Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences最新文献

The Brown planthopper, Nilapavarta lugens (Stål) (BPH) is a major pest of rice after the adoption of the Green Revolution. Its outbreaks are frequently linked to climate variability and change, posing almost all rice varieties in Indonesia at risk, resulting in economic losses due to reduced production. The amount of information available about its current and future potential distribution as well as the influencing factors are still limited. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of climate variability on BPH and to assess the projection of the BPH potential distribution under different climate scenarios. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) was applied to predict the current and future potential distribution of BPH over Indonesia. This study used data on BPH-affected areas, rainfall and temperature, and the Ocean Nino Index (ONI) on a monthly interval to examine the linkage between climate and BPH affected areas. The global-climate models from phase 6 of coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6) for period 2041–2060 were used to examine the variations in 19 bioclimatic variables for two shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) compared to baseline period (1971–2000). The findings concluded that the dynamics of BPH damaged areas were strongly influenced by higher temperature and rainfall in dry season associated with La Niña events. Precipitation of driest month, precipitation seasonality, mean temperature of driest quarter and temperature seasonality were the most affected factors in the distribution of BPH. Our results highlight BPH distribution was expected to increase to 2.4% and 3.02% (moderately suitable), 1.88% and 1.95% (suitable), 2.59% and 2.76% (highly suitable) respectively under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5–8.5. These findings could serve as early warnings to adjust agricultural practices and implement tailored pest management methods to effectively address the shifting pattern of BPH in the future.

Agricultural development in many arid countries including Oman is limited due to water scarcity which is currently exacerbated with increasing demand due to rapid population growth, economic development, and mismanagement of water resources. Impact of climate change is expected to adversely impact the water resources. Therefore, finding new efficient, environmentally friendly, and affordable water-saving techniques in agronomy is a necessity for achieving agricultural sustainability. Irrigation water can be saved by creating capillary barriers (CB) to unsaturated moisture flow. In this study, a “nature-inspired capillary barrier design” called hereafter as Smart Capillary Barrier (SCB) (mosaic of fine textured blocks, made of silt loam, and sandy sheath surrounding the blocks) was tested in series of field experiments with soil columns and pots. We investigated the effect of the percentage of sand of the sheath on water storage capacity of the SCB blocks and growth of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) under deficit irrigation. Three proportions of sand to silt loam (sand%:silt loam%) in the sheaths were used in this study, SCB-25 (25:75%), SCB-50 (50:50%) and SCB-75 (75:25%). Our results show that increasing the percentage of sand in the designed and constructed SCB composite reduces evaporative and drainage water losses and therefore increases the water storage capacity of the blocks. Our SCB-75 attains 1.7–1.3 smaller drying rate than that for SCB-25 and SCB-50, respectively. Therefore, this composite had higher water saving capacity than a homogeneous soil (no capillary barrier) and a soil with a standard sand mulch (coarse soil overlies fine soil). The study found that using SCB composite did not consistently have a clear effect on the growth of okra plants at all stages of their development. However, during the development stage, using SCB-75 resulted in significantly higher dry biomass of the plants compared to using a homogeneous soil (the control). Additionally, during the initial stage of fruit yield, using SCB-75 also resulted in significantly higher fruit yield compared to using a homogeneous soil. Application of our SCB composite is a promising approach for saving water in desertic farming.

Currently, nanotechnology is widely used in agriculture and horticulture. Nanofertilizers are essential for encouraging vegetative growth and flowering, as well as enhancing productivity and fruit quality. These nanoparticles are viewed as growth promoters as well. The current study was therefore carried out during the two successive seasons of 2021 and 2022 on 14-year-old trees grown in clay soil in a field experiment at the Pomology Department Research orchard, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Egypt. The effects of conventional vs. nano-micronutrients as foliar fertilizers on the fruit yield, quality, and mineral nutrition status of pomegranate trees were studied. The foliar application of all treatments on pomegranate trees remarkably increased yield and physical properties of fruits as well as improved the levels of total soluble solids percentage, anthocyanin pigment, flavonol, total phenols, antioxidant activity and nutrients status compared with the controls during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The lowest fruit cracking percentages were obtained by the spraying of nano-micronutrients (4.33–5.70 %) compared with the other treatments and the control, which gave the highest percentages (10.45–11.43 %). The highest increments in yield, physical properties of fruits and levels of total soluble solids percentage, anthocyanin pigment, flavonol, total phenols, and antioxidant activity were noticed by the spraying of nano-micronutrients especially at 1000 and/or 1500 µg mL⁻¹. It could be concluded that the use of nanofoliar fertilization in pomegranate cultivation may improve the yield, quality, and nutritional status of pomegranate fruits.

Collecting and analyzing data on surface water across extensive areas is a challenging, time-consuming and expensive. Developing predictive models that offer high accuracy, reliability and require minimal parameters can potentially reduce the time and expense associated with water quality monitoring and management. While most existing studies have focused on estimating point prediction of water quality without approximating the predictive interval (PI) of the estimation, this study aimed to develop a prediction tool to estimate the PI of water quality indexes (WQIs) in the lower Mun river basin. This was achieved by employing principal component analysis (PCA), artificial neural networks (ANN), and bootstrap methods to enhance accuracy, robustness, and reliability with the minimum number of water quality parameters. PCA was initially used to select 4 parameters for the WQI. Subsequently, ANN regression was employed to develop a new WQI to enhance data evaluation efficiency. The testing results of the proposed model revealed its excellent performance compared to other models in terms of accuracy (root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.86, correlation coefficient (R) = 0.993, scatter index (SI) = 0.019, mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.709, and mean bias error (MBE) = −0.003). Additionally, the proposed model incorporated the bootstrap method to quantify uncertainty and create a PI, resulting in a high coverage rate exceeding 95%. By integrating statistical techniques with artificial intelligence and quantifying uncertainty, it is possible to effectively evaluate water quality, provide more accurate and reliable indexes. This study can be an effective tool for decision makers and planners seeking precise data on water quality to develop water resource management strategies.

Oil pollution is one of the most dangerous pollutant due to the huge quantities that are spillage from crude oil that contains toxic compounds. To treat contaminated soil with oil, bioremediation is an important methods which involve use microorganisms and plants to degraded pollutants and clean up the soils. A biological pot factorial experiment was carried out in a (CRD) design to study the ability of Rhizobia species, a mixture of Bacillus and Grasspea leguminous plant for removal diesel oil from contaminated soil. The results showed that the different species of bacteria led to a significant increase in the amount of diesel oil absorbed by roots and shoots of plant for all treatments compared to the control treatment. And the Vigna radiata (R4) species gave a highest value (13.70 mLpot⁻¹) absorbed by shoots compared to lowest value of control treatment (4.15 mLpot⁻¹), with a significant increase about (230.12%). The diesel oil amounts remaining in soil were decreased significantly with the addition of different isolates of Rhizobium bacteria or Bacillus compared to the control treatment. Moreover, there were significant differences in the amount of diesel oil degraded in soil treated with different isolates of microbial treatments planted compared to control treatment. The adding Rhizobia isolated from Vicia faba (R2) recorded the highest amount decomposed (504.33) mLpot⁻¹ compared to the control treatment (318.52) mLpot⁻¹ with a significant increase (58.33%). Therefore, we concluded that the Grasspea plant with Rhizobia species or Bacillus can be used for phytoremediation contaminated soil with diesel oil.

Prostrate growth caused by weak stems and variations in upper and basal stem diameters (USD and BSD, respectively) is inherent in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and can be aggravated by increased nitrogen fertiliser. Application of a nitrogen fertiliser rate that minimises variation in stem diameters and increases yield can contribute to improved tomato production. The tomato cvs. Buffalo, Cobra, Kerewa, Roma-Savanna, Roma-VF, Tropimech, and UC-82, were grown at Ilara and Imeko with 0, 30, 50 or 80 kg/ha of 15 N-15P-15 K fertiliser. Application of 15 N-15P-15 K increased stem diameter variation. Tomato cultivated in Ilara produced higher number of fruits and fruit weight/plant than those in Imeko but maintained similar habit (40.5° and 42.3°, respectively) in both locations. ‘Buffalo’ and ‘Roma-VF’ had 42.5° and 22.5^° habits and fruit weights (84.4 and 103 g) above average under low (30 kg/ha) and high (80 kg/ha) rates of 15 N-15P-15 K, respectively; ‘Cobra’ combined erect growth (36.3° and 41.2°) and yield above average (107.4 and 101.5 g) under 30 and 80 kg/ha, respectively across locations. Out of 672 plants sampled, 67.4% had USD > BSD, 18.6% USD < BSD, and 14% had USD = BSD. With increased rates of 15 N-15P-15 K fertiliser up to 80 kg/ha, the percent of plants with USD > BSD increased from 49.4 to 76.2% and increased prostrate angle from 26.4^° to 48.4^°. Higher yield combined with erect growth above average can be achieved with 30 kg/ha in ‘Buffalo’ and ‘Cobra’ across the locations. Application of lower rates of 15 N-15P-15 K fertiliser can help in balancing the trade-off between erect growth and higher fruit yield of tomato.

In this study, caper buds collected in Konya were separated according to their size three different sizes (x ≤ 8 mm, 8 < x ≤ 13 mm, x > 13 mm). Caper buds were fermented at 8% and 12% brine concentration. Antioxidant activity, total phenol, phenolic components, carotenoid, flavonoid, salt, titration acidity and pH analyzes were performed on the 0., 5., 10., 30. and 45. days of the fermentation applied of the caper buds. The pH values of 12% brine concentration medium size caper buds ranged from 4.56 (5th day) to 5.01 (0th day). The titration acidity of small size caper buds with 8% brine concentration ranged from 0.02% (0th day) to 0.21% (30th day). The salt values of small size caper buds with 12% brine concentration varied between 6.22% (30th day) and 12.09% (0th day). In terms of total phenol content, small size caper buds fermented for 10 days and 8% brine concentration had the highest value of 345.31 mg/100 g. The flavonoid content of caper buds was determined as 2633.75 mg/100 g in small sized samples subjected to fermentation for 5 days at the highest 8% brine concentration. The carotenoid values of small size caper buds with 8% brine concentration varied between 0.52 mg/g (30th day) and 2.40 mg/g (0th day) during the fermentation period. It has been determined that the antioxidant activity values increase as fermentation progresses. The phenolic compounds with the highest percentage were found to be gallic acid, 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, (+)-catechin, 1,2-dihydroxybenzene and syringic acid. The gallic acid values of medium sized caper buds with 8% brine concentration vary between 21.07 mg/kg (0th day) and 70.27 mg/kg (45th day) during fermentation. The 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid values of small size caper buds with 8% brine concentration were determined between 4.08 mg/kg (0th day) and 37.50 mg/kg (30th day) during fermentation. Dill extract with 0.3% concentration and coriander extract with 0.1% concentration were the most preferred ones in terms of taste.

In the study, the Simple Additive Soil Quality Index (SQI) is used to evaluate soil quality in Tehsil Charsadda, District Charsadda, Pakistan. Organic matter (OM), electrical conductivity (EC), phosphorus (P), acidity and basicity (pH), estimated nitrogen (EN), and soil texture were the parameters evaluated. The whole research region was split into 1*1 km grids for data collection, and samples were gathered from each grid along with XY coordinates. An augur was used to collect 172 samples from a depth of 30 to 45 cm. The collected samples were analyzed at the Agriculture Department in Charsadda. The index value for each soil quality indicator was determined, and then normalization was performed. Each SQ parameter was assigned a threshold value based on expert judgment and a review of the literature. The index values of each SQ parameter were added up to determine the SQI value. Using the Simple Additive Soil Quality Index (SQI), the area under poorly fertile soil accounts for 4835.52 ha (10.91%), moderately fertile soil accounts for 11853.90 ha (30.33%), and highly fertile soil accounts for nearly half of the research area (17338.1 ha (48.27%). The exceptionally productive soil is located in a large patch along the western boundary of the study area. Patches of poor fertile soil are generally found in the central, northern, and northeastern parts of the study area.

The post-harvest management of oranges is critical in Iran, given their importance as an agricultural commodity and a significant source of income for farmers. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of nutritional treatments and storage coatings on the yield and quality of Thomson Novel oranges in post-harvest conditions. A two-year factorial experiment was conducted in Sari, Mazandaran, Iran, to evaluate the effects of four nutritional treatments and nine storage coatings on the quality parameters of Thomson Novel oranges during post-harvest storage. The quality traits were monitored at 45-day intervals over the course of the study. Based on the results of ANOVA, both the individual effects of nutritional treatments and storage coatings were found to be statistically significant for all measured parameters, including fruit texture firmness, fruit peel thickness, vitamin C, titratable acidity, fruit sugar, fruit pH, and fresh weight. However, the interaction effects of nutritional treatments and storage coatings were only significant for fresh weight. The study found that the foliar application of potassium had a positive effect on post-harvest orange quality, while nylon and Xeda wax were the most effective storage coatings for improving various fruit quality parameters. These findings highlight the importance of using appropriate nutritional treatments and storage coatings to enhance the quality and prolong the shelf life of oranges during storage.