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JournalISSN: 1934-6352

International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering 

Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering
About: International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering is an academic journal published by Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Irrigation & Soil water. It has an ISSN identifier of 1934-6352. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 1443 publications have been published receiving 15902 citations. The journal is also known as: IJABE.
Topics: Irrigation, Soil water, Water content, Biogas, Canopy


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: No-tillage farming offers a way of optimizing productivity and ecosystem services, offering a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits to the producer and to the society as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In 1999 no-tillage farming, synonymous of zero tillage farming or conservation agriculture, was adopted on about 45 million ha world wide, growing to 72 million ha in 2003 and to 111 million ha in 2009, corresponding to an growth rate of 6 million ha per annum. Fastest adoption rates have been experienced in South America where some countries are using no-tillage farming on about 70% of the total cultivated area. Opposite to countries like the USA where often fields under no-tillage farming are tilled every now and then, more than two thirds of the area under no-tillage systems in South America is permanently not tilled; in other words once adopted, the soil is never tilled again. The spread of no-tillage systems on more than 110 million ha world-wide shows the great adaptability of the systems to all kinds of climates, soils and cropping conditions. No-tillage is now being practiced from the artic circle over the tropics to about 50o latitude south, from sea level to 3 , 000 m altitude, from extremely rainy areas with 2 , 500 mm a year to extremely dry conditions with 250 mm a year. No-till farming offers a way of optimizing productivity and ecosystem services, offering a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits to the producer and to the society. At the same time, no-till farming is enabling agriculture to respond to some of the global challenges associated with climate change, land and environmental degradation, and increasing cost of food, energy and production inputs. The wide recognition of no-till farming as a truly sustainable system should ensure the spread of the no-till technology and the associated practices of organic soil cover and crop rotation, as soon as the barriers to its adoption have been overcome, to areas where adoption is currently still low. The widespread adoption globally also shows that no-tillage farming cannot any more be considered a temporary fashion or a craze; instead largely through farmers’ own effort, the system has established itself as a farming practice and a different way of thinking about sustainable agro-ecosystem management that can no longer be ignored by scientists, academics, extension workers, farmers at large as well as equipment and machine manufacturers and politicians. Keywords: w orld-wide no-till adoption , zero tillage adoption , conservation agriculture, soil health, climate change, ecosystem services DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.20 1 0.0 1 .0-0 Citation: Rolf D erpsch , Theodor F riedrich , Amir K assam, Li H ongwen . Current status of adoption of no-till farming in the world and some of its main benefits . Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 20 1 0; 3 ( 1 ): ...read more

661 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Zheng et al. as discussed by the authors discussed the impact of structural and compositional features on the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass and the characteristics of different pretreatment methods.
Abstract: Bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol is significantly hindered by the structural and chemical complexity of biomass, which makes these materials a challenge to be used as feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol production. Cellulose and hemicellulose, when hydrolyzed into their component sugars, can be converted into ethanol through well established fermentation technologies. However, sugars necessary for fermentation are trapped inside the crosslinking structure of the lignocellulose. Hence, pretreatment of biomass is always necessary to remove and/or modify the surrounding matrix of lignin and hemicellulose prior to the enzymatic hydrolysis of the polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose) in the biomass. Pretreatment refers to a process that converts lignocellulosic biomass from its nativ form, in which it is recalcitrant to cellulase enzyme systems, into a form for which cellulose hydrolysis is much more effective. In general, pretreatment methods can be classified into three categories, including physical, chemical, and biological pretreatment. The subject of this paper emphasizes the biomass pretreatment in preparation for enzymatic hydrolysis and microbial fermentation for cellulosic ethanol production. It primarily covers the impact of biomass structural and compositional features on the pretreatment, the characteristics of different pretreatment methods, the pretreatment study status, challenges, and future research targets. Keywords: lignocellulosic biomass, pretreatment, cellulosic ethanol, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.2009.03.051-068 Citation: Yi Zheng, Zhongli Pan, Ruihong Zhang. Overview of biomass pretreatment for cellulosic ethanol production. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2009; 2(3): 51

615 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It was shown that one of the trends and research focuses in agricultural field robotics is towards building a swarm of small scale robots and drones that collaborate together to optimize farming inputs and reveal denied or concealed information.
Abstract: Digital farming is the practice of modern technologies such as sensors, robotics, and data analysis for shifting from tedious operations to continuously automated processes. This paper reviews some of the latest achievements in agricultural robotics, specifically those that are used for autonomous weed control, field scouting, and harvesting. Object identification, task planning algorithms, digitalization and optimization of sensors are highlighted as some of the facing challenges in the context of digital farming. The concepts of multi-robots, human-robot collaboration, and environment reconstruction from aerial images and ground-based sensors for the creation of virtual farms were highlighted as some of the gateways of digital farming. It was shown that one of the trends and research focuses in agricultural field robotics is towards building a swarm of small scale robots and drones that collaborate together to optimize farming inputs and reveal denied or concealed information. For the case of robotic harvesting, an autonomous framework with several simple axis manipulators can be faster and more efficient than the currently adapted professional expensive manipulators. While robots are becoming the inseparable parts of the modern farms, our conclusion is that it is not realistic to expect an entirely automated farming system in the future. Keywords: agricultural robotics, precision agriculture, virtual orchards, digital agriculture, simulation software, multi-robots DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181104.4278 Citation: Shamshiri R R, Weltzien C, Hameed I A, Yule I J, Grift T E, Balasundram S K, et al. Research and development in agricultural robotics: A perspective of digital farming. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(4): 1–14.

256 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight some of the most recent advances in greenhouse technology and CEA in order to raise the awareness for technology transfer and adaptation, which is necessary for a successful transition to urban agriculture.
Abstract: Greenhouse cultivation has evolved from simple covered rows of open-fields crops to highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities that projected the image of plant factories for urban agriculture The advances and improvements in CEA have promoted the scientific solutions for the efficient production of plants in populated cities and multi-story buildings Successful deployment of CEA for urban agriculture requires many components and subsystems, as well as the understanding of the external influencing factors that should be systematically considered and integrated This review is an attempt to highlight some of the most recent advances in greenhouse technology and CEA in order to raise the awareness for technology transfer and adaptation, which is necessary for a successful transition to urban agriculture This study reviewed several aspects of a high-tech CEA system including improvements in the frame and covering materials, environment perception and data sharing, and advanced microclimate control and energy optimization models This research highlighted urban agriculture and its derivatives, including vertical farming, rooftop greenhouses and plant factories which are the extensions of CEA and have emerged as a response to the growing population, environmental degradation, and urbanization that are threatening food security Finally, several opportunities and challenges have been identified in implementing the integrated CEA and vertical farming for urban agriculture Keywords: smart agriculture, greenhouse modelling, urban agriculture, vertical farming, automation, internet of things (IoT), wireless sensor network, plant factories DOI: 1025165/jijabe201811013210 Citation: Shamshiri R R, Kalantari F, Ting K C, Thorp K R, Hameed I A, Weltzien C, et al Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture: A transition to plant factories and urban agriculture Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(1): 1–22

247 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Chen et al. as mentioned in this paper provided an overview of the biological and engineering aspects in the production and processing technologies and recent advances in research and development in the algae to fuels approach, covering biology, selection and genetic modification of algae species and strains, production systems design, culture media and light management, harvest and dewatering, downstream processing, and environment and economic assessment.
Abstract: Current biofuel production relies on limited arable lands on the earth, and is impossible to meet the biofuel demands. Oil producing algae are alternative biofuel feedstock with potential to meet the world's ambitious goal to replace fossil fuels. This review provides an overview of the biological and engineering aspects in the production and processing technologies and recent advances in research and development in the algae to fuels approach. The article covers biology, selection and genetic modification of algae species and strains, production systems design, culture media and light management, harvest and dewatering, downstream processing, and environment and economic assessment. Despite the many advances made over several decades, commercialization of algal fuels remains challenging chiefly because of the techno-economic constraints. Technological breakthroughs in all major aspects must take place before commercial production of algal fuels becomes economically viable. Keywords: algae, microalgae, open pond, enclosed photobioreactor, light, harvest, dewatering, extraction, hydrothermal liquefaction, gasification, pyrolysis, fermentation DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.2009.04.001-030 Citation: Paul Chen, Min Min, Yifeng Chen, Liang Wang, Yecong Li, Qin Chen, et al. Review of the biological and engineering aspects of algae to fuels approach. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2009; 2(4): 1

240 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202362
2022167
202168
2020128
2019145
2018181