Prediction of Surface Area of Garden Egg (Solanum Aethiopicum L) from Weight Measurements

摘要

Estimation of surface area of various agricultural produce can have a wide range of applications for both producers and processors. The methods available are tedious and in certain cases destructives Studies have been conducted with respect to predicting the surface area of some fruits and vegetables such as apples and tomatoes. Very few, if any, similar attempts have been made to estimate the surface area of indigenous African crops. The objective of this study was to develop a model that will predict the surface area of the garden egg (Solarium aethiopicum L) from weight measurements. It is easier to measure the weight of the garden egg than to measure its surface area. Weight and surface area measurements of each garden egg were used to develop equations to predict fruit surface area (cm~2) from the raw weight. The linear-regression model developed showedrnstrong correlation between surface area and weight measurement and can be used to estimate the surface area of garden egg. For a garden egg weighting 47.4 gm, the model predicts its surface area between 96.3 and 118.5 mm~2 with 95 % confidence.