For this research we are selected three indicators of wheat: yield (t/ha), producer price (USD/t) and share of the harvested area under wheat in relation to the total land area of country (%). The mentioned indicators were analyzed for the period 2006-2021 in thirty-two European countries. The purpose of the research is to determine which of the mentioned indicators achieve average annual growth/decrease rates, what is the correlation between them, how European countries are grouped with their similarities and differences. The research examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mentioned indicators in a two time phases: Phase I, before the pandemic (2006-2019); Phase II, during the pandemic (2020-2021). The methodological approach to the research topic involved the application of descriptive statistics, as the method of principal components analysis (abbr. PCA) with graphics. A positive correlation exists only between the yield of wheat and the share of the harvested area under wheat in the total area of the land (0.291). PCA method showed that countries are grouped differently depending on the observed indicator and the analyzed time phase.

In the Vietnamese Mekong delta, soil quality and crop yield are steadily declining under rice monocultures with three crops per year. The objective of this study was to evaluate the medium-term effects of rotating rice with upland crops and adding organic amendments on rice yield and relate it to soil quality. A field trial with split-plot design including two factors and three replicates was carried out from 2017 to 2020, over the course of nine consecutive cropping seasons. Crop rotations and organic amendments were applied as main-plot and subplot factors, respectively. The rotations were: 1) rice–rice–rice (R–R–R), 2) soybean–rice–rice (So–R–R), and 3) sesame–rice–rice (Se–R–R), while organic amendment treatments included: i) no amendment (NO-AM); ii) compost of rice straw and cow manure (RS+CM), and iii) sugarcane compost (SGC); the composts were applied at a rate of 2.0 t ha-1. The rotation cycle started with the so-called spring–summer (SS), followed by summer–autumn (SA) and ended with the winter–spring (WS) season. Rice yield significantly (P < 0.05) increased by organic amendments after nine growing seasons (2019–2020 WS), with an increment of 5.1% for RS+CM (7.07 ton/ha) and 6.1% for SGC (7.14 ton/ha). Contrary to our expectation, rotations with upland crops did not significantly increase rice yield. Rice yield significantly and positively correlated with an integrated soil quality index SQI (r = 0.86) for the topsoil (0–15 cm), but not for the subsoil (15–30 cm). The increased availability of soil nutrients (Si and marginally also P) and improved soil physical properties probably induced by organic amendments, along with other soil properties under study, cumulatively attributed to enhanced rice yield. Use of a SQI involving several soil quality indicators enables to overall quantify the importance of soil fertility for rice yield versus other factors and it provides an effective means of quantifying the integrated effect of improved management. Moreover, integrating a wide range of soil quality indicators in a SQI ensures its applicability across diverse settings, including different crop rotations and various soil types.

To investigate the effects of organic fertilizer combined with reduced chemical fertilizer on radish yield, quality, and soil environment in high mountainous areas (elevation: 1800 m), and to mitigate the environmental pollution caused by excessive use of chemical fertilizers. The field trial was conducted to study the effects of different fertilizer treatments. (Control:local fertilizer application rate: 375 kg·hm² reduction in chemical fertilizer + 4500 kg·hm² organic fertilizer; T1:12% reduction in chemical fertilizer + 4500 kg·hm² organic fertilizer; T2:20% reduction in chemical fertilizer + 4500 kg·hm² of organic fertilizer; T3:28% reduction in chemical fertilizer + 4500 kg·hm² organic fertilizer). Four different fertilizer ratios were studied to assess their impacts on radish quality, yield, and soil environment. The findings showed that T2 significantly increased radish yield by 12.92%. Moreover, it led to significant improvements in the content of vitamin C, soluble sugars, soluble solids, soluble proteins, titratable acidity, and glucosinolates, which increased by 10.62%, 2.15%, 50.00%, 26.90%, 43.90%, and 44.57%, respectively. Treatment T2 also significantly increased soil nutrient content, with a 7.69% and 14.29% increase in total nitrogen and total phosphorus content compared to the control (Control) treatment, and a significant reduction of 21.64% in soil bulk density . T2 treatment significantly enhanced soil urease activity, sucrase activity, alkaline phosphatase activity, and catalase activity, showing an improvement of 28.97%, 55.92%, 52.08%, and 17.47% compared to the control, respectively (p<0.05). Moreover, treatment T2 resulted in a relative abundance increase of 12.25% and 10.43% in Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria respectively. Thus, the combined application of T2:20% reduction in chemical fertilizer + 4500 kg·hm² of organic fertilizer improved the quality and yield of radish while optimizing the soil environment. T2 effectively promoted radish growth, enhanced radish yield and quality, and improved the soil environment.

Ammonium sulfate has been utilized in agriculture; however, there is a dearth of research on its application in maize cultivation subsequent to the implementation of nitrification inhibitors or coating. This study aims to analyze the impacts of various combinations of ammonium sulfate fertilizers on soil nutrients, plant nutrient uptake, yield, and fertilizer utilization efficiency in maize cultivation to ascertain the optimal and stabilized disposal method for ammonium sulfate. A completely randomized design was employed with five treatments (AU, the control using urea; AS, treatment using ammonium sulfate; ASN, treatment using ammonium sulfate with a nitrification inhibitor; ASG, treatment using oil-coated ammonium sulfate; ASD, treatment using oil-humic acid-coated ammonium sulfate). Results showed that: (1) Compared with AU and AS, ASN, ASG and ASD decreased the leaching rates of TN, NH4+-N and NO3-N to the 10-20 cm soil layer, and more residual N was obtained in 0-10 cm soil layer. The first-order kinetic equation Nt=N0(1-e-kt) can better fit the process of nitrogen accumulation and release, and the N release rate constant is AU>CK>AS>ASH>ASN>ASD; (2) Compared with AU and AS treatments, the plant dry weight, grain dry weight, spike width, spike length, and yields of maize increased by 8.85-11.08%, 12.98-14.15%, 2.95-3.52%, 5.50-5.65%, and 43.21-51.10% under ASG treatment respectively. The impact of effective spike number on maize yield was found to be significant, as demonstrated by the path analysis conducted in this study. Furthermore, the accumulation levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium within above-ground plants significantly increased under the ASG treatment compared to the AU and AS treatments. The partial productivity of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium increased by 1.43-1.51-fold under ASG treatment, while grain nitrogen balance, grain phosphorus balance, and grain potassium balance increased by 1.41-1.58-fold, 1.51-1.95-fold, and 1.15-l.96-fold respectively. The oil-coated ammonium sulfate, therefore, exhibited the optimal slow-release effect of nutrients, thereby achieving superior performance in enhancing maize production and efficiency.

The substitution of chemical fertilizers by organic manure plays a critical role in sustainable crop production. Nevertheless, organic amendments promote the global warming potential (GWP) in rice paddies due to increased methane (CH4) emissions. Increasing evidence shows that lime application can reduce CH4 emissions from acidic paddy soils, while it is still not clear whether liming can reduce the GWP in rice fields under organic manure substitution. A two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of pig manure substitution and lime application on grain yield, CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in a subtropical double-cropped rice field in China. The experiment consisted of three treatments: chemical fertilization (CF, 100% N from urea), 50% of chemical N substituted by pig manure (1/2N + M), and the 1/2N + M treatment plus lime amendment (1/2N + M + L). On average, 1/2N + M reduced rice yield by 5.65% compared to CF, while lime application had no effect on rice yield. Mean cumulative CH4 emissions were 218.8% higher in 1/2N + M than in CF, whereas 1/2N + M + L reduced CH4 emissions by 36.6% compared to 1/2N + M. Neither pig manure substitution nor lime application affected N2O emissions. Consequently, 1/2N + M increased the GWP and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) by 214.6% and 228.3%, respectively, compared to CF. In contrast, 1/2N + M + L reduced the GWP and GHGI by 36.4% and 36.5% compared to 1/2N + M. Lime application can mitigate CH4 emissions and GWP induced by pig manure amendment in double-cropped rice fields.

The research work explores the impact of temperature on Silicon photovoltaic (PV) panels considering Nigeria as case study. It is found that high solar radiation in Nigeria increases surface temperature of PV panel above 25oC of optimal operating temperature of PV panels. Redundant energy gain from incident solar energy is dissipated at the rear of PV panels as heat, which reduces the efficiency of PV panel. Cooling mechanism is needed to cool the PV panels to increase the efficiency. In this study we demonstrated a unique design of a bifunctional photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) system by employing heat exchanger at the rear of PV panel and water is used as a working fluid that is circulated through the heat exchanger to remove the excess heat. It is observed from the simulation results that Maiduguri peak annual electrical power output gives 1907kWh/kWp which is the highest, because of high solar radiation average of 727W/m2 in a year. And for Makurdi the peak annual electrical power output of 1542kWh/kWp while for Port Harcourt the peak power output of 1355kWh/kWp respectively. Interestingly, Polycrystalline Si-PV surface temperature decrease from 49.25oC to 38.38oC. Electrical power increased from 1526.83W to 1566.82W in a day and efficiency increase from 13.99% to 15.01%.

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is a vital leguminous crop known for its rich nutritional profile, includ-ing high protein and oil content, making it a valuable resource in global agriculture and human nutrition. In Pakistan due to regulatory issues non-GMO soybean is grown therefore, the universal herbicide control method is not applicable. Similarly, for other crops, specific herbicides are avail-able but for soybean no crop specific herbicide is present. A comprehensive study was conducted over two growing seasons, in 2022 and 2023, at Agronomic Research Farm University of Agri-culture Faisalabad. The research involved 16 different treatments, including both six pre-emergence and eight post-emergence herbicides as well as a control group and weedy check. Findings of this study showed that critical importance of weed management in soybean cultiva-tion, as unchecked weed infestation can lead to substantial yield losses. Among the pre-emergence herbicide S-Metolachlor + Pendimethalin performed best and showed higher plant height (54.33 cm & 53.67 cm), 100 grain weight (11.57 g & 12 g), seed yield plant-1 (13.07 g and 12.87 g), lower Susceptibility Index (10%), higher weed control percentage (91.21% & 95.65%) higher weed con-trol efficiency (92.02% & 93.43%), herbicide efficiency index (27.54% & 32.48%) and lower weed index (18.16% & 21.70%) during 2022 and 2023 respectively. However, in post emergence herbi-cide the Fluizefop-p-butyl is most effective herbicide due to less crop injury 10% Susceptibility In-dex, higher plant height (42.67 cm & 44 cm), whole plant weight (93.33 g & 95 g), 100-grain weight (11.40 g & 11.77 g), seed yield plant-1 (12.87 g & 13.13 g), higher weed control percentage (91.12% & 91.03%) higher weed control efficiency (89.73% & 92.36%, herbicide efficiency index (21.18% & 30.41%) and lower weed index (19.42% & 20.08%) in both 2022 and 2023 respectively. Notably, herbicides such as S-Metolachlor + Atrazine + Mesotrione, Topramezone, Mesosulfu-ron-methyl + Iodosulfuron-methyl sodium and Mesotrione + Atrazine led to complete plant mor-tality, resulting lethal to soybean. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that screened the best suitable herbicides with less plant injury, and higher efficiency index. So, it is recom-mended that the application of S-Metolachlor + Pendimethalin as PRE and Fluizefop-p-butyl as POST showed the least injury and best weed control results with higher grain yield.

The Fruit Harvest Helper, a mobile application developed by Northwest Nazarene University’s (NNU) Robotics Vision Lab, aims to assist farmers in estimating fruit yield for apple orchards. Currently, farmers manually estimate the fruit yield for an orchard, which is a laborious task. Fruit Harvest Helper seeks to simplify their process. While prior research efforts at NNU concentrated on developing an iOS app for blossom detection, this current research aims to adapt that smart farming application for apple detection across multiple platforms, iOS and Android. The old and new applications were designed with an intuitive user interface that is easy for farmers to use, allowing for quick image selection and processing. Unlike before, the adapted app utilizes a color ratio-based image segmentation algorithm implemented in OpenCV C++ to detect apples in apple tree images selected for processing. The results of testing the algorithm with a dataset of images indicate an 8.52% Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) and a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.6 between detected and actual apples on the trees. These findings were obtained by evaluating the images from both the east and west sides of the trees, which was the best method to reduce the error of this algorithm. Although the Fruit Harvest Helper shows promise, there are many opportunities for improvement. These opportunities include exploring alternative machine-learning approaches for apple detection, conducting real-world testing without any human assistance, and expanding the app to detect various types of fruit. The Fruit Harvest Helper mobile application is among the many mobile applications contributing to precision agriculture, nearing readiness for farmers to use in yield monitoring and farm management.

To enhance pomegranate production on marginal gravelly lands, our study evaluated standardized planting techniques in an 8-year-old orchard. We employed trenching, wider pit excavation, pit digging, and auger digs with dimensions of 1 and 2 meters. Utilizing native soil from barren land, with or without spent wash, and mixing it with black soil up to 1 meter deep, we assessed growth parameters, leaf nutrients, and fruit yield. The trench and wider pit methods outperformed others, yielding greater above-ground biomass (>7.03 t tree-1), root biomass (2.5 t tree-1), and cross-sectional area (3.3 m² tree-1). Additionally, trench planting enhanced leaf phosphorus (0.28%) and potassium (1.8%) levels, fruit juice content (48.5%), total soluble solids (16.05°), and fruit yield (>9.3 t ha-1). The trench method also fostered longer roots at 90–150 cm radial distance and deeper roots at 40–60 cm depth. In summary, the trench and wider pit methods, combined with a soil mixture, are recommended for sustainable, high-quality fruit production in shallow gravelly terrains, thereby improving food security and the livelihoods of farmers in arid regions.

Variable and sometimes contrasting effects of using artificial rhizobium inocula to increase grain legume performance have been reported. The objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were therefore to (i) estimate the overall effect of rhizobium inocula on grain yield and protein content and (ii) identify potential confounding factors that explain the observed variation. A web of Science database literature search was carried out in 2016. Data from all field experiments, greenhouse and pot experiments that compared grain yields and protein contents in Rhizobium/Bradyrhizobium-inoculated with non-inoculated control crops were extracted and analyzed using previously described unweighted and weighted meta-analysis protocols. GRADE assessments of the strength of evidence of results from the weighted meta-analyses were carried which included an assessment of the risk of publication bias. Results: For unweighted meta-analyses we identified eligible data in 236 and 36 studies for grain yield and protein content respectively. For weighted meta-analyses we identified eligible data in 92 and 8 studies for grain yield and protein content respectively. Rhizobium inoculation was found to (i) significantly increase grain yield in both the unweighted (mean percent difference: 41%, 95%CI 36,46, p<0.0001) and weighted meta-analysis (Standardized mean difference: 1.56, 95%CI 1.26,1.87, p<0.0001) and (ii) significantly increase protein content in the unweighted meta-analysis (mean percent difference: 11%, 95%CI 5,18, p<0.0001), but not the weighed meta-analyses which only detected a trend (0.1>p>0.05) towards higher protein content in inoculated grain legume crops. Multi-level model-based weighted meta-analyses suggest that the (i) type of experiment, (ii) type of fertilizer used in experiments, (iii) grain legume type/species and (iv) the country in which experiments were carried out, were confounding factors. The main limitation of the evidence is that a large number of publications did not report measures of variation and could therefore not be included in the more scientifically sound weighted meta-analyses. However based on the large evidence-base available for grain yield it can be concluded that overall Bradyrhizobium/Rhizobium seed inoculation results can increase grain yield by ~40% compared with non-inoculated grain legume crops.

The study was conducted to evaluate the agronomic performance, forage yield, and nutritive values of Desho grass varieties under supplementary irrigation at Dambi Dollo University experimental site, Western Ethiopia. Three Desho grass varieties (Areka /DZF#590, Kindu kosha-1/DZF #591, and Kulumsa /DZF #592) were arranged in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The CROPWAT 8.0 model, local climate data, forage data, and soil data were used to determine Desho grass water requirements and irrigation schedules. The agronomic parameters, yield, chemical composition, and in vitro digestibility of the feed samples at standardization cut were determined following the standard procedures. The results showed significant differences (p

: Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L) R. Br) is a subtropical grain and forage crop. It is privileged with several desirable forage attributes. Nevertheless, research on pearl millet is limited especially as a forage crop in the developing countries. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the field performance and stability of pearl millet genotypes for forage yield across seven environments. The study was conducted in seven environments (combination of locations and seasons) during 2016/2017-2018/2019 seasons. Twenty-five pearl millet genotypes, selected based on forage yield from a core collection of 200 accessions, were arranged in alpha lattice design with three replications. The parameters measured were fresh forage yield, days to flowering, plant height, number of culms m-2, leaf to stem ratio, and stem girth. The combined analysis revealed that environments, genotypes and their interaction had significant effects on all traits studied except the genotypic effect on stem girth. Across the seven environments, four genotypes (G14, G01, G12, and G22) out-yielded the check genotype in fresh matter yield by 20.7, 16.5, 11.0 and 9.8%, respectively. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis showed that the genotype, environment and their interaction were highly significant (P≤0.001) for fresh matter yield. The results of AMMI Stability Values (ASV) and the genotype selection index (GSI) combined with the AMMI estimate-based selection showed that genotypes G14, G22 and G01 were the most stable and adapted genotypes and were superior to the check genotype. These results indicate that forage pearl millet varieties could be developed directly through evaluation of the wealth available collections or indirectly through hybridization in crop breeding programs.

Understanding the genotype x environment (GE) interaction for traget trait is valuable for growers, agronomists, breeders and the seed industry. The objective of this study was to see and explore the genotype x environment interaction for grain yield of wheat to better guide genotype selection and breeding. The genotype main effect and GE interaction effect (GGE) biplots resolved the following three genotypes: 85 (ETW17-377), 82 (ETW17-374) and 13 (ETW17-281) for being the best yielding and stable. The Kulumsa site planted on 4^th of July 2017 (environment 7=E7) and the DebreZeit site on 20^th of July 2017 (E3) were the most effective environments in distinguishing the test genotypes and are thus suitable environments for future evaluation and selection with specific adaptation. Melkasa site planted on 4^th July (E9) was a representative environment where genotypes can be evaluated for wide adpaptation. The genetic covariate biplot indicated that thousand kernel weight (TKW) and plant height (PH) had significant positive associations with grain yield implying the possible concurrent indirect selection of both traits for exploiting GE interaction for grain yield of wheat.

In the century and a half since Maxwell first conjured his “finite being” which Lord Kelvin subsequently dubbed a “daemon”, researchers have explored the connections between non-equilibrium thermodynamics, entropy, and information theory. In recent years various Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations (TURs) have been derived to inform upon the relationship between the entropy production and the precision possible in thermodynamic machines and processes. In this paper the recently derived TURs are applied to the hypothetical thermodynamic economy as described by Parker [1]. The TURs define the lower bound on the total entropy production of the economy. Changes in this entropy production rate has consequences on the stability of the economic system and plays a central role in the business cycle. This new perspective has important implications for policy makers, researchers, and other economic actors.

Throughout history, the pursuit of diagnosing and predicting crop yields has evidenced genetics, environment, and management practices' intertwined roles in achieving food security. However, the sensitivity of crop phenotypes and genetic responses to weather and climate remains unclear, hampering the identification of the underlying abilities of plants to adapt to climate change. We hypothesize that the PAWN global sensitivity analysis (GSA) coupled with a genetic by environment (GxE) model -built of environmental covariance and genetic markers structures- can evidence the contributions of climate on the predictability of maize yields in the U.S. and Ontario, Canada (US-CA). The GSA-GxE modeling framework estimates the relative contribution of climate variables such as solar radiation, temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity on improving maize yield predictions in US-CA. We use an improved version of the Genomes to Fields (G2F) initiative multi-dimensional database to build the environmental covariance matrices for the proposed GSA-GxE framework. The PAWN indices show that the aggregated GxE model’s highest sensitivity levels over US-CA were attributed to solar radiation, temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity. In one-third of the locations, rainfall was the primary climate variable responsible for maize yield predictability. Also, a consistent pattern of top sensitivity indices by location indicates that Relative Humidity, Solar Radiation, and Temperature were distributed as the main or the second most relevant drivers of maize yield predictability.

This paper presents the PEnsemble 4 model, a sophisticated machine learning framework that integrates IoT-based environmental data to accurately forecast maize yield. With the projected significant growth in global maize demand over the next decade, the inherent risks posed by the crop’s dependence on weather conditions necessitate improved prediction capabilities. The PEnsemble 4 model, developed with high accuracy, incorporates comprehensive datasets encompassing soil attributes, nutrient composition, weather conditions, and UAV-captured vegetation imagery. By employing a combination of Huber and M estimates, the PEnsemble 4 model effectively analyzes temporal patterns in vegetation indices, specifically CIre and NDRE, which serve as reliable indicators of canopy density and plant height. In addition, this research significantly contributes to precision agriculture by offering an efficient and sustainable alternative to conventional farming practices through precise yield predictions. Notably, the PEnsemble 4 model enables earlier estimation, advancing the timeline for yield prediction from the conventional day 100 in the R6 stage to day 79 in the R2 stage. This improvement enhances decision-making processes in farming operations. The remarkable accuracy rate of 91% underscores the importance of adopting a multifaceted data approach that harnesses IoT-derived environmental insights. Additionally, the PEnsemble 4 model extends its benefits beyond yield prediction, facilitating the detection of water and crop stress, as well as disease monitoring in broader agricultural contexts. Ultimately, the PEnsemble 4 model establishes a new standard in maize yield prediction, revolutionizing crop management and protection through the synergistic utilization of IoT and machine learning technologies.

The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.) forest type occupied a much greater area in the United States prior to the arrival of Europeans, estimated to be around 37.2 million hectares. This area has been greatly reduced, and these ecosystems now occupy only about 1.2 to 1.6 million hectares. However, there has been great interest in the restoration of this forest type, and existing stands are actively managed. Thus, managers need tools to estimate site quality and ultimately productivity. Here, 16 existing equations to estimate site index and dominant height in naturally regenerated longleaf pine stands are examined for their behavior across a range of site quality and age conditions. Others can use this information as a reference to determine which equation may be best for their situation.

A comprehensive investigation was undertaken at Vytautas Magnus University Experimental Station, located at 54°52’50” N latitude and 23°49’41” E longitude on soil (Epieutric Endocalcaric Planosol – PLe-gln-w) since 1999, to understand the impacts of different agrotechnical measures on soil health and crop yield. Two primary factors were assessed. Factor A incorporated practices of straw removal versus straw chopping and spreading, while Factor B evaluated a spectrum of tillage techniques: conventional deep ploughing, shallow ploughing, ploughless tillage, single seedbed discing, and two no-tillage practices, one of which involved cover crops. Findings from this long-term study highlight the significant potential of specific farming systems in enhancing soil organic carbon. It has a positive effect on the release of CO2 emissions from the soil, thus promoting soil resilience and increasing plant productivity. These insights are paramount in devising sustainable agricultural strategies to counter the challenges of climate change on agroecosystems. This research showcases the profound effects of combining residue management and tillage practices, setting a novel standard for sustainable soil management of climatic uncertainties.

The mechanical pre-treatment constitutes an unavoidable pre-step prior to biofuels conversion. As the cost of this step is often underestimated, recently researchers have striven to identify and characterize the mechanical pre-treatment effects in terms of post-treatment physical characterization, derived improvement of enzymatic digestibility, and output yields. The status of existing mechanical pre-treatment techniques is reviewed by substrate’s typology for lignocellulose biomass, focusing on comminution techniques. Emphasis has been dedicated to the particle size achieved after treatment, crystallinity breakage and eventual inhibitory phenomena deriving from the application of particle size reduction, which are analysed and discussed.

The agronomic characteristics of Cenchrus purpureus were assessed through a randomized block experimental design with seven accessions (Taiwan grass, King grass, Elephant grass, Merkeron, CT-115, Purpule grass and Maralfalfa) as treatments and four replications research was carried out at the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Tantoyuca, in 2019 and 2020, under rainfed conditions. Sowing density was established at 36 tillers in 25 m2. Green and dry matter yield, daily rates of dry matter accumulation in leaves, leaf/stem ratio, height, leaf area index and cutting frequency were assessed. Rainfall amount, temperature, relative humidity and global radiation levels were recorded to assess their effect on the evaluated variables. One-way ANOVA and multivariate analysis techniques, such as multiple linear regression (MLR), Clustering, and Principal component analysis (PCA) with the Statistica V7 software, were used. The leaf area index was greatest (p < 0.05) on the dry season. Green and dry matter yield were greatest in Maralfalfa (p < 0.05). Variation in the results is attributed to weather phenomena; nonetheless, Elephant grass and Maralfalfa showed the highest yields. Quality parameters must be evaluated to identify those grasses with the best attributes.

Crop yield estimation supported by satellite remote sensing data can provide expeditious and strategic information for farmers’ decision-making. Most recent forecasting methods have indicated a promising pathway based on machine learning algorithms. However, validation performances, demand for big data and their inherent inexplicability have not yet consolidated a substantial differential to replace methods based on simpler and more understandable models. This paper proposes an approach based on simple linear models fitted from vegetation indices (VIs) assessed at regular intervals of time series derived from MODIS satellite images, aiming to forecast cotton yields in representative areas of the Brazilian Cerrado. Data from 281 commercial production plots were taken to train (167 plots) and test (114 plots) linear regression models relating seed cotton yield and nine well-known VIs averaged in 15-days intervals. Among the evaluated VIs, EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) and TVI (Triangular Vegetation Index) showed the lowest root mean square errors (RMSE) and the highest determination coefficients. The best periods for in-season yield prediction were from the 90-105 to 135-150 days after sowing (DAS), i.e. phenological phases corresponding to boll development, open boll and fiber maturation, with lowest RMSE of about 750 kg ha-1 and R2=0.70. The best forecasts for early crop stages were provided by models at the peaks (maximum value of the VI time-series) for EVI and TVI, which occurred around 80-90 DAS. The proposed approach makes the yield predictability more inferable along the crop time series just by providing sowing dates, contour maps and its respective VIs.

Genetic enhancement of grain production and quality is a priority in wheat breeding projects. In this study, we assessed two key agronomic traits - grain protein content (GPC) and thousand kernel weight (TKW) - across 179 Bulgarian contemporary and historic varieties, and landraces in three growing seasons. Significant phenotypic variation existed for both traits among genotypes and seasons, and no discernible difference was evident between the old and modern accessions. To understand the genetic basis of the traits, we conducted a genome-wide association study with MLM using phenotypic data from the crop seasons, best linear unbiased estimators, genotypic data from the 25K Infinium iSelect array, and a Bonferroni-adjusted p-value. As a result, 776 significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) organized into quantitative trait loci were discovered, including 25 loci associated with GPC, and 35 loci linked to TKW. Additionally, 14 environmentally stable QTNs were identified for TKW. Certain loci on chromosomes 2A, 3A, and 6B favorably in-fluenced GPC, while the locus on chromosome 6D impacted TKW positively. These loci may reflect novel associations to the two traits. Annotations for proteins involved in the remobilization of carbon and nitrogen from vegetative tissues to developing grain during senescence, as well as in the following buildup of resources required for seed germination, have been found for selected pu-tative candidate genes. These include genes coding for 11S globulin seed storage protein, glutamine synthetase, metalloendopeptidase, components of the ubiquitin/proteasome system, sucrose transporter, alpha-amylase, NAC and bZIP transcription factors. Our findings highlight promising genomic regions for targeted breeding programs aimed at improving grain yield and protein content.

This review explores the combination of renewable energy production and agriculture through agrivoltaic, with a focus on its impact on fruit crops. As the world seeks alternatives to fossil fuels, agrivoltaics offers a promising solution by integrating solar panels with farming practices. The study examines various agrivoltaic configurations with different fruit crops, emphasizing their influence on microclimatic conditions beneath the panels and the effects on crop produc-tion. In particular, it underscores the need for tailored solutions to balance energy yield and crop productivity and quality, with different shading levels affecting fruit quality/production. De-spite ongoing research, a comprehensive understanding of agrivoltaics' potential benefits and challenges remains crucial for its successful application and implementation in sustainable ag-riculture.

Yield calculation is an important link in modern precision agriculture, which is an effective means to improve breeding efficiency, and adjust planting and marketing plans. With the continuous progress of artificial intelligence and sensing technology, yield calculation schemes based on image processing technology have many advantages such as high accuracy, low cost, and non-destructive calculation, and have been favored by a large number of researchers. This article reviews the research progress of crop yield calculation based on remote sensing images and visible light images, describes the technical characteristics and applicable objects of different schemes, and focuses on detailed explanations of data acquisition, independent variable screening, algorithm selection and optimization. Common issues are also discussed and summarized. Finally, solutions are proposed for the main problems that have arisen so far, and future research directions are predicted, with the aim of achieving more progress and wider popularization of yield calculation solutions based on image technology.

In Tropical Monsoon climates, precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration, leading to increased surface runoff, especially in floodplain regions. The Bhagirathi-Hooghly River in India is the focus of the study, which analyses hydrology, sediment yield, and water balance in this floodplain area. This investigation employs the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model within the ArcGIS environment, using remote sensing data. The study area is divided into 4 sub-basins and 40 Hydrological Response Units (HRUs), with a focus on Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) parameters, soil attributes, and slope characteristics. Calibration (1998-2010) and validation (2011-2018) of river discharge and sediment yield are performed using the SUFI-2 algorithm within SWAT-CUP. The calibration process shows a strong correlation between observed and simulated data points, indicating the model's accuracy. The study reveals a pattern of early-year evapotranspiration followed by increasing rainfall during the monsoon season, leading to heightened surface runoff and sediment yield. Excessive rainfall, therefore, emerges as a pivotal driver of flood incidences within the floodplain. The insights derived from the SWAT model's floodplain data have the potential to inform flood control and sedimentation mitigation strategies. The assimilation of this data can empower local stakeholders and contribute to sustainable livelihoods and improved living conditions, offering guidance for future governmental policies.

Summer annual species are the most widely grown crops in the Upper Midwest, but reliance on a summer annual system has led to excessive soil and nutrient loss when crops are not present. Integrating winter rye (Secale cereale L.), known for its hardiness and environmental benefits, into the rotation can address these issues. However, there's limited understanding of the phenotypic diversity in winter rye during key growth stages that overlap with the typical planting dates for corn (Zea mays L.), soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr], and late-planted crops like dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Thus, the objectives of this study were to evaluate changes in biomass accumulation and quality of winter rye and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) cultivars at three growth stages. Twenty cultivars were assessed over the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 growing seasons across three environments in Minnesota. Winter rye and triticale were harvested for biomass at the tillering, booting, and soft dough growth stages and rye biomass yield and quality [i.e., crude protein, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and 48-hour digestibility (NDFD)] were determined following harvest. Overall, there was little variation in each parameter among the cultivars within a location and growth stage. NDFD had some variation at the soft dough stage where digestibility ranged from 273 to 324 g kg-1 at the Crookston site and 332 to 406 g kg-1 at the St. Paul site. The lack of difference between cultivars indicates a wide range of choice when selecting a winter rye cultivar.

Peas are among the most widely consumed legumes and are of great benefit for human nutrition. Sowing and cultivation techniques are known to affect the yield and the quality of the seeds. Existing studies investigating the nutritional properties of the seeds from plants cultivated using different methods are continue to be of significant value. However, changes in the climate in recent years are presumed to have affected the optimum sowing dates for grain yield and quality. This study in-vestigates the effects of sowing peas at different sowing dates on the yield of the seed and on its nutrient content, as determined by certain quality traits (parameters). The experiment was con-ducted at the Aydin Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Agriculture in Turkey during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 pea production seasons. Specifically, it examined the yield of the seed (fresh/dry), its saponin and phenolic matter content and its amino acid composition in the case of five pea cultivars (Deren, Misya, Irmak, Karina, Local) sown at three different sowing times (November 15, November 30, December 15). The study found that the effects of sowing date on grain yield and quality characteristics were significant. However, the varieties' reactions to sowing dates were found to be different. The highest fresh seed yield (3.27 t ha-1) was obtained from samples sown at the second sowing date, while the highest dry yield (1.85 t ha-1) came from samples sown at the third sowing date. The cultivars also had a statistically significant effect on the yields. The highest fresh seed yields were obtained from the Misya (2.88 t ha-1) and Local (2.81 t ha-1) varieties, while the highest dry yields were obtained from samples of Local (1.76 t ha-1) and Irmak (1.73 t ha-1). In terms of sowing dates, the highest protein (27.75%) was obtained from the first sowing date, and the protein content decreased in the following dates. Misya was the cultivar from which the highest protein content (28.77%) was obtained. In the study, higher yields were obtained from the second and third sowing dates, while the first sowing time resulted in higher protein and amino acid composition. Similar to the protein content, the composition of almost all amino acids increased on the first sowing date. In addition, it was established that the saponin and phenolic substance contents of seeds varied with the sowing date.

Phosphorus (P) is a vital macronutrient crucial for crop productivity. Plants absorb P salts, mainly orthophosphate, from soil, yet the primary P source resides in organic materials. Soil phosphomonoesterases (APases) play a vital role in releasing P from organics via hydrolysis. Acid and alkaline phosphatases are crucial for alleviating P deficiency in plants. In this review focused on agricultural soils, we studied the relationship of biophysicochemical, agricultural management, and climate factors on APases also its connection with crop growth and yields. Our findings indicate a strong linkage between both APases and soil pH, positively influenced by clay content, organic matter, microbial biomass carbon, and nitrogen. Adopting healthy soil practices like balanced organic fertilizer usage, optimal soil water levels, reduced tillage, crop rotation, and using beneficial plant microbes help boost APase activity. However, the connection between APases and crop productivity remains uncertain due to insufficient research in this area. Our review emphasizes the vital need to evaluate the relationship between APases and meso-macrofauna, alongside essential plant nutrients such as potassium, nutrient ratios, and the synergistic effects of various factors. Understanding the rapid, efficient assimilation of P through APases in the plant-soil and/or plant-microbiota ecosystem it can be crucial for crop productivity and yields.

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is considered as one of the most important sub-tropical fruits of the World. Under western part of Odisha, India, the litchi growers are facing problem of unstable and lower marketable yield and inferior quality due to higher incidence of fruit cracking, fruit drop, low sugar content and higher fruit acidity. Keeping in mind the positive effects of nutrients and bioregulators, the current study was conducted to elucidate their impact on fruit yield, and quality in the farmers field of Jamankira block in Sambalpur district of Odisha under Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, India. For the studies, eight years old litchi trees were selected. With 12 treatments, the experiment was set up in a randomized block design replicated thrice viz, T₁: Spray treatment of Borax @ 0.5%; T₂: Spray treatment of Borax @ 0.3%; T₃: Spray treatment of ZnSO₄ @ 0.75% ; T₄: Spray treatment of ZnSO₄ @ 0.5%; T₅: Spray treatment of CaCl₂ @ 0.5%; T₆: Spray treatment of CaCl₂ @ 0.1%; T₇: Spray treatment of Humic acid @ 1.5%; T₈: Spray treatment of Humic acid @ 1%; T₉: Spray treatment of Seaweed extract @ 0.5%; T₁₀: Spray treatment of Seaweed extract @ 0.1 %; T₁₁: Foliar spray of NAA @ 20 ppm and T₁₂ : Control (water spray).The current study compared foliar feeding of different nutrient and bioregulators treatments, which were applied during the first week of December, just after completion of new leaf formation and untreated control. The total number of fruits per plant was recorded highest in plants sprayed with ZnSO4 @ 0.5% (T₄) followed by those treated with humic acid @ 1% (T₈). The highest total fruit yield was recorded in plants with foliar feeding of 0.3% Borax (T₂) which was found to be statistically similar to plants treated with seaweed extract @ 0.1% (T₁₀)and seaweed extract @ 0.5% (T₉).Among the treatments better response for higher number of marketable fruits and marketable yield was recorded in plants treated with both 0.3% Borax (T₂) followed by 0.5% Zinc sulphate (T₄), 1% Humic acid (T₈) and 0.1% CaCl₂ (T₆) in litchi. Application of 1% Humic acid (T₈) followed by 1.5% Humic acid (T₉) enhanced the fruit set (%) and fruit retention (%) along with reduction in fruit drop (%). The enhanced fruit size (fruit length and fruit breadth) and higher fruit weight was obtained in plants treated with 0.3% Borax in litchi. The foliar application of 0.3% Borax (T₂) had also resulted in higher TSS, total sugars, reducing sugar, lower acidity, highest aril weight and lower seed weight in litchi cv. Bombai.

Insurance serves as a mechanism to effectively manage and transfer revenue-related risks. We conducted a study to explore the potential financial advantages of index insurance, which protects agricultural producers, specifically sugarcane, against excessive rainfall. Creation of the index involved utilizing generalized additive regression models, allowing for consideration of non-linear effects and quantile generalized additive regression to evaluate relationships with lower quantiles, such as low yield events. To quantify the financial benefits for farmers, should they opt for excessive rainfall index insurance, we employed efficiency analysis based on metrics such as Conditional Tail Expectation, Certainty Equivalence of Revenue, and Mean Root Square Loss. The results of the regression model demonstrate its accuracy in predicting sugar cane yields, with a split testing R2 of 0.691. Additionally, our study suggests that this type of insurance could also apply to sugarcane farmers and other crop producers in regions where extreme rainfall threatens the financial sustainability of agricultural production.

The present article investigates the threshold analysis of yielding in a variable thickness rotating disk based on the Tresca criterion. The analysis is conducted on a Functionally Graded Material (FGM) constructed from tailored materials, following the theory of small deformations and for the case of plane stress. The elasticity modulus, density, and yield stress are assumed to be power functions of the radial coordinate. Poisson’s ratio is considered constant due to small variations in different materials. Additionally, the governing equation for the rotating disk is solved analytically. Besides the material type, another factor affecting the distribution of effective stress magnitudes is the cross-sectional shape (profile) of the disk. The thickness of the cross-sectional disk varies radially as a power function. In the current analysis, different conditions for the onset of yielding and the evolution of plastic flow are considered. For evaluation and validation, the obtained results are compared and validated against similar results for specific cases (homogeneous disk and constant thickness graded disk) available in previous references. The results indicate that considering variable thickness for the disk section significantly affects the stresses and the location of the initiation of yielding

Weather has significant impact on growth and plants development. It is important to analyze the influence of changing climate conditions on expression of plants agronomical characters. Two flax varieties were grown from 1987 to 2018 in the North-West of Russia. Whether conditions and their influence on flax agronomic characters were analyzed using variance and correlations analyses. Significant influence of year conditions on the manifestation of all evaluated characters was revealed. Starting from June high temperatures accelerate the development of plants at all stages. Prolongation of germination - flowering period is the most important for fiber productivity improvement. Oppositely, for formation of high quality fiber fast ripening in hot weather after flowering is preferable. Such data give possibility to predict the amount and quality of yield. Usage of weather conditions data also permits to compare results obtained in different years. Suggested method of year’s meteorological conditions classification can be used in other genebanks for systematization and analyses of crops field evaluation results. Correlation analyses reviled 3 correlated pleiades: (1) pleiade of productivity, (2) pleiade of fiber quality and yield, (3) pleiade of the growing season phases duration, the sums of active temperatures and precipitation during each period. Great influence of growing conditions on economically valuable traits indicates the necessity of searching for genotypes with stable characters manifestation for breeding new varieties, which will give stable yield and fiber of good quality.

To investigate the effect of nitrogen (N) application on carbon metabolism and yield of flag leaves and grains of spring wheat under drip irrigation in Xinjiang, a split - plot design was adopted from 2020 to 2021, with strong gluten wheat Xinchun 37 (XC37) and medium gluten wheat Xinchun 6 (XC 6) as the main plot factor and different nitrogen application rates as subplot factor. Four nitrogen application rates of 0, 210, 255 and 300 kg·hm-2 (CK2, B1, A1 and CK1, respectively) were set to analyze and compare the nitrogen response of key enzyme activity, soluble sugar, sucrose and starch content in flag leaves and grains to control yield formation. The results showed that with the increase of nitrogen application, Sucrose phosphate synthetase (SPS) and sucrose synthetase (SS) in flag leaves, SS in seeds, activities of adenosine diphosphate pyrophosphorylase (ADPG - PPase), soluble starch synthase (SSS), bound starch synthase (GBSS) and starch branching enzyme (SBE) in seeds, contents of soluble sugar and sucrose and yield in flag leaves increased first increasing and then decreasing. The A1 treatment (255 kg·hm-2) showed significant differences compared to other treatments, with increases of 7.95–158.33%, 8.69–155.12%, 7.65–53.25%, 5.41–62.83%, 2.85–85.52%, 3.08–57.30%, 8.87–79.16%, 9.33–196.55%, 9.43–112.78%, and higher levels of amylose, amylopectin, and total starch content than other treatments by 1.86–30.38%, 10.58–83.69%, and 7.96–63.09%, respectively. Correlation and stepwise regression analysis indicate highly significant positive correlation between yield and solube sugar and sucrose of flag leaves and grains, as well as their key emzymes and starch. Among them, soluble sugar in grains, amylopectin, and sucrose in grains have the greatest impact on the yield of XC37, determining 84.5% of its yield. SSS, soluble sugars in grains, amylopectin, and SBE have the greatest impact on the yield of XC 6, determining 80.4% of its yield. The starch shows a highly significant positive correlation with ADPG - PPase, SSS, GBSS, and SBE. There is a significant interaction effect between nitrogen application rate and variety, with better performance observed in Xinchun 37 compared to Xinchun 6. Under drip irrigation conditions in arid areas, nitrogen application of 255 kg·hm-2 can effectively regulate the metabolism of sucrose to starch in flag leaves and grains of spring wheat, which is conducive to the accumulation of starch in grains and the formation of yield.

Globally, weeds interfere with agricultural production activities and have a very serious impact on agriculture and animal husbandry. Identifying a safe and reliable weed control strategy might increase yield, production net income, and improve crop quality. A field experiment was carried out to explore the effects of weeds interference frequency on the yield and quality of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch in an arid and semi-arid area of northwest China. The experiment consisted of seven treatments and were (1) no weeding, marked as WF0; (2)-(7) artificial weeding by hoe once every 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 weeks after emergence, marked as WF1, WF2, WF4, WF6, WF8 and WF10, respectively. We found that the higher weeding frequency had a higher the plant height, photosynthesis, yield and quality. The highest yield was obtained in the WF1 treatment, while the cost of weeding was the highest among all treatments. The concentration of liquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid were increased by 53.24% and 36.57%, with the highest nitrogen metabolism enzymatic activities and quality in WF4 treatment. WF4 treatment exhibited the largest increases in the net income among all treatments in both growing seasons, with respective increases up to 71.39 % and 78.81%. These findings suggested that weeding once every 4 weeks would be an effective and sustainable measure to control weeds in an arid and semi-arid area.

A new approach is presented for dynamic modeling of chemical and isotopic evolution of C1-3 during the hydrocarbon generation process. Based on systematic data obtained from published papers for pyrolysis of various hydrocarbon sources(type I kerogen/source rock, type II kerogen/source rock, type III kerogen/source rock, crude oil, asphalt, etc), the empirical evolution framework of chemical and isotopic composition of C1-3 during the hydrocarbon generation process was built. Although the empirical framework was built only by fitting large amount of pyrolysis data, the chemical and isotopic composition of C1-3 derived from the pyrolysis experiments all follow the evolution laws, convincing us that it is applicable to the thermal evolution process of various hydrocarbon sources. Based on the simplified formula of the isotopic composition of mixed natural gas at different maturities (δ13Cmixed) δ13Cmixed=(X〖*n〗_iA 〖*δ〗^13 C_iA+Y〖*n〗_iB 〖*δ〗^13 C_iB)/(X〖*n〗_iA+Y〖*n〗_iB ), it can be derived that the cumulative isotopic composition of alkane generated in certain maturity interval can be expressed by the integral of the product of instantaneous isotopic composition and instantaneous yield at certain maturity point, and then divided by the cumulative yield of alkane generated in corresponding maturity interval. Thus, the cumulative isotopic composition(A(X)), cumulative yield(B(X)), instantaneous isotope(C(X)),and instantaneous yield(D(x)) in the dynamic model comply with the following formula during the maturity interval of (X0-X) A(X)=(∫_(X_0)^X▒〖C(X)*D(X)dx〗)/(B(X)), where A(X) and B(X) can be obtained by fitting of pyrolysis data, and D(x) can also be obtained from the derivation of B(X). The dynamic model was applied on the pyrolysis data of Pingliang Shale to illustrate the quantitative evolution of cumulative yield ,instantaneous yield, cumulative isotope and instantaneous isotope of C1-3 with increasing maturity.The dynamic model can quantify the yield of methane, ethane and propane as well as δ13C1, δ13C2 and δ13C3 respectively during the hydrocarbon generation process, which is of great significance to evaluate the natural gas resources of hydrocarbon source rock with different maturity and to identify the origin and evolutionary process of hydrocarbons by chemical and isotopic data. Moreover, this model provides an approach to study the dynamic evolution of isotope series of C1-3 (including reversed isotopic series), which is hopeful to reveal the mechanism responsible for isotopic reversal when combined with post-generation studies.

Saline-alkaline aquaculture has become important breakthrough to expand available space for aquaculture in China. However, the biochemical composition and quality of Eriocheir sinensis reared in carbonate alkalinity water are still unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the edible yield, coloration, nutritional and flavor quality of Eriocheir sinensis. Significantly lower gona-dosomatic index (GSI) and meat yield (MY) were detected in intensive pond (IP) than those in semi intensive reed wetland (SIWR) (P< 0.05). Six color parameters differed between IP and SIRW in the hepatopancreas (P< 0.05). The contents of crude protein and fat in the female hepatopan-creas of IP were significantly higher than those in SIRW(P< 0.05). The higher concentrations of ∑MUFA, ∑EFA, h/H in the female edible tissues were checked in IP than those in SIRW, with significant difference including ∑MUFA in the hepatopancreas and ovary, ∑EFA in the muscle, and h/H in the ovary (P<0.05). Better total free amino acid (∑FAA) contents of muscle were de-tected in SIRW than that in IP. Significantly increasing tendency was detected in K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn of ovary from SIRW to IP (P< 0.05). Overall, the Eriocheir sinensis reared in carbonate alkalinity water is an important source of nutrient.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common condition with lifelong implications. The last decade has seen dramatic improvements in DNA sequencing and related bioinformatics and databases. We analyzed the raw DNA sequencing files on the Variantyx® bioinformatics platform for the last 50 ASD patients evaluated with trio whole genome sequencing (trio-WGS). “Qualified” variants were defined as coding, rare, and evolutionarily conserved. Primary Diagnostic Variants (PDV) additionally were in genes directly linked to ASD and matched clinical correlation. A PDV was identified in 34/50 (68%) of cases, including 25 (50%) cases with heterozygous de novo and 10 (20%) with inherited variants. De novo variants in genes directly associated with ASD were far more likely to be Qualifying than non-Qualifying versus a control group of genes (P=0.0002), validating that most are indeed disease related. Sequence reanalysis increased diagnostic yield from 28% to 68%, mostly by inclusion of de novo PDVs in genes not yet reported as ASD associated. Thirty-three subjects (66%) had treatment recommendation(s) based on DNA analyses. Our results demonstrate high yield of trio-WGS for revealing molecular diagnoses in ASD that is greatly enhanced by re-analyzing DNA sequencing files. In contrast to previous reports, de novo variants dominate the findings, mostly representing novel conditions. This has implications to the cause and rising prevalence of autism.

Wheat is widely grown in the Mediterranean region, where plants frequently face water shortages. Recently, more attention to rationalizing irrigation water has been increased due to the adoption of sustainable agricultural systems. Therefore, two field trials were conducted at the Agriculture Research Station of Nubaria, Egypt, in two consecutive seasons (2017/2018 and 2018/2019) to examine three irrigation regimes' effects, i.e., 60, 80, and 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) combined with foliar ascorbic acid (AsA) or vitamin B2 (VB2) on yield and water productivity of wheat in two separate experiments. A split-plot design was used with three replicates. Irrigation treatments occupied the main plots, while the subplot in the first experiment was placed by ascorbic acid (AsA) and vitamin B2 in the second experiment. Results indicated that 100% ETc produced higher wheat yield and its attributes and insignificantly surpassed 80% ETc. Compared to the unsprayed plots, the foliar application of 6 mM ascorbic acid or 2.0 mM vitamin B2 significantly increased grain yield, components, and water use efficiency. The interaction between irrigation regimes (100% ETc or 80% ETc) and foliar application of 6.0 mM ascorbic acid or 2.0 mM vitamin B2 resulted in the highest values with no significant difference. Foliar application of ascorbic acid or vitamin B2 saved 20% of irrigation water while yielding a reduction that did not exceed 10%. The biplot graph of treatments x traits (TT) was a useful statistical tool for examining the impact of treatments on yield and its characteristics and identifying the links between these factors. Results suggest that riboflavin or ascorbic acid may have a potential role as an effective antioxidant for enhancing the tolerance for drought stress in wheat.

The effect of climate change plays a significant role on groundwater level variations and crop yield. The change in climate leading to increased temperatures, decreased rainfalls and extreme drought conditions ultimately cause low groundwater level and crop yield. Judicious groundwater management technology viz., water recharge options, need based irrigation, crop selection, must be adapted for further increasing the water table level in soil ecosystem. Additionally, climate change impacts combined with changes in agricultural water use can affect groundwater dynamics. Increased irrigation demand and decreased summer precipitation can lower groundwater levels, impacting crop production. Overall, climate change affects both groundwater resources and crop yield highlighting the need for sustainable water management practices and consideration of soil properties in agricultural modelling. The authors carefully selected relevant research articles addressing the impact of climate change on ground water level in Asian countries. The review highlights the use of machine learning method to ground water level and crop yield modelling. According to the study, machine learning techniques have made significant contributions to predicting groundwater level changes and crop yield with higher accuracies, high performance and less running time.

Melon pest management relies on the excessive application of pesticides. Reducing pesticide spraying has become a global issue for environmental sustainability and human health. Therefore, developing a new cropping system that is sustainable and eco-friendly is important. This study found that melon seedlings irrigated with ultrafine water containing H2 and O2 (UFW) produced more root hairs, increased shoot height, and produced more flowers than the control irrigated with reverse osmosis (RO) water. Surprisingly, we also discovered that UFW irrigation significantly reduced aphid infestation in melon. Based on cryo-scanning electron microscope (cryo-SEM) observations, UFW treatment enhanced trichome development and prevented aphid infestation. To investigate whether it was H2 or O2 that helped to deter insect infestation, we prepared UF water enrichment of H2 (UF+H2) and O2 (UF+O2) separately and irrigated melons. Cryo-SEM results indicated that both UF+H2 and UF+O2 can increase the density of trichomes in melon leaves and petioles. RT-qPCR showed that UF+H2 significantly increased the gene expression level of the trichome-related gene GLABRA2 (GL2). We planted melons in a plastic greenhouse and irrigated them with ultrafine water enrichment of hydrogen (UF+H2) and oxygen (UF+O2). The SPAD value, photosynthetic parameters, root weight, fruit weight, and fruit sweetness were all better than the control without ultrafine water irrigation. UFW significantly increased trichome development, enhanced insect resistance, and improved fruit traits. This system thus provides useful water management for pest control and sustainable agricultural production.

Spodoptera frugiperda is a significant economic pest of maize in Uganda. Many Ugandan maize farmers employ synthetic insecticides as their main form of control despite the negative impacts of these chemicals. The study aimed to determine the effect of synthetic, semi-synthetic and bio-pesticides on maize leaf damage, and abundance of S, frugiperda and its parasitoids in Wakiso and Lira districts. The experiments were laid out in an RCBD with six treatments in 2020 and nine treatments in 2021, replicated four times. The treatments with the biggest decrease in leaf damage and infestation were Amdocs and Roket®, followed by Nimbecidine. The biopesticides were not always more effective than the untreated control, though; their efficacy was often lower than that of synthetics, semi-synthetics, and botanical. We recovered one egg parasitoid, Telenomus remus, and seven egg and egg-larval parasitoids (Coccygidium luteum, Coccygidium sp., Cotesia icipe, Chelonus sp., Micranisa sp., Charops cf. diversipes, and Tachinidae sp. Among these, C. cf diversipes, Chelonus sp., C. luteum, C. icipe and Tachinidae were the most abundant. Parasitism was low, averaging 10% for eggs and 5.3% for larvae. Synthetic, the semi-synthetic and Nimbecidine often increased higher yield when compared with the untreated control. There were genrally low population of parasitoids, althoguh there were some indications of reduced population of parasitoids in plots treated with Amdocs and Roket®, while percent parasitism was not affected. In some instances, higher yields were even realized in untreated control. While considering the tactics to integrate, assessing the practices more compatible with biological practices will be necessary.

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is highly workable concrete that flows under minimal vibrations into congested reinforcement and sophisticated formworks. The properties of SCC are achieved by incorporating chemical admixtures. In this study, we analyzed if SCC could be designed with a cheap, easily accessible plant extract as a bio-admixture known as aloe vera mucilage (AVM). The main aim is to determine the effect of AVM on SCC prepared from ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and blended cement LC3, consisting of clinker (50%), calcined waste clay (30%), limestone (15%), and gypsum (5%). The AVM is applied in different dosages of up to 10%. The findings showed that the LC3 had a lower rate of consistency, lower slump values, and higher initial and final setting times compared to OPC. The V-funnel and L-box values were reduced with increased plasticizer dosing. Additionally, the OPC samples with both plasticizers achieved higher compressive strength than LC3 in the 7, 14, and 28 curing ages. However, the 2.5 % dosage of AVM showed some increase in compressive strength in both OPC and LC3 samples. Overall, AVM is comparable to the commercial plasticizer used as both influence the reduction of yield stress with an increase in slump flow.

The purpose of this investigation was to study the impact of different rates of bio fertilizer on agronomic characteristics and the relations among herbaceous plant diversity and soil properties of Aloysia citrodora in central Greece. For this aim a two – year Completely Randomized Design (CRD) field experiment was carried out in central Greece. The experiments included four biological fertilizer levels, BF0: 0 kg ha-1, BF50: 50 kg ha-1, BF100: 100 kg ha-1 and BF150: 150 kg ha-1 with 3 replication. Plant height, dry stem, dry leaves, dry total yield and Leaf Area Ιndex (LAI) were measured during the two growing years. The results showed that in the 1st studied the maximum plant height was observed in BF150 treatment while the 2nd year the BF150 level provoked a raise of 16.08% and 1.09% compared to BF50 and BF100, respectively. The 1st year the values of total dry yield were better in BF150 application. The 2nd year the total yield increased by 50.27% in BF100 and 50.09% BF150 treatments. Moreover, LAI was ameliorated by applied the BF100 and BF150 treatments both in two studied years. A key finding in this study is that Aloysia citrodora ecosystem favors herbaceous plant species richness. Also, soil factors (soil organic matter, P and K) promote positive herbaceous plant diversity within the Aloysia citrodora ecosystem. Finally, Aloysia citrodora can be a promising medicinal plant, cultivated under the Mediterranean climatic conditions.

Several strategies promote phyllosphere colonization by soil-born Trichoderma plant-beneficial strains. One of these is foliar spraying with suspensions containing large amounts of chlamydospores – spores with a thick cell wall structure that makes them highly resistant to harsh environmental conditions. Trichoderma biomass was produced by cultivation on cornmeal medium and compared by microscopic and thermogravimetric analysis with the biomass produced in potato dextrose broth. Both analyses revealed higher chlamydospores content and thicker mycelium in the fungal biomass produced on cornmeal medium. The Trichoderma suspension rich in chlamydospores was sprayed on bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) leaves at two concentration levels, 106 and 108 ufc/ml. The effect of these treatments on plant physiological parameters, leaf photosynthetic pigments, polyphenol and flavonoid contents, antioxidant activity of leaves and fruits and yield was compared to the control (plants sprayed with water) and to the experimental treatment sprayed with 108 ufc propagules produced in potato dextrose broth. The effect of chlamydospore-rich suspensions on plant physiological parameters was more pronounced and long-lasting compared with the other treatments. The treatment with chlamydospore-rich suspension enhanced the accumulation of polyphenols and flavonoids in the leaves and fruits and increased the antioxidant activity. The application of the foliar treatment with Trichoderma suspensions did not modify the cytocompatibility of the extracts from fruits determined on L929 cells.

Although hydrogen gas (H2) treated soil improves crop biomass, this approach appears difficult for the field application due to the flammability of H2 gas. In this report, we investigated whether and how H2 applied in hydrogen nanobubble water (HNW) improves the yield and quality of cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme) with/without fertilizers. Two-year field trials showed that compared to corresponding controls, HNW without/with fertilizers improved cherry tomato yield per plant by 39.7% and 26.5% in 2021 (Shanghai), and 39.4% and 28.2% in 2023 (Nanjing). Compared to surface water (SW), HNW increased soil available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) consumption regardless of fertilizer application, which may be attributed to the increased NPK transport related genes in roots (LeAMT2, LePT2, LePT5, and SlHKT1,1). Also, HNW-irrigated cherry tomato displayed higher sugar-acid ratio (8.6%) and lycopene content (22.3%) than SW-irrigated plants without fertilizers. Importantly, the beneficial effects of HNW without fertilizers on yield per plant (9.1%), sugar-acid ratio (31.1%), volatiles (20.0%) and lycopene contents (54.3%) were stronger than those achieved by fertilizers alone. In short, this study clearly indicated that HNW-supplied H2 not only exhibited fertilization effect on enhancing tomato yield, but also improved fruit quality with a lower carbon footprint.

The ridge-furrow plastic mulching (RFPM) system and nitrogen application have been effective strategies for improving crop productivity in the Loess Plateau of China. However, it is not clear how the ridge-furrow ratio and nitrogen fertilizer type (NT) affect the utilization of water, nitrogen, heat and radiation resources for increased rain-fed wheat production. Two nitrogen fertilizer types [Traditional urea (TU) and controlled-release urea (CRU)] and four planting patterns [conventional flat planting (F) and the RFPM system of 20 cm ridge with 40 cm furrow (R2F4), 40 cm ridge with 40 cm furrow (R4F4), and 60 cm ridge with 40 cm furrow (R6F4)] were tested from September, 2018 to June, 2021 during winter wheat growing season. The results showed that the RFPM system can increase the soil thermal time (TTsoil) by 41.0–152.1°C d compared to F. The thermal effect of the RFPM system shortens the vegetative growth period and extends the reproductive growth period by 2–7 days, promoting the increase of the leaf area index (LAI) and final dry matter (DM) accumulation. These significantly increased the grain yield (GY) in the RFPM system by 51.6–115.2% and enhanced the thermal time use efficiency (TUE) by 48–99.5%, water productivity (WP) by 37.4–76.3%, radiation use efficiency (RUE) by 16.3–34.4%, and partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFPN) by 51.6–115.2% compared to F. Although a high ridge-furrow ratio combined with CRU increased GY and resources use efficiency, it also exacerbated the soil water depletion, especially in the 40–140 cm soil layer. Overall, applying CRU in combination with the RFPM system of 40 cm ridge with 40 cm furrow maximized resources use efficiency and increased wheat production in the Loess Plateau of China.

Agricultural productivity is expected to decrease under changing climate conditions that correspond to the stability of West African food systems. Although numerous studies evaluated food production gaps or impacts of climate variability on crop yields, many uncertainties are associated with climate extremes, but also rapid population growth and the corresponding dietary lifestyle determine farming activities. Here, we present a food supply and demand analysis based on the relationship between climate change, crop production, as well as population growth in three experimental sites from southwestern Burkina Faso to southwestern Ghana. The method consists of a tiered approach that encompassed a statistical analysis of historical climate as well as agricultural time series using boxplots and a trend test by Mann-Kendall. Food balance sheets were calculated by estimating the demand using a population growth model linked to food supply with local consumption patterns. Results of the boxplot analysis revealed for the majority of climate time series light to strong right-skewed distributions with either a few heavy rainfall or hot temperature events. We found almost insignificant rainfall and temperature trends for both sites in the Sudano-Guinean savannah. The rainfall regime of southwestern Ghana indicated an insignificant upward or downward trend while the temperature significantly increased over time. Crop yield boxplots demonstrated mainly right-skewed distributions for cereals, legumes and tubers as well as cash crops such as cotton. Backed by the Mann-Kendall test, maize and sorghum significantly enhanced in both study areas of the Sudano-Guinean savannah. Southwestern Ghana depicted a different crop pattern where cassava and plantain showed a strong upward trend at a confidence level of 1%. The grouped food balances sheets across the regions illustrated a surplus for the Sudano-Guinean savannah ranging from 221.2 megatons (Mt) to 4,846.77 Mt while southwestern Ghana exhibited a deficit between -193.33 Mt and -16,188.82 Mt. Despite a growing yield of various crops, food demand outpaces the regional production. Hence, it is recommended to focus on a larger array of commodities, imports and marketing of farm products.

Climate change and the increasing frequency of high-temperature events are significant threats to global crop yields. To address this, a comprehensive understanding of how plants respond to heat shock (HS) is essential. Signaling pathways involving calcium (Ca2+), a versatile second messenger in plants, encode information through temporal and spatial variations in ion concentration. Ca2+ is detected by Ca2+-sensing effectors, including channels and binding proteins, which trigger specific cellular responses. At elevated temperatures, the cytosolic concentration of Ca2+ in plant cells increases rapidly, making Ca2+ signals the earliest response to HS. In this review, we discuss the crucial role of Ca2+ signaling in raising plant thermotolerance and we explore its multifaceted contributions to various aspects of the plant HS response.

The use of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) leads to an increase, in variable amounts, of milk production in buffalo, but there is a lack of information on the influence of rbST on their metabolism. This study looked at the effects of a single 500 mg dose of rbST on lipid profile, liver and kidney function and physical, chemical and cellular constitution of milk in 14 buffalo over 14 days, from the 100th day of lactation, and compared them with 14 animals in a control group. From the 1st day after rbST, there was a rise in beta hydroxybutyrate (β-HBO), possibly due to the higher dry matter intake or by biotransformation of NEFA into β-HBO. Treatment did not influence blood glucose, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), triglycerides, cholesterol, total protein, albumin, AST, GGT, bilirubin, urea or creatinine. In 71.3% of the buffalo there was a gradual increase in milk production with maximal response in the first week that was then followed by a gradual decrease, whilst in 21.4%, the increase in production occurred between 7 and 10 days, and only 7.1% of animals did not respond. On the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th days after treatment, an increase was found in milk production between the two groups equal to 1.04, 1.52, 1.42 and 1.06 liters, respectively. In relative terms this means an increase in milk production, respectively, of 15.1%; 21.0%; 19.8 % and 15.1 %. The constitution of the milk showed no difference in the amounts of fat, lactose, total solids or somatic cell count; however, on the 3rd day after rbST, there was a decrease in protein; notably, from the 5th day, protein values show no statistical difference. It can be concluded that the application of rbST in buffalo from the 100th day of lactation is metabolically safe, since the treatment neither caused imbalances in fat metabolism nor overloaded the liver or renal function, and the changes in milk composition were transient and limited to a decrease in milk protein.

The effects of four cycles of recurrent selection on simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker allele frequencies and population structure were examined in the Maksimir 3 Synthetic (M3S) maize population (Zea mays L.). Genotyping of 32 plants from each cycle of selection at 38 SSR loci revealed that the mean number of alleles per locus and the mean expected heterozygosity were preserved over cycles of selection, indicating maintenance of sufficient genetic variability in the population needed for future genetic gain. Waples test of selective neutrality revealed that genetic drift was the main force in changing allele frequencies in the population. The proportion of selectively nonneutral loci in single cycles of selection varied between 16% and 37%. Some nonneutral loci shared the same genomic locations with previously published QTLs controlling important agronomic traits. Between 5% and 29% of loci were found to be in significant Hardy-Weinberg (HW) disequilibrium with the majority showing an excess of homozygosity. Excess of homozygosity at several loci was highly consistent across cycle populations suggesting positive assortative mating as the possible cause of the observed HW disequilibrium. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) tests revealed that the M3S population was essentially in linkage equilibrium. The proportion of pairs of loci in significant LD varied across cycles of selection between 0.1% and 1.8% probably due to the effects of genetic drift and epistatic selection.

Nitrogen is the most commonly managed mineral nutrient in olive groves because it is essential for plant growth. The precise management of N fertilization in olive cultivation is still not fully clarified, but it is now essential for providing sustainable production. A nitrogen fertilizer ex-periment with olive trees (cv. Kalinioti) was carried out over a six-year period. Seven levels of nitrogen fertilizer given as ammonium nitrate (control, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 kg/tree) were annually applied in order to determine the effect of nitrogen on vegetative growth, fruit set, fruit weight, yield, maturation index and leaf N,P, and K concentrations. The results indicate that, under these conditions, application of up to 4 kg NH4NO3/tree significantly increased yield to 62.5 kg/tree compared to the control. The positive effect was attributed to the initial and final fruit set increases (7.63 and 3.73%, respectively). However, the weight of 100 olives (337 g) at the same fertilizer rate was considerably lower compared to the control. Higher nitrogen rates decreased yield while increasing overall shoot growth. Nitrogen fertilization did not significantly influence the oil content of olive fruit. Fruit weight, maturation index and concentration of oil reached maximum levels in the beginning of December, indicating a suitable start to olive harvesting with reduced yield losses due to unfavorable weather conditions. With increasing fertilizer levels from 0 to 6 kg NH4NO3,/tree concentration of N in olive leaves also increased from 1.23% to 2.38%. Maximum yield was achieved at a level of 6 kg NH4NO3/tree, which corresponded to 2.01% N in leaves. The results suggest that application of 3 kg NH4NO3/tree can be recommended for table olive pro-duction due to the fact that fruit weight was not decreased, while fertilization with 4 kg NH4NO3/tree was suitable for oil olives.

This study explores the application of numerical analysis and material models to predict ice impact loads on ships and offshore structures operating in polar regions. An explicit finite element analysis (FEA) approach was employed to simulate an ice and steel plate collision experiment conducted in a cold chamber. The pressure and strain history during the ice collision were calculated and compared with the experimental results. Various material model configurations were applied to the FEA to account for the versatile behavior of ice—whether ductile or brittle—its elastic-plastic yield criteria, and its dynamic strain rate dependency. In addition to the standard linear elastic perfectly plastic and linear elastic-plastic relationships, this study incorporated the crushable foam and Drucker-Prager models, based on the specific ice yield criteria. Considering the ice’s strain rate dependency, collision simulations were conducted for each yield criteria model to compute the strain and reaction force of the plate specimens. By comparing the predicted pressures for each material model combination with the pressures from ice collision experiments, our study proposes material models that consider the yielding, damage, and behavioral characteristics of ice. Lastly, our study proposes a combination of ice material properties that can accurately predict collision force.

Irrigation and fertilization are indispensable links in the jujube planting industry in southern Xinjiang, China. However, the water and fertilizer integration effects on jujube growth and fruit quality remain unclear. A two-year water and fertilizer optimization coupling test was conducted to determine the optimal water- and nutrient-supply scheme. The three-factor randomized block experiment included water (W), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). According to the principal component analysis of each index, each treatment’s comprehensive score was obtained. Using yield and economic regression models, the theoretical value and yield value of the optimal economic benefit are inferred. When W, N, and P were applied together, the fruit quality and yield of each treatment significantly differed, and the vitamin C, soluble sugar, and sugar–acid ratio increased significantly with an increase in nitrogen fertilizer. However, the titratable acid decreased. An increase in irrigation and nitrogen application significantly increased fruit yield. The comprehensive score was the highest in the N3P3W2 treatment, which improved fruit quality, and the lowest in the N4P3W2 treatment. When the amounts of N, P, and W were 275.56 kg·hm-2, 413.66 kg·hm-2, and 7278.19 m3·hm-2, respectively, the theoretical economic benefit was the best. The N4P3W2 treatment is the optimal treatment.

The leading role of Italy in the cultivation of durum wheat stimulated intense breeding activities in the country from the beginning of the 20th century, much earlier than any other country involved in durum wheat production. Older, genetically more heterogeneous landraces became replaced with new highly productive, superior quality varieties, and this led an inevitable reduction in overall genetic diversity among new cultivars, which makes the genetic variability of the old cultivars preserved particularly valuable and important. The aim of this paper was to assist future breeding programmes by providing a detailed description of the history of durum wheat breeding in Italy and of the changes in yield, quality and related traits that subsequently occurred, starting from the most diffuse landraces present between 1900 and 1920 up until the present day. The parallel evolution of breeding techniques, breeding goals and agricultural systems in this period is also described, and some future breeding goals suggested. In the current context of climate change and of rapidly mutating pathogen populations, preserving the yield level with the continuous introduction of new cultivars by exploiting the reservoir of largely unused genetic variation stored in old cultivars and landraces could be as important as increasing grain yield and quality.

Forest-grass intercropping patterns of protected cultivation has been widely used to increase productivity and sustainability in modern agriculture. However, there have been few studies of wolfberry (L. barbarum) intercropping and it is cultivated mostly by clean tillage. This paper takes 10 kinds of wolfberry-forage intercropping patterns, compares the effects of different planting modes on the growth, yield, photosynthetic characteristics, nutritional quality, and the degree of occurrence of diseases and pests, which aims to make clear the effects of wolfberry-forage intercropping patterns on wolfberry. The results showed that different intercropping combinations had different effects on wolfberry. The overall effect of Wolfberry-forage intercropping patterns on the growth of wolfberry were promote the photosynthetic characteristics. Ryegrass could increase the branch number, Lvyuan 5 and mangel increase branch length; Mangel, clover, sweet sorghum, ryegrass and stipas could reduce the damage of powdery mildew by 69%, and alfalfa, stipa and ryegrass could reduce the occurrence of aphids by 67% (P<0.05). Intercropping could increase carotenoids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid contents to improve wolfberry quality by 21%, 53% and 127%, respectively (P<0.05). Among all the performances, wolfberry-mangel intercropping has absolute advantages in promoting wolfberry yield and quality increase. Therefore the best patterns of wolfberry-mangel, wolfberry-ryegrass, wolfberry-alfalfa and wolfberry-clover were chosen.

Psychrophilic anaerobic digestion emerges as an appealing integrated solution for the management of agricultural waste, particularly for farmers in regions where the average temperature does not exceed 26°C, as seen in coffee cultivation. Therefore, this study seeks to assess the biomethane potential of thermochemical treated coffee husk through psychrophilic anaerobic digestion (C3-20°C-w/pretreatment). To examine its viability, outcomes were compared with reactors operating at both mesophilic (C1-35°C) and psychrophilic (C2-20°C) conditions, albeit without the use of pretreated coffee husk. The C3-20°C-w/pretreatment test demonstrated a 36.89% increase (150.47 mL CH4/g VS; 161.04 mL CH4/g COD), while the C1-35°C test exhibited a 24.03% increase (124.99 mL CH4/g VS; 133.77 mL CH4/g COD), both in comparison to the C2-20°C test (94.96 mL CH4/g VS; 101.63 mL CH4/g COD). Notably, the C3-20°C-w/pretreatment trial yielded superior outcomes, accompanied by an associated energy output of 4262.2 KWh/year, sufficient to meet the annual energy demands of 588 residences. This marks an increase of 100 and 217 residences compared to mesophilic and psychrophilic AD of CH without pretreatment, respectively.

ABSTRACT: Waterlogging is a common abiotic stress in global maize production. Maize flowering stage (from tasseling to silking) is more fragile to environmental stresses among different growth stages. The effects of waterlogging at flowering stage on the grain yield and starch quality of waxy maize were studied using Suyunuo5 (SYN5) and Yunuo7 (YN7). The grain yield and starch concentration of both hybrids were reduced by waterlogging. The size of starch granules and proportion of small-molecule amylopectin increased in SYN5 and decreased in YN7 when plants suffered waterlogging at flowering, in contrast to the change trend of relative crystallinity. The pasting viscosities and gelatinization temperatures were reduced, whereas the gelatinization enthalpy was unaffected by waterlogging in both hybrids. Our study indicated that waterlogging at flowering reduced the grain yield, restricted starch deposition, and deteriorated the pasting property of waxy maize. Between the two hybrids, YN7 and high pasting viscosities and low retrogradation percentage than SYN5, indicated its advantages on produce starch for viscous and less retrograde food. Results provide information for utilization of waxy maize grain in food production.

This 16-month study aimed to evaluate the extended effects of administering direct-fed microbials (DFM) on milk yield and components in 150 dairy cows. The cows were randomly divided into two groups: control (n=75) and DFM (n=75) based on parity and days in milk. Throughout the study, the two groups of cows were housed separately in a free stall yard, and each group had their own feeding area. The DFM group received 10 ml/cow of the Lacticaseibacillus- and Lentilactobacillus-based DFM via top dressing of the feed during lactation and drying off. Milk yield and liveweight were recorded daily. Milk samples were collected every two months for milk components analysis. Both groups produced less milk in the second production season due to adverse weather conditions. DFM cows gained more liveweight across the study (19.40 kg, 95% CI 0.44; 38.30) compared to controls. In the second season, DFM cows lost weight at a slower rate (-6.06, 95% CI -10.49; -1.61) during the postpartum period and produced more milk (0.39 L/d 95% CI 0.10; 0.89). Over a full lactation, DFM cows yielded at least 258L (95% CI 252L; 265L) more milk than controls. No significant differences were found in fat yield, protein yield, or somatic cell counts. The study suggests that prolonged DFM administration positively impacted milk production, but further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanism.

CONTEXT: The sustained White corn (Zea mays L.) yield relies on supply of Nitrogen (N), which is an important element in improving soil fertility. OBJECTIVE: The research aim to determine the effect of Nitrogen on white corn yield and grain mass. METHOD: The experimental design was a 4 × 4 factorial arranged in randomized complete block design with 2 replications each. The effect of nitrogen was determined in terms of the flow within the soil, initial component, addition, uptake, loss and use of nitrogen by the White corn plants. Nitrogen was applied as Granular Urea using zero broadcast method. The grain yield was determined hand-harvesting and shelling. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: There were no statistically significant differences between the mean samples from the two replicates (blocks 1 & 2) across the two seasons for corn sugar concentration, corn yield estimates and grain yields. In 2021, the mean yield estimate was 12,552 Kg ha-1, while that of 2022 averaged 12687 Kg ha-1. Similarly, the grain yield achieved in 2022 was 844.1kg more than the average grain yield in 2021. The white corn yield estimate and grain yield increased linearly with an increase in nitrogen application level, with the highest yields achieved when nitrogen fertilizer was applied at 150kg N/ha. This demonstrates that nitrogen has a positive influence on the yield quantity of white corn. SIGNIFICANCE: The White maize model may be used to improve the formulation of decisions and enhance the precision of estimates for yield and N fate within the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Further, the findings of this study can significantly enhance agricultural productivity while keeping an eye on the environment.

Abstract: A two-year study of pearl millet-groundnut cropping systems across two fertilizer levels was conducted at the INRAN/TARNA research station in Maradi, Niger in the Sahelian zone of West Africa. The objective of this study was to identify the best cropping system with and without fertilizer application to optimize pearl millet and groundnut yields, land use efficiency, and economics as measured by value-to-cost ratio. The experiment was conducted with three replications, and ten treatments combination of five pearl millet and groundnut cropping systems (pearl millet and groundnut sole crops, and three pearl millet – groundnut intercrops), and two fertilizer levels. Sole cropping produced the highest pearl millet grain by over 300 kg ha-1 and groundnut pod yields by over 500 kg ha-1, but all the intercropping systems had a LER above 1.0 with land use efficiency increased by 19 to 41%, also intercropping increased diversity, and reduced risk. Fertilizer application increased yields in all cropping systems by 200 to 600 kg ha-1. Government subsidy increased the value-to-cost ratio by 0.5 to 2, 5 units, and was required for economic response for pearl millet sole and intercrops in 2022. The groundnut sole cropping system had the greatest economic response to fertilizer application. Based on the risky environment and multiple end uses needed by producers, the intercrop system M-G: 1:3:1 with fertilizer application is usually the best option to optimize pearl millet and groundnut production.

By the end of 2023, biowaste must be completely separated or recycled at source based on the EU legislation. Separate biowaste collection and valorisation towards biofuels could play an essential role in the biobased circular economy. In this context, the principal goal of this paper was to demonstrate in pilot scale the technological solution of bioethanol production via the utilisation of urban source-separated biowaste within the city context of Athens, Greece. More specifically, the main aim was the demonstration of a pilot system in continuous operation (over 10 operating cycles) with real feedstock – wet separately collected biowaste. From the 11 pilot trials performed with wet feedstock, the mean starch and cellulose degradation of the pilot trials amounted up to 80.69±16.27% and 79.41±10.37% respectively, while the bioethanol yield was 74.05±6.82%. The latter was comparable to that of more intensive pretreatment methods. Homogenization and shredding that was applied in this study, stand as promising and cost-effective pretreatment methods for bioethanol production from wet feedstock. Further research is needed to optimize conditions and evaluate scalability. Nevertheless, pilot scale testing is a crucial step in the development and deployment of this technology since it serves as a bridge between laboratory research and full-scale implementation, offering a practical and controlled environment to validate and optimize the technology while minimizing risks and uncertainties.

Conservation tillage and deep side-fertilization both hold the potential to reduce nitrogen leaching and improve grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency in fragrant rice cultivation practices. However, the combined impact of different tillage practices with deep side-fertilization on nitrogen leaching remains uncertain. Therefore, this study conducted on-site experiments for four rice growing seasons in both early and late seasons in 2018 and 2019, using the fragrant rice varieties "Meixiangzhan 2"(MX) and "Xiangyaxiangzhan"(XY). The four experimental treatments included:conventional tillage with regular fertilization (T1), conventional tillage with simultaneous deep fertilization (T2), reduced tillage with simultaneous deep fertilization (T3) , and no-tillage with simultaneous deep fertilization (T4). Our results indicate that the T4 treatment exhibited higher nitrogen leaching rates and potential nitrogen losses throughout the entire rice growth cycle, with a 4.51% increase in total nitrogen leaching and a 1.86% increase in potential nitrogen leaching compared to T1. In contrast, the T2 treatment demonstrated the lowest nitrogen leaching rate, resulting in a 6.01% reduction in total nitrogen leaching and a 9.57% decrease in potential nitrogen leaching compared to T1, demonstrating the most optimal performance. For MX, the T1 treatment resulted in lower daily grain outputs compared to the other treatments, with disparities ranging from 5.35% to 9.94%. Similarly, for the XY, the T1 treatment yielded significantly lower daily grain outputs compared to the other treatments, with discrepancies ranging from 6.26% to 10.81% during the late season of 2019. Overall, this study shows that conventional tillage with deep fertilization effectively reduces nitrogen leaching and boosts fragrant rice yields. Minimizing nitrogen leaching enhances nitrogen utilization efficiency. These insights highlight the significance of strategic fertilization and cultivation for environmental conservation and agricultural sustainability.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common condition with lifelong implications and a strong hereditary component suggesting genetic underpinnings. The last decade has seen dramatic improvements in DNA sequencing and related bioinformatics and databases. We analyzed the raw DNA sequencing files on the Variantyx® bioinformatics platform for the last 50 ASD patients evaluated with trio whole genome sequencing (trio-WGS). “Qualified” variants were defined as coding, rare, and evolutionarily conserved. Primary Diagnostic Variants (PDV) additionally were in genes directly linked to ASD and matched clinical correlation. A PDV was identified in 34/50 (68%) of cases, including 25 (50%) cases with heterozygous de novo and 10 (20%) with inherited variants. De novo variants in genes directly associated with ASD were far more likely to be Qualifying than non-Qualifying versus a control group of genes not associated with ASD (P = 0.0002, odds ratio 29), validating that most are indeed disease related. Only 14/34 (41%) of PDV cases had the variant listed on the laboratory report, and reanalysis increased diagnostic yield from 28% to 68%. Variants that we assigned as PDVs yet not on the report were predominately de novo in genes not yet reported as ASD associated. Many subjects both with and without a PDV had inherited Qualifying variants in known ASD-associated genes, suggesting polygenic inheritance. Thirty-three subjects (66%) had treatment recommendation(s) based on DNA analyses. Our results demonstrate high yield of trio-WGS for revealing molecular diagnoses in ASD that is greatly enhanced by re-analyzing DNA sequencing files. In contrast to previous reports, de novo variants dominate the findings, mostly representing novel conditions. This has implications to the cause and rising prevalence of autism.

The broad bean plant contains L-DOPA, a compound that is essential for patients with Parkin-son’s disease. However, little has been reported on other broad bean compounds that have bene-ficial effects on health. The objective was to evaluate plants of four Mexican broad bean varieties to determine the content and yield of total phenolic compounds (TPC), total flavonoids (TF), and L-DOPA, as well as to analyze the flavonoid profile and antioxidant (AA) and anti-inflammatory (AANTI) activity in vitro. Broad bean seeds were sown in the field and plants were harvested 20 days after emergence. The analyses were performed with visible UV spectrophotometry and HPLC. The variety José María produced the highest yield of TPC (9.30 g m-2), TF (8.08 g m-2) and L-DOPA (5.64 g m-2) per unit of area. The highest yields per plant were obtained with the Rojita variety: TPC (0.25 g plant-1), TF (0.21 g plant-1) and L-DOPA (0.17 g plant-1). This variety also had the highest antioxidant (CI50= 87.68 µg mL-¹) and anti-inflammatory (CI50= 74.40 mg mL-1) activi-ty, which was attributed to the L-DOPA compounds and to rutin and isoorientins, respectively. The flavonoid profile revealed the presence of rutin and isoorientins, which had not been previ-ously detected in the broad bean plant.

Quantification of the trade-offs among greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yield and farmers’ incomes is essential for proposing economic and environment nitrogen (N) management strategies for optimizing agricultural production. A four-year (2017–2020) field experiment (including four treatments: control experiment (CK), suitable utilization of fertilization (SU), emission reduction treatment (ER), and high fertilization (HF)) was conducted on maize (Zea mays L.) in the North China Plain. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was used in this study to quantify the GHG emissions and farmers’ incomes during the whole maize production process. The total GHG emissions of CK, SU, ER and HF treatments in the process of maize production are 10,755.2, 12,908.7, 11,950.1, and 14,274.5 kg CO2-eq ha−1 respectively, of which the direct emissions account for 84.8%, 76.8%, 74.9%, and 71.0%, respectively. Adding inhibitor significantly reduced direct GHG emissions, and the N2O and CO2 emissions from the maize fields in the ER treatment decreased by 30.0% and 7.9% compared to those in the SU treatment. Insignificant differences in yield were found between the SU and ER treatments, indicating that adding fertilizer inhibitors did not affect farmers’ incomes while reducing GHG emissions. The yield for SU, ER and HF treatments all significantly increased by 12.9%–24.0%, 10.0%–20.7% and 2.1%–17.4% compared to CK, respectively. In comparison with CK, both SU and ER significantly promoted agricultural net profit (ANP) by 16.6% and 12.2% with the mean ANP values of 3,101.0 USD ha-1 and 2,980.0 USD ha-1, respectively. Due to the high agricultural inputs, the ANP values in the HF treatment was 11.2%, 16.6% and 12.4% lower than those in the SU treatment in 2018–2020. In conclusion, the combination of N fertilizer and inhibitors was proved to be an environmentally friendly, high-profit and low-emissions production technology while sustaining or even increasing maize yields in the North China Plain, which was conducive to achieving agricultural sustainability.

The paper investigates into the intricacies of semiconductor manufacturing, a highly complex process entailing a wide array of subprocesses and diverse equipment. Semiconductors are miniaturized integrated circuits comprising numerous components. The semiconductor manufacturing process begins with the thin disc-shaped silicon wafers. On each wafer, up to thousands of identical chips can be prepared depending upon the diameter of the wafer to build up the circuits layer by layer in a wafer fab. The size of the semiconductors requires a high number of units to be produced, thus necessitating a large amount of data to control for improving the semiconductor manufacturing process. Therefore, the collection and analysis of the equipment data, process data, and machine history data throughout the manufacturing process are required to diagnose faults, monitor the process, and manage the manufacturing process effectively. This research is focused on improving the semiconductor manufacturing process through a rigorous analysis of collected manufacturing process data, employing statistical process control (SPC), data mining techniques, and data-driven decision models. The project's primary objective is to increase the manufacturing process stability and productivity by utilizing the latest data-driven technologies in the scientific community. A structured review was undertaken, exploring contemporary data-driven methodologies in semiconductor manufacturing process improvement, specifically pertaining to process capability, product yield rate, and process stability. This review accentuates a comprehensive evaluation of data-driven methodologies applicable to conventional semiconductor manufacturing facilities, aiming to drive substantial process improvements. It features a detailed demonstration facilitating the selection of optimal semiconductor manufacturing processes to enhance overall operational performance. This study of process improvement in the semiconductor manufacturing steps through the application of data-driven methodologies will be effective in delivering advanced, real-time, and proactive control decisions throughout the manufacturing facilities. This endeavor is expected to promptly provide critical insights for enterprise manufacturing decision-makers to reduce manufacturing cycle time, improve the product yield rate, and increase the overall efficiency of the manufacturing process.

Saline water irrigation contributes significantly to forage yield. However, the salinity threshold for safe saline water irrigation of tall wheatgrass in coastal saline-alkaline land remains unclear. In this study, 2 g L‒1, 3 g L‒1, 4 g L‒1, 5 g L‒1, and 8 g L‒1 saline waters were used for irrigation. Two irrigations with 2+3 g L‒1 saline waters produced the highest yield, followed by one irrigation with 4 g L‒1 or 5 g L‒1 saline water. After rainfall’s leaching, the soil electrical conductivity (EC1:5) reduced by 41.7%‒79.3% for the saline water irrigation treatments. In combination with saline water irrigation, plastic film mulching can be used for sward establishment of seed propagated tall wheatgrass. However, irrigation with high salinity of drainage water enhanced the risk of plant death. Further, a pot experiment demonstrated that irrigation with 5 g L‒1 saline water led to the least reduction of forage yield and the highest crude protein content in leaves. However, the plants irrigated with ≥7 g L‒1 saline water enhanced soil salinity and reduced plant height, leaf size, and gas exchange rate. Conclusively, one irrigation with ≤5 g L‒1 saline water at the end of April or early May could be acceptable to maximize the forage yield of tall wheatgrass and minimize soil salinization risk in the coastal saline-alkaline land around the Bohai Sea.

Abstract: A multitude of biotic and abiotic stress factors do harm to plants by bringing about diseases and inhibiting normal growth and development. As an omnipotent signaling molecule, salicylic acid (SA) plays crucial roles in plants' tolerance responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses, thereby maintaining plants’ normal growth and improving yields under stresses. In view of this, this paper mainly discusses the role of SA in both biotic stresses, and abiotic stresses of plants. SA regulates the expression of genes involved in defense signaling pathways, thus enhancing plants’ immunity. In addition, SA mitigates the negative effects of abiotic stresses, and acts as a signaling molecule to induce the expression of stress-responsive genes and the synthesis of stress-related proteins. In addition, SA also improves certain yield-related photosynthetic indexes, thereby enhancing crop yield under stresses. On the other hand, SA acts with other signaling molecules in regulating plants’ growth and improving tolerances under stresses. This paper reviews recent advances in SA’s roles in plant stress tolerances, so as to provide theoretical references for further studies concerning the decryption of molecular mechanisms for SA’s roles and the improvement of crop management under stresses.

Carbon dots are carbon based nanoparticles, which have the characteristics of simple preparation process, photoluminescence, biocompatibility, adjustable surface function, water solubility, and low toxicity. They are widely used in biological applications such as imaging, biosensing, photocatalysis, and molecular transfer. It has also aroused great interest among researchers in agriculture and has made significant progress in improving crop growth and production. This review presents the physiological functions of carbon dots for crop growth and development, photosynthesis, water and nutrient absorption, and abiotic stress resistance and their applications in improving ecological environment and agriculture as biosensors, and the future application prospects and research directions of carbon dots in agriculture were prospected.

Throughout the world, salinity is a major environmental issue that limits agricultural productivity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. In addition, climate change is the most important reason for the salinization of agricultural soils in the world, so it is now essential to find solutions to increase salinity tolerance in plants. This study investigated the potential of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation to enhance the growth and yield performances of flax under different salinity levels by conducting a pot experiment. The experiment was laid out in a two-factor completely randomized design including AMF inoculation (AMF+: with and AMF-: without inoculation) and irrigation water salinity (0, 50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl). According to the results, it is evident that salt stress caused negative physiological effects, including limited growth, reduced photosynthesis, and decreased nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content in shoots and roots of flax plants. Moreover, mycorrhizal association improved the salt tolerance of the plants by increasing chlorophyll content, enhancing N and P shoot and root contents, and consequently yield parameters, such as seed, and stem fiber yield, particularly at moderate salt concentrations (50 and 100 mM NaCl). As a result of using AMF, flax plants grown under salt stress exhibited tolerance, suggesting that AMF could be applied in saline environments to maintain ecological stability.

Climate change-induced temperature fluctuations pose a significant threat to crop production, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. This study investigates the transcriptome and physiological responses of rapeseed to post-flowering temperature increases, providing valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying rapeseed tolerance to heat stress. Two rapeseed genotypes, Lumen and Solar, were assessed under control and heat stress conditions in field experiments conducted in Valdivia, Chile. Results showed that seed yield and seed number were negatively affected by heat stress, with genotype-specific responses. Lumen exhibited a 9.3% average seed yield reduction, while Solar showed a 28.7% reduction. RNA-seq analysis of siliques and seeds revealed tissue-specific responses to heat stress, with siliques being more sensitive to temperature stress. Hierarchical clustering analysis identified distinct gene clusters reflecting different aspects of heat stress adaptation in siliques, with a role for protein folding in maintaining silique development and seed quality under high temperature conditions. In seeds, three distinct patterns of heat-responsive gene expression were observed, with genes involved in protein folding and response to heat showing genotype-specific expression. Gene coexpression network analysis revealed major modules for rapeseed yield and quality, as well as the trade-off between seed number and seed weight. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying rapeseed tolerance to heat stress and can inform crop improvement strategies targeting yield optimization under changing environmental conditions.

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is one of the most important oil crops in China. Improving oil production of rapeseed is an important way to ensure the safety of edible oil in China. Oil production is an important index to reflect the quality of rapeseed and is determined by oil content and yield. Applying nitrogen is an important way to ensure a high yield. However, increasing nitrogen application would decrease oil content. Thus, it is critical to screen elite germplasm resources with stable or improved oil content under high nitrogen and to investigate the molecular mechanisms of nitrogen regulation of oil accumulation. In this paper, we review the effects of nitrogen levels on rapeseed yields and oil content, aiming to reveal the mechanisms of nitrogen regulation in oil accumulation and thereby provide a theoretical basis for breeding varieties with high oil content.

To utilize heterosis and combining ability for grain yield and its attributing traits along with three physiological traits viz., leaf area index, chlorophyll fluorescence and chlorophyll content in bread wheat (Tritium aestivum L.) the crosses were attempted during rabi, 2019-20 in a half diallel mating scheme among 8 wheat varieties and the study was carried out during rabi, 2020-21 at Block No. D-13 field of Mahua block, Simradha research farm, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi. Analysis of variance showed significant differences for treatments. Based on per se performance the hybrids NW 5054 x PBW 723 (23.3 g), and HI 1544 x NIAW 34 (23.14 g), were identified for the higher grain yield. The hybrid HI 544 x NIAW 34 (18.41 %) was identified as the best heterotic cross for grain yield per plant and its component traits. The hybrids HI 1544 x NIAW 34 (3.40) and HI 1544 x GW 322 (2.76), as well as the parents HD 3086 (21.85) and PBW 723 (20.68), were identified as superior economic hybrids and parents based on SCA/GCA effects, per se performance for grain yield per plant, and its component trait in bread wheat. Days to heading, flag leaf length, biological yield per plant, harvest index, number of grains per spike, 1000 grain weight, spike length, leaf area index, chlorophyll fluorescence, and chlorophyll content were all positively correlated with grain yield per plant.

Producing cherry tomatoes became interesting to know watering volume and growing design on growth, yield, and quality of cherry tomatoes. The research aimed to intend the best treatment for each treatment of watering volume and Growing design on the productivity and quality of cherry tomato cultivar Ruby. The study is an experimental exploration using RCBD factorial. The treatment factors include: Growing Design (greenhouse, Rain shelter, Screen house) and Watering Volume (100% Etc, 75% ETc, 50% ETc). The result showed that root dry weight and root-shoot ratio were found higher in the screen house design, while fruit firmness was higher in the rain shelter design. Considering the effect of watering volume, higher fruit diameter, heavier fruit, fruits per plant, ultimate fruit &amp; biological yield per plant, higher root &amp; shoot biomass, root-shoot ratio, leaf chlorophyll content, greater fruit skin firmness and elasticity was noted in the 100% ETc treatment. In contrast, the growth rate was higher in 50% ETc treatment. Cultivating cherry tomatoes in a greenhouse using a watering volume of 100% ETc under the results is recommended. These conditions have led to better growth, higher fruit yield, and improved fruit quality, making them favorable options for successful cherry tomato production.

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of feeding silage of Napier Pakchong 1 fermented with mung bean concentrate on production performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass yield, and meat quality of male dairy goats. Silage made for experimental treatments was prepared as follows: Treatment 1 (T1) containing 100% Napier Pakchong 1 grass (without mung bean concentrate added) as a control, while Treatment 2 (T2) and Treatment 3 (T3) containing 90% and 80% Napier Pakchong 1 grass, respectively, mixed with 10% and 20% mung bean concentrate, respectively. Fifteen weaned male Saanen-growing goats were assigned to 3 experimental treatments in a completely randomized design; the study lasted for 150 days. The nutritive value of feed, production performance, nutrient digestibility, blood urea nitrogen, carcass yield and dressing, basic meat quality, and composition of meat were collected or analyzed. The results found that the goats fed with the silage made from Napier Pakchong 1 added 10% and 20% mung bean concentrate showed improvements in nutritive value, growth rate, key nutrient digestibility, blood urea nitrogen, carcass yield, the water-holding capacity of cooked meat, and fat content in meat. However, adding 10% mung bean concentrate had a trend of more beneficial value added into the production chain of male Saanen dairy goats for meat purposes. Thus, silage made from Napier Pakchong 1 fermented with 10% mung bean concentrate as a roughage source for male Saanen dairy goats intended for meat purposes is recommended.

The production of plants and crops is influenced by environmental stress, which is a serious scientific issue. Cotton is an essential crop for producing natural fibers that are used to make biofuel and edible oils. Salinity is the main element that influences cotton growth during the beginning of germination. The type of salt and the growth stage affects how sensitive a plant is to salt stress. Developing ways to enhance cotton performance in salty circumstances can be aided by an understanding of the response of cotton to salt, its mechanism of resistance, and its management methods. Osmotic and ionic imbalances originate due to the deposition of soluble salts under salinity stress in the plant's root zone. Soil salinity significantly reduces plant growth due to several factors, such as nutritional ion imbalance, which reduces K+, PO4-, and NO- absorption, excessive salt chloride concentrations, and osmotic stress, which hinders water availability. Research has revealed that compared to subsequent stages, the germination, emergence, and seedling phases are more vulnerable to salinity stress, which ultimately affects the seed cotton yield by delaying blooming, reducing fruiting positions, shedding fewer fruits, and reducing boll weight. The morphology, growth of cotton roots, shoots, yield, and fiber quality are all strongly impacted by salinity stress. It slows down plant feeding, cellular metabolism, and photosynthesis. The soil, water, and climate all affect how the plant responds to salinity stress. During salt stress, excessive exclusion of sodium or its compartmentalization is the key adaptation process in cotton. A major adaptive potential to create cotton types that can withstand salt is provided by the up-regulation of both physicochemical and non-enzymatic antioxidant genes. A successful strategy to increase cotton germination in saline soils is seed priming. Moreover, the transgenic strategy might be a viable choice for improving cotton yield in saline environments. Our review focuses on the impacts of salinity on cotton productivity as well as how plants react to salt stress. It also clarifies recent genetic advancements and molecular breeding for cotton's resistance to soil salt. To create salt-tolerant cultivars, a combination of traditional breeding and novel molecular approaches will be useful.

Onion is not just an edible food but its seeds can also be an important source of valuable oil with various sensitive applications mainly in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food fields. This has encouraged the use of a supercritical fluid extraction in the present study to obtain oil from local onion seeds, hence avoiding even traces of organic solvents. For several advantages carbon dioxide at supercritical conditions was used as the fluid. The effects of four key operating parameters like pressure, temperature, particle size and CO2 mass flowrate were investigated in ranges of [150, 250 bars], [35, 65°C], [0.25, 0.85mm] and [50, 100g/min], respectively, using a Box-Behnken experimental design, for a constant extraction time of 3 hours. This led to optimal operating conditions of 250 bar, 57°C, 0.25mm and 50g CO2/min for the highest oil extraction yield value of 24.36%. Furthermore, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to identify qualitatively and quantitatively the chemical composition of the onion seed oils. About ten components were identified in the extracts, but with four major ones, namely 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid ,methyl ester, 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid (Z,Z)-,methyl ester, 9-Octadecadienoic acid (Z)-,methyl ester and Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester, present with significant percentages, depending on the operating parameters values. These fatty acids are well known for their benefits for human health. Finally the study shows the importance and the merits of fluids when used under particular conditions of pressure and temperature, in very sensitive industrial fields.

Nitrogen is crucial for plant physiology due to the fact that plants consume a significant amount of nitrogen during the development period. Nitrogen supports the root, leaf, stem, branch, shoot and fruit development of plants. At the same time, it also increases flowering. To monitor the vegetation nitrogen concentration, one of the best indicator developed in the literature is Normalized Difference Nitrogen Index (NDNI) which is based on the usage of the spectral bands: 1510 and 1680 nm. from Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) region of electromagnetic spectrum. However, majority of the remote sensing sensors like cameras and/or satellites do not have a SWIR sensor due to the high costs. Many vegetation indexes like NDVI, EVI, MNLI, have been developed in also VNIR region to monitor the greenness and healthy of the crops. However these indexes are not very correlated to the nitrogen content. Therefore, in this study, a novel method is developed which transforms the estimated VNIR band indexes to NDNI by using a regression method between a group of VNIR indexes and NDNI. Training is employed by using VNIR band indexes as input and NDNI as output which are both calculated from the same location. After training, 0.93 correlation is achieved. Therefore, by using only VNIR band sensors, it is possible to estimate the nitrogen content of the plant with high accuracy.

Pruning is an important part in controlling the branching, good fruit size, and prodctivity of fruit trees. and consequently, ‘Valencia’ orange trees were grown many years ago, the trees were suffering from a decline in productivity in the newly reclaimed lands after certain years of plantation. This study elucidated the effect of pruning severity on growth, yield and fruit quality of ‘Valencia’ orange trees. Four levels of pruning were applied on 35 years old ‘Valencia’ orange trees as follows: T1: Control (un-pruned), T2: Light pruning ( 25% of main branches were removed); T3: Moderate pruning (50% of main branches were removed) and T4: Heavy pruning: 75% of main branches were removed. The treatments were done in February 15th (for each season). The results indicated that pruning severity increased vegetative growth paraments such as shoot length and leaf area and decreased canopy volume of Valencia orange trees in comparison to control. Maximum yield was gained from 75% followed by 50% and 25% pruning severity treatment. The pruning treatments improve in fruit weight, size, firmness, juice content, TSS%, TSS/acid ratio and vitamin C content. In addition, pruning produced an increasing in fruit yield per tree as well as yield increasing %. Hence, it might be concluded that pruning at different severity applied in February can be used effectively on ‘Valencia’ orange trees to improve vegetative growth, fruit physical and chemical properties. Besides, increasing fruit yield by nearly 20% in comparison to control.

Crop yield enhancement is crucial for ensuring food security and meeting the growing global demand for agricultural products. The development of innovative technologies, such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), has provided new avenues for precise genetic modifications in crops. In this research article, we explore the application of CRISPR technology for crop yield improvement. We discuss the methodology, present recent results, and engage in a comprehensive discussion of the potential benefits, challenges, and future prospects of CRISPR-mediated crop yield enhancement.

Biomass-derived carbon dots (CDs) are gaining much interest in recent times as it is a sustainable option with abundant availability, low cost, and tunable luminescence. Herein, we report a simple green synthesis method to produce highly fluorescent CDs from Eucalyptus globulus leaves using the one-pot hydrothermal approach. The fabricated CDs exhibit strong blue fluorescence with an excitation and emission maxima of 340 nm and 442 nm respectively. The highest quantum yield (QY) obtained was 60.7%. Due to its promising optical properties and biocompatibility, CDs can be a potential candidate for biosensing applications. Moreover, we employed a life cycle assessment (LCA) cradle-to-gate approach to study the environmental impacts of the synthesis strategy used for the fabrication of CDs. The results point out that citric acid is a main hotspot in CDs synthesis, regarding environmental impacts in most categories. This justifies the introduction of biomass, which reduces the amount of citric acid, thus leading to a more sustainable synthesis strategy for fabricating CDs.

Magnesium matrix composites have attracted significant attention due to their lightweight nature and impressive mechanical properties. However, the fabrication process for these alloy compo-sites is often time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive. To overcome these challenges, this study employed machine learning (ML) techniques to predict the mechanical properties of magnesium matrix composites. Regression models were utilized to forecast the yield strength of magnesium alloy composites reinforced with various materials. The study incorporated previous research on matrix type, reinforcement type, heat treatment, and mechanical working. The re-gression models employed in this study included decision tree regression, random forest re-gression, extra tree regression, and XGBoost regression. Model performance was assessed using metrics such as RMSE and R2. The XGBoost Regression model out-performed others, exhibiting an R2 value of 0.94 and the lowest error rate. Feature importance analysis indicated that the rein-forcement particle form had the greatest influence on the mechanical properties. The study iden-tified the optimized parameters for achieving the highest yield strength, which was 186.99 MPa. Overall, this study successfully demonstrates the effectiveness of ML as a valuable tool for opti-mizing the production parameters of magnesium matrix composites.

This work proposes a methodological approach applied to ephemeral gravel-bed streams to verify the change in the magnitude and frequency of hydrological events affecting the morphological dynamics and sediment budget in this type of channel. For the case study the Azohía Rambla, located in southeastern Spain, was chosen, emphasizing the research on two reference riverbed sections (RCRs): an upper one, with a predominance of erosion, and a middle one, where processes of incision, transport, and deposition converge. First, this approach focuses on relationships between peak discharges and sediment budgets during the period 2018 to 2022. For this purpose, water level measurements from pressure sensors, a One-Dimensional Hydrodynamic model, and findings from comparative analyses of high-resolution differential digital elevation models (HRDEM of Difference - HRDoD) based on SfM-MVS and LiDAR datasets were used. In a second phase the GeoWEPP model was applied to the period 1996-2022 in order to simulate runoff and sediment yield at the event scale for the watersheds draining into both RCRs. During the calibration phase a sensitivity analysis was carried out to detect the most influential parameters in the model and to confirm its capacity to simulate peak flow and sediment delivery in the area described above. Values of NS (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency) and PBIAS (percent bias) equal to 0.86 and 7.81%, respectively, were found in the calibration period, while these indices were 0.81 and -4.1% in the validation period. Finally, different event class patterns (ECPs) were established for the monitoring period (2018-2022), according to flow stage and morphological channel adjustments (overtopping, bankfull and sub-bankfull, and half-sub-bankfull), and then retrospectively extrapolated to stages of the prior simulated period (1996-2018) from their typical sequences (PECPs). The results revealed a significant increase in the number of events and PECPs leading to lower bed incision rates and higher vertical accretion, which denotes a progressive increase in bed armoring and bank erosion processes.

In the article, we are trying to find a general law that describes the physical properties of a complex compound through the same physical properties of compound elements. For metal alloys operated under extreme conditions - neutron and proton irradiations and thermal heating, the mechanical properties of these alloys and their elements have been studied. It turned out that the ultimate tensile strength of tantalum alloys used in the design of space reactors can be expressed in terms of the weighted sum of the ultimate tensile strengths of its elements in the range of neutron doses: (0 - 0.96) displacement per atom (dpa) for Ta–10W alloy and (1.4 - 1.7) dpa for T–111 alloy with a neutron energy of more than 0.1 MeV. For tungsten binary alloys used in the design of fusion reactors, the Vickers hardness can also be expressed in terms of the weighted sum of the Vickers hardnesses of the alloy elements in the range of proton irradiation doses: (0 - 0.05) dpa for W-1%Re alloy, (0.05 - 0.2) dpa for W-3%Re alloy and (0.05 - 1) dpa for W-1%Ta with a proton energy of 1 MeV.

A Fall armyworm (FAW) is a major pest of maize and causes huge losses. Chemical control is the commonly used strategy FAW among farmers. Efficacy of baculovirus against FAW has been proven, however, farmers may not afford the products. The use of farmer produced baculovirus mixtures could provide an opportunity for a nature-based solution for FAW at low cost. This study evaluated the potential of virus extracted from FAW larvae treated with a commercial baculovirus (Littovir) for the management of FAW under laboratory and field conditions. In Laboratory, the virus extracted from 25, 50, 75 and 100 FAW larvae caused varied mortality on FAW instars. The highest mortality (45%) on 1st-3rd instars was caused by Littovir followed by virus extract from 100 FAW larvae (36%). Under field conditions, even though virus extracts did not offer adequate protection against the FAW damage, the maize yield was comparable to commercial insecticides treated plots. This study has shown the potential of use of virus extracts for management of FAW. This would offer the farmers a sustainable and affordable option for management of FAW as it would require the farmers to purchase the commercial baculovirus once and collect larvae from treated plots for repeat applications.

J/ψ, a charmonium bound state made of a charm and an anti-charm quark, has been discovered in the 1970s and confirmed the quark model. Because the mass of charms quarks is significantly above the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) scale ΛQCD, charmonia are considered as excellent probes to test perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations. Over the past decades, they have been studied extensively at different high energy colliders. However, their production mechanisms, which involves multiple scales, are still not very well understood. Recently, in high multiplicity p+p collisions at RHIC and at the LHC, a significant enhancement of J/ψ production yield has been observed, which suggests a strong contribution from the Multi-Parton Interaction (MPI). This is different from the traditional pQCD picture where charm quark pairs are produced from a single hard scattering between partons in p+p collisions. In this work, we will report the J/ψ normalized production yield as a function of normalized charged particle multiplicity over a board range of rapidity and event multiplicity in the J/ψ→μ+μ− channel with PHENIX Run 15 p+p data at \sqrt{s}=200 GeV. The results are compared with PYTHIA 8 simulations with the MPI option on and off. Finally, the outlooks of J/ψ in p+Au and Au+p collisions along with Color Glass Condensate (CGC) predictions and of multiplicity dependent ψ(2S)/J/ψ ratio in p+p data will be briefly discussed.

The use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers can have detrimental effects on the environment due to nitrate leaching. This study aims to examine the impact of N fertilizer source and application timing on wheat yield and nitrate leaching in various soil textures. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was employed to conduct the experiment. The treatments consisted of two N fertilizer sources: ammonium nitrate (AN) and urea (NN), applied at three different times throughout the year, with a control treatment. The three application timings were total application before sowing (T₁), total application in spring (T₂), and half the amount before sowing and the other half in spring (T₃). The experiment was conducted in three different soil textures (sandy loam, silty clay loam, and silty clay), with three replications over three growing seasons: 2018-19 (Y₁), 2019-20 (Y₂), and 2020-21 (Y₃). The results indicated significant effects of different soil textures on grain yield. Specifically, the silty clay loam soil differed significantly from the sandy loam and silty clay soils in terms of grain yield. The interaction effects between the N fertilizer source and application timing were also found to be significant for all soil textures (p<0.01). In sandy loam and silty clay soils, the grain yield increased when using the T₃ application timing compared to the silty clay loam soil. Notably, the silty clay loam soil with the T₂ application timing exhibited the highest grain yield, with a yield of 6863.6 kg ha^-1. Furthermore, the study revealed that N fertilizers and their application timing significantly influenced the protein content in the silty clay and sandy loam soils. The protein percentages were 10.76 and 10.93 for the silty clay and sandy loam soils, respectively, following the T₂ treatment. Additionally, ammonium nitrate (AN) demonstrated a noticeable effect on the percentage of grain protein compared to urea (NN). In conclusion, the application timing of N fertilizers had an impact on grain yield and protein content in different soil textures. Moreover, nitrate concentration increased throughout the experiment, with the highest soil nitrate concentration observed in both fertilizer treatments, particularly in the sandy loam soil.

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the world's most important staple food crop providing 20% global energy and dietary proteins. It is widely grown in sub-tropical and tropical areas and as such exposed to heat-stress especially at grain filling period (GFP). Global warming has further affected its production and productivity in these heat-stressed environments. We examined the effect of heat-stress on 18 morpho-physiological and yield-related traits in 96 bread wheat accessions. Heat susceptibility index (HSI <0.60) and yield stability (i <0.55) used as criteria for selecting the tolerant accessions. Heat-stress, imposed by delayed sowing, decreased crop growth and GFP, and as a result reduced morphological and yield-related traits, namely days to 50% anthesis, plant height, peduncle length, flag-leaf area, spike length, spikelets per spike, grain length and width, thousand grain weight (TGW), harvest index and yield. The reduction in the trait values was severe in susceptible accessions (48.2% yield reduction in IC277741) than the tolerant. Physiological traits like chlorophyll content, canopy temperature depression (CTD), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), plant waxiness and leaf rolling showed higher expression in the tolerant accessions under heat-stress. Scanning electron microscopy of matured wheat grains revealed ultrastructural changes in endosperm and aleurone cells caused due to heat-stress. The reduction of size and density of large starch granules is the major cause of yield and TGW decrease in the heat-stress susceptible lines. The most stable and high-yielding accessions namely IC566223, IC128454, IC335792, EC576707, IC535176, IC529207, IC446713 and IC416019 were identified as the climate-smart germplasm lines. Germplasm lines possessing desirable traits were selected as po-tential parents for the development of bi-parental and multi-parental populations.

The use of saline water under drought conditions is critical for sustainable agricultural development in arid regions. Biochar used as a soil amendment to enhance soil properties such as water-holding capacity and the source of nutrition elements of plants. Therefore, the experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of biochar application on the morpho-physiological traits and yield of tomatoes under combined salinity and drought stress into greenhouses. There were 16 treatments consist two water quality fresh and saline (0.9 and 2.3 dS m-1), three deficit irrigation levels (DI) 80, 60, and 40% addition 100% of ETc, and biochar application by rate 5% (BC5%) (w/w) and untreated soil (BC0%). The results indicated that the salinity and water deficit negatively affected morphological, physiological, and yield traits. In contrast, the application of biochar improved all traits. The interaction between biochar and saline water leads to decreased vegetative growth indices, leaf gas exchange, relative water content of leaves (LRWC), photosynthetic pigments, and yield, especially with the water supply deficit (60 and 40% ETc), where the yield decreased by 42.48% under the highest water deficit at 40% ETc compared to the control. The addition of biochar with freshwater led to significantly increased of vegetative growth, physiological, yield, WUE, and less proline content under all various water treatments compared to untreated soil. In general, biochar combined with DI and freshwater could be improve morpho-physiological attributes, to sustain the growth of tomato plants, and increase productivity in arid and semi-arid regions.

The performance of two bio inoculants either in single or in combined applications with organic fertilizer was tested to determine their effect on plant growth and yield under normal and unfavorable field conditions such as low pH value and low content of P. Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi ((AMF; three species of Glomus) and the plant growth-promoting bacterial strain Kosakonia radicincitans DSM16656 were applied to barley in two years field experiment with different soil pH levels and available nutrients. Grain yield, content of P, N, K, Mg, and soil microbial parameters were measured. Grain yield and content of nutrients were significantly increased by the applications of mineral fertilizer, organic fertilizer, AMF, K. radicincitans, and combined application of organic fertilizer with AMF and with K. radicincitans over the control under normal growth conditions. Under low pH and low P conditions, only the combined application of the organic fertilizer with K. radicincitans and organic fertilizer with AMF could increase grain yield and content of nutrients of barley over the control.

High-quality rice (Oryza sativa L.) is increasingly widely planted in China with the improvement of people's living standards and the achievement of rice breeding efforts in recent years. However, the agronomic and physiological performances of high-quality indica rice (HQIR) under different nitrogen(N) application conditions in southern China are little known. Two-year consecutive field experiments were conducted with two HQIR and two ordinary-quality indica rice (OQIR) varieties under moderate and high N application rates, with yield and yield components, biomass, N up-take, and their related traits investigated. We found that grain yields of HQIR were slightly de-creased, but grain yields of OQIR were significantly increased by 6.60%-8.88% under high N rate compared with moderate N rate in both years. Thereby, OQIR produced 8.34%-11.87% and 22.00%-22.50% higher grain yield than HQIR under moderate and high N rates, respectively. The different responses of grain yield to N application rates were mainly due to decreased grain set-ting rate in HQIR and increased spikelets m-2 in OQIR under high N rate. Furthermore, high N rate significantly reduced pre-anthesis AE and improved grain-leaf area ratio, while did not in-crease post-anthesis DM compared with moderate N rate in HQIR, which might result in carbon metabolic deterioration and imbalance of source-sink relationship and subsequently lower supply of carbohydrate to panicle. Our results suggest that a moderate N rate (165 kg N ha-1) is beneficial for HQIR varieties to balance the maximum grain yield and high quality in southern China

Grain yield prediction affects policy making in various aspects such as agricultural production planning, food security assurance, and adjustment of foreign trade. Accurately predicting grain yield is of great significance in ensuring global food security. This paper is based on the MODIS remote sensing image data products from 2010 to 2020, and adds band information such as vegetation index and temperature to form composite remote sensing data as a data set. Aiming at the lack of models for large-scale forecasting and the need for human intervention in traditional models, this paper proposes a grain production estimation model based on deep learning. First, image cropping and yield mapping techniques are used to process the data to generate training samples. Then the channel and spatial attention mechanism (Convolutional Block Attention Module, CBAM) is added for extracting spatial information in different remote sensing bands to improve the efficiency of the model. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks is also added to obtain feature information in the time dimension. Finally, a national-scale grain yield prediction model is constructed. The proposed model was tested on data from 2018 to 2020 showing an average R2 of 0.940 and an average RMSE of 80,020 tons, indicating that it can predict Chinese grain yield better. The model proposed in this paper extracts grain yield information directly from the composite remote sensing data, and solves the problem of small-scale research and imprecise yield prediction in an end-to-end manner.

This study investigates the Hagen–Poiseuille pipe flow of viscoplastic fluids, focusing on analytical predictions of concrete pumping using the shear-stress-dependent parabolic model. Research highlights encompass solving the steady laminar pipe flow for viscoplastic fluids described by the parabolic model, extending analytical studies to a nonlinear rheological model with easily accessible experimental parameters, presenting detailed results for the two-fluid parabolic model, and introducing computational apps implementing theoretical findings. The parabolic model outperforms linear models, such as the Bingham model, in accuracy by accounting for the nonlinearity in the shear stress and shear rate relations. The influence of rheological parameters on these relations is analyzed, and their versatility is demonstrated by a Wolfram Mathematica-based application program. This approach is adaptable for other models with shear stress as the independent variable, offering valuable insights into viscoplastic fluid flows.

In the context of market relations in agriculture in the Kyzylorda region, in order to meet the needs of animal husbandry in complete feed, it is necessary to create a solid forage base. The successful solution to the tasks of increasing the number of livestock and increasing the productivity of animal husbandry in the ecological conditions of the Aral Sea region largely depends on the timely procurement of feed and the transfer of feed production to an industrial basis. It is possible to increase the production of high-quality feeds through the introduction of high-yielding varieties, the use of new resource-saving cultivation and harvesting technologies, the optimal organization of cultivation production processes, and increasing the efficiency of the use of technical means. Of all the harvested types of feeds, alfalfa has the best effect on increasing milks yield and meat gains. The green mass of alfalfa is well-eaten by all farm animals. For example, when feeding cattle, its utilization rate is 92.6%. In terms of protein richness, alfalfa hay surpasses many other feeds, so 100 kg of alfalfa hay contains 11.6 kg of digestible protein, 1.77 kg of calcium, 0.22 kg of phosphorus, and 4.5 g of carotene. In addition, in the conditions of rice crop rotation, according to its biological characteristics, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is considered indispensable in agrotechnical and reclamation relations, especially in saline soils. The economic value of alfalfa lies in its wide ecological plasticity, the ability to grow back quickly after mowing, and high productivity.

Chemical fertilizers are commonly used to meet the nutritional demands of the crops and boost their yield. However, their high costs and excessive application in soils increases the cost of production and have negative effects on the soil and environmental health. Vermicompost is an organic amendment that can potentially lessen the dependence on chemical fertilizers with additional advantages of sustainable nutrient supply to crops and maintaining soil health. To evaluate the potential of two diverse vermicomposts, sole and combined application of these vermicomposts with reduced rates of chemical fertilizers were used for tomato cultivation in a field study. The results indicated that vermicompost produced from cow dung combined with chemical fertilizers proved to be more effective in improving tomatoes' growth, physiology, yield and nutritional attributes. Combined application of vermicompost and chemical fertilizer significantly improved root length (21.6%), plant height (167%), SPAD value (13.5%),chlorophyll 'a' (96%), chlorophyll 'b' (161%), relative water content (16%), membrane stability index (18%), carotenoid (87%), yield (82%), photosynthetic rate (148%), and fruit diameter (83%) protein (89%), fat (27.5%), fiber (12%), vitamin C (52%), calcium (54%), magnesium (117%), phosphorus (38%), potassium (128%), as compared to control treatment (NP applied). In addition, significant improvements in different soil physico-chemical properties were also pragmatic. The results suggest that vermicompost application with reduced doses of chemical fertilizers can be used to improve crop yield and soil physico-chemical properties.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of incorporating linseed oil and fish oil in the diet on intake, ruminal fermentation milk yield and milk fatty acid profile in dairy goats. Four crossbred Saanen lactating goats in mid-lactation and milking 1.30±0.28 g/day were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. The basal diet consisted of concentrate and Para grass (C:F 40:60). Treatments included the basal diet without oil supplement (Ctrl) or with 2.5% linseed oil (LO2.5), 2.5% linseed oil and fish oil (3:2, w/w, LFO2.5), and 4.16% linseed oil and fish oil (3:2, w/w, LFO4.16). Diets had no effect on intake, milk yield, milk composition and ruminal fermentation patterns (P > 0.05). The lower (P < 0.05) proportions of C10:0-C14:0 in milk fat were observed with LFO4.16 compared with Ctrl. Compared with the Ctrl and linseed oil added alone, feeding LFO4.16 resulted in a 589% and 303% increase in C18:1 t11, respectively. Milk c9,t11 CLA was markedly increased with the LFO4.16 diet, accounting for 4.53 and 2.94 times greater concentrations than those in Ctrl and LO2.5 diets, respectively (P < 0.01). Goats fed LFO2.5 and LFO4.16 had greater levels of C22:6n-3 (0.63% and 0.87%; P < 0.001) compared with those fed Ctrl and LO2.5 diets (0.06% and 0.08%). Overall, the combined data suggested that including 4.16% linseed oil and fish oil in the diet of dairy goats is effective for improving the concentrations of healthy fatty acids in milk, without affecting milk production.

Lead-free copper halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) are emerging materials with excellent photoelectric properties. Herein, we present a colloidal synthesis route of orthorhombic Cs2CuCl4 NCs with well-defined cubic shape and an average diameter of 24 ± 2.1 nm. The Cs2CuCl4 NCs exhibit bright deep blue photoluminescence, which is attributed to the Cu(II) defects. In addition, passivating the Cs2CuCl4 NCs by Ag+ can effectively improve the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and environmental stability.

The present study aimed to investigate influence of genotypic differences to zinc and iron agronomic biofortification responses among yield of finger millet. A field experiment was conducted over two seasons in farmers’ fields in Ethiopia (2019, 2020). The experimental design had 15 treatment combinations comprising 3 finger millet varieties and application of different combinations of zinc and iron mineral fertilizers. 5 soil-applied fertilizer treatments (20 kg h-1 FeSO4 + 25 kg h-1 ZnSO4 + NPKS, 25 kg h-1 ZnSO4 + NPKS, 20 kg h-1 FeSO4 + NPKS, NPKS, and 30% NPKS), at 2 locations (Gojjam and Arsi Negelle, Ethiopia), and two 2 slope positions (Foot and hill), replicated four times in a randomized complete block design. Grain yield and biomass were evaluated on plot basis. Plant height, total and productive tiller number, finger length of the longest spike and number of fingers per main ear were measured at maturity stage. The combined soil application of FeSO47H2O and ZnSO47H2O increased yield to Meba variety by 51.6%. Also, ZnSO47H2O fertilizer application increased yield to Urji variety by 27.6%. About 18.3% of yield enhancement of Diga-01 variety was achieved due to the FeSO47H2O fertilizers application. The findings of the present study suggests that the influence of Zn and Fe agronomic biofortification on yield of finger millet could be affected by genotype differences and environmental conditions.

Drought stress is a major production constraint in crops globally. Crop wild relatives are important source of resistance and tolerance for both biotic and abiotic stresses, respectively. A breeding program was initiated to introgress drought tolerance in sunflower through hybridization between the wild species Helianthus argophyllus and the cultigen pool of H. annuus. Selection was carried out in the F2 to F5 segregating populations for high cuticular waxes, smaller leaf area, single heading and high oil content. The selected F5 breeding lines were compared with non-adapted elite sunflower germplasm in a replicated randomized complete block research project using different water treatments comparing fully irrigated (T0), with 75 (T1), 50 (T2) and 25% (T3) irrigation treatments. The comparison between the two types of germplasm showed that drought tolerant breeding lines had comparatively lesser decreases in leaf area, shoot weight and root shoot ratio 10 under the various drought treatments. Leaf area of the drought selected F5 lines were smaller than that of the elite germplasm under controlled irrigated treatments, but they maintained their leaf area under the drought treatments. Several drought resistant promising lines D-2, D-5, and D-27 were identified and showed high leaf area, great root length and increase root to shoot ratio under the highest stressed treatments (T3). Some of the lines could be directly used for the development of drought tolerant hybrids. Combining ability test indicated D-27 (F7) as good general combiner for seed yield plant−1 and oil contents when mated with male line RSIN.82. These hybrids could help to minimize seed yield losses due to water stress and to achieve profitable cultivation of sunflower in 18 arid regions of Pakistan.

Exploring the relationship between cereal yield and remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is of great importance to decision-makers and agricultural stakeholders. In this study, an approach based on the Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression method is carried out to reveal the relationship between cereal yield and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI data in the Fez-Meknes region of Morocco. The results obtained show strong correlations reaching 0.70 to 0.89 between NDVI and grain yield. The linear regression model explains 58 to 79% of the variability in yield in regional provinces marked by the importance of cereal cultivation, and 51 to 53% in the mountainous provinces with less agricultural land devoted to major cereals. The regression slopes indicate that a 0.1 increase in NDVI results in an expected increase in grain yield of 4.9 to 8.7 quintals (q) per ha, with an average of 6.8 q/ha throughout the Fez-Meknes region. RMSE ranges from 2.12 to 4.96 q/ha. These results are promising in terms of early yield forecasting based on MODIS NDVI data.