Poppy on the road to revival

Poppy is a unique crop - everyone knows it, but no one sees it in the field.

In 2010-2011, there were only 250 hectares under poppy seeds in Ukraine, while the domestic demand for poppy grains for food technologies alone is at least 4 thousand tons, which can be grown on 10 thousand hectares.

Some 30 years ago , poppy fields in Ukraine delighted the eye during the flowering period as often as fields of buckwheat and flax. The fight against drug addiction has reduced poppy production in Ukraine to almost zero.

Opium poppy , or rather opium itself, obtained from unripe poppy pods and poppy straw, is the subject of a merciless war between the extremely profitable business of selling it and social protest in the form of laws banning such business.

History knows of open wars between states on this basis. So, in 1820, the Chinese government banned the import of opium, but England, which imported opium into eastern countries and received large profits from it, started a war with China, called the “opium war.” China lost the war and was forced to allow the British to import opium again.

The habit of smoking opium among peoples professing Islam is explained by the ban on drinking alcoholic beverages that exists in this religion.

At the same time, poppy grain contains virtually no morphine compounds and has been widely used in human history for thousands of years as food along with wheat grain. Today poppy is used in the confectionery industry, bakery, etc.

Ukraine is an extremely favorable region for growing poppy. The profitability of its cultivation is beyond doubt: with the production cost of 1 ton of poppy amounting to 15-17 thousand UAH and a selling price of 50 UAH. per kilogram, the profitability is at least 200%.

In addition, poppy is in demand on the foreign market. In its best years, Ukraine sold it to neighboring countries and other European countries (the Netherlands).

 

Cleaning poppy

After harvesting poppy seeds , the heap contains both plant and mineral debris. Initially, cleaning is carried out using a ZAF-30 grain aspirator. Easily floating large and small debris is removed from the heap - that debris whose floating speed is less than the speed of poppy seeds . Since ZAF-30 has deep regulation of modes, the required optimal mode of debris removal is established without difficulty

Photo 1. Grain aspirator ZAF-30

Photo 2. Grain aspirator ZAF-30

Figure 1. Grain aspirator ZAF-30

The shape of the poppy seed is complex. All characteristic dimensions: width, length and thickness differ significantly ( Fig. 3) . It is best to clean poppy seeds according to the smallest size - thickness. Therefore, the best option for cleaning poppy seeds is to use Fadeev sieves. Below we describe an option for cleaning poppy seeds on line using Fadeev’s gentle fractional technology for preparing strong seeds.

Figure 3. Shape of poppy seed

Figure 2. Poppy cleaning and calibration diagram

Poppy is fed to the OKMF-4 calibrator line. On the first calibrator with a 1.5 mm Fadeev sieve, large debris is cleaned (discharge), the passage then goes to a calibrator with a 0.5 mm sieve - cleaning from small debris. On such sieves , the poppy seed is rotated and “trimmed” to the slot opening with the smallest size – thickness. Experience has shown that on such sieves large poppy seeds come off with a sieve size of 0.8 mm. However, in the poppy seeds that came off the 0.8 mm sieve, light impurities remained, which are relatively easily separated on a pneumatic vibration table and go into the light fraction. The poppy cleaning scheme is shown in Figure 2.

We are very interested in working with complex tasks of cleaning various small-seeded crops, since the experience gained in this case allows us to more strictly carry out similar tasks with any grains, legumes and industrial crops. The main tool for solving such problems is full-fledged factories ( Fig. 3) and mobile factories ( Fig. 4) .

Our company strives to improve technologies for cleaning, calibrating and preparing “Strong Seeds”; many years of experience are proof of this.

We will be glad to use our technologies with you!

Figure 3. Seed plant for any agricultural crops

Figure 4. Mobile plant for any agricultural crops

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