Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences最新文献

Pesticide toxicity has been a major concern in the recent time. Higher concentrations of pesticides affect the organisms and environmental health. The present study aims to assess the toxicological effect of some commonly used pesticides in southwest Nagaland of India and their impact on the physiology of Phaseolus vulgaris and Pisum sativum along with their correlation to health hazards. The study area is a hilly region where the overall temperature ranges in between 2 °C and 35 °C. The annual rainfall received in the region is between 1000 and 2000 mm. The region shares a subtropical to tropical climate. Agriculture is the main activity of the region. Seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris and Pisum sativum were collected from the local market and sterilized with 2 % sodium hypochlorite for 15 min. The solution of monocrotophos, chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, dichlorvos, and cypermethrin was prepared with 1 ppm, 10 ppm, 50 ppm, and 100 ppm concentrations. The seeds were soaked for 24 h in the test solutions and kept uniformly in sterilized petri dishes in 10 ml of test solutions. For every experiment, three replicates of each sample were taken including the control. The control sample was run with tap water. For each replica 10 seeds were taken, so one sample contained 30 seeds. The seeds of the above two vegetable species were treated with these pesticides and analyzed for germination rate, phytotoxicity, dry biomass, and seedling vigor index. The result has shown the negative impact of higher concentrations of pesticides on plant physiology. A questionnaire and interview-based field survey were also conducted among the users to find out exposure-related health hazards of pesticides. The average time utilized for a single interview was 30 min. According to the self-assessed reports of 323 pesticide users, 17 physical disorders were recorded from the study. Eye irritation (49.12), excessive sweating (46.68), and excessive tiredness were some of the highly observed signs and symptoms among the users. For the statistical analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the biomass production in radicle and plumule of the studied species was done with OriginPro 8.5 software. A chi-square (χ²) test was performed at the significance level of 5 % for the comparative study among male and female farmers for exposure-related disorders. The correlation analysis was done with MS-EXCEL software. A coefficient correlation value of 0.54 was recorded, which indicates a positive correlation between the studied factors.

Orchard design (intra- and inter-row distance) defines the space allotted to each tree and the light environment for growth in olive hedgerows. Shading between neighboring trees affects the light intensity and quality, modifying the tree vegetative, flowering and fruiting characteristics. In this study, the incident photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was simulated and the red-to-far-red ratio (R/FR) reflected by neighboring hedgerows down the canopy walls was measured. An analysis is presented of the response of olive vegetative, flowering, fruiting and productive traits to hedgerows of high (HD) and super-high density (SHD) orchards. The study was carried out during the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 seasons in two 10-year-old olive cv. Genovesa orchards, one in HD (7 x 3.5 m) and the other in SHD (4 x 1.5 m). In both systems, continuous rows were used for measurements of light environment and vegetative, flowering and fruiting characteristics. The R/FR ratio and mean daily horizontal incident PAR were significantly higher in HD than in SHD. One-year-old shoots of HD hedgerows had shorter internodes in L position than U, M and L positions of SHD. Inflorescence number per shoot in the M and L positions of HD were triple than those of corresponding positions of SHD hedgerows. The mean yield per ha for both seasons was similar between HD and SHD hedgerows (average 9.3 and 9.4 t/ha, respectively). A greater planting density in olive hedgerows reduces the R/FR ratio reflected by neighboring trees while reducing incident PAR with increases in the hedgerow height. As a result, more illuminate HD hedgerows have greater specific leaf mass, higher leaf area density and higher axis-order angle compared to SHD hedgerows. This study seeks a new way to understand and measure the suitability of an olive cultivar trained in hedgerows at different planting densities.

The common assessment of soil salinity posits a linear function, which transfers the electrical conductivity (EC) of highly diluted extracts to the standard state of soil paste. Our study examines this assumption and explains its limitations in a wide range of EC for highly saline soils of the Aral region in Uzbekistan. For a comparative EC assessment in the liquid phase from standard soil pastes and 1:5 aqueous extracts we used portable EC–meters. The dependences of EC, total dissolved solids (TDS), and soil–water potential on the pore water content were evaluated using centrifugation to separate the liquid phase from the soil matrix. The non-linearity of the relationship between the EC of water from soil pastes and 1:5 water extracts for both average and median data over a broad (0.4–160 dS/m) range of their variation is detected. A strong retention and concentration of electrolytes in fine pores and water films resistant to vacuum extraction, as well as the nonlinear EC versus TDS relationship in highly saline soils are attributed to this nonlinearity. A comprehensive statistical analysis showed that despite the general non-linearity, in the EC range from 0 to 30–35 dS/m, the results for 1:5 extract can be reliably converted to the standard state using the dilution model for the liquid phase of the soil with one basic parameter of soil bulk density. For hypersaline soils (EC > 30–35 dS/m), conversion based on the dilution theory is unacceptable due to a strong underestimation of TDS.

In this study, we investigate the impact of selected macroeconomic factors on agricultural financing practices in Djibouti. Therefore, the objective of this study is to understand how these factors influence the accessibility, distribution, and effectiveness of financial resources within the agricultural sector. To achieve this objective, we employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Wavelet Coherence Analysis on an annual dataset covering a span of 25 years, ranging from 1998 to 2022. The findings reveal that factors such as inflation, diminishing rural population, economic growth, and the institutional framework of the country exert negative pressures on the availability of funding for agriculture. However, amidst these challenges, we find that official development assistance serves as a positive mitigating factor, offering crucial support to the agricultural sector. These findings hold significant implications for policymakers in Djibouti by providing valuable insights into how to develop targeted interventions to support farmers, increase access to credit, and improve agricultural productivity, as it lays the foundation for investments in food security, technology adoption, and climate-resilient practices.

Water shortage and food security concerns are amplified by the spread of irrigated cultures within the context of climatic unpredictability. In the hot, arid MENA area, the frequent drought periods and the continuous deterioration of water resources limits the ecological system's functioning and the sustainable agricultural productivity. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the potential impacts of the evolution of water resources management on the environmental components, using Westerlund’s (2007) panel cointegration and the Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCE-MG) estimator for a sample of six MENA economies over 35 years ((1990–2015). In the short run, there is unidirectional causality from agricultureadded value to CO₂ and from water productivity to CO₂ without any feedback. while, a bidirectional causality nexus was detected between energy consumption and CO₂ emission In the long run, however, a feedback causality has been obtained between CO₂ emissions, agriculture added value, water productivity, and energy consumption.

Sustainable water management, smart water systems, and energy transition in the water related activities are highly recommended as priorities towards a NetZero carbon global economic trend.

This study describes small-scale drum and disc pulpers developed to depulp Arabica and Robusta cherries in line with Benin and Rwandan farmers' needs. The purpose of the machines is to improve the uncontrolled conventional depulping means, which have led to a decline in parchments quality and can discourage coffee farmers. The development of the machines started with the identification of coffee depulping requirements, followed by analytical sizing of the major components, modeling, fabrication and finally testing. The fabricated machines using local material consist mainly of a hopper, depulping unit, discharge outlet, transmission system and a diesel engine, all supported by a rigid frame. The performance parameters of the machines evaluated with three replications of 3 kg for each variety and depulping clearance of 16 and 12 mm for Arabica and Robusta, respectively at 1200 rpm were analysed in GraphPad Prism V10.0.3. The t-test results of the drum pulper showed a mean pulping efficiency of 98.37 ± 0.73 and 85.00 ± 3.81 %, a capacity of 872.3 ± 91.05 and 924.1 ± 108.3 kg/h, a breakage rate of 0.91 ± 0.27 and 0.00 ± 0.00 %, a pulping index of 0.95 ± 0.01 and 0.70 ± 0.07 and a fuel consumption rate of 1.22 ± 0.54 and 0.86 ± 0.072 l/h for Arabica and Robusta, respectively. Whereas, the disc pulper showed a mean pulping efficiency of 75.56 and 87.5 ± 5.63 %, a capacity of 684.4 ± 215.9 and 756.80 ± 91.54 kg/h, a breakage rate of 0.15 ± 0.26 and 0.00 ± 0.00 %, a pulping index of 0.50 ± 0.14 and 0.79 ± 0.89 and a fuel consumption rate of 0.71 ± 0.30 and 0.73 ± 0.16 l/h for Arabica and Robusta, respectively. The drum pulper outperformed the disc pulper considering efficiency, the pulping index, and the mass of unpulped cherries. The performances revealed that smallholders could prefer both machines based on their settings for each coffee variety.

This study reveals Spatio-temporal prognostication of macro and micronutrients present in entisols, inceptisols and alfisols soil groups at Anaimalai block of Coimbatore district, India through empirical analysis. The soil primary macronutrients and micronutrients for the period 2021–2032 were procured from Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Linear Regression (LR) and Logistic Regression (Log R) models by setting out 2005–2020 soil nutrient datasets as input. 1627 soil samples were taken out through composite sampling method in the month of February 2021. The laboratory soil analysis was carried out for macro and micronutrients computation. Computed values were validated with the 2021 soil nutrient empirical models. R² values 0.88, 0.83, 0.85, 0.89, 0.88, 0.92, 0.90, 0.92 and 0.85 for soil pH, EC, Available nitrogen, Available phosphorus, Available potassium, Iron, Manganese, Copper and Zinc respectively divulges the reliability of ARIMA model in forecasting the soil nutrients and are spatially exposed. Spatio-temporal visualization of soil nutrients for a decade with large nutrient database as input along with field validation brings out promising forecasting model that reverberates on futuristic policy making for attaining sustainable agro-productivity.