Sugarcane mechanization

Sugar (sucrose) is obtained from either sugar beets or sugarcane. Sugar beets are traditionally diffused with water to extract the sugar from the pulp. The sugar is then crystallized, mechanically separated, and washed to produce white sugar. 

Adsorption and persistence in plants can be modified by other chemicals or by selected carriers, although mechanisms to account for these phenomena are unclear. The application mixture influences adsorption and persistence of fenvalerate. For example, interception and persistence in sugarcane were increased when fenvalerate was applied in a 25% water/75% soybean oil mixture vs. water or soybean oil alone (Smith et al. 1989). Also, biocidal properties of fenvalerate residues on cotton foliage were increased up to 100% due to enhanced persistence of fenvalerate in the presence of toxaphene (Brown et al. 1982). 

Mechanical sugarcane harvesting, 23 446 Mechanical syneresis, 22 56 Mechanical testing, of acrylic fibers,... 

In many plants that grow in the tropics (and in temperate-zone crop plants native to the tropics, such as maize, sugarcane, and sorghum) a mechanism has evolved to circumvent the problem of wasteful photorespiration. The step in which C02 is fixed into a three-carbon product, 3-phosphoglycerate, is preceded by several steps, one of which is temporary fixation of C02 into a four-carbon compound. Plants that use this process are referred to as C4 plants, and the assimilation process as C4 metabolism or the C4 pathway. Plants that use the carbon-assimilation method we have described thus far, in which the first step is reaction of C02 with ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate to form 3-phosphoglycerate, are called C3 plants. 

By 1928, tractor cultivation was in experimental stages. Capital needs for equipment and recurring outlays for fuel prolonged the adoption of mechanized agriculture. However, the distribution, mechanical, and logistical difficulties associated with gas- or alcohol-powered rigs were soon overcome. Cultivation in sugarcane was based on field inspections for weeds and was usually required every 2 weeks. 

After World War II, mechanization became virtually essential for weed control and resulted in dramatic adoption of tractors in sugarcane. In Louisiana, the number of tractors on sugarcane farms doubled between 1940 and 1947. During this same period, sugarcane acreage in Louisiana increased 20% while farm labor decreased 40%. Much of this change was due to cultivation with tractors and the introduction of 2,4-D for broadleaf weed control (Conrad and Lucas, 1995). 

Flame cultivation was attempted in sugarcane in the 1940s (Conrad and Lucas, 1995), but was soon abandoned. Liquid propane flamers burned broadleaf and grassy weeds as shields partially protected the crop from thermal damage. While flame cultivation was only marginally useful in sugarcane, tractor-mounted weed burners have been important in the transition from dependence on repetitive mechanical cultivation to the concept of chemical energy for weed control. 

Small succulent weeds between rows of taller woodier plants can be removed with a tractor-drawn flamer. The aim is not to burn up the weeds but just to achieve cell rupture. This method has been used to weed alfalfa, maize, cotton, sugarcane, and soybeans. High technology sprayers that determine the precise locations of weeds in soybeans by light and computer chips have been used to reduce the amount of herbicide needed by using only short bursts to spray the weeds.213 If this technique can be adapted to flame spraying or to the use of mechanical cutters, the herbicide can be eliminated. 

The body is made of a biodegradable plant fiber based structural material. Fibers or pulp from sugarcane, bagasse can be used. This material is inexpensive and thus decreases production costs. The material provides a solid mechanical support for holding the fluid in the container. 

Thom, M. and E. Komor, H+-sugar antiport as mechanism of sugar uptake by sugarcane vacuoles, FEES Lett., 173, 1-4 (1984). 

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