The Department's research teams cover the following areas:

• Controlled Agriculture and Environmental Control
  • Studies related to greenhouses and livestock housing cover: internal environmental control, i.e., heating, cooling, ventilation, relative humidity, and online recording; and structural characteristics, i.e., size and shape, resistance to wind loads, ventilation, and interchangeable covers;
  • The team is also involved in developing and testing methods for improving the air and sea transportation conditions of exported agricultural products by means of, e.g., vacuum cooling, cooling in ships and containers, development of packaging materials and methods, improvement of bulk shipping and of unrefrigerated air transportation.
    
    
• The main focus of R&D in the Laboratory for Research on Pest Management is on pest management through improved application techniques and integrated pest management concepts. An important objective in all studies is elimination of pesticide residues from the marketed product. Specific studies cover:
  • Improvement of the control of soilborne pathogens and pests with new fumigants, organic amendments and an integrated approach to control and suppression of soilborne pests;
  • Soil solarization and plastic mulch technologies are also intensively studied.
    
    
• The Production Engineering research team covers:
  • Development of machinery, methods and auxiliary equipment to reduce the damage to agricultural products during growing, harvesting and transportation;
  • The robot-human interaction in intensive advanced production systems designed to reduce human labor in various stages of production.
    
    
• The Environmental Engineering team's studies cover:
  • Waste management in intensive plant and livestock production systems;
  • Recycling of industrial and urban waste water for agricultural use;
  • Environmental effects of pest management applications.
    
    
• The Zootechnology team studies engineering aspects of livestock production and management in the dairy, poultry and aquaculture industries, including:
  • Sensors, including R&D of specific sensors;
  • Production and simulation models that support precision livestock farming, to enable sustainable production while maintaining high welfare and health standards.