Agriculture

Overview of root system may clarify some aspects of breeding crops under saline stress condition. In an experiment studied 8 genotypes of wheat (spring cultivars) consist of Quds, Shiraz, Sorkh-Tokhm, Sistani, Mahooti, Falat, Bam and Arg at 3 levels of salinity stress with six replications. The present work, conducted in green-house of Zanjan University in the process of constant condition (T=27±2 °C, L:D= 16:8, RH=60±5 %) in 2011. Variation of few root attributes such as, Shoot Dry Weight (SDW), Root Dry Weight (RDW), the Ratio of Root Dry Weight /Shoot Dry Weight (R/S), Root Area (RA), Root Volume (RV), Root Area Per Volume (RAPV), Root Density (RD), the Average of Root Diameter (ARD), Root Area Index (RAI), Special Root Area (SRA), Root Area Density (RAD), Root Volume Ratio (RVR), and Specific Root Mass (SRM) evaluated before pollination step. The results showed that Sistani and Sorkh-tokhm Genotype Showed Highest resistance in compare to other cultivars. Therefore, selection and breeding traits on wheat would be possible to find the more consequential types for further crop products.

This study was performed to examine the effect of nitrogen commercial bio fertilizer on yield and yield components of two cultivars of rapeseed bio as factorial experiment in Firoozabad city, Fars Provience, Iran. Firs factor included cultivars (Julius and Jerry) and secod factor was fertilizer (control, Bio-farm nitrogen, Nittrokara bio-fertilizer and Nitroxin bio-fertilizer). Measured traits included the number of pods per plant, seeds per pod, seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index. According to the results, it was founded that there is a significant difference between two varieties, Julius cultivar showed highest seed yield (923 gr/m2) and 827 gr/m2 was obtained by Jerry. In relation to fertilizer treatments, it was founded that Nitroxin had higest effect on studied characteristic and this treatment showed 1044 gr/m2 seed yield, hence, the using of this fertilizer is recommended to weather conditions of firouzabad city.

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses in arid and semi-arid land of agriculture worldwide. This study was performed to evaluation of Drought stress on vegetative and reproductive characteristics of Zinnia elegans . Experimental design was CRD with 3 replication, At elongation stage, the plants were provided different degrees of drought stress: (1) mild drought with 65–70 % of the soil water capacity; (2) moderate drought with 45–65 % of the soil water content; (3) severe drought with 20–30 % of soil water capacity and; (4) control with 70 % of soil water capacity. Studied traits included: height, number of branches, stem diameter, leaf number, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight, proline, total chlorophyll. Totally, our results showed that drought stress reduced all studied traits except proline, and by increasing of stress, reduction was increased but this trend was different for proline. Severe stress showed 54, 40, 40, 46, 48, 64, 34, 66 and 53% reduction for height, number of branches, stem diameter, leaf number, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight and total chlorophyll in compare to control, respectively.

Persian shallot grows as a wild plant in some mountains of Iran. Persian shallot, a bulb producing plant from Alliaceae, is a wildly growing plant collected for its bulbs. Bulbs of Persian shallot, called “Mooseer” in Farsi, are oval, white skinned, usually of one and rarely of two main bulbs and are completely different from common shallot (Allium ascalonicum). In this study, various physical properties of Persian shallot were determined at a moisture content of 68.62% w.b. The equatorial diameters, polar diameters, shape index, volume and density were 36.647 ±3.30 mm, 33.242 ± 3.47 mm, 1.0898 ± 0.07, 3.5106 ± 0.961 cm3 and 5211.292 ± 1108.463 Kg.m-3, respectively. The static coefficient of friction was obtained on the plywood surface followed by the glass and the galvanized iron sheet surfaces. The shear strength increased with an increase in loading rate. Linear model for describing the mass of Persian shallot, by applying dimensional characteristics and volume was investigated. The results showed that mass modeling of Persian shallot based on oblate spheroid shaped volume (Vosp) and geometric mean diameter (Dgm) are the most appropriate models, respectively.

An experimental study was conducted under dryland conditions to determine the influence of conventional and conservation tillage systems as well as seed rate on grain yield and yield components of a wheat cultivar in the central region of Iran. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three tillage and four seed rate treatments with three replications. Tillage treatments comprised of conventional tillage (CT: moldboard+disk), reduced tillage (RT: chisel plow+disk), and no-till (NT: direct drilling with plow no-till drill), while the seed rate treatments were 80, 100, 120, and 140 kgha^-1. Average grain yield was 1804, 1754 and 1789 kgha^-1 for CT, RT and NT, respectively. The highest wheat yield was obtained from CT and NT treatments with seed rate of 100 kgha^-1 and the lowest yield was obtained in RT treatment with seed rate of 80 kgha^-1. The trend of wheat yield with seed rate (number of plants per hectare) was approximately similar to the parabolic response curve of grain yield versus number of plants per unit area which increases quickly to a maximum and slowly decreases at higher plant densities. To achieve the maximum yield of dryland wheat in central region of Iran, applying no-till system with seed rate of 100 kgha^-1 was recommended.

In the present investigation attempts have been made to isolate sorghum starch (Sorghum bicolor L. moench) using genotype CSH-25, PMS 8AXKR196, PMS 71AXKR354 at optimum conditions. The genotypes CSH-25, PMS 8AXKR196 and PMS 71AXKR354 are sorghum hybrids and could be exploited for preparation of sorghum starch and among these three CSH-25 was found to be highest starch yielding hybrid. The yield of starch obtained from all these hybrids is to be satisfactory and these hybrids can be extensively used for commercial production of starch .This starch can be used for various purposes such as stabilization, thickening, syrup preparation, extraction of bioethanol which can be used as fuel with gasoline etc.

This study carried out the morpho-agronomic characterization and nutritional analysis of 9 cultivars of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. The experimental design was that of randomized blocks, comprising 9 treatments of sweet potato cultivars (Carrot, Damu, Elengi, Mugande, Muganderva, Monde, Mambokolo, Kandolo and Kilomo) and 4 replications. The treatments were installed on ridges of 2.5 m length and 0.5 m width. It was obtained, the cultivars with tuber of pink color (Mambokolo, Kilomoya, Elengi and Monde); light green (Kandolo, Damu); white of diamond (Mugande); chocolate with coverage of the ground by the biomass is total for the cultivars Elengi, Mungade and chocolate (Mugande) and beige (Carrot). The shapes of the leaves, round (Mambokolo); obovate (Kandolo, Elengi); elliptic (Damu, Kilomoya); oval (Mugande) and irregular (Carrot, Muganderva and Monde). As for the unit weight of the tubers, the cultivars Mambokolo (3.35kg) and Elengi (3.5kg) performed well at 5 months of cultivation and the nutritional parameters showed that the cultivars Elengi, Kandolo and Carrot are richer in crude protein respectively 4.56; 1.43 and 0.75%.

The occurrence of drought leads to reduction in reservoir and tank levels and depletion of soil moisture and groundwater. There is a need to develop suitable criteria for planning supplemental irrigation to crops for increasing and stabilizing crop yields during non-drought conditions, and minimizing crop damages during drought. The present study is aimed to study metrological drought and agriculture aspects of drought in Mirzapur districts the recurrence of drought in these parts of the country in recent years have caused unprecedented economic losses and great suffering to the affected areas. The study is based on the analysis of rainfall and critical dry spell (CDS). In this study, crop water requirement and irrigation requirement for the crop during the drought situation is also analyzed and introducing the supplemental irrigation under drought condition. In Mirzapur district the deficiency of annual rainfall is observed up to 16%. In the district approximately one out of every four to five year is drought year. The year 2007 and 2009 was most severely affected as most of the area of the district was under drought and major area of the district is found as drought prone. In the district on an average three critical dry spells (CDS) have been observed during the monsoon season.

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 pollinating of oil palm is cross pollination. The important insect that play an important role is Elaeidobius kamerunicus (EK). The superior DP hybrid with high sex ratio in young plants resulted in a lack of pollen.The Hatch and Carry technique is used to increase EK populations. This research aimed to determine the effectiveness of EK with Hatch and Carry technique on the fruit set level. The EK population increased the fruit set from 69% to 80%; Hatch and Carry techniques are effective on plantations dominated with young plant, and this technique can increase productivity by 5 - 16%