Agriculture

A field trial was carried out for two years to ascertain performance of marigold (var. Pusa Narangi) planted at three spacings and on six different dates at bimonthly interval i.e. on first day of March, May, July, September, November and January. The crop planted on 1st March showed early flowering compared to other planting dates. The best performance with respect to flower size, weight and number of flowers per plant was recorded with 1st September planting. The highest number of branches and plant canopy spread were attained with May and July plantings. In both the years wider spacing of 40 cm x 40 cm produced best results with respect to maximum flower diameter, weight of individual flower, and number of flower per plant. However, the total best yield per unit area was higher when the crop was planted on 1st September at 40cm x 20 cm spacing.

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer management is a challenge in potato production. Therefore, a study was carried out to known the impact of varieties and nitrogen levels on leaf chlorophyll content and tuber size of potato. All possible combination of two varieties of potato viz. Kufri Sadabahar (V1) and Kufri Surya (V2) and five nitrogen levels (0, 75, 150, 225 and 300 kg N/ha) were replicated thrice in factorial randomize block design. Two year pooled data shows that vareties did not varies significantly for chlorophyll content ‘a’ and ‘b’ of potato leaves but the it was affected significantly by nitrogen levels and recorded highest with treatment N3 (0.74 and 0.90 mg/ g leaves, chlorophyll ‘a’ and ‘b’, respectively). Interaction effect of treatment V1N4 gave maximum chlorophyll ‘a’ content but variation among treatments interaction were non significant for chlorophyll ‘b’ content. 0-25 g and >75 g tuber number recorded higher in Kufri Surya (V2) having 255.91 and 275.70 thousand/ha, respectively, while, yield of 0-25 g tubers higher in Kufri Sadabahar (V1) i.e. 1.58 t/ha, other grade tuber yield showed non significant variation for varieties. The size of tuber was increased with increase in nitrogen levels. The number and weight of smaller size tuber observed higher with lower lever levels of nitrogen, while, number and weight of larger size tubers observed higher with higher level nitrogen. Interaction of varieties and nitrogen levels affect significantly to number and weight of different size tubers.

Using hardwood cuttings is the most common method for propagation of pomegranate. Due to the high demand for raw materials in pomegranate production nurseries, and to reduce raw material consumption, comparison of different cutting methods as single-node, two-nodes and four-nodes with smaller and larger than 8 mm diameters, was investigated in greenhouse condition, and on a mixture of sand and perlite bed in the ratio of 2 to 1. Also effects of two levels of IBA hormone treatment with concentrations of 1500 ppm and 3000 ppm and 2N sulfuric acid on increasing of pomegranate single-node cuttings rooting were tested. Cultivars used in this study were Shirin-e-Saveh and Malas-e-Torsh planted on March 2010 and January 2011, and statistically analyzed as factorial in a completely randomized design. According to the obtained results single-node cuttings with diameters smaller than 8 mm had better rooting. Shirin-e-Saveh cultivar showed better rooting compared to Malas-e-Torsh cultivar and also IBA hormone treatment with concentrations of 1500 ppm and 3000 ppm did not show significant effect on increasing of single-node cuttings rooting. Whereas acid treatment in Shirin-e-Saveh cultivar caused facilitation in rooting,best average for some of roots (11 roots) were found in single-node cuttings of Shirin-e-Saveh cultivar treated with sulfuric acid.

In this study a mathematical Analysis is used to estimate the energy efficiencies of cucumber producers based on eight energy inputs including human labor, diesel fuel, machinery, fertilizers, chemicals, water for irrigation, electricity and seed energy and single output of cucumber production. Data were collected using face-to-face surveys from 20 greenhouses in Isfahan province of Iran. Energy indices, technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies were calculated by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach for 20 cucumber greenhouses. Total energy input and output were calculated as 163994 MJha-1 and 62496 MJha-1, respectively, whereas diesel fuel consumption with 45.15% was the highestlevel between energy inputs. Energy output-input ratio, energy productivity and net energy gain were 0.38, 0.47 kg MJ?1, -101498MJ ha?1, respectively. Results showed that DEA approach was a very useful tool for benchmarking and improving the energy efficiency in agricultural production. The use of this methodology provides an important knowledge about the wasteful uses of energy.

A well sorted municipal solid waste which was composted and co-composted with other materials such as dewatered faecal sludge and ammonium sulphate as enrichment were used in the amendment of a 15 kg soil contained in 147 (43.2 x 35.6 cm) polythene bags for two cropping seasons. Impact of the dewatered faecal sludge on the speciation of heavy metals, Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd in the co-compost (Co), enriched co-compost (Eco) and garden soils (S) were evaluated. The results of the analysis reveal Co and Eco have about 50 % of Cu, 75 – 80 % of Zn and 80 – 85 % Cd highly bound organically. Lead was 60 % bound to organic fraction in Co and Eco, same as the other composts. The amended soils had 30 – 50 % Cu and 30 % Zn organically bound as the dominant fraction. Lead shifted and was 55 – 65 % dominant in the residual fraction whiles Cd was below detection.

Twenty weaned rabbits of mixed sexes aged between 8 to 9 weeks were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments with four rabbits per treatment. Each rabbit was used as a replicate. Three tropical grasses and leaves from two forage plants were used to prepare the diets. The leaves were obtained from Myrianthus arboreus and Gmelina arborea two common forages and the tropical grasses incude Tridax procumbens, Pannicum maximum and Pennisetum purpureum. Parameters studied include average weekly feed intake, average weekly weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed efficiency ratio. The study was carried out in the rabbit section of the Faculty of Agriculture Research and Teaching Farm of the Delta State University, Asaba Campus Delta State Nigeria. Significance was reported at 5% level of probability and the means were separated using Duncan's Multiple Range Test Procedure. Significant differences were observed for all parameters measured between all the test materials. Variations in feed intake and weight gain were observed and values obtained were within the ranges of reported values.

For CP73-21 sugarcane regeneration at salinity stress an experiment was conducted in 2014-2015 year, in tissue culture laboratory of Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz. According to past results, 3 mg/l of 2-4D treatment was applied as callus induction treatment. Then calluses were transferred to regeneration medium. The effect of treatments was significant at 1% on indirect regeneration. In between treatments the highest of mean was related to 1 BAP + 0.2 NAA treatments, also the effect of salinity on regeneration was significant at 1%. The highest regeneration value was obtained in control and 33 mM treatments. Effect of Salinity on proline was significant at 1% and to increase the level of stress, increased proline content. In both laboratory and greenhouse conditions the investigated of traits were decreased with increasing salinity levels.

Fodder grasses like Sorghum bicolor play a vital role in livelihood generation in arid and semi-arid areas of Rajasthan in India. Cadmium pollution from industries can affect soils in farmlands thereby playing havoc with health of humans and livestock. The present study was undertaken to study the effect of Cadmium salts on seed germination percentage, seedling growth and fresh weight including various biochemical parameters of Sorghum bicolor. Seeds were treated with different concentrations (10, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 ppm) of cadmium sulphate along with control for 10 days. On the 10th day results were noted for above parameters. Seed germination percentage was recorded maximum at 10 ppm followed by 100 ppm. Both shoot and root length showed progressive decline with cadmium treatment. Fresh weight of seedlings was observed better than control for 10 ppm dose level. Further maximum amount of proteins and total soluble sugars were observed at 500ppm dose level while starch and total phenols were found to be maximum at 100ppm dose level. However, in lipids there was constant decrease as compared to control with increase in treatment dose. Total chlorophyll was found to be maximum at 1000 ppm , carotenoids and MDA at in control. These results can be further developed as markers for field testing of cadmium polluted plants.

The objectives of this study were to determine the energy consumption and evaluation of relationship between inputs and output for wheat production in Shahrkord region, Iran. For this propose data were collected from 60 wheat farms using a face to face questionnaire. The results revealed that total energy input for wheat production was found to be 31188.25 MJ ha-1 that the share of non-renewable energy form (89%) was more than renewable energy form (11%).Electricity has the highest share by 38.25% followed by total fertilizers and diesel fuel. Energy use efficiency, energy productivity, and net energy were 3.03, 0.21 kg MJ-1, and 65012.08 MJ ha-1, respectively. The regression results revealed that the contribution of energy inputs on crop yield (except for diesel fuelenergies) was significant. Machinery energy was the most significant input (0.798) which affects the output level.It indicates that a 1% increase in the energy machinery input led to 0.798% increase in yield in these circumstances. The results also showed the impacts of indirect and renewable energy on yield are negative. It was concluded that additional use of machinery, and increasing mechanization level, would result more yield in the area.

In order to get the knowledge easily and quickly for the new countryside to meet the requests on agriculture development by the advanced science and technology, emphasis on the regional agriculture. We put forward an integrated platform model that provide the demonstration and query on regional agriculture information. The solution is to set up the regional multimedia system based on the comprehensive agriculture information system, meanwhile, considering the current situations, including the network equipments and information system operations. After the analysis and design of the system function and structure, we introduce the operation and the realization of models in detail. It can achieve the general data by the demonstration system easily and the especially data by the query system, also the immediate data exchanging and sharing by the information exchange platform.