Thoughts and Countermeasures of Agricultural Revolution in Science and Technology

As science and technology is the first productivity, this paper, through investigation of agricultural revolution in science and technology, proposes the countermeasures to the agricultural revolution in science and technology. The author hopes it can promote the realization of rural prosperity, peasant＇s richness and agricultural development in some degree.

Mobile Learning： Taking Education to a New Level

Technological advances are taking a major role in every field of our life. Today, younger generation is more attached to technology, immerging it mostly for social purposes. Therefore, the importance of its existence cannot be ignored. For that, it is the time for every mentor to apply technology to education. Instructors from different majors need to realize that integrating technology into education is a powerful tool that helps them moderate their course, but never a replacement to their existence. This paper＇s interest is to deliver a personal experience to other instructors on how to correctly use technology for educational purposes. One way of clarifying this point is to shed light on a very common social application that is WhatsApp. It is a social application available on every smartphone that is usually used as a social medium among users from different generation. This paper used WhatsApp as an application that can associate technology with leaming and teachers＇ moderation and collaboration under one roof, and that is by applying Mobile learning. One main question to rise at this point is whether students are going to be collaborative or not with their teacher in applying technology into education. There will be an anticipated approach from this paper on both Mobile learning and WhatsApp, that is to reach an agreement that Mobile learning is essential and adds value to the educational material we have in hand. Great examples from my own data are going to be presented to encourage others to predict new ways that can be added to my effort and others as well. The result hoped for after this paper is to be able to answer any digital immigrants＇ questions and help them to be more confident with technology.

Sustainabilty of Rice Processing in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa

Energy and environmental sustainability are important considerations for increased rice production. This study examined the energy utilization and sustainability of rice processing in sub-Saharan Africa. The community of Gadan Loko village in the song local government of Adamawa State, Nigeria was selected as the focus of study. Rice parboiling, the most energy intensive process in rice processing is carried out usually by women in small quantities of about 13.2 kg using traditional pots on tripod support stoves. The parboiled rice is sun dried on mats before it is taken to the milling stalls where it is milled using milling machines driven by single cylinder diesel engines. There were large variations in the quality of milled rice due to lack of consistency in processing parameters. Accumulation of rice husk in the community created important environmental issues. In this study, methods of improving sustainability of rice processing were investigated. The areas included： the utilization of waste heat from the diesel engines for improved drying and efficient pre-soaking; the utilization of solar energy for pre-soaking; the utilization of rice husks as alternative fuel to firewood; and the optimization and redesign of the stoves and parboiling vessels to minimize heat loss to the environment. The results showed that the utilization of rice husk as alternative fuel and the redesign of the stoves and parboiling vessels will increase the sustainability of rice processing and can be easily adopted by the community. While solar energy pre-soaking was not economical and the utilization of waste heat from the diesel engines for drying and pre-soaking would be difficult to implement at the rural scale, because most of the parboiling is done far away from the milling stalls. The study showed that research, development of appropriate technology, and education （RATE） of the rural community is an important way of increasing sustainability.