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Through its rural development policy, the EU aims to help rural areas cope with the many economic, social and environmental challenges that the 21st century brings. Weeds are a major scourge for farmers who cultivate organic leguminous crops in rural areas, which often have to invest in many weed control methods in order to increase crop yields. The paper presents innovative technical equipment for weed control through a process involving the blasting of young weeds with small fragments of organic material by means of air compressor and granular material distribution system that degrades in depth both the strain and the leaves of the weeds. Organic materials that can be used in weed blasting are walnut shells, granulated corn cobs, glauconite (also found in Romania) and soy flour. An additional advantage of the equipment is the potential for farmers in rural areas to use organic fertilizers, such as soy flour, as blasting material.

In order to conserve perishable food and extend the permissible storage and marketing period, one of the best methods that uses artificial frost is freezing. The action of low temperatures leads to a slowing down of the modifying processes, both nutritionally and organoleptically. The researches presented within the paper aims to determine some specific parameters for the freezing process using an experimental model of a fast freezing equipment with liquid nitrogen. Experimental researches use two species of horticultural products, namely blueberries and green bean pods. The results indicate that the values of total freezing time, average linear freezing rate and liquid nitrogen consumption for quick freezing of blueberries were higher than those recorded for green bean pods. Also, with the lowering of the set temperature inside the freezing chamber, the freezing time from 0°C to the temperature of -15°C decreases, resulting in lower freezing times, higher average linear freezing rates and liquid nitrogen consumptions with increasing tendency.