Energy efficiency of improvement of agriculture optimization technology and machine complex optimization

Abstract

To ensure the food security of the Russian Federation, one of the priority areas of the state’s economic and food policy is a step-by-step reduction of the dependence of the domestic agroindustry complex on the import of technologies, machines, and equipment. Currently, machines and aggregates that perform one specific operation are often used in preparing the soil for sowing crops; their multiple passes along the surface of the field being treated increase energy costs, lead to soil compaction, emergence and development of erosion processes. Considering this, further improvement of cultivation technologies, machines and units for soil preparation and sowing crops is required. To solve this problem, we propose an improved technology and an optimized complex of machines that can perform plowing, crushing soil blocks, mulching the topsoil, and sowing. The use of the proposed technology and an optimized machinery complex for the cultivation of winter wheat in the Central part of the North Caucasus resulted in a decrease in: direct energy costs by 33.5%; living labor costs by 31.7%; specific energy consumption of MTA by 41.7%; materialized energy costs by 50%; energy consumption for sowing by 7.7%. As a result, total energy costs decreased by 34%.