Scientific Journal of KubSAU

Gardening is one of the high-value and highly profitable branches of agriculture. However, the level of fruit production in Russia still lags far behind the needs of the population: 20-25 kg of fruits and berries per year are grown per capita, which is a quarter of the minimum consumption rate. Currently, domestic gardening has a low efficiency due to non-compliance with the criteria of world production of fruits. The production of gardens is not competitive enough and does not meet the requirements of the highest quality categories of domestic standards. To increase fruit production, it is necessary to increase the level of intensification of fruit growing using the most valuable varieties and progressive technologies of cultivation. In this article, we consider devices for soil content in orchards, as well as for pruning trees - the main agrotechnical techniques in the technology of growing pomegranate crops that promote the production of stable, optimal harvests of fruit crops. The universal device of fruits is also covered, which makes it possible to reduce labor costs during the laying, care and harvesting of the fruit garden. The wide development of intensive technologies for growing fruits adapted to specific climatic conditions and ensuring a high level of competitiveness and profitability of production is one of the necessary conditions for the further development of gardening in Russia

The transportation process plays an important role in the delivery of agricultural products to the consumer. On how well the fruits are preserved, their grade will depend, and, consequently, the price of them. It is known, that the annual damage from losses of agricultural products in the agro-industrial complex amounts to 8 billion rubles, according to various estimates. A large number of different factors affect the safety of fruits during transportation: temperature, humidity, smoothness of the vehicle, type of container, etc. The more factors will have a negative impact on fruit and vegetable products, the more losses will ultimately be. The appearance of dents and abrasions on the fruits gives rise to the formation of foci of rot, leading to damage to the transported products, and, as a consequence, reducing the grade. In order to reduce the losses of fruit and vegetable products in the process of transportation, the USSR and the Russian Federation have been and are working on the creation of containers and ways of transporting pomegranates. All of them, according to the authors, are able to reduce the dynamic loads that arise during the transportation process and have a negative impact on the transported products. However, due to various circumstances in commercial gardening all these developments have not been extended

Fruit harvesting is the final and decisive operation in the general work plan for growing fruit, which largely determines the qualitative and quantitative indicators of production and economy of industry in general. Increasing productivity by improving the safety of fruits and vegetables is a priority and not an easy task. For example, the use of cleaning technologies with the use of machinery for harvesting of apples by shaking can significantly reduce the time of gathering fruit compared to hand harvesting. This technology may be applicable, if the fruit is grown for the manufacture of juices, jams, etc. Currently, in several European countries and in the USA, they widely use fruit harvesting platforms and machines. The leader in the production of fruit harvesting platforms is Italy. To reduce the damage to fruit in agriculture, the analysis of the traumatic factors is of great importance, with the analysis of available machines and their subsequent modernization with the aim of improving the reliability and quality of harvesting and transport process, taking into account of the algorithm for solving these problems, the creation of new varieties of fruits and vegetables suitable for machine processing, strict compliance with deadlines and agronomic requirements for the performed technological operations, taking into account the savings of energy and resources when using mobile technology. In addition to the modernization of the machines for efficient operation, it is necessary to improve also the scheme of planting of gardens and methods of cultivation, transfer horticulture to intensive way of development

An integral part of technological process for the cultivation of agricultural crop is the transportation. It requires significant energy and labor costs. The statistics show that the proportion of expenses for transportation of goods in agriculture reaches 25-40% of the total costs for the production made, when the proportion of farm tractor transportations reaches 60% of the total. Thus there are considerable losses of production, reaching in separate cases up to 50%. They are especially high in the harvesting and post-harvest cycles of crop production which is connected with crop damage during transportation. The quality of fruits and vegetables during the harvest depends on the technology of its collection and transportation. Due to the rapid deterioration of most agricultural products, agricultural producers have the task in careful transportation of the fruit. A huge role in the preservation of the product is its harvesting and packing into containers. In Russia we use wooden boxes, and foreign farmers use containers, whereby they have higher productivity and preservation of fruits. The type of vehicle, the time of a day and the air temperature also have a large impact on crop damage. In Soviet times, various technologies have been developed for harvesting and transportation of the harvest to consumers using various types of forklifts, harvesters and vehicles. In our time, it requires the development of new technologies for harvesting and transportation of agricultural products to achieve a higher level of automation and high profitability of agricultural production