TECHNOLOGIES FOR INNOVATION AND SAFETY IN AGRICULTURE

To give students the basic knowledge useful for a proper management and monitoring of working processes both in field and in agro-industrial plants. To promote the interest towards the technical-engineering aspects of the discipline, accustoming the students towards a critical evaluation of numerical data. To provide adequate emphasis to the aspects of personnel safety in workplaces. At the end of the course students will be able to evaluate some basic energy processes (energy from renewable sources, electricity, designing of pumping plants), favoring the technical-engineering approach. Furthermore, they will be able to identify the main sources of risk associated with the work activity and to evaluate them in accordance with the relevant legislation.

The teaching (6 CFU) includes 28 hours of lectures and 28 hours of other activities, mainly guided numerical exercises for solving problems of practical interest for the profession of agronomist. PowerPoint presentations are mainly used to conduct lessons and Microsoft Excel to solve exercises. If teaching is given in a mixed formula or remotely, necessary changes may be introduced to what was previously stated in order to comply with the provided and reported syllabus. Learning assessment may also be carried out on line, should the conditions require it.

Information for students with disabilities and/or DSA

As a guarantee of equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students can ask for a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and on teaching objectives of the discipline. It is also possible to ask the departmental contacts of CInAP (Center for Active and Participatory Integration - Services for Disabilities and/or DSAs), in the persons of professors Giovanna Tropea Garzia and Anna De Angelis.

Elements of energy: review of the main energy sources, conventional and renewable, and of the main properties of fuels; characteristics and problems of using electricity.

Basic machinery of interest in agriculture: electric motors, electric generators, electric converters; pumps: main typologies of interest in agriculture; working point and pumping power calculation; installation problems: NPSH and cavitation.

Innovations in plants for fruits conditioning: packing lines for conditioning of fruits and vegetables for the fresh market; quality standards; mechanical damage to fruit in processing lines: survey methods and remedies; the instrumented spheres IS100 and PMS60; analyses of impacts; new approaches based on numerical simulations.

Innovations in plants for the industrial processing of citrus fruits: processes and machines descriptions; biogas production from by-products.

Operator safety in workplaces: general analysis and risk management; risk analysis and evaluation; Italian legislative decree 81/08; personal protective equipments (PPE); main risk analysis in workplaces.

Personal and environmental safety in the sector of machines for crop protection: dimensional properties of drops and measuring methods, effects of droplet size on coverage, volume and loss of pesticide; assessment of the deposit on the target; functional control of sprayers; test benches for sprayer calibration for herbaceous and arboreal crops, adaptation of the distribution profiles to the characteristics of the target to be sprayed; systems to reduce the environmental impact of pesticides; European Directives 128/2009 and 129/2009; innovations in sprayers for orchards, vineyards, greenhouses.

Noise exposure in workplaces: references quantities; frequency analysis; measurement equipment; normative references; PPEs; examples in agriculture.

Vibration exposure in workplaces: hand-harm and whole body vibration; references quantities; frequency analysis; measurement equipment; normative references; PPEs; examples in agriculture.

1. Gennari, Trevisan (a cura di), Agrofarmaci—Conoscenze per un uso sostenibile, Oasi Alberto Perdisa Editore.

2. Barone, Violetta, Sicurezza e innovazione in agricoltura, Publisfera edizioni.

3.Cinquina, Sicurezza e prevenzione in agricoltura, Maggioli editore.

4. Campurra, Rotella, Il rischio rumore negli ambienti di lavoro, IPSOA.

5. Material provided by the teacher.