Mechanisation of the primary processing of watermelons without destroying the rind

Abstract

In the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the sown area of watermelon in recent years does not exceed 85 thousand hectares, although in the early 90s it was almost 132 thousand hectares, 2/3 of these areas are located in the southern regions. One of the key problems of industrial cucurbit crops production is the transition of production from large-scale agricultural enterprises to small-scale private farms, the share of which today is more than 90%. At the same time, the transfer of production to the private sector provides additional profits for small producers and can be almost the only source of their income. The scientific originality of the paper is determined by the fact that the current situation indicates that the private farms have turned out to be more adapted to the specifics of market relations. Without considerable capital investments, using production technologies that are less dependent on the rise in the price of energy carriers and other material and technical resources, agricultural producers increase the output volume. The transition to the cultivation of cucurbit crops in households and small farms led to an increase in the separation of the real manufacturer from scientific achievements, the latest technologies, high-quality seeds, significantly limited the opportunities for the development of this industry.