{"title":"Modern Screening Technologies for Maximizing Quality & Efficiency Improvements","authors":"J. Kessler, Tountzer Ramadan, Vito Huhn","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3632973","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3632973","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents screening technologies to meet the demanding specifications of screening Phosphate based fertilizer. The desired separations are in the range of millimeters and display particular challenges, such as clogged screen meshes. Furthermore, the quality of the separations needs to be high to ensure efficient fertilizing, with low unwanted environmental impact. A machine type is described, that offers direct excitation of screening meshes with a high acceleration, which prevents a clogging of the mesh. The mesh is inclined at angle that allows the material to flow at high velocities for maximum throughput. This is combined with a static machine body, which allows maintenance during production, and an intelligent design for operating at different settings and replacing meshes.","PeriodicalId":232874,"journal":{"name":"AgriSciRN: Fertigation (Sub-Topic)","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131040373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantity Recommendation as a Solution to Imbalanced Fertilizer Use? A Field Experiment in Bangladesh","authors":"Sabrin Beg, M. Islam, K. Rahman","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3619385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3619385","url":null,"abstract":"We use a field experiment in Bangladesh to test if two types of variety-specific fertilizer recommendations---government provided, community-level recommendations and plot-specific recommendations based on individual soil tests---affect fertilizer use, yield, and profits. Treatment farmers do not change their fertilizer application behavior in response to either recommendation. One exception is the case of TSP (phosphate fertilizer), which is recommended for all crops but recommended quantities are significantly lower than the baseline average usage. Treatment farmers over-react to the recommendations by stopping TSP use after the intervention. In the soil-testing treatment arm farmers also shift their seed choice to varieties for which their baseline fertilizer consumption aligns with the recommendation. Opting out of using TSP, an essential fertilizer, ultimately hurts productivity as farmers in the community-based recommendation arm experience a 6.6% yield reduction. Attention costs may explain the extensive margin but no intensive margin effect in response to the treatments.","PeriodicalId":232874,"journal":{"name":"AgriSciRN: Fertigation (Sub-Topic)","volume":" 15","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133021045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}