Weed-competitive cultivars are desired in the wake of growing popularity of organic farming, environmental pollution and evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds. This research work evaluated the weed competitive ability of three forage maize cultivars (ADA-523, AGA and SASA-5) against the noxious weed barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P.Beauv.). The study was conducted in spring 2018 and repeated in summer 2018. Results of this study showed that maize-barnyardgrass competition significantly decreased the growth of forage maize plants. For instance, barnyardgrass decreased the maize plant height by 11.9-16.9%, leaf length by 13.3-20.2%, leaf width by 20.2-27.4%, and number of leaves by 14.3-25.0%. Fresh and dry weights of maize plants were also significantly decreased as a result of weed-crop competition. Barnyardgrass decreased the shoot fresh weight (30.7-60.6%), shoot dry weight (33.3-52.2%), leaf fresh weight (33.4-56.5%) and leaf dry weight (31.9-50.0%) of the maize plants. An interactive effect of weed × maize cultivars was found non-significant. Forage maize cultivars also varied occasionally for their traits. Nevertheless, ADA-523 had a higher plant height, leaf length, leaf width, leaf fresh weight and leaf dry weight than the cultivars AGA and SASA-5. On the other hand, the cultivar SASA-5 had a higher shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight and root fresh weight than the other cultivars in the study. This research work concluded that the forage maize cultivars in the study did not vary for the weed-competitive ability. Further, barnyardgrass-maize competition could decrease the growth and development of the maize cultivars.

It is stated that concrete, which is the basic building block of most of the buildings built today, is the most consumed the construction material in the world after water. cement is that is the main ingredient of concrete, has significant share because of the cost of concrete, the use of various additives as a cement substitutes is the subject of many studies. However, it should firstly be determined to what extent the additives used to affect the concrete properties. In this study, it was tried to determine to what at level the use of the ash of rice husk as a cement substitute changed some concrete properties. Within the scope of the study, the usability of the raw form of rice husk as aggregate in concrete was evaluated and thus an effective method in the disposal of rice husk, which is a agricultural waste, was tried to be determined. The study results show that the addition of both ash of rice husk and rice husk aggregate significantly alter almost all properties of concrete. These changes are at different levels for different characteristics. As a result of the study, it was determined that as the amount of foam increased, the flow diameter increased, while the addition of rice husk decreased the flow diameter. It was determined that the addition of rice husk decreases the depth of water penetration depending on time, the porosity of the samples with the high level of rice husk addition increases, and the compressive and flexural strength decreases.

In this research, some physicochemical and microbiological characteristics and mineral compositions of marmalades produced by traditional method using Berberis integerrima Bunge (purple barberry), Berberis vulgaris L. (pink barberry), Rosa pimpinellifolia L. (black rosehip), Rosa canina L. (pink rosehip), Malus sylvestris Miller (sour apple), and Vaccinium corymbosum L. (blueberry) wild fruit naturally grown in Bayburt and Trabzon provinces were determined. As a result of the research; pH 2.56-4.18, titration acidity (in terms of citric acid) 0.62-3.40%, dry matter 53.65-64.90%, water soluble dry matter 52.28-64.53%, water activity 0.818-0.894 and HMF (5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural) were detected in the range of 5.81-53.40 mg/kg. As a result of microbiological analysis, total aerobic mesophilic bacteria, coliform group bacteria and yeast-mold were not detected in any of the samples. In the marmalade samples, the macro minerals Ca, K, P and Mg are ranged from 23.56-425.12 mg/kg, 1275.74-5918.10 mg/kg, 21.98-921.26 mg/kg and 125.50-776.23 mg/kg, respectively. Of the micro-minerals Fe 4034.85-22346.74 µg/kg, Mn 531.63-15065.91 µg/kg, Zn 345.40-6250.76 µg/kg, B 2872.99-7300.37 µg/kg, and Ba were found between 689.31-6455.24 µg/kg. The results of heavy metal analysis showed that marmalade samples were within reliable limits. It is concluded that these fruits, which are not usually consumed as table, but have rich mineral composition, characteristic taste and pleasant aroma, can be evaluated in marmalade production. In the years when the yields of wild fruits are high, it can be processed into products with long shelf life such as jam and marmalade and converted into added value can contribute to the regional economy.

Akışkan yatak sistemi, ağır sanayiden, eczacılık, kimya ve gıda sanayisine kadar geniş kullanım alanı bulmaktadır. Bu sistemde küçük katı parçacıklar hava ile temas ettirilir ve hareketleri sağlanarak yatak içerisinde askıda tutulmaları sağlanır. Yatak içerisinde akışkanlaşmanın başladığı andaki hız olarak tanımlanan minimum akışkanlaşma hızı, akışkan yatak sistemlerin en önemli tasarım ve işletme parametresidir. Toz gıdalarda akışkan yatak, kurutma, aglomerasyon, granülasyon ve kaplama proseslerinde yaygın olarak kullanılmaktadır. Akışkan yatak teknolojisinde birçok olay eş zamanlı olarak gerçekleştiğinden sistem üzerine etki eden çok sayıda değişken mevcuttur. Bu derlemede, akışkan yatak, toz gıda proseslerinde akışkan yatak uygulamaları ve akışkan yatak sisteminin kullanılması sırasında dikkat edilmesi gereken parametreler hakkında bilgi sunulmaktadır.

Much of the sustained agricultural growth necessary for poverty reduction and sustainable development comes from adequate and expanded improved agricultural inputs use like hybrid seeds, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and inorganic fertilizer. However, smallholder farmers faced various and empirically unidentified constraints in the sustainable use of improved agricultural inputs. This study, therefore, is to examine the trends and challenges farmers faced to use improved inputs. The study has used secondary data from various databases such as FAOSTAT, World Bank, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and agricultural statistics. Simple graphical sketch, tabular and percentage analysis was employed for interpretation of the data. The study revealed that the trends in the use of various improved inputs are not based on the regular basis. The sustainable improved input intensification by smallholder farmers was influenced by various socio-economic, physical, and institutional factors. Understanding trends and challenges in input utilization provide baseline information for input intensification policies and strategies. Therefore, this review pointed out that it is possible to increase inputs intensification by smallholder farmers.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has been cultivated as an important cereal crop for more than 9,000 years and more than half of the world’s population depend on rice as it is their primary source of energy. Almost 30% of the current world cereal production is represented by the rice alone. It is estimated that the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050 i.e. 34 percent higher than today and for ensuring an ample amount of food and nutrition to such large population, global consumption of cereals will need to increase from 2.6 to 2.9 billion tonnes by 2027. On the other hand, the impacts of climate change in agriculture are expected to be negative, threatening the global food security. Besides, agriculture and global food security will be severely affected due to the COVID-19 pandemics as its after-effects are yet to be ascertained. The world needs an introduction of a new “Green revolution” in agriculture to increase crop production for food security and biofuel, because conventional breeding method have not brought much of gains not keeping its pace with the world population growth. Hence, the current study was done to review the various ongoing approaches and possible ways of designing a rice with enhanced productivity and photosynthetic capacity. One of the ways to increase yields, photosynthetic capacity accompanied by an increased Water Use Efficiency (WUE) and Nutrient Use Efficiency could be to introduce C4 traits into rice. Besides, genetic engineering using CRISPR-Cas9, molecular breeding, developing ideotype, heterosis breeding, developing apomictic rice, nitrogen fixing rice, use of nanotechnology as well as precision farming are the probable future approaches for designing a rice with high productivity. However, there are challenges and limitations in developing such rice and further research in this matter could help us get closer to developing the future rice.

The aim of the study is comparing the milk consumption habits of the students of the Department of Dairy Technology and Department of Agriculture Economy The survey was conducted with 66 students from Department of Dairy Technology and 84 students from Department of Agriculture Economy. It is indicated that 82.54% of the students from Department of Dairy Technology and 74.07% of the students from Department of Agriculture Economy get information from expert organizations (universities, private companies, etc.) about the importance of milk in nutrition. According to the Chi-square tests, there is a significant relationship between the department preference variable and the sources which are getting information and found reliable by the students and milk consumption variable. Besides, it is indicated that 98% of the students from both of the departments prefer pasteurized and UHT milk rather than raw milk.

This work reports the survival status of Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella Typhimurium in homemade fig and mulberry vinegar. Each pathogen was separately inoculated in vinegar samples at approximately 7 log CFU/mL. The survival status of pathogens was examined at 20°C for 0, 15, 30 and 60 min, and 4, 8 and 24 h. The residual populations after 24 h were below detection limit for all species assayed. S. Typhimurium was much more sensitive to mulberry vinegar ( 6 log reduction in 30 min) than it is to fig vinegar ( 6 log reduction in 24 h). L. monocytogenes had an overall quite different behaviour, being the most sensitive species to fig vinegar ( 6 log reduction in 4 h) while being the most resistant one to mulberry vinegar ( 6 log reduction in 24 h). The total phenolic content of fig vinegar (767 mg GAE/L) was higher than mulberry vinegar (557.5 mg GAE/L). The results exhibited that antimicrobial activity of vinegar is mainly related to the contact time, test pathogen and physicochemical properties of vinegar.

In this study, the responses of 20 different bean genotypes (13 pole and 7 dwarf) to salt (NaCl) stress at 0 mM, 25 mM and 50 mM were investigated. Salt application was performed together with irrigation water in the same time every day during 4 days. In the study, which was prepared according to randomized plot design with 3 replications, the plants were grown in the pots containing peat-perlite in a ratio of 2:1 under climatic conditions of 23±2°C. Root dry matter, root fresh and dry weight and some nutrient contents (Phosphorus-P, Copper-Cu, Zinc-Zn, Manganese-Mn, Iron-Fe and Magnesium-Mg) were investigated in order to determine salinity tolerance in bean genotypes. The data obtained from the study revealed that salt stress responds differently in both genotypes and applications. When the average of applications of 25 mM and 50 mM salt stress was examined, it was found that while root fresh and dry weight, root dry matter (%) and Fe content increased compared to control group, Mn and P content decreased. Among the genotypes exposed to salt stress, while four genotypes [two pole (numbered as 13 and 19) and two dwarf (numbered as 8 and 11)] were determined to be tolerant to salt, 3 genotypes [one pole (numbered as 14) and two dwarf (numbered as 18 and 20)] were evaluated as sensitive.

This research was conducted to overcome the problem of slow and erratic emergence in okra and to find out the effects of priming on germination, growth performance and yield in okra at Research Field of Nepal Polytechnic Institute (NPI) Bharatpur-11, Chitwan, Nepal (April-July, 2019). Arka Anamika variety was used for experiment. The experiment was laid out in Randomize Complete Block Design with 5 treatments and 4 replications, i.e. T1 (hormonal priming with IBA), T2 (hydro priming with fresh tap water), T3 (halo priming with NaCl), T4 (chemo priming with liquid urea) and T5 (un-primed seeds). Field experiment results showed that priming proved effective in improving germination percent except the chemo priming, reducing the mean germination time (MGT), improving the growth parameters (plant height, number of branches, plant canopy and number of leaves) and improving yield contributing characters like fruit length, fruit diameter as compared to un-primed seeds. The highest and lowest germination percentages were found in hydro priming and hormonal priming respectively while better growth performance in hormonal and chemo priming. Similarly, hormonal and hydro priming resulted in higher yield. Hence, it is suggested that seed priming is important to improve the overall germination, growth performance and yield in okra.