exams

some days are jst too gud to concentrate on the revision.. and some days are jst too bad, jst like nw, a few hours before exams, i jst dont wanna revise.. anyways, emerging crop technologies, be something like easy, so that i can overpass u.. mechanisation in mauritius, what are the contributions of government versus private sector.. we have the govt who has removed al duties when importing mechanical implements and tractors. spmpc provides hiring facilities to small farmers of sugarcane.. medine sugar state first started mechanisation, and is known as the pioneer of mechanisation. For potato mechanisation we have Freshlink Co ltd who provides mechanisation facilities in the region of Vacoas to potato planter.. but here we also have parastatal organisations... what then?? potato production--> mechanisation.. from start to chips.. lol... hmm, we have the tillage, furrowing, then windrowing, followed by planting with fertilisation at the same time.. then again, we have sort of windrowing which is also known as harvesting at that time. there is separating done, sorting followed bagging and storage.. this is basically what we have in potato mechanisation... i jst dont feel bored anymore about agriculture nowadays.. it jst seems to captivate more and more... I am loving it.. whats the special reason??

Lets come to GH, we have different types of GH, A frame, protected structures, gables, quonset, truss GH, sawtooth, lean to gh, gutter connected GH.. hmm, so am pretty good if i do remember these things.. lol... and then we have the mini tunnels mainly for strawberries, they are used to protect crops from high sunlight. people cannot enter in it and they need to remove the structure before accessing the crops.. the mini tunnels, generally dont have much characteristics. they are here to protect against wind and sunlight. people can walk in low tunnels. high tunnels are much higher in size 3 to 4m.. we have the greenhouses then, where we have several controlled conditions..

greenhouse construction, in terms of cladding materials, light control (sunlight and artificial light). Carbon dioxide enrichment, but we dont have CO2 enrichment in mauritius because, we are in a hot country where we require proper ventilation systems, which will drive away all the CO2 present.. thus causing unnecessary costs. and having adverse effect on profitability. irrigation system, either closed or open system.. normally all farmers use open system. open system is easier to use compared to without extra costs, but causes harm to the environment. we dont require to pay extra skilled workers for management of irrigation systems, no requirement of mixing and adjusting nutrient solutions. no extra costs in terms of electricity, less chances of contaminants and spread of diseases. and most important, it is much cheaper compared to closed water systems. some disadvantages, water is lost as leachate, loss of nutrient solution, where we need to buy fertilisers again, and water is a scarce resource. closed water sytems require use of skilled workers, we need to adjust nutrient solutions in terms of pH and electrical conductivity. closed water systems need electricity, and in case power failure, power generators should be readily available. pumps need to be bought together with additional pipes to connect used nutrient solution to the main tank supplying nutrient solution. farmers hesitate to go towards closed water system. one advantage is that, it is an automatic system. so this was about irrigation, we have the nutrient film technique, and substrate hydroponics: where nutrient film technique involves growing of crops using water and nutrients only, and the solution just keeps running through the system, during several cycles. the plants have to absorb the solution. basicallt, a pump is required, and also the pH and EC needs to be adjusted very often. There is better chances of contamination or spread of diseases and all the plants get contaminated, as the same solution runs throughout all the plants. water is an important resource, in a country like mauritius where we are suffering from droughts since a long time, we cannot waste water.. but one point is that, water is available easily and locally compared to substrates... substrates, need to be bought, in mauritius we mostly use cocopeat, coming from coconut.. but though having coconut in mru, we have to import them, because it contains resins.. this is a disadvantage such that we will be paying freight cost, and it wont be readily and locally available. the medias need to sanitsed and disinfected, before being used. sometimes medias dont have all the characteristics that we require, then we have to mix 2 medias together.. eg. we have perlite which has a good retention capacity, but allows no air to be present, this creates problem such as lack of oxygen to plants, which eventually kills the plants. then we have to add macadam, which can accomodate air. some medias jst get decomposed quickly such as wood shavings, and they are too light, they cannot hold the plant properly then. its difficult to pursuade people to go towards nutrient film technique, they tend to grow crops using substrate hydroponics as its easier.. but nft has its word to say as, it nft which has a world record of producing 500 tonnes of tomatoes from a tomato plant using water culture system. so basically without revising i can manage in half of the things in this module.. now i ve got to see a bit of cladding materials, cooling and aeration... light and temperature. the different crops grown, which are tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, melon, strawberry. et VOILA that is all.. In 6 hrs, its more than enough.. I just hope, i am able to write sense in the exams.. thats my only fear god....... plz help me out..