Principles of technological composition and machinery selection in sustainable agriculture

Abstract

In order to bescribe directions of technological composition in agriculture the analysis of sustainable ways in terms of resources and environment has been made and more than 600 case indicators of tillage, sowing and crop maintenance machinery typical for temperate climate zone have been summed up. The main technological principles in limiting anthropogenic impact on soil and environment, improving ecosystem stability of agriculture and reducing operating cost of machinery have been established. A scheme of selecting soil tillage means depending on soil types and 10 sets of model agricultural machinery have been made. They have been evaluated in terms of energy and material consumption and comparative calculations of economic efficiency have been done as well. It has been suggested to evaluate machinery sets a priori according to requirements of sustainable technology and according to comparative energy and economic indicators