It has been shown that the cultivation of plants under glass coated with nano-sized upconversion luminophores led to an increase in plant productivity and the acceleration of plant adaptation to ultraviolet radiation. In the present work, we examined the effect of upconversion nanopowders with the nominal composition Sr_0.955Yb_0.020Er_0.025F_2.045 on plant (Solanum lycopersicum) photochemistry. The composition, structure and size of nanoparticles were tested using X-ray pattern diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. Nanoparticles are capable of converting infrared radiation into red and green photons. Glasses coated with upconversion luminophores increase the intensity of photosynthetically active radiation and absorb the ultraviolet and far-red radiation. The chlorophyll a fluorescence method showed that plants growing under photoconversion and those growing under common film demonstrate different ability to utilize excitation energy via photosynthesis. It was shown that under ultraviolet and high light conditions, the efficiency of the photochemical reactions, the non-photochemical fluorescence quenching, and the electron transport remained relatively stable in plants growing under photoconversion film in contrast to plants growing under common film. Thus, cultivation of Solanum lycopersicum under photoconversion glasses led to the acceleration in plant growth due to greater efficiency of plant photochemistry under stress conditions.

The roller and sieve machines most commonly used in Russia for the post-harvest processing of root and tuber crops and onions have a number of disadvantages, the main one being a decrease in the quality of sorting due to the contamination of working bodies, which increases the quantity of losses during sorting and storage. To obtain high-quality competitive production, it is necessary to combine a number of technological operations during the sorting process, such as dividing the material into classes and fractions by quality and size, as well as identifying and removing damaged products. In order to improve the quality of sorting of root tubers and onions by size, it is necessary to ensure the development of an automatic control system for operating and technological parameters, the use of which will eliminate manual sorting on bulkhead tables in post-harvest processing. To fulfill these conditions, the developed automatic control system must have the ability to identify the material on the sorting surface, taking into account external damage and ensuring the automatic removal of impurities. In this study, the highest sorting accuracy of tubers (of more than 91%) was achieved with a forward speed of 1.2 m/s for the conveyor of the sorting table, with damage to 2.2% of the tubers, which meets the agrotechnical requirements for post-harvest processing. This feature distinguishes the developed device from similar ones.

The long-term storage of vegetable crops and potatoes in storage, even with a small content of soil and plant impurities in the heap, does not ensure the preservation of the required quality indicators of marketable products. The lack of modern technological foundations for improving the design parameters of machines for harvesting vegetables and potatoes leads to the impossibility of eliminating the loss of root crops, their damage, as well as the high-quality process of cleaning from impurities. This circumstance is due to the fact that modern technologies and technical means of harvesting root crops and onions are not able to provide high-quality marketable products with minimal labor costs. In this regard, a modern separating system of the harvesting machine has been developed, which ensures the variation of technological parameters under changing conditions for the harvesting of root crops and onions. The experimental studies of the developed harvester with an experimental separating system made it possible to ensure the high-quality harvesting of potato and onion tubers with the following parameter values: a completeness of separation of more than 98% and a damage to products up to 1.7%, at a speed of movement of 1.7 m/s for the separating system; a completeness of separation of more than 98% and a product damage of up to 1.1% at a speed of up to 1.0 m/s for the harvester; and a separation completeness of more than 98% and a product damage of up to 1.4% at a commercial product extraction depth of 0.02 m. The results of comparative studies on the quality indicators of the machine for harvesting root crops in the harvesting of potato and onion tubers are presented, indicating the prevailing values of the quality indicators of work in the harvesting of potatoes, depending on the change in the regime indicators of the quality of work.

Existing potato harvesters cause damage to marketable products as a result of the interaction of potato tubers with each other, with working bodies and soil clods, given the wide variety of soil and climatic conditions in which the harvesting process takes place. In addition, under homogeneous soil and climatic conditions within the same accounting area, there is a large deviation from the average values of the main physical soil constants—moisture and hardness. Field studies were carried out to determine the fractional composition of soil clods, size-mass parameters, as well as their physical and mechanical properties with the identification of the greatest force for their destruction. The article presents a methodology for conducting research to assess the influence of working bodies on the magnitude of the force impact on potato tubers and soil clods during harvesting, a methodology for assessing the dynamic destruction of soil clods. The results of comparative studies of the force impact of the working bodies of modern potato harvesters, which affect the destruction of soil clods, causing damage to potato tubers as a result of their interaction with soil clods are presented.

The purpose of this study is to substantiate the concept of express assessment of potato tubers for mechanized harvesting using fluorimetric and RAMAN lidar, as well as to conduct a quantitative and structural assessment of damage to potato varieties and hybrids, using a device that simulates the process of operation of the combine separator, depending on the type of machine and harvesting conditions. In addition, calibration of the lidar was undertaken to assess the magnitude of the physical impact of the drum to assess the damage. A structural–functional diagram of a device for assessing the suitability of varieties and hybrids for mechanized harvesting has been developed. The methodology and results of this study are presented to determine the assessment of damage to potato tubers by a RAMAN lidar when fixing their force impact of the separating surface of the developed device on a potato tuber. The device developed in accordance with the proposed conceptual scheme, additionally calibrated taking into account modern potato harvesters and tested on a RAMAN lidar, will allow targeted selection of varieties suitable for mechanized harvesting, as well as assessing the degree of resistance of potato varieties to mechanized harvesting at early stages of selection and seed works.

Степень технологической и технической зависимости отечественных производителей овощных культур от зарубежных производителей с.-х. техники, а также их техническая оснащенность специализированными машинами объясняется высокими затратами на производство овощей, особенно на уборку, что при общем дефиците ручного труда приводит к сокращению площадей, нарушению технологии выращивания и соответственно снижению урожайности. Цель исследований – определить современное состояние технологического и технического обеспечения производства овощных культур в Российской Федерации. Для достижения поставленной цели использовали методологию системного анализа и синтеза, математической статистики, численные методы решения аналитических зависимостей. Статистические исследования современного состояния технического обеспечения производства овощей в России могут служить основой для построения модели и разработки концептуальных принципов модернизации технологического и технического обеспечения работ в овощеводстве. Определена потребность товаропроизводителей в современных высокотехнологичных комплексах машин для производства овощных культур. Проведенные статистические исследования позволили оценить современное состояние с.-х. машиностроения по выпуску необходимого для товаропроизводителей количества машин. Повышение объемов производства овощной продукции неразрывно коррелирует с уровнем технического обеспечения отрасли овощеводства в целом, что подтверждает уровень локализации с.-х. машиностроения РФ, а также Беларуси и Казахстана, где с.-х. машиностроение представлено широкой номенклатурой предприятий, выпускающих комплексы машин от предпосадочной обработки почвы до послеуборочной обработки товарной продукции. Для возрождения с.-х. машиностроения и развития рынка средств механизации аграрного производства определены основные механизмы обновления парка сельхозтехники – преимущественно привлечением кредитных ресурсов коммерческих банков и лизинговых компаний. Кроме того, интенсивность ведения сельского хозяйства в современных условиях производства невозможна без высокого уровня насыщения машинно-технологических комплексов средствами интеллектуализации. Получать качественную конкурентоспособную продукцию можно только при использовании современных высокопроизводительных машин, обеспечивающих совмещение технологических операций, в конструкциях которых заложены системы автоматизированного управления технологическими процессами, учета почвенного плодородия, обеспечения экологической чистоты агроландшафтов. The degree of technological and technical dependence of domestic producers of vegetable crops on foreign producers of agricultural machinery, as well as their technical equipment with specialized machines, is explained by the high costs of vegetable production, especially for harvesting, which, with a general shortage of manual labor, leads to a reduction in area, disruption of cultivation technology and, accordingly, a decrease in yield. The purpose of the research is to determine the current state of technological and technical support for the production of vegetable crops in the Russian Federation. To achieve this purpose, we used the methodology of system analysis and synthesis, mathematical statistics, numerical methods for solving analytical dependencies. Statistical studies of the current state of technical support for vegetable production in Russia can serve as a basis for building a model and developing conceptual principles for modernizing technological and technical support for work in vegetable growing. The need of commodity producers for modern high-tech complexes of machines for the production of vegetable crops is determined. The conducted statistical studies made it possible to assess the current state of agricultural...