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Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur

The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) was established on 12th June 1964 at Hyderabad. The University was formally inaugurated on 20th March 1965 by Late Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India. Another significant milestone was the inauguration of the building programme of the university by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi,the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India on 23rd June 1966. The University was renamed as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University on 7th November 1996 in honour and memory of an outstanding parliamentarian Acharya Nayukulu Gogineni Ranga, who rendered remarkable selfless service for the cause of farmers and is regarded as an outstanding educationist, kisan leader and freedom fighter. HISTORICAL MILESTONE Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) was established under the name of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) on the 12th of June 1964 through the APAU Act 1963. Later, it was renamed as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University on the 7th of November, 1996 in honour and memory of the noted Parliamentarian and Kisan Leader, Acharya N. G. Ranga. At the verge of completion of Golden Jubilee Year of the ANGRAU, it has given birth to a new State Agricultural University namely Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University with the bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014. The ANGRAU at LAM, Guntur is serving the students and the farmers of 13 districts of new State of Andhra Pradesh with renewed interest and dedication. Genesis of ANGRAU in service of the farmers 1926: The Royal Commission emphasized the need for a strong research base for agricultural development in the country... 1949: The Radhakrishnan Commission (1949) on University Education led to the establishment of Rural Universities for the overall development of agriculture and rural life in the country... 1955: First Joint Indo-American Team studied the status and future needs of agricultural education in the country... 1960: Second Joint Indo-American Team (1960) headed by Dr. M. S. Randhawa, the then Vice-President of Indian Council of Agricultural Research recommended specifically the establishment of Farm Universities and spelt out the basic objectives of these Universities as Institutional Autonomy, inclusion of Agriculture, Veterinary / Animal Husbandry and Home Science, Integration of Teaching, Research and Extension... 1963: The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) Act enacted... June 12th 1964: Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) was established at Hyderabad with Shri. O. Pulla Reddi, I.C.S. (Retired) was the first founder Vice-Chancellor of the University... June 1964: Re-affilitation of Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Hyderabad (estt. in 1961, affiliated to Osmania University), Agricultural College, Bapatla (estt. in 1945, affiliated to Andhra University), Sri Venkateswara Agricultural College, Tirupati and Andhra Veterinary College, Tirupati (estt. in 1961, affiliated to Sri Venkateswara University)... 20th March 1965: Formal inauguration of APAU by Late Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India... 1964-66: The report of the Second National Education Commission headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, Chairman of the University Grants Commission stressed the need for establishing at least one Agricultural University in each Indian State... 23, June 1966: Inauguration of the Administrative building of the university by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Hon`ble Prime Minister of India... July, 1966: Transfer of 41 Agricultural Research Stations, functioning under the Department of Agriculture... May, 1967: Transfer of Four Research Stations of the Animal Husbandry Department... 7th November 1996: Renaming of University as Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University in honour and memory of an outstanding parliamentarian Acharya Nayukulu Gogineni Ranga... 15th July 2005: Establishment of Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) bifurcating ANGRAU by Act 18 of 2005... 26th June 2007: Establishment of Andhra Pradesh Horticultural University (APHU) bifurcating ANGRAU by the Act 30 of 2007... 2nd June 2014 As per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014, ANGRAU is now... serving the students and the farmers of 13 districts of new State of Andhra Pradesh with renewed interest and dedication...

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Subject: Agricultural Engineering × End date: 2016 × Start date: 2015 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    MODELLING THE IMPACT OF SALINE AND WATERLOGGED AREAS IN KRISHNA CENTRAL DELTA
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2016) INDRAJA, P; HEMA KUMAR, H. V.
    Land, a non-renewable resource, is central to all primary production system. It is estimated that some forms of land degradation constituting 75% of the earth's usable landmass affect 4 billion people in the world. About 15% of the world population is effected by land degradation which is likely to worsen unless adequate and immediate measures are taken to arrest the degradation processes. Mostly land is affected by wind and water erosion, which is about 80% of land degradation followed by salinization/alkalization and waterlogging. Krishna delta irrigates an ayacut of 5.14 lakh ha covering West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Eastern main canal’s command area is about 2.948 lakh ha in Krishna and West Godavari Districts. Krishna Central Delta is a part of Krishna Eastern Delta that constitutes the command area of Bandar canal. During monsoon, these lands are affected by waterlogging and salinity problems. Hence it is felt appropriate to study Krishna Central Delta with a special focus to identify the waterlogged and saline lands for reclamation by either drainage system or addition of amendments like gypsum etc. Under the aforesaid valid and farmers’ felt research needs, the present post graduate research work entitled “Modelling the impact of saline and waterlogged areas in Krishna Central Delta” is proposed to i) to estimate the extent of land under waterlogging and salinity in Krishna Central Delta. ii) to simulate the effect of waterlogging and salinity on crop yield using a model with various hypothetic scenarios. iii) to design location specific drainage parameters for combating waterlogging and salinity. Krishna Central Delta which is a part of Krishna Eastern Delta constitutes the command area of Bandar canal which has an irrigated ayacut of 274834.09 acres (111223.83 ha) in Krishna district. In this study Landsat 8 images and Sentinel-2A images were used and analyzed using ERDAS IMAGINE 2014 and ArcGIS 10.1 software's. From the literature, different salinity indices were selected to find out the best suited index for the study area. Salinity indices used to find the salt affected soils using GIS. Details of ground water quality parameters which were analyzed from the water samples collected from the observation wells located in the Krishna Central Delta were collected from Ground water Department, Vijayawada. Initially for the identified problematic patches, the input parameters some directly measured, some indirectly were assessed and fed into 'SALTMOD' model. Without the presence of any drainage systems, simulation for first, fourth, sixth and tenth year for depth of ground water table and root zone salinity was carried out and the output parameters were fed into AquaCrop model along with other crop, climate, irrigation requirement and other related parameters to predict the yields. WaSiM, Water balance Simulation Model is a physically based, distributed hydrologic model that runs on a regular grid and uses a modular system of sub-models to offer the possibility of creating a problem and scale adequate setup. Drain space, one of the modules of WaSim was used for sub surface drainage design. Based on the research work carried out, the major conclusions drawn are i) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was found to range from 0.72 to - 0.92 in Krishna Central Delta (KCD) region. In KCD region, Normalized Difference Salinity Index (NDSI) was found the best suitable and it ranged from -0.714 to 0.185 and best correlated with ground truth values. Soil salinity was characterized into five classes and it was found that highest area was under moderately saline with an area of 68754.01 ha followed by strongly saline, slightly saline, non saline and very strongly saline. ii) Spatial analysis of water table data revealed that most critically waterlogged zone was found in post monsoon covering an area of 597.65 km2 which was about 26.27% of the total study area. It was found that critically waterlogged area increased from 620.12 km2 (27.25%) in pre monsoon period to 1074.02 km2 (47.2%) in post monsoon period. The area under less critically waterlogged was found to be decreased from 704.49 km2 (30.95%) in pre monsoon to 163.06 km2 (7.16%) in post monsoon period. iii) Soil salinity was predicted for future ten years using SALTMOD and corresponding yield were predicted using Aquacrop. With increase of soil salinity from 0.5 dS m-1 to 6.5 dS m-1 there was about 42.28% reduction in the crop yield and 36.69% reduction in biomass yield. iv) Using 'Drain Space', a module of WaSim software, by using the Hooghoudts equation under steady state condition, the drain spacing for shallow drain depth placement of 0.6 m, 0.7 m and 0.8 m the spacing was arrived as 9.5, 16.6, 22.36 m. For deeper drain depth placements of 0.95, 1.0 and 1.15 m, the drain spacing was arrived as 30, 32.4 and 38.81 m respectively for a constant desired depth of water table as 0.5 m to make the root zone free from waterlogging.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    MODELING OF SURFACE IRRIGATION SYSTEMS USING ‘SURDEV’ IN COASTAL AREAS OF GUNTUR DISTRICT
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2016) SUNITHA, D.V.; HEMA KUMAR, H.V.
    Water is the most vital input in agriculture and its availability is necessary in providing stability to food grain production and self-sufficiency. About 80% of total water resources are being utilized for agriculture. Surface irrigation is widely practiced throughout the world i.e., more than 95 % of world’s irrigated area is under surface irrigation (Anonymous, 2003). India has the highest irrigated area with almost one fifth of the irrigated area in the world. According to statistical year book India 2016, irrigated land in India is about 64.7 M ha of which 55 M ha is irrigated by surface methods of irrigation. The irrigated land in Andhra Pradesh is about 4.2 M ha of which 3.68 M ha is under surface methods of irrigation. All along the coast, Guntur district is predominantly with sandy soils, where deep percolation losses are more thereby having lot of scope to improve irrigation efficiency. In the coastal agriculture, small to medium farmers are dominant group cultivating rice, groundnut and vegetables following check basin and furrow irrigation systems. Under the aforesaid valid and farmers’ felt research needs, the present post graduate research work entitled “Modeling of surface irrigation systems using ‘SURDEV’ in coastal areas of Guntur district” is proposed to fulfil the following major objectives. i) To survey different farmers’ fields for the existing field design of surface irrigation systems in coastal areas of Guntur district. ii) To estimate the overall irrigation efficiency of surface irrigation systems using SURDEV model. iii) To model the design parameters for the improvement of overall irrigation efficiency using SURDEV. A total number of 120 coastal farmers’ fields (60 fields under check basin irrigation system and 60 fields under furrow irrigation system) were surveyed. The major crops grown in the study area are rice, groundnut, pulses in basins; maize and vegetables in furrows. The dominant soil type is sandy. In the present study, software model SURDEV developed by M. Jurriens, was used to determine the existing field efficiencies and to improve the efficiencies of the irrigation systems. The required data for inputting into the model was collected from field survey. With this data from existing basin and furrow irrigation systems were used as input for BASDEV and FURDEV modules respectively for obtaining the application, storage, and distribution efficiencies (%), minimum, maximum and average infiltrated depths (mm), advance and recession times (min), and under-irrigation, over-irrigation lengths and depths. The performance of surface irrigation system proved to be unsatisfactory and so suggestions for improvement were evaluated with BASDEV and FURDEV modules in SURDEV. Also for some fields, cutback and tail water reuse options in FURDEV were used by giving suitable values of cutback ratio and tail water reuse ratio to further increase the efficiencies. To know whether the improvement is statistically significant or not, on theoretical basis, simple statistical analyses were performed. i) Student ‘t-test’ amongst existing and improved efficiencies ii) standard error of mean within a particular group of efficiencies and finally iii) correlation matrix with various input parameters which were changed on hit and miss trials basis were chosen. For rice under basin irrigation system, the overall efficiency was increased from 38.14% to 71.55% using BASDEV module in SURDEV. Similarly, for groundnut and pulses the overall efficiency was increased from 32.48% to 65.15% and 38.49% to 69.15% respectively. For maize under furrow irrigation system, the overall efficiency was increased from 40.8% to 58.32% using FURDEV module in SURDEV. Similarly, for cucumber and for watermelon the overall efficiency was increased from 35.63% to 51.84% and 53.68% to 62.83% respectively. With cutback option in FURDEV module further increase in efficiency was obtained as 9.14% for 20 cucumber fields, 11.85% for 3 maize fields and 12% for 2 watermelon fields under furrow irrigation system. Similarly, with tail water reuse further increase in efficiency was found to be 3% for 6 cucumber fields, 4.8% for 6 maize fields and 2.4% for 1 watermelon field. From the t-test, it was observed that the application and overall efficiencies for all the crops of study area for basin irrigation system and furrow irrigation system showed significant variation in the design exercise at 5% level of significance. It was observed from the standard error calculations that storage efficiency for all crops except groundnut and distribution, overall efficiencies for maize and watermelon crop showed less standard error which means that they are more or less following certain governing pattern and the rest showed standard error equal to and greater than 1 indicating that the efficiencies varied tremendously. From the correlation matrix prepared for the various input parameters (independent variables) and various efficiencies tested in study fields separately for different soils and different irrigation systems, the correlation has not given any uniform pattern for any of soils. In some cases, basin width, cut off time and basin length has shown high correlation and for certain soils like clay loam, sandy loam, loam and silty clay, the sample sizes were very meagre and hence the statistical results outcome could not be worked out. If measures are taken to improve at least 10% in the efficiency by recommending flow rate, cut off time, field dimensions, there will be a saving of water in the tune of 6.129 BCM because of the fact that as per AP water vision, the irrigation water consumption is 61.317 BCM at present
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A LOW COST GRADER FOR ROUND FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, 2016) SAI VINAY, B. J. V.; Dr. L. EDUKONDALU
    Grading of agricultural produce especially the fruits and vegetables has become a perquisite of trading across borders. In India mostly fruit growers grade the fruits manually. Human operations may be inconsistent, less efficient and time consuming and costly during shortage of labour in peak seasons. Hence, a low cost grader suitable for round fruits and vegetables based on the principle of centrifugal force and gravitational force was developed. The grader was evaluated for lemon, sweet orange and onion. The physical dimensions, geometrical mean diameter (GMD) and sphericity for lemon, sweet orange and onion were measured. The average major, intermediate and minor diameters for lemon were 37.02, 35.51 and 34.33 mm respectively. The geometric mean diameter of lemon varied from 24.43 - 46.47 mm with an average value of 35.60 mm. The average major, intermediate and minor diameters for sweet orange were 52.39, 51.24 and 49.16 mm respectively. The geometric mean diameter of sweet orange varied from 39.03 – 65.78 mm with an average value of 50.90 mm. The average major, intermediate and minor diameters for onion were 56.61, 53.75 and 47.79 mm respectively. The geometric mean diameter varied from 34.06 – 72.28 mm with an average value of 52.52 mm. Average sphericity of lemon, sweet orange and onion were 0.99, 0.97 and 0.93 respectively. The developed grader was tested and evaluated at different feed rates. The grader was also evaluated at different speeds of the rotary disc like 10, 30, 50 and 70 rpm. Efficiency and capacity of the grader were optimized with respect to feed rate, disc speed and surface material of disc. Mild steel sheet was proved to be the best surface material for lemon and sweet orange grading. Plastic sheet was proved to be the best surface material for onion grading. Optimum speed of the rotary disc during highest separation efficiencies was 30 rpm for all fruits and vegetables tested. Overall efficiency of grader for lemon, sweet orange and onion were 86%, 75% and 83% respectively. Maximum grading efficiency was obtained for lemon because of its more sphericity. Keywords: Rotary disc, Sphericity, Geometric mean diameter, Surface material, Feed rate, Mild steel, Plastic, Cloth, Separation efficiency and Grading efficiency.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    ASSESSMENT OF IRRIGATION POTENTIAL UTILIZATION IN IRRIGATION PROJECTS USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2016) MADHUSUDHANA REDDY, K; SATYANARAYANA, T. V.
    Irrigated agriculture is increasing in India, enhancing irrigation potential by huge investments on irrigation projects. Andhra Pradesh is one of the states in which massive irrigation infrastructure is existing under more than 100 projects and huge irrigation potential is created (~40 Lakh ha) and many more projects are in progress. Monitoring of irrigation projects for the assessment of irrigation potential utilisation is essential on a regular basis to have a continuous performance evaluation. Remote sensing and GIS techniques are effective tools for monitoring irrigation projects on regular basis. Spatial and temporal monitoring of the projects during the crop seasons namely kharif, rabi and summer is necessary to monitor the irrigation potential utilization and take the necessary steps for interventions for improvement. This objective requires spatio-temporal information in synoptic view to know the progressive and problematic pockets in irrigated agricultural lands. Satellite data provides scope for synoptic coverage and multi-temporal datasets. Presently, there are number of satellites providing such datasets and many of them are available in public domains. Methodology was established for the use of public domain satellite datasets from Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager). The present study is focussed on investigation on assessment of irrigation potential utilization from public domain satellite datasets, development of methodology for assessment of irrigation potential utilization in major irrigation commands, assessment of analysis on irrigation potential creation and utilization scenario. Irrigation potential utilisation is estimated in 8 irrigation commands in the study covering the major irrigation systems in Andhra Pradesh like Nagarjuna Sagar Project right canal command and Kurnool-Cuddapah (KC) canal system, Irrigated delta systems like Pennar delta, Kanupur canal system and also smaller projects like Swarnamukhi, Thatipudi, Konam and Raiwada where the irrigation is through reservoir and also by use of smaller irrigation tanks. Cloud free Satellite data from Landsat 8 OLI representing kharif (September/October-December), rabi (February/ March) and summer (April/May) seasons were selected for these commands. The boundaries of study area were digitised from the guidance available in public domain ISRO-Bhuvan and India WRIS web sites. The software used for analysis of satellite images were ERDAS IMAGINE and Arc GIS. Satellite images were processed for generation of monthly crop masks using unsupervised image classification and NDVI for the irrigation command areas. Estimation of the irrigation potential utilisation in command area is demonstrated though grid (1 ha) based approach used to spatially extent over the entire command. Further seasonal crop maps were generated with spatial analysis of three season satellite data-derived crop masks. The information available from Government of Andhra Pradesh web sites was utilised for collection of base line information on selected pilot irrigation areas of and the ayacut details representing the cropping pattern and irrigation potential creation /contemplated. Irrigation potential utilisation in various irrigation commands is as follows: NSP Right Canal command: Kharif crop constitutes 78 per cent, rabi crop constitutes 32 per cent and summer/annual crops are about 4 per cent and two seasonal crops about 11 per cent of the ayacut designed during the year 2014-15 with irrigation intensity is 125 per cent. Total releases were about 157.25 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 596699 ha and hence the water productivity 3794 ha per TMC and delta 0.74 m. Pennar Delta: Kharif crop constitutes 56 per cent, rabi crop constitutes 78 per cent and summer/annual crops are about 10 per cent of the ayacut designed and irrigation intensity is 144 per cent. Total releases are about 21.343 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 144481 ha and hence the water productivity 6769 ha per TMC and delta 0.41 m. Kurnool Cuddapah canal: Kharif crop constitutes 74912 ha and rabi crop constitutes 38545 ha during the year 2014-15 and irrigation intensity is 151 per cent. Total releases are about 35.768 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 112737 ha and hence the water productivity 3151 ha per TMC and delta 0.89 m. Kanupur Canal system: Kharif crop constitutes 65 per cent, rabi crop constitutes 50 per cent and summer/annual crops are about 6 per cent of the ayacut designed and irrigation intensity is 121 per cent. Total releases are about 5.467 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 30913 ha and hence the water productivity 5654 ha per TMC and delta 0.49 m. Swarnamukhi Irrigation Project: Kharif crop constitutes 71 per cent (3328 ha), rabi crop constituted 126 per cent (5902 ha) and summer/annual crops were about 4 per cent (183 ha) of the ayacut during the year 2014-15 and irrigation intensity was 201 per cent, it includes self-catchment of Northeast rains. Total releases are about 2.17 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 9413 ha and hence the water productivity 4338 ha per TMC and delta 0.65 m. Sri Vechalapu Palavelli Konam reservoir project: Kharif crop constitutes 89 per cent (4558 ha), rabi crop constitutes 6 per cent (292 ha) and summer/annual crops are about 23 per cent (1198 ha) of the ayacut during the year 2014-15 and irrigation intensity is 118 per cent. Total releases are about 1.54 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 6048 ha and hence the water productivity 3927 ha per TMC and delta 0.72 m. Sri Varada Narayana Murthy Raiwada reservoir project: Kharif crop constitutes 68 per cent (4116 ha), rabi crop constitutes 24 per cent (1429 ha) and summer/annual crops are about 25 per cent (1523 ha) of the ayacut during the year 201415 and irrigation intensity is 117 per cent. Total releases are about 1.53 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 5668 ha and hence the water productivity 3705 ha per TMC and delta 0.76 m. Thatipudi Irrigation project: Kharif crop constitutes 81 per cent (5057 ha), rabi crop constitutes 5 per cent (303 ha) of the ayacut designed ayacut during the year 201415 and irrigation intensity is 88 per cent. Total releases are about 1.39 TMC and irrigation potential utilised was 5486 ha and hence the water productivity 3946 ha per TMC and delta 0.71 m. The analysis over multiple irrigation commands gave an experience for attempting the methodology over a state / river basin and quick analysis can be taken up. The study indicated that the analysis at disaggregated level will be possible to address the micro level information at distributary / blocks. The limitations are the availability of cloud free satellite data especially during the kharif season. This can be over come, if several satellites are launched for increasing the frequency of observations. Satellite data availability in public domain has provided scope for cost-effective solution for acquiring the temporal satellite data at monthly interval over several irrigation commands. Cost free Landsat 8 OLI sensor which has spatial resolution of 30 m data are found to be very much suitable for the study at regional level as 16 days interval data are available from USGS (United States Geological Service) Earth archives in near real time. It was found that the methodology developed will be helpful for the quick analysis of cropping pattern in study area and also reporting the same for near real time analysis. Though the study is conducted in selected irrigation commands, the approach and the experience is useful for the extension of the same in several irrigation commands in Andhra Pradesh state.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STUDIES ON PROCESSING AND STORAGE OF TENDER COCONUT WATER
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2016) ANIL KUMAR, K; SATYANARAYANA, Ch.V.V.
    Coconut water (Cocos nucifera L.) is an ancient tropical beverage whose original properties have drawn the attention of manufacturers as a natural functional drink. The tender coconut water (TCW) technically the liquid endosperm, is the most nutritious wholesome beverage that the nature has provided for the people of the tropics. TCW is rich in essential minerals such as potassium, sodium and natural nutrients like polyphenols. The water inside the nut is sterile but when it is extracted and exposed to air it becomes vulnerable to oxidation besides microbial contamination. Thermal treatments combined with chemical additives are used by the industry but other technologies such as micro and ultrafiltration are yet to be used on an industrial scale. In thermal and chemical processes, taste, aroma and colour are difficult to control and maintain to achieve fresh like taste in the product. The membrane separation processes such as Microfiltration (MF), Ultrafiltration (UF), Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse osmosis (RO) are promising novel alternative non-thermal and non-chemical methods that are relatively less energy intensive and retain heat labile components. MF and UF offer excellent potential in food industry for clarification and pasteurization of liquid foods to replace conventional processing techniques. Therefore a study was conducted to develop process technology for bottling TCW using membrane filtration, pasteurization and chemical additive and suggest a suitable method. A continuous cross flow flat sheet membrane module was used in the study to process by MF and UF. Initially the permeate fluxes were established using pure water on 0.2μm pore size and 40 kDa and 500 Da molecular weight cut off (MWCO) membranes at various transmembrane pressures (TMPs). The experiments revealed that permeate flux increases with an increase in TMP and membrane pore size or MWCO. The steady state fluxes were relatively higher with MF in comparison to UF and NF at the given TMP. The permeate flux of microfiltered TCW declined from 189.98 L /m2h and reached a steady flux at 88.51L/m2h at a TMP of 5.06 kg/cm2. The flux also declined from 107.54 to 82.07 L/m2 h in UF. The flux decline during MF and UF is perhaps due to concentration polarization and consequent fouling. Five different treatments were investigated to develop process technology and extend shelf life during storage of TCW. In the first treatment, the coconut water was passed through a microfiltration membrane of 0.2 µm pore size at a pressure of 5.06 kg/cm2 to remove microbes and suspended particles. In the second treatment, coconut water was passed through ultrafiltration membranes of 40 kDa MWCO at pressures about 5.06 kg/cm2 to remove enzymes such as polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD). In the third treatment, the coconut water was bottled and pasteurized at 85 oC for 10 min. In the fourth and fifth treatments, the coconut water was filtered through a MF membrane and chemical preservative nisin was added in two concentrations of 5000 I.U. and 2500 I.U. The TCW filtered through muslin cloth was taken as control sample. The control as well as all the treated samples were bottled and stored at 4 °C. The samples were taken at four days interval and their physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics were determined upto 20 days of storage. The TSS of TCW generally decreased during storage except for pasteurized samples. Pasteurized TCW did not show any change in TSS compared to all other treatments. The pH generally decreased in all the treatments during storage up to 20 days. The percentage reducing sugars increased for all the samples during storage. However, pasteurized samples recorded lower increase in reducing sugars. The turbidity of the TCW increased during storage as indicated by decrease in the light transmittance values. Turbidity was observed to be relatively low for microfiltered and ultrafiltered TCW suggesting that membranes processes are useful for clarification of TCW. E.coli, Fungal and bacterial count were observed to be less in pasteurized samples. Overall based on different quality attributes, pasteurized treatment, MF and UF have been found to give a better quality bottled TCW in that order, the first treatment being the best. It can be concluded that membrane processing of TCW is one of the alternate methods along with thermal processing for producing quality product. Keywords: Membrane processing, Microfiltration, Ultrafiltration, Permeate flux
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS FOR CORN OIL EXTRACTION
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2016) HARISH, N; SIVALA KUMAR
    The present work was undertaken to optimize the process parameters for prepress solvent extraction of corn oil. The effects of preheating temperatures (90, 120, 150 and 180 °C) & time durations (2, 4, 6 and 8 min) on the oil yield and quality parameters of oil (saponification value, acid value, iodine value & peroxide value) obtained by mechanical pressing were studied. Similarly the effects of extraction temperatures (70, 80, 90 and 100 °C) & time durations (20, 40, 60 and 80 min) on the oil yield, quality parameters of oil and quality parameters of deoiled cake (crude protein, crude fibre & ash contents) obtained by solvent extraction of pressed cake at optimized condition were studied. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the optimum process conditions for prepress solvent extraction of oils and to analyze the effects of processing variables, including preheating temperatures and time durations for pressing and extraction temperatures and time durations for solvent extraction. Response surface plots of dependent variables against process variables were studied. The different regression equations describing the process variables on the yield and quality parameters ix were developed. The predicted models were adequate based on the coefficient of determination obtained. In mechanical pressing process, the dependent variables such as oil yield, acid value and peroxide value increased with increased preheat conditions while saponification & iodine values were decreased. It was observed for pressing at the optimized condition of temperature 110 °C and time 8 min gave oil yield, saponification value, acid value, iodine value and peroxide value were found to be 42.04%, 217.40 mgKOH/g, 1.49 mgKOH/g, 100 g Iodine/100 g and 1.12 meq/kg, respectively. In solvent extraction process, the dependent variables of oil & deoiled cake such as yield, acid value, crude protein & crude fibre contents increased with increased process parameters while saponification, iodine, peroxide & ash content values were decreased. It was observed for solvent extraction at the optimized condition of temperature 82 °C, and 80 min gave oil yield, saponification value, acid value, iodine value, peroxide value, crude protein, crude fibre and ash content were found to be 12.37%, 219.22 mgKOH/g, 1.80 mgKOH/g, 119.40 g Iodine/100 g, 1.72 meq/kg, 25.20%, 15.25% and 6.05%, respectively. During the process of prepress solvent extraction of oil, the oil yield was 42.04% in pressing of maize germs and 12.37% in solvent extraction of pressed cake resulted total oil yield of 54.01% out of total oil content of 56.50%. Keywords: corn germ, heating temperature, yield, oil quality, deoiled cake, response surface methodology, optimization.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FERTIGATION EQUIPMENT ON CHILLIES AND MAIZE CROPS IN SANDY SOIL
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2016) GOWTHAM SINGH, B; RAVI BABU, G
    Soluble chemical fertilizers can be injected into the drip and sprinkler systems which can be easily applied to the crop. This way nutrients are delivered with the irrigation water, directly to the active root zone of the plants. The two operations namely, irrigation and fertilizer applications are done simultaneously which results savings of both in water and fertilizers along with labour requirement. Precise management of irrigation quantity along with the rate and timing of nutrient application are of critical importance to obtain desired results in terms of productivity and Nutrient Use Efficiency. Therefore, for injection of the fertilizer solution into the irrigation system three different fertigation equipments were used namely, venturi injector, fertilizer injection pump and fertilizer tank for the present study. The fertilizer injection pumps needs no external power supply, since the linear hydraulic motor contained within the unit, is powered by the hydraulic pressure of the irrigation system and directly connected to main line. A venturi injector with the size of ¾th inch manufactured by Netafim irrigation systems was used to evaluate the hydraulic performance. The pressure drop through a venturi must be sufficient to create a negative pressure (vacuum) as measured relative to atmospheric pressure. Under these conditions the fluid from the tank will flow into the injector. In fertilizer tank the water will flow because of pressure gradient between the entrance and exit of the fertilizer tank created by a pressure reducing valve (Throttle valve). The experimental field with an area of 453 m2 for chillies crop and 440 m2 for maize crop was selected at field irrigation laboratory, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering, Bapatla. The field was divided into 4 main plots with 4.8 m × 20.4 m with plant spacing of 0.6 m x 0.6 m size for chillies and ii 4.6 m × 20.6 m size for maize crop with plant spacing of 0.6 m x 0.2 m to conduct experiments. Different fertigation equipments like venturi injector, fertilizer injection pump and fertilizer tank were tested to study the hydraulic performance of the system. Venturi injector for fertilizer application was found to have high suction rate in comparison with fertilizer injection pump when pressure gradient increased between inlet and outlet. The percentage decrease in motive flow rate for venturi injector was 76 % which was higher than that of fertilizer injection pump 12 % and fertilizer tank 51 % for the pressure difference from 0.1 to 0.5 kg cm-2. Due to the high motive flow rate the venturi injector is suitable for application with large number of drippers where as fertilizer injection pump recorded less motive flow rate when compared to venturi injector at same pressure difference so we can use fertilizer injection pumps for smaller discharge rates also. The results revealed that the yield response was observed to be the best in fertigation with fertilizer injection pump treatment in chillies crop as 10.51 t ha-1 with water use efficiency of 16.26 kg ha-1 mm-1 was observed to be higher than the all other treatments followed by venturi injector, fertilizer tank and flood method as 15.52, 12.66 and 9.18 kg ha-1 mm-1 respectively. In maize crop, also the yield was best in fertigation with fertilizer injection pump treatment as 6.10 t ha-1 with water use efficiency of 10.90 kg ha-1 mm-1 was observed to be higher than the all other treatments followed by venturi injector, fertilizer tank and flood method as 9.97, 8.47 and 5.75 kg ha-1 mm-1 respectively. Increased FUE such as Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and Pottasium use efficiency (KUE) were observed in the chilli crop. The highest NUE of 35.53 kg of produce / kg of N was recorded in the treatment drip with fertilizer injection pump (T1) where as in maize crop the highest NUE of 30.96 kg of produce / kg of N was recorded in the treatment drip with fertilizer injection pump (T1). For chillies crop BCR was the highest for the treatment drip with fertilizer injection pump (T1) of 1.49 and the lowest for the control (T4) of 1.08. Venturi injector (T2) occupied the second position for BCR of 1.47 where as fertilizer tank (T3) recorded BCR as 1.20 whereas for maize crop BCR was the highest for the T1 of 1.48 and the lowest for the T4 of 1.15. Venturi injector occupied the second position for BCR of 1.41 whereas T3 recorded BCR as 1.20. It clearly indicates that at different methods of fertilizer application results had significant difference. Key words: fertilizer injection pump, venturi injector, fertilizer tank, suction rate, motive flow rate.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    TECHNO-ECONOMICAL FEASIBILITY AND EVALUATION OF SUGARCANE PLANTERS AVAILABLE IN ANDHRA PRADESH
    (Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, 2016) SUNITHA, BINGI; RAMANA, C
    Sugarcane is one of the important commercial crops in India. Even though the day has come where almost all field operations in the crop production system of major crops were mechanized, the mechanization in sugarcane was incipient. To bring complete mechanization in sugarcane production system, it is essential to mechanize planting operation of sugarcane crop. In this process machines available viz., Set cutter Planter; Bud-chip seedling transplanter for planting were evaluated and its efficiencies were analyzed and compared with the farmer practice. The sugarcane set cutter planter is a versatile implement and can do five operation viz., furrow opening, set cutting and placement, fertilizer & fungicide application and covering in single go. Similarly seedling transplanting machine available for bud-chip method of sugarcane planting which can do four operations like furrow opening, seedling placement along with water pour and press the seedling in soil; was considered for study and evaluated operating parameters. The row spacing for planting with both machines were adjustable and can be done from 90 cm to 165 cm. The machines also evaluated for intra row spacing of planting which was continuous or up to required spacing as it is monitored by the feeding of cane in sett cutting machine. Similarly, fertilizer quantity can be metered through machine from 0.02 g/m to 0.44 g/m run in the furrow, whereas fungicide placement need to be done with knob position and can be varied from 1172 ml to 1549 ml. In case of bud chip seedling planter intra row spacing can be varied from 30 cm to the maximum of 57 cm by changing suitable gear ratio in the power train and water pour quantity can be monitored from 47.4 ml/plant to 244 ml/plant. The machine was tested for field performance by planting sugarcane crop using set cutter planting machine, bud-chip seedling planting machine and compared with farmer method of planting in a same area of 594 m2 of same soil composition field. The field efficiency of planting was 58.7 % in set cutter planting, whereas, in bud chip planting machine it was 50.0%; time taken to complete operation was 2.544 h/acre in sett and 4.0473 h/acre respectively. The time saving with machine (set cutter & bud chip) planting was 98.4 % and 97.47 % respectively when compared to manual planting method. Similarly the labour saving was found to be 92% and 92% in set cutter & bud chip planting compared to manual planting method. Study was also covered the effect of machine planting on crop growth as well as yield parameters and compared with manual planting method. The highest yield was recorded in the bud-chip planting field and was 26.17% more than set cutter planting and 43.2% more than manual method of planting. This is mainly due to the advantage of the method was over the other two methods where germination was low. The cost economics of the planting was also analyzed and found to be Rs 4,575/acre (Budchip planting) and Rs. 27,595/acre (sett cutter planter) can be saved over manual method of planting. The effect of machine planting on cane quality parameters was also verified and found that there is no or negligible influence. Both the machines evaluated for sugarcane planting were efficient and suitable for Indian conditions. The awareness and cost of machine are constraints for large scale adoption. Key words: Sugarcane sett cutter planter, Sugarcane budchip seedling transplanter, Manual planting, field performance, crop parameters, cost economics.