Helen F Gavino

• PhD in Agricultural Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at Central Luzon State University

Aquaponics is an integrated form of multi-commodity production system that combines a recirculating aquaculture system with the hydroponic cultivation of crops using the same water via recirculation using pumps. However, the ideal density of cultured aquatic species and the suitable fish/plants/fish feed combinations applicable under aquaponics mus...

Conventional method of sowing lettuce is laborious and time consuming. Thus, this study was conducted to develop a seedling tray seeder for lettuce. Specifically, it aimed to design a seeder, fabricate the design, evaluate the field performance parameters, and analyze the cost of operation of using the machine. The machine was fabricated based on t...

The conventional sowing method of onion seeds offers great wastage and laborious. This study aimed to develop a pull-type onion sowing machine for seedbed to optimize the sowing of seeds, reduce labor cost, yields better quality onion seedlings, and increases income of onion farmers. The machine was tested and evaluated, in comparison with manual s...

Manual haulm cutting using bolo is a practice of potato farmers in the Philippines prior to digging the potato tubers. The operation requires about 40 man-hours per hectare and with the current practice, the workers are exposed to risk of injuring themselves or their coworkers during the operation. This study was then conducted to develop a potato...

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of carabao manure as lining material, shade net, and wind barrier, in minimizing water losses of small reservoir. Four fish ponds with a dimension of 20 m x 10 m x 1 m, were used a small reservoir in this study. A compacted 5-cm layer of carabao manure was applied and high density (110 grams/m...

Shortage of manual labor for onion harvesting, which eventually caused the increase in the cost of harvesting, has become a big concern in onion production. Delayed harvesting of this product will also result to increased losses. Hence, this project was conceptualized to develop an onion harvester prototype that can reduce the man-day requirement a...

A real-time SMI Monitoring System (SMIMS) was developed, laboratory tested, calibrated and field tested in this study. The SMIMS was developed to monitor soil-water content and ultimately provide measures to prevent crops from stress, thereby increasing its productivity. Locally available electronic devices and soil moisture sensors were used. Thes...

Water used for domestic and drinking purposes in agricultural communities is still extracted from the groundwater using shallow tube wells. However, its quality is threatened by contamination due to chemical residues that were not fully utilized in a rice production system. These residues eventually go with the water as it is distributed in the who...

Although the windmill has been used for water pumping for many centuries, its development and application is limited due to high investment cost. Using windmill instead of diesel engine to drive a water pump reduces dependence on fossil fuel and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this study was conducted to optimize water use from a windpump...

In sundrying the quality of the grains are greatly reduced when paddy grains were caught by the rain unsacked and unstored resulting to reduced profit. The objectives of this study were to design and fabricate a quick covering machine for grain drying pavement to test and evaluate the operating characteristics of the machine according to its deploy...

A simple mobile engine-driven pneumatic paddy collector made of locally available materials using local manufacturing technology was designed, fabricated, and tested for collecting and bagging of paddy dried on concrete pavement. The pneumatic paddy collector had the following major components: radial flat bladed type centrifugal fan, power transmi...

The objective of this study was to develop a soil erosion model for a microwatershed. The selected watershed area was 2.64 hectares under forest area with plantation crops. Soil erosion factors identified were precipitation, stone cover, soil physical properties, height of vegetation, slope steepness and ground cover. Soil erosion equation (RMMF) m...

The level of farm mechanization in the country has been considered low compared to other neighboring countries in the South East Asian region. Mechanization was often misconstrued to mean modernization beneficial only to industrialized countries. However, the meaning of low machine utilization must be evaluated and explained in a manner which can b...