Suitability of mechanized sweet corn cultivation in Sekinchan, Malaysia

Corn (Zea mays L.) is grown for human consumption, animal feed and also for industrial applications. Its acreage has been increasing in Malaysia over the years and this trend is expected to continue as advances are made in its cultivation, harvesting, and processing concurrently with producing corn accompanied by the disbursements of energy. However, all reported physical and mechanical properties of sweet corn cobs and biomass materials depend on their moisture content. The following conclusions are drawn from the inquiry on physical and mechanical properties of sweet corn cobs and biomass materials. The average physical properties for weight 0.420 ± 0.0315 kg, length 21.68 ± 0.853 cm, diameter 4.94 ± 0.134 cm, volume 431.8 ± 9.83 cm3, porosity 46.74 ± 2.13 %, repose angle 26.76 ± 1.142, and angle of friction 32.90 ± 0.82 of sweet corn cobs and some of their components were measured. Moreover, the average mechanical properties for pulling force at 0º 319.03± 11.15 N; at 45º 116.21± 2.53 N; at 90º 51.14± 1.97 N, compression force at vertical 497.56± 63.14 N; at horizontal 2801.26± 346.10 N, shearing force at 0º 503.76± 29.75 N; at 45º 448.27± 34.03 N and penetration 1.633± 0.144 N of sweet corn cobs and some of their components were measured. In addition, the physical properties of sweet corn plant for height of plant 211.7 ± 3.62 cm, width of plant 96.0 ± 2.17 cm, diameter of stalk at 20 cm from ground 2.21 ± 0.089 cm, weight of complete plant with root 0.833 ± 0.0491 kg, leaves 0.077 ± 0.0018 kg, stalk 0.318 ± 0.0094 kg, corncobs 0.420 ± 0.0315 kg and roots 0.068 ± 0.0017 kg, moisture content of leaves 56.22 ± 5.10 %, stalk 79.54 ± 2.14 % and roots 62.33 ± 3.85 %, and the average mechanical properties for pulling force at 0º 549.32± 6.27 N; at 45º 400.19± 3.05 N; 90º 334.00± 3.09 N, and shearing force at 0º 205.45± 20.59 N; at 45º 167.15± 25.10 N of the plant were conducted. Furthermore, a study on the biomass potentials of corn plant give an overview of the biomass situation of the sweet corn plant and their components. The calorie content of the corn cob was found to be the highest with an average of 18293 J/g (18.29 MJ/kg) followed by that of stalk with 17727 J/g (MJ/kg). The sugar content was shown to be the highest in the kernel with 13.8 °Brix, as kernel sucrose concentration is regulated by endosperm carbohydrate metabolism during kernel development. The enhancement of kernels is made successful by; reduction of starch synthesis activities, increase in sucrose accumulation and productivity of yield in biomass material and its consumption annually as animal feed and in industrial applications. Cultivation of sweet corn in a standard plot size of 1.214 ha under a standard seed spacing of 29 cm and standard row spacing of 78 cm had the potential of producing 71,144 sweet corn ears/hectare or 26,742 kg sweet corn ears/hectare. The yield potential for sweet corn kernel is 8,558 kg sweet corn kernels/hectare whereas for plant residues it is 34,181 kg sweet corn plant residues/hectare. Besides, a study on machines and human performances in all agricultural operations of sweet corn in Malaysia has been successfully conducted to identify the crucial and critical field operations for the mechanisation index and their relationship with energy. The mechanisation index of 36.49 % was recorded for the cultivation system and is a reflection of the level of machinery inclusion in sweet corn production in Malaysia. The most critical operation requiring mechanisation is, therefore harvesting operation with bags. It has an index of 0.83 % representing human labour input of about 99.17 % of the operation's energy expenditure. Economy in energy systems is becoming increasingly essential for researchers both directly and indirectly, especially in the cultivation of sweet corn. Some of the advantages of reduced energy are a saving in energy input, reduced time and manpower costs, and improved yields. From the results of the study at mean yield of corn cobs 9991.02 kg/ha, the energy expenditure was 58714.81 MJ/ha with energy intensity value of 5.88 MJ/kg. The average effective field capacity for the harvesting operation was found to be 0.47 ha/hr. The average machine output of the harvesting operation for sweet corn cobs yield was 4695.78 t/hr, while, the average machine output of the harvesting operation for biomass material was 5275.96 t/hr. The results were used to develop yield predictive models for performance by using Artificial Neural Networks Modelling (ANN) and optimisation of the results of this estimate by using Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO). A method of reference frequency was used to determine best sweet corn cultivation practices for enhanced productivity, a motion study was conducted to evaluate the mechanisation indices of operations.

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