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• Economic Profitability of Sweet Pepper Production under Different Irrigation Levels and Polyethylene Mulch in a Plastic Greenhouse

  109-116

  Mohamed A. A. Abdrabbo

  Assem A. A. Mohamed

  Fadl. A. Hashem

  Ahmed. S. A. Hegab

  Views:

  183

  Field experiment was conducted, during two successive seasons of 2014- 2015 and 2015- 2016, at Dokki protected agricultural site, Giza Governorate, Egypt, to study the profitability of different applied irrigation levels and polyethylene (PE) mulch on plant growth and yield of sweet pepper, (Capsicum annum L.) cv. Godion F1, under plastic house condition. Three irrigation levels (0.50, 0.75 and 1.00) of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), using drip irrigation system and three PE mulch treatments (transparent, black and control) were applied. Data revealed that black PE recorded the highest values of early and total fruit yield per plant during the two seasons. Increasing water level up to 1.00 (ETc) enhanced yield with different PE mulch treatments, while water use efficiency (WUE) decreased with increasing water level. However, Using 0.50 (ETc), with different PE mulches increased WUE compared to using 0.75 (ETc) or 1.00 (ETc). The economic assessment of costs and returns from different treatments were calculated. It was found that the average yield was higher in 1.00 ETc with black mulch. Gross margin per 540 m2 were analysed using yield data, price structures and production costs. The 1.00 (ETc) with black mulch had the highest gross margin which is USD 416.8 and USD 533 (1 USD= 9 Egyptian pound) for the first and second seasons, respectively. The benefit cost ratios (BCRs) per 540 m2 were analysed, and 1.00 (ETc) with black mulch had the highest BCR with 1.36 in the first season and 1.45 in the second season.

  JEL Classification: Q 01, Q 12, Q 19

• Comparison of the performance of a trained and an untrained sensory panel on sweetcorn varieties with the panelcheck software

  77-83

  Viktor Losó

  Attila Gere

  Annamária Györey

  Zoltán Kókai

  László Sipos

  Views:

  713

  In this paper the results of trained and untrained sensory panels are compared on five Hungarian commercial sweet corn samples. The two evaluations were carried out in a sensory laboratory (ISO 6658:2005), with the same experimental design, with two replicates, and the panels consisted of 10 panelists. In both cases the panels assembled the profiles of the samples according to the vocabulary chosen by the trained panelists. The results show that the untrained panel has higher standard deviation, weaker repeatability and less significant parameters (ISO/DIS 11132). However 10 of the 17 sensory attributes were significant in the case of the untrained panel, the trained panel has 15 significant parameters with lower standard deviation and good repeatability. During the statistical investigation we focused on the panel performance and used the PanelCheck open source software package to achieve this goal. We followed the workflow suggested by the researchers of the Nofima, the developers of the PanelCheck. According to the examined parameters the trained panel has better discrimination ability (F values) for attributes ’yellow color’, ’hue’, roughness’, ’freshness’, ’juiciness’, ’tenderness’. There was not an attribute evaluated by the untrained panel where all the panel members reached the line representing the 5% significance level. Furthermore the trained panel has better agreement between its assessors (Tucker-1 plots) and the repeatability is much better according to the MSE plots. This examination confirms that it is necessary to train the panels in order to get reliable and consistent results.