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In Cuba more than 85 % of cane available for sugar production is currently harvested either green or burned by an integral harvesting system. Green harvesting increases the amount of extraneous matter and the concentration of non-sugar elements in juice. The analysis of the behaviour of mixed juice quality and process efficiency indicators of a sugar factory with extraneous matter increments is described in this paper. The analysis was based on available information about extraneous matter characteristics and its composition (fiber, pol, brix, purity and humidity) and according to Cuban sugar season's typical results. The results obtained from material balances done in Excel spreadsheet models show, as most relevant impact, a 7,9 % sugar production reduction due to 5 percentage units of extraneous matter rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the quality of the mechanical harvest of rice seeds, carried out by the New Holland L521 rice harvester machines, at the Rice Farm "Los Palacios". Their technological parameters were evaluated depending on the quality of the harvested product, taking into account some aspects such as: the entire, peeled and/or broken grain, the impurity content and total losses. This resulted in values of 5,2-6,4% for peeled and/or broken grain in the five agricultural yields. On the other hand, the impurity content was among 8,3-9,6%, so that both parameters exceed the established limits. This is mainly caused by: the bad regulation of thresh, the work speed and the poor training of operators. These results allow decreasing losses. During the harvest losses decreased from 206kg/ha to 85kg/ha which represents an economic effect of $ 316 202.04 pesos. This also permits to stop investing about 184 793.4 USD on rice for our population feeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past literature has reported many successful cases about crops in greenhouses. The main function of greenhouses is to recreate and keep adequate and controlled conditions of light, humidity, temperature, carbon dioxide, and pesticides, among others, in a confined space to grow plants for diverse purposes. However, those conditions can be potentially harmful to humans that work in greenhouses. An alternative to overcome this is the application of robotics in those agricultural sites, adequately applying artificial intelligence and mechanical subsystems that are part of a robot. This paper describes a literature review of research and development of robots used in activities such as spraying pesticides and for harvesting in greenhouses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]