Aphids are considered one of the most economically important insect pests worldwide. Successful pest management systems are based on accurate and rapid pest species identification. Traditional morphological identification of closed aphid species may be considered an inaccurate taxonomic process. To overcome the disadvantages of traditional morphological identification, molecular techniques, related to DNA markers and based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR), were approached by using nine ISSRs primers to identify and diagnose fifteen common aphid species that disperse in the Egyptian agroecosystem. The examined ISSRs primers could success-fully discriminate the tested aphid species that reflected 61.39% polymorphism among them. Moreover, four banding patterns were considered unique bands that could characterize three aphid species (Aphis gossypii, Aphis nerii and Myzus persicae). The highest genetic homology (84.9%) was observed between species Rhopalosipum padi and Schizaphis graminum. In addition, each of A. gossypii and Aphis citricola were also genetically homologous species. In contrast, species Aphis craccivora and M. persicae were analogous genetically with a low similarity percentile (59.8%). High genetic di-vergence was observed also between A. nerii and M. persicae. Two alternative molecular branching taxonomic keys were proposed by subjecting the five highest polymorphic ISSRs primers and 29 banding patterns with different molecular sizes.

The purposes of this study are to: i) assess the agricultural extension middle level managers’ willingness to use cell phones in extension services, and ii) investigate the factors affecting their willingness to change and their change- related behavior. The DINAMO scale developed by Metselaar (1997) was used to assess their willingness to use cell phones in extension. Data were collected from 19 agricultural extension middle level managers representing 67.86% of the total number of middle level managers (28 mid-managers) by questionnaire during their annual meeting that was held on May 2015. Mean scores, percentages, and Chi-square test were used for data presentation and analysis. The results showed that the respondents’ overall willingness to change is 220.2 which represents 72.2% of the total score; this implies that extension middle level managers are entirely have positive willingness to use cell phones in agricultural extension services. There are seven variables have significant relationships with extension middle managers’ willingness to change namely: Managers' affective orientation towards the use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =38), The value of use cell phones for the agricultural extension organization (ᵡ2 =37.07), Collegial attitudes towards use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =38.22), Self-control factors (ᵡ2 =38), External control factors (ᵡ2 =36.24), Control over and contentment with use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =24.7), and Perceived complexity of use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =31.16). On the other hand there are five variables affecting the change- related behavior of the middle managers as follows: Managers' affective orientation towards the use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =51.19), Collegial attitudes towards use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =51.12), External control factors (ᵡ2 =50.34), Control over and contentment with use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =25.82), and The middle manager's willingness to use cell phones in extension (ᵡ2 =24.61). It could be concluded that there is a strong opportunity for using cell phones in extension services, and the respondents are ready for the beginning of such initiative.

The study aims at researching the possibility of vertical expansion of wheat crop by increasing the total production of the crop from the same cultivated area by re-distributing the area of crop in different zones of the Republic according to its productivity and show the importance of feddan productivity in increasing total production of this crop.  The study showed that the increase in feddan productivity has an effect in increasing the total production, but its impact in increasing feddan revenue and the value of crop production was weak. It has been shown there is a possibility to increase the total production of wheat crop   by maximizing the economic efficiency of productive resources used in cultivating the crop about 2.09 % of the increase in the total production. The increase in the production of the crop estimated by 1118 thousand ardabs that valued at 99 million LE and save about 53 million cubic meters of irrigation water despite the stability of the cultivated area of wheat crop all over the Republic.  The study recommends reconsideration of the current area of wheat crop by expanding the areas of wheat crop in the governorates or the regions characterized by high productivity to achieve the economic efficiency in the use of the production agricultural resources dedicated for wheat planting, so that they can provide areas for wheat in low productive regions to other crops of high productivity in these regions and then relatively reduce wheat gap in Egypt.

Plectranthus barbatus Andrew (Coleus forskolii) is one of the important species of the genus Plectranthus (Coleus) belonging to family Lamiaceae, with a many of traditional medicinal uses in India. C. forskolii is only known source of forskolin; a compound with a many uses in pharmaceutical industries. C. forskolii was lack in Egyptian flora. Moreover, there were no previously studies on this plant in Egypt. Therefore, the present study used tool of biotechnology to conserve the stocks of this plant by micropropagation. C. forskolii seedlings came from its native Thailand at June 2013 and were put in the greenhouse in Desert Research Center for creating an efficient micropropagation protocol. The study was carried out on the effect of growth regulators (cytokinins and auxins) on different micropropagation stages of the explants. In multiplication stage, initiated shoots were cultured on MS medium supplemented with various concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/L) of cytokinins (6-benzylaminopurine (BA), Kinetin ( KIN) and Thidiazuron (TDZ). The mean number of axillary shoots per explant of C. forskolii reached the highest value 6.19 ±0.573 on MS medium containing 2.0mg/L TDZ. Where, the highest value of mean length was 6.44± 0.310 cm on MS medium containing 1.0 mg/L KIN. The mean number of roots / explant of C. forskolii reached the highest value and the mean length were 30.00 ± 0.577 and 11.8±0.860 cm respectively, on 1/2 MS medium containing 0.5mg/L indole-3-butyric acid(IBA). While, the highest value of shoot length was 11.8±0.860 cm on 1/2 MS medium containing  2.0mg/L naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). A percentage of 83% of rooted plantlets were successfully acclimatized after four weeks and grown normally in the greenhouse in sterile soil mixture of garden soil,  vermiculate and sand (2:1:1/v/v/v). The protocol could be cost effective and useful in germplasm conservation and delivery of tissue cultured Coleus plants.

This paper aimed to examine the impact of climate change on wheat productivity in the five rains- fed districts: El-Negaila, Sidi Barrani, El-Daba'a, Marsa Matrouh, and EL-Alamain in the northern west coast of Egypt in which the cultivated wheat area represents about 41.4% of wheat area in Matrouh Governorate (1990-2019). The productivity is fluctuated between 1.167 to 13.38 Ardab/Fadden accompanied with the fluctuation in precipitation between 24.35 to 115.10 MM3/Season, and fluctuation of average difference between Max. Min. temperature from 8.07 to 7 ºC. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) technique was applied to investigate the relationship between wheat productivity and the independent variables (precipitation, temperature, cultivated area, labor and technology). OLS function showed that the model suffers from endogenity and heteroscedasticity. LLC and IPS statistics of panel unit root test proved that the included variables have unit root, i.e. they are non-stationary at level. Pedroni panel residual cointegration test confirmed the long run relationship between the first-order integrated variables [I (1)]. FMOLS function proved that natural climatic variables are the main determinants of wheat productivity, as a 1% increase in annual rainfall improves wheat productivity significantly by 3.3%, while temperature affects the wheat productivity negatively by 5.7%. The far west districts are the most affected by rainfall, as 1% increase of rainfall in EL-Negaila and Sidi- Barrani districts increase wheat productivity by 8.4%, 5.1% respectively. Results in all districts except EL-Negaila and Sidi Barrani showed the extent of labor intensification to enhance productivity, also all districts showed the importance of technical improvements. It is recommend adopting water policy as rain harvesting, building stone dykes and cisterns to provide: 355.5, 301.7, 287.9, 339.8, and 245.8 MM3/Fadden in El-Negaila, Sidi Barrani, EL-Daba'a, Marsa Matrouh, and EL-Alamain districts respectively to improve wheat yield to 12 Ardab/Fadden under drought climate of north coast

The research aimed to measuring the Efficiency of the Agricultural Economic Resources Used in Summer Tomato Production in Alexandria Governorate, the research is relied on using of some descriptive and quantitative economic analysis methods in data analysis, especially Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, based on field data collected during the 2020 season from 30 summer tomato's farmers in Alexandria Governorate. The research reached a set of results, the most important of which can be reviewed as follows: (1) The overall efficiency criteria for a feddan of summer tomatoes in the research sample are: the net return is about 12.52 thousand pounds, the income over variable costs is about 17 thousand pounds, the benefitcosts ratio is about 1.41, and the profit of the spent pound is about 0.41 pounds. (2) The average Scale Efficiency was about 95.6%, which means that the percentage of exploitation of economic resources used in production in summer tomato farms in the research sample was about 95.6%, indicating that there is a possibility of expansion of 4.4% to reach the optimum volume of production on these farms. (3) The average Technical Efficiency according to the (BCC) model is about 98.4%, and this confirms the possibility of increasing the summer tomato production by 1.6% without increasing the amount of economic resources used. (4) Inefficient farms can achieve complete technical efficiency as reference farms by reducing the economic resources used, which are: the human labor by 7.22%, the automated work hours by 8.36%, the seedlings by 2%, the fertilizer Municipal by 4.62%, nitrogen fertilizer by 4.39%, phosphate fertilizer by 4.96%, potassium fertilizer by 4.93%, and pesticides by 6.81%, while keeping the same volume of production of summer tomatoes research sample. (5) The average Allocative Efficiency of summer tomato farms was about 79.7%, which means that re-employing the used economic resources will save about 20.3% of the production cost through adopting better technology and optimal employment of resources. (6) The average Cost-Efficiency of summer tomato farms in the research sample was about 78.4%, which means that production costs can be reduced by about 21.6% of the current production costs without affecting the production level of summer tomatoes. (7) Achieving the technical efficiency of summer tomato production at the level of Alexandria Governorate the following: (a) Increasing production by 13.07 tons, with a monetary value estimated at 23.59 milliom pounds, (b) providing an area of agricultural land with a horizontal expansion of 586.12 feddans, which is equivalent to the increase achieved In production as a result of raising technical efficiency, (c) rationalizing the use of irrigation water in Alexandria, with a total of about 2.04 million m3 , which is the amount of savings achieved in irrigation water that is necessary for the area of land that has been provided in Alexandria. In light of the findings of the research, it recommends the necessity; (1) Educating summer tomato farmers about the optimal the economic resources used in production to reach the optimum volume of production, (2) Reduce the prices of agricultural production inputs and provide them in a timely manner so that the farmer does not resort to the black market, (3) Issuing advisory bulletins to confront the changing climate and high temperatures in summer tomato cultivation.

The current study aims to: 1) identify role's perceptions, expectations and behavior within the family from gender perspective in the study area, 2) identify the differences of perceived, expected practice roles of men and women in rural family, 3) identify the interrelationships between role of gender in rural family and 4) identify factors influencing role perceptions, expectations and behaviors from a gender perspective in rural families. Data were collected from a sample of 110 families in the village of Palestine in the El-Kharga district in The New Valley Governorate using a questionnaire form prepared to achieve the objectives of the study. Data were collected during October and November 2016. The frequencies, percentages, mean, Pearson's simple correlation coefficient, and (T) test in the presentation and analysis of results. Findings revealed that the relative weight of men's 'perceptions of their role in the household reached 77.88% while the relative weight of women's perceptions of their roles reached 73.03%. 96.36% and 69.09% for role expectations while 71.15% and 68.79% for role behavior of men and women in rural family. The results also indicate significant differences between men and women with regard to perceptions, expectations and behaviors of the social role within the rural family. The results also indicate that there are 11 significant correlations between the levels of the role according to the gender in the rural family. Regarding the factors affecting role perceptions, expectations and behaviors within the family, the results indicate a significant correlation between the type of family as an independent variable with the role perceptions and behaviors of women, the number of family members and the expected role of women, the number of female and role expectations of women in the family. Regarding the social role of men, the results indicate the significance of the correlation between the wives' work status and participation in family expenditure as independent variables with the role perceptions and behavior of the of men within the family.

The purpose of this study was to 1) assess the linkages in the New Valley’s Agricultural Innovation System (NVAIS) and 2) characterize the information structure underlying the system. Data were collected from 50 respondents represent the nine components of the studied system during the period from Feb. to Mar. 2015 using in-depth interviews. The graph theoretical technique (GTT) was used to assess the linkages and information structures in the studied system. The obtained results showed that NVAIS was not fully identified; however, 44 of a total 72 linkages only were identified, and have a density of 0.61. Only 14 linkages are established through specific linkage mechanisms so density declines to 0.19. The component "Observatory of Development and cooperatives (O)" is by far the main sender of information, followed by the component "Extension (E)" and "Higher Education (H)". The main receivers of information, is the component of "Farmers (F)". Components of "Research (R)" and "Policy (P)" have a special position in this system, being the most interactive components as it sends as much information as it receives from others. Components of Secondary agricultural schools (S) and Agricultural Credit (C) are candidates to reform because of they interacts other components at a low tone. The component of private input supply, marketing and processing (M) is isolated is needs to deal efforts on enhancing its interaction within other components of the system. Any interventions on the components of O or F will be reflected in all over the system because the first one is a dominant component while the second is subordinate. The intermediary institutions, O and E, should play a more active role in bringing together other components. Specifically, links between these components could be strengthened through policy dialogues where the O and E could pass information from S, F, M, and C to P, H and R; such transmission of information should help P, R and H reassess agricultural policy, research and education priorities

This study was conducted to revise the taxonomic identity and clarify specific relationships among the studied Triticum species in Egypt. The studied species included; T. dicoccum (Schrank) Schubl.; T. dicoccoides (Koren ex Asch. & Graebn.) Aaron Sohn. T. tugidum L.; T. durum Desf.; T. pyramidale (Delile ex Schult.) Percival and T. aestivum L. Moreover, the wild Emmer Wheat T. dicoccoides (Koren ex Asch. & Graebn.) Aaron Sohn was recently found in Egypt as a new record. The genus Triticum L. includes 14 species, all of them are cultivated for food except the wild Emmer.