Microwave and Radio-Frequency Technologies in Agriculture

5 Section Introduction

From the previous section it is clear that modern agriculture depends on continuing innovation. This will become even more important as human populations grow and demand for food and fibre increases. Radiofrequency and microwave technologies have much to offer in most industries, but this is particularly so for modern agriculture.

It is also clear from the previous section that the transparency of any other material to electromagnetic waves is linked to the complex dielectric properties of the material under study (James 1975, Torgovnikov 1993, Olmi, et al. 2000). The real part of the complex dielectric properties determines the wave length of the electromagnetic wave inside the object and therefore influences the speed ...