Ensaios com unidades armazenadoras modulares a nível de fazenda

Resumo

The trend toward increasing agricultural production has been an effort of the government to provide sufficient quantities of food to supply the internal demand at acceptable prices for Brazilian consumers.

The possibility of improving and increasing storage also improves distribu- tion limiting fluctuations of supply and price variations which usually follow harvest periods.

A more efficient method of storage could reduce or eliminate product losses caused by insects and rodents. To study this problem  an «EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM» was designed to test the viability and analyze the economic and technical implications of farm corn storage systems. The development and use of such information could have implications on a large scale in the system. To accomplish this objective a storage unit was designes for corn.

To conduct the experiment two storage units were designed: one for ear corn and the other for shelled corn.

Three units were constructed on the campus of the Federal University of Viçosa: one for shelled corn and two for ear corn.

On farms in a town 55 kilometers from the university, three isolated units for ear corn were built in order to conduct the research under farm field conditions.

Analysis of the experimental results showed that it is possible to control the insect population and humidity at recommended levels.

The method of corn storage showed no differences but shelled corn storage had increased storage capacity.

The pine and «peroba» wood used for the corncribs showed the same expected results: the pibe wasn't considered adequats due to it's physical properties.