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The demand of natural fibres is increasing in the world for industrial uses to make high value products. An enormous potential of sisal fibre is present in Pakistan for making ropes, twines, paper, carpets, cloth and handicrafts, which has not been exploited so far. The aim of this study was to design and develop a small-scale portable sisal decorticator for extracting fibre from sisal leaves. A prototype of sisal decorticator was designed and fabricated at Agricultural and Biological Engineering Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad. The prototype machine was tested for fibre extraction. Results indicated that sisal fibre production capacity of this machine was 15.94 kg h-1 (dry fibre). Average yield of dry sisal fibre was 3.2% of green leaf weight and average fibre length was 1348.9 mm per leaf. Average power required to decorticate sisal leaves was 3.1 kW. Operating cost of sisal decorticator together with a combing machine was Rs. 507.9 h-1. The breakeven point or payback period of this technology was 233 h. Sisal fibre needs to be washed, dried and brushed after decortication process for getting good quality fibre to make domestic products. This technology has a great potential and needs to be commercialised in sisal growing areas of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat straw chopper is a resource conservation technology that makes chaff from combine-harvested wheat straw and saves the environment from smoke pollution, if straw is burnt in the field. Field performance of this technology has not been evaluated yet, although this technology has been adopted in Pakistan for many years. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an improved version of wheat straw chopper in combine-harvested wheat fields of southern Punjab and to determine the economics of this machine. Five test plots ranging from 0.39 to 0.61 ha were selected to determine the performance of this machine. Results revealed that a 75 hp tractor was suitable for operating this machine. Average operating speed of chopper was 2.7 km h-1. Average effective field capacity of chopper was 0.40 ha h-1 and field efficiency was 67.9%. Amount of chaff recovered was 2404 kg ha-1 and chaff recovery from straw was 61.1%. The operating cost of chopper setup was Rs. 5,262 ha-1. Total worth of recovered chaff was Rs. 24042 ha-1 (@ Rs. 10 kg-1). Net gain in terms of recovered wheat straw was Rs. 18780 ha-1. The break even point (use) of this machine for harvesting own fields and rental fields was 77 h (31 ha) and 266 h (105.5 ha), respectively. Wheat straw chopper is a profitable technology that is getting momentum in combine-harvested wheat fields of the country, which saves chaff for cattle feed and increases the benefit of the farmer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision agriculture is to fine-tune the agricultural production system by emergence and convergence of several information-based technologies for enhancing profit and reducing environmental risks. These technologies have demonstrated to provide benefits to farmers as well as reduced environmental stresses in the developed world. Present paper provides an overview of precision agriculture and examines the potentials, prospects, implications, issues and relevance of precision agricultural applications in Pakistani agricultural system. There is a scope of many precision technologies to be implemented in the country. In this perspective, farmers and government authorities should look forward to adopt new and sustainable technologies to increase the efficiency of available resources and reduce the input costs. Before this, the effectiveness of precision technologies needs to be realised in Pakistan through field experiments and land management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was initiated to compare the performance of economic traits of four internationally reputed broiler strains, imported in Pakistan, under the local environmental and management conditions. A total of 360 day old chicks of four broiler strains (90 from each strain) were procured from the local hatcheries and designated as four treatments i.e., A (Hubbard), B (Arbor Acres), C (Ross 308) and D (Hybro PN). The chicks were raised under recommended rearing requirements for 7 weeks and the economic traits measured were body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), mortality, antibody titres, dressing percentage and economic evaluation as cost of broiler per kilogram live weight produced. The average body weights gained by the birds were 2264g, 2277g, 2256g and 1942g for A, B, C and D strains, respectively at 49 days of age. The birds in treatments A, B and C gained significantly (P <0.05) more weight than the birds in treatment D. On the contrary, the birds in treatment D (4371g) consumed significantly (P <0.05) less feed than birds in treatments A (4896g), B (4934g) and C (4905g) at 7 weeks of age. The FCR's in order of merit were 2.16(A), 2.17(B), 2.18(C) and 2.25(D) and differences were non-significant. The dressing percentage of birds in treatment A (71.4%) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than treatment C (68.1) and were non significant among the remaining treatments. The mortality in Hubbard strain (A) was significantly (P<0.05) low (4.4%) than Hybro PN, Ross 308 and Arbor Acres-strains. The overall performance of Hubbard strain seems better as the birds gained more body weight, gave better FCR, least mortality and least cost per kg live broiler produced as compared to other strains. The performance of strain D was poor as the birds gained less body weight, showed higher mortality rate, poor feed conversion ratio and incurred more cost to produce per kilogram live broiler as compared to other strains. The evaluation of different imported broiler strains must continue to remain abreast with the genetic improvement of broiler strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable amount of rice grains is wasted every year in Pakistan because of unavailability of postharvest drying and processing technologies. About 70% of the rice produced in the country is dried through sun heat. which is one of the major causes of reducing head rice recovery during the milling operation. Recently, cross-flow rice dryers have been adopted in the rice milling industry of the country. The heat source of these cross-flow dryers can be a gas or rice husk. This study focussed on the performance evaluation of cross-flow rice dryers with both gas and rice husk heat sources. The experimental results indicated that drying air temperature of the gas-fired and rice husk-fired dryers was 54° and 66°C, respectively. However, the average air flow rate was 6.24 and 2.60 m³ s-1 of gas-fired and rice husk-fired cross-flow dryers, respectively. The drying rate of gas-fired dryer was 2.0 percentage point h-1, whereas the drying rate of rice husk-fired dryer was 1.0 percentage point h-1. The drying costs of gas-fired and rice husk-fired dryers were about Rs. 0.21 and 0.16 kg-1. The overall performance of the gas-fired dryer was satisfactory, while that of the rice husk-fired dryer can be improved by incorporating an appropriate heat exchanger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]