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In the conditions of integration of Romania in the European Union, a profitable and modern agriculture is one of the main conditions for having a competitive economy. That is why, the management of agricultural farms, no matter what their size, is very important in achieving this goal. The paper presents studies and researches made on farm processing machinery management, which is a very important step in a good farm management. We analysed the measures processing operations which are required before the crop may be fed or stored, especially reducing machinery and drying machinery. In what concerns the reducing machinery, we have presented all the types of these machines with their particular characteristics and advantages. We also analysed their mechanisms and the possible adjustments that can be made and presented the importance of drying machines in the final result of farm management and have found the time limits for safe storage of shelled corn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents studies and researches made on machines performance, which is one of the most important component of the economic performance of a farm. We made measurements for determination of work quality and energetic index for tractors, considering that tractors are the main energetic power used in modern agriculture anywhere, that is why the improving of the quality and energetic index of tractors and machines is very important. The aim of the research is to improve power performances and to increase the efficiency of tractors and agricultural machines. The productivity is one of the most significant characteristics of tractors and agricultural machines, especially of harvesting machines, which are the most important machines for harvesting cereals. We wanted to emphasize that designing and making these complex agricultural machines has much evolved in the last years, from the productivity point of view and from the design and interior comfort as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studied the issues of the balanced spatial development of agro innovation systems of Russian regions using the main indicators of agricultural innovation for 2015-2019: innovative products in crop and livestock production, agricultural machinery, as well as graduates of agricultural universities and employed in the agricultural sector. The degree of concentration of these indicators was determined using the Herfindahl- Hirschman index for the regions of Russia. The results reveal a high of concentration of costs of technological innovations in the agro production, when from 50% to 90% of the costs of the technological innovation in the crop and livestock sectors are concentrated in only 2-3 Russian regions, as well as the absence of dependence on the production of innovative agricultural products on the degree of concentration of indicators and a balanced ratio in the labor market of agricultural specialists in the regions of Russia. To ensure progressive structural changes and enhance innovative activity in regional AIS and increase the efficiency of agriculture, measures are proposed to enhance the balance of AIS components and spillover effects of innovations, resulting in an increase in the efficiency of agro innovation systems functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important stage in the agricultural process is harvesting. In this particular stage, the mower machines are some of the most important machines for harvesting forages used in agriculture, that is why we made this study. These machines are usually attached to tractors for a better efficiency. The paper presents some studies on mower machines, which are analised after their cutting apparatus and their work width. Thus, are presented the mower with cutting apparatus through shearing, with cutting appartus with back and forth motion of the knife, then rotary mowers. Also, in the paper are presented and analised some technical characteristics of mowers, which influence their economic performances. From the economic point of view, considering the engine mowers, we concluded that the mowers with 2 knives have a better work capacity, at the same width of mowed furrow, compared to borne mowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly introduces mechanization and its application to agriculture. One of the main problems facing agricultural mechanization in Benue State is the adoption of mechanization strategies. These are often done by governments and international agencies that do not pay enough attention to the interest of small farmers and to the process of technology change. Other pertinent problems include prevalence of small fragmented farm holdings, high cost of hiring tractors for land/bush clearing; lack of classified data and information on the suitability; adaptability and performance of commercially available agricultural equipment as related to types and conditions of soils, crops and livestock; poor monitoring; inadequate repair and maintenance facilities; difficulties in obtaining spare parts; insufficient trained machinery operators; inadequate research programmes; poor credit facilities; poor maintenance culture; absence of incentives for indigenous design and manufacture of equipment and inadequate infrastructural facilities such an pipe bone water; poor road networks and electricity. The paper examines the actions of government and collaborating international agencies. The work is a scholarly inquiry using secondary data and personal visits of the researcher to Benue State owned Tractor Hiring Units. The result reveals several inadequacies which have promoted failures and meaningless attempt at mechanization in agriculture. The paper concluded that there is need for proper combination of hand tools technology, animal draught technology and mechanical power technology that are moderate enough to be supported by indigenous design, development and manufacture of the most needed tools, machinery and equipment and their spare parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the research is to determine the specific capital costs of carrying out agricultural work with the farmers'own agricultural machines compared to the costs of agricultural services. A stratified sample based on economic size was used, consisting of 60 farms specialised in large crops from the NE and SE development regions of Romania. The novelty elements of this research consist in the fact that the analysis of the efficiency of the use of agricultural machinery uses a shadow cost--the opportunity cost--to determine the specific income of the use of agricultural machinery. The results show that small farms spend more than twice as much to carry out agricultural work with their own agricultural machinery. The average expenses per ha specific to the agricultural works carried out by farmers with their own agricultural machines recorded an average of 376.3 euro/ha for farms with a size smaller than 100 thousand SO and 186.5 euro/ha for farms with a size greater than 700 thousand SO. For a representativeness level of 69.3%, farms with a size smaller than approx. 578 thousand SO register losses if they carry out agricultural work with their own agricultural machines. This threshold can be appreciated on an area of approx. 854 ha cultivated with grain corn, common wheat, and rapeseed in equal proportions. Using the rationales and cost analysis models presented can help farmers make rational investments and strengthen informed demand in the agricultural services market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper goal was to analyze the technical endowment in terms of machinery in Romania's agriculture in the period 2007-2015 and to identify the main trends and problems which affect performance and competitiveness. In the analyzed period, the park of tractors and machinery increased as follows: tractors by 14.5%, ploughs by 13.9%, cultivators by 11.3%, seeders by 14.6%, combines for cereals by 11.4 and for fodder by 17%, machines for potatoes harvesting by 43.5%, presses for hay and straw by 121.7%, only windrowers and sprayers and dusters declined by 1.2%, respectively, by 2.6%. Despite this slight increase, the structure of agricultural machinery is still an uncorresponding one for keeping pace with new technologies. The utilized agricultural area (UAA) increased and as a result the UAA per tractor declined from 44.5 ha to 41.3, which is also a good aspect. Despite that agricultural production increase, its performance is not supported by mechanization mainly in the small sized holdings. The replacement of the existing old machinery with a high usage degree, whose repairs are costing, is obviously needed and requires substantial financial resources. the continuous growth of farm inputs price and the low price at farm gate for agricultural products do not assure farmers enough income to modernize mechanization. The Romanian Government should allocate a higher percentage from budget to agriculture for improving the park of tractors and agricultural machinery. Also, the financial aid per ha coming from the EU should be equitably divided among member states. Farmers need a better endowment in their farms to apply modern technologies and increase production, quality of agricultural products, economic efficiency and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Olt County occupies a territory that is in a majority proportion intended for areas under cultivation, agriculture is one of the priority activity in this area. This paper analysed the main indicators of agriculture and the tendency manifested along the period from 2000 to 2014. Among the indicators analysed are the land fund of the County with the study of the evolution of the utilized agricultural area and arable area, the main crops and yields of these crops, the holdings endowment with machinery and agricultural equipment, the livestock devolving to 100 hectares, the active population from agriculture and the agricultural value production by sectors of activity. All these data have been analysed as physical size, value of the tournament which it occupies within the County, and in their evolution. The tendency of these indicators was assessed through the annual rhythm of growth and using polynomial equations of degree two and three. There were large variations over the period analysed, for most of the indicators analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania is a country of contrasts especially as agriculture is concerned. On one side we have state of the art machinery and equipment being used on farms larger than 100 ha and on the other side we have small subsistence farms operated by an aging and poor population. The paper aims to highlight few causes that have stressed even more the difficult situation of the rural population of this country; especially those that have been brought about by the financial crisis initiated in 2008 and that have gotten even worse with the passing of time. We have performed a qualitative and quantitative analysis showing the decline in the number of cattle bred, either for milk or meat, by the subsistence farmers from Plataresti commune, Calarasi County, Romania, allowing us to identify few causes that could be counteracted by a proactive social measure. The results of our research indicate one possible measure meant to counteract negative effects that subsistence farmers are now facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to identify trends in the formation of the structure of assets of agricultural enterprises in Ukraine and the ratio of their individual groups. In preparation of work the complex methods of economic research used in this study were: monographic, critical analysis, structural and trend analysis, correlation-regression analysis, etc. The study found that in the current economic conditions, the technical potential and repair and maintenance base of the agricultural sector of Ukraine does not meet the requirements of scientifically sound needs of agricultural production. The supply of machinery to most agricultural producers in Ukraine is approaching a critically insufficient level. It is substantiated that the main agricultural machines of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine are provided only by 45-65%. The article proves that more than 90% of the technical means of agricultural enterprises of Ukraine have already served their depreciation period; their technical readiness for fieldwork does not exceed 60-70%. The article substantiates that due to malfunctions and physical wear and tear, a quarter of tractors [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ramp-up of the agricultural industry output requires the use of new, high-performance machines, whilst the complicated world economic situation has made it difficult to purchase foreign agricultural equipment. All these factors contributed to an increase in the demand for both domestic and Belarusian equipment. Tractors and various attachments are the most popular type of farm machinery with agricultural producers, which is used in almost all farm works. In this regard, there is a significant load being placed on them which leads to frequent breakdowns. At the same time, the age of tractors in farms of the Novosibirsk Region is mostly more than 10 years, which is also one of the reasons for failing. Most farms are simply unable to regularly update their machine and tractor fleet; therefore, during the spring field works or crop harvesting, it often happens that machines break down and wait for repairs for a long time. This results in crop losses and low yields. It is necessary to develop such a mechanism of the material support for agricultural producers which will help to avoid equipment downtime and lead to an increase in the gross collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the technology of vegetables, the plantation represents the most expensive and time-consuming process and requires energetic and quality costs. Time is related to the simultaneous plantation of the seedlings which have the same age and belong to the same variety in the optimal period and in a short interval. The energetic costs are represented by the mechanization of all the work for the preparation of the seedbed and the avoidance of the manual plantation. The quality is referred to keeping the distance between the rows, the distance between the pots within a row, the pot plantation depth, maintaining a slight subsidence of the pots and realizing irrigations after plantation, if they are needed. All these requests can be accomplished by mechanizing the process of plantation of seedlings sowed in pots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study undertook showed some pragmatic conclusions concerning how the consulting activity evolves in Olt County, in terms of farmers benefiting from agricultural advice. Through its quality, consultancy seeks through its specific methods, to be equally appreciated by the beneficiaries. Normally, agricultural consultancy, should be assessed, approximately equally by farmers, i.e. that there may not be no significant differences of appreciation over the areas analyzed, namely: projects preparation (Sapard and others), plants protection, chemical fertilizer procurement, procurement of pesticides, purchase of agricultural equipment, purchase of seeds and planting, animal husbandry, in various forms. From the analysis of the responses showed that farmers in Olt County, the geographical shape of the County is of particular importance to the ways of the consultancy evaluation, resulting in appreciations of significant differentiation from all areas, excluding the purchase of seeds and planting material, where appreciation was similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section is equipped with a mechanism for the movement transmission of several elements which are pot bearers, whose position to the soil in vertical plan remains constant to the slope of the terrain. It receive the rotation movement by Gall chain from a wheel which copies the soil and it presents the possibility of the adjustment of the distance between the plants in the row. The section may be a component of a seedling planting machine in pots in 1 - 2 rows, when the terrain is covered with foil mulch or from 1 to 6 rows on uncovered terrain. It may be a component of an agricultural aggregate for soil processing, for mounting foil mulch, for mounting hose for watering by processing. The transmission of the movement from the copy wheel presents the possibility of the adjustment of the revolution for the adjustment of distance between the rows, and the elements that support the pots bearer's parts present the possibility of the length modification in the same purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture was and still is the most important source for human being and, thus, constitutes the strongest factor for economic development harmonization in any country. Agriculture is the key branch of economy in Moldova. Weather conditions together with the available land resources could assure the growth of any kind of plant, excepting tropical and subtropical ones. The development of this branch could be also influenced by number of persons employed in agriculture. Another important factor is the number and quality of tractors or other agricultural equipment that, according to the latest specialized research, is completely deteriorated - 20% and partially 60-70% out of total number. These underline the outdated technologies and necessity of massive investments in fixed assets that automatically will increase the final price of local production above the imported ones. Meanwhile each country, including Moldova, dreams to be self-sufficient in terms of assuring of internal market with agri-food products and export the surplus. Small size of internal market of our country creates good premises for export but the share of agri-food products registered the continue decrease from 63% in 2001 to 44% in 2010. Thus current situation in agriculture of Republic of Moldova impose the necessity of major changes in respective policies that will be consider in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]