Information related to pesticide practices in green beans and strawberry fields in some selected exportation farms in Egypt was obtained through questionnaire forms. Such forms were randomly distributed among different target exporters at Giza, Ismaellia, Sharkia, Behirah and Alfayoum governorates. Questionnaire outputs indicated that the percent of the rejected export by importers due to high levels of pesticide residues reached 11.11 and 7.69% in green beans and strawberry respectively. The recommended rates of the used pesticides established by the Ministry of Agriculture and/or EU guidelines were followed by 86.67 and 69.23% of these vegetables growers, respectively. Questionnaire outputs indicated that the percent of exporters who were repeating the application of all or each pesticide during the same season of green beans and strawberry reached 48.89 and 42.31%, respectively. Furthermore, 15.56 and 7.69% of growers followed the recommended Pre Harvest interval (PHI) for each pesticide used in green beans and strawberry. On the other hand, no storage period was followed by 40 and 76.92% of the exporters for green beans and strawberry, respectively. Concerning the transportation conditions data showed that 55.56 and 88.46% of the exporters used cooling trucks with green beans and strawberry, respectively.

Theimmediate and long term evaluating trails based on efficacy of soil solarization process and the pesticide Dazomit (98%) was worked out to control theroot-knot nematode on cucumber. The temperature rised significantly (4.0, 12.2, 13.3, 20.9)C° at the soil depths of (5,10,15,20) cm, respectively; when soil was covered with transparet plastic in July compared to nonsolarized soil (control). The results showed insignificant differences for the treatments combinations of soil solarization and the differences rates of Dazomit (98%) and the soil solarization alone in its ability in reducing numbers of theroot-knot nematode after one month of soil solarization and the treating with Dazomit (98%) reaching an efficacy ranged between 94-100% at the soil depth of 0-30cm. The results also indicated superior significancy of these treatments in preventing reforming the disease- causing aggregates of these nematode during the second season, with growth rates ranged between (2-5.8)% compared to(45-48.9)% at the end of first season, and the incidence was reduced with rates (96-98) % and the severity of infection rate (73-87)% at the end of season compared to (100)% in control treatment and indicated a high economic return (405%) for the solarization treatment alone compared to 5,18 and 83% in the three treatment combinations, respectively.

Roasting process of carob pods at various temperatures for different times was carried out to study the effect of its process on the chemical constituents, minerals content, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity. Volatile compounds were also determined for roasted carob powders. The obtained results revealed that the protein content was 5.42% (on dry weight basis), which decreased with increasing the processing temperatures. Whereas, ash increased gradually by increasing the roasted temperatures but lipids was decreased. The predominant mineral in carob powders was calcium followed by sodium, potassium and magnesium, respectively whereas; the raw carob pods contain 21.07mg/g of total phenolic compounds. Roasting treatment caused to the degradation of phenolic compounds which increased with increasing the roasting temperatures. The antioxidant activity of the carob powders was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) as free radical scavenging. However, the activity of antioxidant was decreased owing to the roasting process. On the other hand, sensory characteristics for both hot drinks and prepared cakes showed greater preference, especially for samples contained roasted carob powders at 160˚C for 30 min. and/or 40min. compared with that in tested samples and control. Seven aroma compounds were positively identified by using GC–mass spectrometry. The major aroma compounds of carob powders were 3-methyl butanal and methyl propanal which was found in chocolate and it's responsible for chocolate flavor. Moreover, other volatile compounds were identified in roasted carob powders and which also found in dark chocolate such as 2-Heptanone, Pentan-2-ol and Linalool. Also, Nonane-2-one and Hexanal were found and identified in roasted carob powders.

The seeds of six different species of common pulses were examined as hosts of  two bruchid beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) and C. chinensis L. under controlled conditions of  30±2ºC  and 65±5% R.H. Deposited eggs, Hatched eggs, numbers and weights of emerged adults and also the total developmental period from the deposited eggs to adults emergence were estimated. Results obtained indicated thatcowpea seeds were the most favorable for feeding the two tested bruchid beetles, followed by faba bean seeds, while insect infestation was not observed on common bean and soybean seeds for either bruchid species.Results also revealedthat C.maculatus deposited more eggs on all tested leguminous seeds and gave more emerged adults with heavier weights than C. chinensis.

The current work aims to evaluate the effect of different periods of organic farming on some soils qualities compared with the traditional system. Several farms varied in their soil nature and periods of practicing organic farming system were chosen. The farms are located in Belbes, El-Manayef, El-Fayoum and El- Behera areas. Moreover, the study also involved adjacent traditional managed farms. The evaluation was based on the weighted values of the physical, chemical and biological properties of the 0-50 cm and 0-100 cm soil depths. The considered soil properties weresoil organic matter (SOM); bulk density; porosity; available water; penetration resistance, mean soil particles weight diameter (MWD), cation exchange capacity and total microbial count. The obtained results indicated that soilbiological parameters were less important than the physical or thechemical factors. Principle component1, (PC1) scores indicated that 79.97% and 78.05 % of total variance are attributed to the 0-50 cm soil depth of the organic and conventional managed soils, respectively. In the meantime, 75.72 and 71.94 % are related to the 0-100 cm soil depth for the two farming systems, (Organic and conventional) in the same sequence. The only significantfactor contributing to PC2 was total count; PC2 indicatedthat (10.29 and 10.87% of the totalvariance are accounted for 0-50 and 0-100 cm soil depth of organic farming as well as 15.3 and 16.68% of the totalvariance for 0-50 and 0-100 cm soil depth of conventional farming system, respectively.

Two field experiments were conducted at Nubaria Agric. Res. Station during 2003 and 2004 seasons. The objective of this investigation aimed to study the effect of irrigation intervals (irrigation every 14 and 28 days) and six intercropping patterns: (1) Pure stand of soybean (sown in hills 10 cm distance apart on each side of the ridge and thinned at two plants/hill). (2) Pure stand of sunflower (sown in hills 30 cm distance on side of the ridge and thinned at one plant/hill). (3) Soybean sown on one side of the ridge and sunflower sown on the other side of the ridge (100% soybean+100% sunflower). (4) Soybean sown in 2:2 rows with sunflower. (5) Soybean sown in 2:4 rows with sunflower. (6) Soybean sown in 4:2 rows with sunflower on yield and its components of both crops, as well as the competitive relationships. A split plot in complete randomize design with four replicates was used. The results indicated that Irrigation intervals had significant effects on soybean plant height, number of pods/plant, seed yield/fad. and seed oil percentage of soybean plants. Intercropping patterns had significant effects on all studied traits, except oil and protein content percentages in the two seasons. The highest seed yield/fad. was obtained by irrigation every 14 days and sowing soybean in pure stand. Pure stand gave higher seed yield of soybean than that of all intercropping patterns. Irrigation intervals had significant effects on sunflower plant height, number of leaves/plant, seed yield/plant and seed yield/fad. of sunflower plants in the two seasons. Also, intercropping patterns had significant effects on all studied traits in the two seasons. Pure stand of sunflower gave higher seed yield/fad. than all intercropping patterns. The highest seed yields of sunflower and soybean were obtained by irrigation every 14 days and pure stands in the two seasons. The results indicated that land equivalent ratios (LER) of soybean and sunflower values were more than one. Moreover, it could be concluded that soybean and sunflower sown at pure stands with irrigation every 14 days can be recommended for raising soybean and sunflower productivity as compared with all intercropping patterns under the condition of Nubaria region. Also, sunflower was always the dominant crop, whereas soybean was dominated.

This investigation was carried out to evaluate the chemical characteristics of new eight sweet potato varieties namely, CEMSA 74-228, SANTO AMARA, NC 1525 and KEMB 37 (creamy flesh) and JAPON TRESMESINO, LO 323, TAINUNG 64 and BEAUREGARD (yellow flesh ), and study their suitability for processing. The obtained re-sults reveal that SANTO AMARA and KEMB37 varieties were the best ones having the highest content of chemical constituents compared with those of the other studied creamy flesh sweet pota-to varieties. Moreover, 140 days from planting was the best harvesting time that achieved the highest chemical characteristics. All selected creamy sweet potato varieties had adequate miner-als contents especially, KEMB 37 followed by NC 1525 and CEMSA 74-228 then SANTO AMARA varieties that could be considered good sources of minerals for human nutrition. Yellow flesh sweet potatoes have been recognized as valuable sources of carbohydrates, protein, dietary fibers and could be considered as good sources of both vitamin C and total carotenoids. Moreover, TAINUNG 64 and LO 323 were found to be good sources of β-carotene (pro- vitamin A). The more suitable har-vesting time for yellow sweet potato varieties, which recorded the highest levels of essential ele-ments, was 140 days from planting. On the other hand, TAINUNG 64 variety could be considered the best one compared to the other examined vari-ties. The most suitable varieties that having good quality attributes for processing were SANTO AMARA and KEMB 37 as creamy flesh and TAINUNG 64 and BEAUREGARD as yellow flesh sweet potato varieties. Moreover, these va-rieties could be successfully used in the produc-tion of new and untraditional sweet potato prod-ucts.

Twenty dairy cows belonged to four small holder were put under study, to investigate the efficiency of using scavenger chicken (baladi) as biological control of ticks and their borne diseases. The cows were divided to two groups first and second, they were infested with ticks, Laboratory diagnosis for babesia was carried out. All samples showed positive reaction.Cloxon 2.5 gm/kg/ body weight (BW) was used to treat the cows of the two groups with the presence of ticks, and all cases were recovered. Gamatox was used to control the ticks on the cows in the first group, while scavenger chicken (5 baladi chicken in each farm), were used to control ticks in the second two farms. After seven days no tick was observed on the cows in the second group. It also showed negative result for babesia test. On the other hand, nymphs were noticed on the cows of the first group. The research recom-mended to use scavenger chicken to terminate the life cycle of ticks and to get rid of its pathogenic diseases in small scale dairy farms.

Natural antioxidants have gained considerable interest in recent years for their role in preventing the auto oxidation of fats, oils and fat containing food products. In this study, six spices containing natural antioxidants were evaluated for their re-tarding fat oxidation compared to butylated hy-droxyl toluene (BHT). The yield obtained from water extract of the tested spices ranged between 20% and 50 %. Carob gave the highest yield fol-lowed by anise and cinnamon, then caraway and fennel, while ginger gave the lowest yield .The free radical scavenging activities measured by 2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) were 88.08%, 81.69%, 79.62% , 78.93% , 73.06% , and 71.50 % for cinnamon, anise, carob, caraway ginger, and fennel, respectively at concentration of 2250 μg/ml. Cinnamon showed higher antioxidant ac-tivity on linoleic acid oxidation than BHT fol-lowed by anise, carob and ginger. While, fennel and caraway recorded closely antioxidant activity to that of BHT at low concentration of 100 μg/ml. Total phenolic content of the tested spices varied ranging from 11.19 to 22.95 mg as gallic acid / gm dry extract in carob and caraway, respectively. Depending upon the sensory evaluation of crois-sant containing different levels of tested spices, a concentration of 1.5% of anise, caraway fennel and cinnamon was chosen, while the chosen con-centration of ginger was 2.5% and carob was 1% for testing their effectiveness against oxidation of lipid in croissant. However, a concentration of 2% of anise, fennel, ginger and carob was chosen while, the chosen concentration of caraway and cinnamon was 1% for testing their effectiveness against oxidation of lipid in filling cream. Addi-tion of tested spices gave an excellent antioxidant effect on croissant and filling cream compared with the effect of BHT. The increase in both per-oxide and acid values after 14 and 28 days respec-tively were lower than of control and BHT. Carob, ginger, caraway and cinnamon were more effec-tive in controlling lipid oxidation during storage. In conclusion addition of tested spices as sources of effective natural antioxidants retarded lipid oxi-dation and maintain the quality of croissant and filling cream during storage.

The present work aimed to investigate the stimulating and attractive effects of five volatile oils on honey bee colonies food consumption. These oils were added to sugar syrup and pollen substitutes. The consumption of sugar syrup and percentage of dead bees in caged honeybee work-ers were determined. Multi-choice test inside the honey bee colonies was carried out to determine the food consumption rate from different pollen substitutes. Positive effect was recorded by adding Coriander oil 0.03% followed by Fennel 0.15% and Spearmint oils 0.03% while nigella oil showed a repellent effect on honey bee workers. The mor-tality percentage was very low with no significant differences between treatments. Results indicated that addition of 5% pollen grains and three volatile oils increased significantly pollen substitute’s con-sumption. The highest consumption rate was rec-orded with coriander oil 0.03%. Results obtained indicated that the consumption of diets that con-tain Coriander, Fennel, and Spearmint volatile oils was more successful than control.