Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences最新文献

Broomrapes (Orobanche and Phelipanche species) are parasitic weeds that infect crops. To evaluate crops that can reduce broomrape damage as a trap or catch crop, two experiments were conducted for three years (2018–2020) under greenhouse conditions. The results showed that the tested crops were classified into three groups. The first group was non-hosts of P. mutelii, including cotton, garlic, flax, and cowpea. The second group of crops acted as catch crops and was parasitized by P.mutelii, including faba bean, annual red clover, mung bean, and hairy vetch. Among the catch crops, hairy vetch had the highest percentage of P. mutelii reduction in shoot numbers and dry biomass by 81% and 85%, respectively. Also, the highest percentage increase in shoot and root dry biomass was achieved by 70% and 79% in rapeseed-hairy vetch rotation. The third group was berseem clover which acted as a trap crop and stimulated.

P. mutelii seed germination without supporting parasitism. If berseem clover is sown as a trap crop in rotation with rapeseed infested by P. mutelii, it can reduce shoot numbers and dry biomass of broomrape by 70% and increase the dry biomass of aerial parts and roots of rapeseed by 62% and 60%, respectively.

The effect of enzyme and different heat treatments on the dehulling of the sesame seed coat were investigated.The amount of crust removed was determined to be 11.23–14.08%for no pre-treatment seed (NPM),seed dipped into boiling water (BW),steam treated seed (ST)and seed kept frozen at −18 °C (FT).While ash contents of sesame seeds change between 2.77% (steam treated sesame seed) and 4.44% (seed peeled using traditional methods), crude protein contents of seeds varied between 20.40% (raw sesame seed) and 24.29%(no-pretreatment).In addition, the oil contents of seeds were determined between 53.85%(raw sesame seed) and 61.83%(no-pretreatment).Also, while oleic acid contents of of seed oils vary between 39.62% (dipped into boiling) and 40.18%(seed peeled using traditional methods),linoleic acid contents of oils ranged from 43.76%(seed peeled using traditional methods) to 44.56%(steam treated). It has been found that the enzyme application is more effective in peeling sesame seed husks than the traditional peel method.

The kampong chicken farming industry has excellent potential to develop in Indonesia. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the growth of kampong chickens in order to obtain an optimal quality of meat and eggs. This research aims to study the growth morphology of the gastrointestinal tract, pectoralis thoracicus muscle, lymphoid organs and visceral index in kampong chickens. In this study, 100 male and female KUB (Kampung Unggul Balitbangtan) chickens were used, which were reared from post-hatching to 63 days of age. Parameters measured were body weight, organ index, body morphometry, and morphology of small intestine, pectoralis thoracicus muscle, and lymphoid organs. Organ histological preparations were made using paraffin methods, Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE), and Periodic Acid Schiff-Alcian Blue (PAS-AB) staining. The results showed that the growth rate of the small intestine and the lymphoid organ peaked at 35 to 49 days of age, while the maximal growth rate of the pectoralis thoracicus muscle occurred at 21 to 35 days and experienced a decrease later at 35 days. The growth index of the viscera started to decrease at 35 days. Body weight reached optimum growth rate at 42 to 45 days of age, while chicken body morphometry continued to increase until 63 days old. The conclusions of the study is that the small intestine, pectoralis thoracicus muscle, and lymphoid organ of kampong chicken experienced rapid growth during 35 to 49 days post-hatch. Therefore, in kampong chicken, the appropriate nutritional management should be increased between day zero and 49 post-hatch.

In Jordan, the public is still unaware of the fate and impact of pesticide application. This study aimed to evaluate the attitudes, knowledge and practices of undergraduate students enrolled in various academic departments at the Faculty of Agriculture, Mutah University, Jordan toward pesticides’ residues in food and feed. Students were questioned about their social aspects, and food and feed safety knowledge and resources. Responses have been obtained from 209 responding students. Results indicated that the cross-section through the Faculty of Agriculture, Mutah University, Jordan appears a satisfactory. The findings show that respondents are very highly concerned about human health, food safety, and the risk of environmental pollution, and they have a real desire to reduce the use of pesticides. Respondents had a moderate level of knowledge about food safety, pesticides’ side effects, pesticides’ residues in food or feed, and usage of pesticides in homes and gardens. According to the respondents, the most common way that people are exposed to pesticide residues is by consuming pesticide residues in food. The respondents expressed a moderate level of concern about their attitudes toward organic farming adoption. Correlations between demographic variables and knowledge of food and feed safety, involving a workshop on food/feed safety, care about human health as well as environmental pollution, and looking for information on food/feed safety were reported in the study.

Cereal crops dominate crop production and human diet in Ethiopia. In the present study major cereal crops production data for Ethiopia was analyzed using time-series analysis. Major cereal crops production of years 2000/01 to 2020/21 at national level of private peasant holdings during “Meher” season in Ethiopia was used as input to forecast the cereal crops production up to the year 2020 to 2030. The non-parametric Mann Kendall trend test was used with PAST (Paleontological Statistics Software Package for Education and Data Analysis) software to conduct the trend test. The Box-Jenkins Aautoregressive Integrated Moving Average (or ARIMA) method was put into use to forecast the production. The result shows that grain production had a significant increasing trend. Despite the differences in magnitude, all crops showed an increasing trend in production over the years. Mann-Kendall trend test showed significant trend for all crops. ARIMA and any of the smoothing models were found good in terms of R² and AIC. Predictions of cereal crops production using ARIMA between 2020 and 2030 years showed increasing trends in all crops. Teff was forecasted from 5.8 tons at the beginning (2020/1) to 7.8 tons at the end of the forecast period (2030). Similarly, maize was forecasted from about 11 to 14, wheat from 6 to 7.5, sorghum from 5 to 7, and barley from 2.3 to 2.7. Increments ranged in between about 20% to 40%.

Walnut production is expanding worldwide due to the high demand for natural products with proven nutraceutical properties. This expansion includes new growing areas, such as central–western Argentina, where crop water requirements have yet to be determined and little is known about the response in terms of production quality to the water regime. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of four irrigation regimes (at 50, 75, 100, and 125 % of crop evapotranspiration) and the weather conditions over two consecutive seasons in a young Chandler walnut orchard in terms of in–shell and kernel caliber, kernel color, oil concentration, and fatty acid profile. Quality production characteristics were not significantly affected by irrigation regimes within each season. In contrast, the quality parameters achieved were significantly different between seasons. The first season (S1) was wetter (462 mm) and cooler (17.05 °C mean air temperature in the oil accumulation period) and produced more extra–light kernels (92%). The second season (S2) was drier (326 mm) and warmer (19.02 °C) and produced a lower proportion of extra–light kernels (82.2%). In addition, during the second season, walnuts produced larger kernels with a higher oil concentration (62.7%; +3.5% of S1) and a better omega–6/omega–3 ratio (3.25 in S2 vs. 3.70 in S1). These results suggest that kernel quality was more sensitive to the seasonal temperature than the irrigation studied regimes. The nutritional quality of walnuts may increase significantly in warmer seasons/environments despite the deterioration of kernel color.

Alpaca fibers are used to create luxury garments, and simultaneous selection for optimizing fiber density and the density of hair ducts in the skin of alpacas could result in a more profitable product for breeders. The objective of this study was i) to quantify fiber density (FibDen), density of hair ducts (DenDuc), and the relationship between No. of fibers/No. of ducts (Fib/Duc) by age and sex, and ii) to estimate heritability and genetic correlation between FibDen and DenDuc. This study was conducted in the CEDAT (Centro de Desarrollo Alpaquero de Toccra) in the Department of Arequipa, Peru. A total of 1,813 alpacas of different sex and age with pedigree information were analyzed from years 2004–2018. The quantification of FibDen, DenDuc and Fib/Duc was estimated using Fiber-Den equipment in an area of 1 mm² in the middle rib region of the animal. The average FibDen, DenDuc and Fib/Duc was 24.75 ± 5.48, 7.83 ± 2.17 and 3.25 ± 0.55, respectively. The heritability for FibDen, DenDuc, and Fib/Duc was 0.48 ± 0.04, 0.53 ± 0.04, and 0.20 ± 0.03, respectively. The genetic correlation between FibDen and DenDuc was 0.87 ± 0.06. The estimated heritabilities of these traits in Peruvian alpaca population are moderate to high and indicate that these characteristics could be used as selection criteria in breeding programs.

The application of humic substances (HSs) promotes bioactive effects in plants, stimulating growth and development, promoting against biotic and abiotic stresses and increasing agricultural productivity. There are countless examples of fertilizers and biostimulants made from HSs that are capable of being used to form state-of-the-art intelligent agricultural technologies with increased efficiency due to their versatility and structural richness. In recent years, the phytotechnics associated with HS application to foliage have improved, and the applications have been expanded to all plant groups; however, the studies are disaggregated and still scarce, hindering the integration of data and the implementation of this technology for researchers, technicians, and specialists. The objective of this review was to gather all possible evidence related to the ability of HSs to stimulate plant metabolism when applied to foliage. This review first addressed the characteristics of foliar application and HSs. Subsequently, studies were organized by plant groups: vegetables, grasses, legumes, fruit, oilseeds, and medicinal and ornamental plants. Regardless of the plant group, HS foliar application stimulated parameters such as biomass and plant height and increased levels of photosynthetic pigments and agricultural productivity. Foliar application promoted protection against stress events, increasing the activity of peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), and phenyl alanine ammonium lyase (PAL) enzymes. Fruit quality also improved with HS foliar application, especially the total sugar content and the amount of oil, protein, and fiber, among others. Based on this review, we propose studies that integrate new forms and technologies of HS foliar application to plants. Experiments with various sources of origin, plant types, and environments are necessary to standardize the application forms of these compounds. Thus, we conclude that HSs are a viable technology that is environmentally friendly and highly accessible to small farmers and family farmers.

A growing need for irrigation in agriculture results from recent climatic parameter uncertainties brought on by climate change, global warming, and other factors. The present-day tumultuous, unpredictable, ever-changing, and ambiguous nature of the onset, cessation, and duration of adverse weather conditions poses a formidable obstacle for farmers in formulating informed judgments pertaining to agricultural practices. In this study, the metrological simulation was carried out based on different input variables, including wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, and minimum and maximum temperature, to predict the rainfall in the arid agricultural area of Kano, Nigeria. For this purpose, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), feed-forward neural network (FFNN), and multi-linear regression (MLR) were utilized. Five evaluation criteria for predictive control, including determination coefficient (R²), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), mean square error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE), were used to figure out how accurate the models were based on how the features were chosen. The output proved the reliable accuracy of intelligent regression learning. The results depicted that MLR-M1 with R² = 0.9989, NSE = 0.9872, and RMSE = 0.0016 performs the best at predicting rainfall, even though all three computational models (ANFIS, FFNN, and MLR) produced good results. The predictive models justified reliable tools for the management of water resources, especially in the agricultural sector.

Smart agro-practices over the years have revolutionized the agriculture sector and promoted the concept of sustainable agriculture. One such practice is use of agro-waste biochar in agricultural, environmental, and climatic operations. The viability of using a biochar-based nanocomposite as a support fertilizer for the gradual release of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus in various media is examined in this study. The banana peel biochar (BPBC) and its nanocomposite (BNF) were prepared using a simple yet comprehensive chemical process. Synthesized materials were evaluated using FT-IR and SEM/EDX. Physical attributes as well as fertilizer basic characteristics were determined and prepared nanocomposite demonstrated noticeably better water absorbance ratio (68%), equilibrium water content (78.97%), and swelling ratio (3.64 g g⁻¹) than biochar, which is advantageous for preserving soil water levels. The salt index values (0.087mmhos/cc) of the created nanocomposite performed better when compared to the conventional fertilizers due to their safer application. Long-term availability of all doped minerals to the plants, during experimental cycle, was revealed by slow-release nutrient studies in water and soil, which is ideal for promoting germination and growth. The findings of this research revealed that prepared BNF showed improved germination parameters i.e., time for 50% germination (3.4, 3.3, 4.4 days), germination index (3.1, 3.5, 2.4), final germination percentage (91.7, 100, 83.3%), mean germination time (4.0, 3.9, 4.9 days), for cucumber, broccoli and okra, respectively. In addition to that the prepared BNF facilitated enhanced shoot and root length in all the three vegetables as compared to conventional fertilizers. The dose optimization studies depicted that best results of germination as well as plant growth parameters are facilitated by BNF (37.5 kg/ha) owing to enhancement in soil quality by supplying additional organic matter in addition to provision of nutrients on slow-release.