids.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Károly HROTKÓ

The development during the last decades in fruit tree orchard systems resulted in the dominance “pedestrian orchard concept” for fruit species produced for fresh market. Trees trained to different conic shaped canopies (central leader, slender spindle, vertical axis, SolAxe, super spindle) and planted in single row system can be harvested easily from ground. Besides pip fruits (apple and pear) training and pruning systems were developed for stone fruits (peach, plum, apricot and cherry), however the open centre canopies are still widespread applied for these species. Research focused to maximize light interception, optimizing spacing, fruiting wood formation and leaf distribution within the canopy contributed to refining the pedestrian orchard concept. For fruit species produced for processing industry, where the fruits are harvested mechanically, the limb and trunk shakers are applied on vase shaped trees or trained to modified central leader. As new trend the continuously moving harvesters occurred in North America and East-Europe, which requires different tree shape and training. The paper gives and overview on the above topics.

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Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Vol. II, Number 1
Written by Adrian ASĂNICĂ, Valerica TUDOR, Răzvan TEODORESCU

The key for a successful investment in the sweet cherry orchard management consists in the way we choose the right cultivar/rootstock combination in conjunction with modern technological inputs and interventions. A testing plot is needed in the future orchard location or in the nearest area in order to have a precise response of the sweet cheery cultivars/rootstocks to the specific climatic and soil features. In this regard, we aimed to test ten sweet cherry/rootstock combinations such as: Kordia/Colt, Kordia/PHLC, Ferrovia/Colt, Ferrovia/PHLC, Skeena/Colt, Skeena/PHLC, Van/PHLC, FirmRed/CAB6P, GiantRed/CAB6P and EarlyRed/CAB11E. The experimental plot was established in the Faculty of Horticulture orchard, in Bucharest area, in 2009. Since then, biometrical and phenological data was collected and revealed EarlyRed/CAB11E and FirmRed/CAB6P as the most vigorous combinations. 20% reduced vigour was observed in the trees grafted on PHLC comparative to the same cultivars grafted on Colt. The highest yield was calculated for Ferrovia/Colt but the largest and most attractive fruit were noticed in GiantRed and FirmRed grafted on CAB6P.

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