Considering the high production potential of quinoa plant, especially under stressful conditions such as drought and salinity, it is necessary to introduce new and high-yielding genotypes for cultivation in different regions of Iran. The objective of this research was to evaluate the diversity of 26 new and foreign quinoa genotypes in terms of morphophenological characteristics. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design with three replications in greenhouse of Rice Research Institute of Iran (RRII), Rasht, in 2021. The results of analysis of variance showed that there was a very significant statistical difference among the studied genotypes for all measured traits. Factor analysis using the principal components method identified three main and independent factors that explained 39.19, 24.63, and 15.94%, respectively, and in total about 80% of the total variance. In addition, cluster analysis based on Ward's minimum variance grouped the studied 26 quinoa genotypes into three separate clusters; including 14, 7, and 5 genotypes, which very largely corresponded to grouping of the principal components. In total, the results of the current study showed that among the studied 26 quinoa genotypes, genotype No. 12 with 1000-grain weight, panicle length, and grain yield higher than the other genotypes as well as dwarfism and earliness characteristics was the most valuable genotype of this experiment. Furthermore, genotypes No. 4, 8, 17, and 18 for grain yield, genotypes No. 7, 13, and 15 for earliness, and genotype No. 14 for dwarfism, were the promising genotypes of this research, which can be used to transfer earliness and dwarfism to high-yielding genotypes in future breeding programs.

Rapid and efficient recovery from water deficit stress may be one of the key determinants of drought adaptation in plants. The present study was designed to investigate drought stress tolerance and recovery in promising lentil lines at the flowering stage. For this, a factorial experiment based on the completely randomized design was conducted with three replications. The factors included 6 lentil lines, drought stress (control (irrigation at 80% FC or 20% moisture depletion), medium stress (irrigation at 55% FC or 45% moisture depletion), and severe stress (irrigation at 30% FC or 70% moisture depletion)), and three sampling times (three and six days after drought, and recovery (two days after re-irrigation)). Drought stress caused a decrease in chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein, yield, and yield components. The reduction of these traits was more remarkable at six days after stress. However, during the recovery time remarkable increase was observed in these traits. The results showed that the correlation between H2O2 and MDA was significant and positive. Furthermore, drought stress increased the amount of proline, H2O2, and MDA, which resulted in an increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, polyphenol oxidase, and peroxidase). An increase in the intensity and duration of the drought stress also caused an increase in H2O2 and MDA content and the activity of antioxidant enzymes. In addition, in the recovery conditions, a significant reduction in the destructive effects of stress (H2O2, MDA content) and the activity of antioxidant enzymes was visible. The results of the present study indicated that the effects of drought stress on lentil lines yield and yield components (seed number, number of pods, 100-seed weight, and seed yield) were varied. Drought stress at the flowering stage decreased the number of seeds and pods per plant, and 100-seed weight, which led to yield losses. Although line 2 had the highest yield under normal and drought stress conditions, line 1 exhibited the lowest yield under stress conditions. Based on the results of this experiment, line 2 seems to be a suitable line for culture in the regions challenged with water deficit stress.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of foliar application of amino acids on yield and yield components of oil rapeseed under late-season drought stress conditions. The experiment was conducted as factorial based on a randomized complete blocks design in the research farm of the Faculty of Agriculture at Tarbiat Modares University during the 2021-22 growing season. The experimental treatments were irrigation regimes at three levels (normal irrigation, withholding irrigation from 50% flowering stage, and withholding irrigation from pod forming) and foliar spraying at five levels (no foliar, foliar spraying 0, 1, 2, and 3 g amino acids per liter of distilled water). The results showed that plant height, shoot dry weight, 1000-seed weight, harvest index, and biological and grain yield, number of seeds per pod, and the number of pods per plant were significantly affected by the interaction of irrigation regimes and foliar spraying. The highest plant height (166.5 cm), 1000-seed weight (3.58 g), number of pods per plant (131.4) and grain yield (4514 kg ha-1) were obtained by foliar spraying of two g amino acids per litre under normal irrigation conditions. According to the results, foliar spraying 2 g amino acids per liter had the most positive effect on the yield and yield components of oil rapeseed in all irrigation regimes (normal irrigation, withholding irrigation from 50% flowering stage, and withholding irrigation from pod forming). Therefore, upon approving in future research it could be recommended to use foliar spraying with 2 g amino acids per liter in oil rapeseed cultivation.

Sunflower is one of the most important oilseed crops with more than 50% of nutritional (table) consumption. Considering the climate changes, the development of genotypes tolerant to abiotic stresses is more important than before. In the present research, the recovery capacity of two oilseed sunflower genotypes (DM-2 and H158A/H543R) was evaluated 24 hours after irrigation following sever drought stress (30% of field capacity) by evaluating the changes in enzymes activity at 8-leaf stage and quality and quantity of end product at adult plant stage. The experiments were conducted in frame of completely randomized design with 3 replications under controlled conditions. A significant difference was observed between genotypes in the terms of guaiacol, ascorbate, lipoxygenase and proline contents, as well as leaf area, leaf length, root weight, plant height and root sodium-potassium ratio in recovery conditions. Based on the results of the evaluations and changes in the mean of traits in the comparison of two normal and recovery conditions, as well as the pattern of fatty acids, genotype DM-2 has a high recovery ability.

In order to investigate effects of deficit irrigation and sowing date on qualitative characteristics of oil and fatty acids in Safflower cultivars, a split factorial experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete blocks design with four replications at the research farm of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, during the 2015-2016 growing season. In this experiment, irrigation levels included optimal irrigation and deficit irrigation (50% of water requirement) as main plots and combined two sowing dates including (20 March and 20 April) and three spring safflower cultivars (i.e. Gholdasht, Soffeh, and Sina) were allocated to subplots in a factorial arrangement. Drought stress and late sowing date decreased chlorophyll content, seed yield, and oil content. The results showed that deficit irrigation caused decrease in seed yield and oil content. Late sowing date caused a decrease in seed yield. The highest seed yield was obtained on optimal irrigation and on the sowing date 20 March (2036 kg/h) and the lowest seed yield was obtained on 50% of water requirement and the sowing date 20 April (1675.4 kg/h). Among the studied cultivars, the highest seed yield (1986.91 kg/ha) was obtained from Soffeh cultivar. With the sowing date and deficit irrigation, iodine number decreased and acid value increased. Among fatty acids, the content of linoleic and linolenic acids decreased due to deficit irrigation and late sowing date and the amount of oleic and stearic acids was the highest in the second sowing date, while palmitic acid had the highest amount in the first sowing date. Therefore, to obtain the highest yield and the highest oil quality Soffeh cultivar, optimal irrigation and early sowing date are recommended.

To investigate the effect of organic fertilizers on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of sugar beet under different moisture conditions, a study was conducted as a split plot experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in Mahabad city in 2021. Irrigation treatments, including irrigation after 60 (normal), 90 (mild stress), and 120 (severe stress) mm evaporation from the class A evaporation pan, and organic fertilizer treatments (control, vermicompost, manure, and humic acid) were placed in main plots and sub-plots, respectively. Severe water stress conditions reduced the content of chlorophyll a (22.82 %) and relative water content (RWC) (24.35 %) and increased the content of proline (47.43%), beta glycine (17.89%), catalase (21.30 %), malondialdehyde (47.95 %) and water use efficiency (WUE) (23.83%) compared to normal irrigation conditions. Also, the application of vermicompost increased the amount of chlorophyll a, RWC, proline, glycine beta, catalase content, and WUE by 29.11, 20.15, 34.83, 14.98, 13.70, and 21.56 percent, respectively, and decreased the content of malondialdehyde about 18.53% in comparison to control. In this study, the highest stomatal conductivity (51.01 mol.m-2s-1), chlorophyll b content (16.3 mg.g-1FW), carotenoid (4.27 mg.g-1 FW), roots yield (78.33 t.ha-1) and the lowest content of hydrogen peroxide (0.96 μmol.g-1FW) allocated to the vermicompost treatment under normal irrigation conditions. Root yield showed a positive and significant correlation with stomatal conductance, chlorophyll b, carotenoid, RWC, and WUE, but a negative and significant correlation with catalase enzyme activity, hydrogen peroxide content, malondialdehyde, and sugar content.

Spreading hedgeparsley is a weed of wheat fields which thier seed bank is increasing in Kermanshah province. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of time, burial depth, and seed shape in the field. This study was conducted as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with 3 replications. Both hairy and non-hairy forms of spreading hedgeparsley seeds were placed in different depths of storage (control), zero (soil surface), 5, 10, 20, and 40 cm of soil, and then seeds digged out from soil at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months burial time. The results showed that the effect of time, burial depth, and seed shape treatments on germination was significant in the field. The highest percentage of spreading hedgeparsley seed germination was observed in the first 3 months after burial. In general, the percentage of seed germination decreased by time. At a depth of 5 cm in the soil due to the favorable environmental conditions such as temperature, light and oxygen, the highest germination percentage was observed. Seed germination percentage decreased with increasing depth. The percentage of germination of spreading hedgeparsley seeds was higher than that of spinyseeds due to the level of contact of seeds with light, temperature and humidity.

After soybean and oil palm, rapeseed has the third place in supplying vegetable oil in the world, so that it accounts for 14.7% of the total production of vegetable oil. The current research was carried out using modeling approach in order to simulate the replacement of wheat cultivation with rapeseed cultivation in terms of water and economic productivity in four locations (Aleshtar, Khorramabad, Pol-e Dokhtar, and Kuhdasht) in Lorestan province. APSIM model was used to simulate the growth and yield of wheat and rapeseed crops. The model validation results showed that it accurately simulates wheat and rapeseed grain yield with nRMSE of 8.6%. The results showed that wheat cultivation (3524.4 kg) had a higher grain yield than rapeseed cultivation (2750.2 kg). In addition, wheat cultivation system (1.45 kg m-3) compared with rapeseed cultivation (1.15 kg m-3) had higher water productivity. However, the difference between these two cultivation systems in terms of irrigation productivity was not considerable (0.11 kg m3). Also, economic productivity and net income of rapeseed cultivation system were 0.220 million tomans per cubic meter and 59.9 million tomans per hectare, respectively, while they were 0.014 million tomans per cubic meter and 41.1 million tomans per hectare, respectively, for wheat cultivation system. In general, the results approved that moving from wheat cultivation to rapeseed cultivation can be environmentally and economically sustainable in the agro-ecosystems of Lorestan province, especially in Khorramabad county.

In conditions where don't have enough water for irrigation, intercropping of forage plants is one of the ways to achieve sustainable agriculture. Biochemical and physical properties of soil tillage system can affect the yield of plants in intercropping. Therefore, with the aim of investigating the forage yield and competitive indices of intercropping, this experiment was performed in the cropping seasons of 2020-2021. Treatments included conventional, minimum, and no tillage system. Intercropping patterns also included monoculture of forage sorghum and maize, alternate row cultivation maize and forage sorghum and alternate cultivation on planting rows. The results showed that the highest plant height (295 cm) and leaf area (6.88) was obtained in intercropping and conventional tillage. The highest forage yield was also observed in sorghum monoculture. However, the land equivalent ratio of mix intercropping with 1.17 showed the superiority of intercropping over monoculture. Evaluation of competitive indicators such as dominance index, relative crowding coefficient, and competitive ratio showed that forage maize is the predominant plant in intercropping conditions. The system productivity index with 8.11 showed that intermediate cultivation on planting rows was superior to other treatments in conventional tillage conditions. The results showed that in conventional tillage and intercropping conditions, acceptable yield was obtained; this advantage can increase water efficiency and use of sorghum in intercropping.

This study aimed to investigate the response of four ecotypes of milk thistle from Isfahan, Kohgiluyeh va Boyer Ahmad, Khuzestan-Omidiyeh, and Hungary to three irrigation regimes (irrigation after 40%, 60%, and 80% maximum allowable depletion of available soil water (evaluated in 2020-2021 under five different planting dates (September 27th, October 17th, November 6th, November 26th, and March 10th) at the research farm of Isfahan University of Technology in Iran. The experiment was conducted as a combined analysis of a split-plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that the highest and the lowest grain yield and shoot dry weight of milk thistle plants were obtained under the October 17th and March 10th planting dates, respectively. Water deficit at both levels decreased grain yield, shoot dry weight, number of flowers per plant, plant height, flowering degree-days, and physiological maturity degree-days, but increased grain and shoot water use efficiencies. The "Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad" ecotype exhibited the highest seed yield, shoot dry weight, seed/shoot water use efficiency, and harvest index, making it a promising candidate for breeding programs aimed at creating adaptive cultivars of the milk thistle plant. Based on the study's findings, it can be concluded that milk thistle should be planted in the fall season from late September to mid-November under similar climate conditions.