The effect of various thermal treatments (electric oven, microwave) and g-irradiation at three doses (6, 8 and 10 KGy) on the composition of volatile and non-volatile of anise essential oil and also their antioxidant properties were considered. The hydrodistilled oil (HD) of control and treated samples were subjected to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. The volatile profile of raw HD oil of anise consisted mainly of transe-anethole (79.68%) followed by hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (6.95%), para-anisaldehyde (5.49%); g-himachalene (2.53%) and estragole (0.76%). Although the effect of roasting didn’t cause significant changes in the total yield  of major compounds of HD anise oil which are phenylpropanoid derivative (transe anethole , para-anisaldehyde, cis-anethole and estragole (=methylchavicol), it is found that gamma irradiation revealed the same behavior at the 10 KGy irradiated sample but decrease the total yield of these compounds in 6.8 KGy irradiated sample compared to control one. also the thermal and g- irradiation caused drastic increase in the total yield of sesquiterpenes whereas decreased oxygenated compounds  in all samples under investigation compared to control one. Such changes affected the antioxidant activity of the treated samples 1.1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging as well as β-carotene bleaching test against butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT). The strongest effect of reduction of DPPH radical as well as the highest inhibiting effect of the oxidation of linoleic acid and the subsequent bleaching of β-carotene was by 8 KGy irradiated sample which comprised (84.57%±1.43); (85.21% ± 0.12) respectively, in comparison to BHT (98% ± 0.0) at the same concentration 30 µg/mL besides all samples under investigation revealed high antioxidant activities due to their high content of phenylpropanoid and oxygenated compounds. These confirmed by total phenolic content.  High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was used for the analysis of phenolic compounds in the selected sample. Polyphenolic compounds were analysed on C18 Reversed Phase (RP) HPLC. A total of 9 phenolic compounds were identified, the obtained results showed that the predominant compound was P-qumaric acid (43.36%) followed by ferulic acid (21.06%).

Two field experiments were carried out during two early summer seasons of 2012 and 2013 years at the Experimental Farm of Kaha Station, Qalubia Governorate to study the response of snap bean plants Poulista c.v to some agricultural treatments for early green pods yield production using (flowering, amcotone, super phosphate solution compounds) as foliar nutrition, (charcoal, agriculture sulphur and charcoal + agriculture sulphur) as soil addition and( Pea, onion and broad bean) as protection plants, in addition using black polyethylene plastic as a soil mulch. The results indicated that spraying the plants with flowering and amcotone compounds followed by super phosphate solution had the highest values of fresh and dry plant weight. While addingcharcoal to the soil before sowing snap bean seeds gave the highest values of no. of leaves/ plant followed by spraying withflowering and amcotone compounds, respectively. The data showed also that spraying the plants with flowering, amcotone compounds, super phosphate solution, adding charcoal + sulphur and soil mulch with black polyethylene plastic exerted the highest values on all parameter of  green pods its and yield attributes in both growing seasons. Concerning total sugars in dry pods it's clear that using protection plants with broad bean followed byonion were the best treatments on it. Generally it can recommend  using  any one of the mentioned treatments in this experiment especially flowering, amcotone compounds, super phosphate solution, charcoal + sulphur, respectively to obtain high green pod yield  either early or total with the  best quality.

Morphological structure and different characters of achene is most important from the taxonomic point of view. In present study achene shape, colour, size, texture and pappus type were recorded for 20 taxa of Asteraceae by using light microscope (LM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Examination of pappus by SEM recorded 6 groups; (1- Scarbous barbellate fine bristles and scarbous barbellate bristles, 2- Scarbous subulate scales free, 3- Scarious scales, 4- Paleaceous scales corona, 5- Plumose bristles and 6- Capillary barbellate). Also eight patterns were recognized based on surface sculpturing pattern: reticulate, with two subtypes, tuberculate, sulcate, puncticulate, colliculate, aculeate, lineate and striate. The data proved useful in the construction of a dichotomous indented key to the studied taxa. Twenty-two characters with 85 characters stats were used to generate anatomical key using the DELTA key-generating programs.

Karish cheese was made by fermentation of skim milk with yoghurt starter culture (Y) or by direct acidification with concentrated juice from orange (O), grapefruit (G) or lemon (L). In a combination of fermentation and direct acidification, the different juices were used to give the treatments of YO, YG and YL. The highest yield (29.17%) of the fresh cheese was recorded from YL treatment. This was followed by values of 27.93, 27.51 and 26.13% from L, YO, and O treatments in order, whereas cheese from Y had the lowest yield being 21.26%. Such yield values were accompanied by the corresponding vitamin C contents of 6.5, 7.33, 6.35, 7.50 and 0.33 mg/100 g, respectively. The use of different juices gave more acidic fresh cheese than cheese made using Y with them or Y alone which caused the lowest acidity content.        The rheological properties of the fresh cheese including hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, gumminess and adhesiveness were also affected by the applied treatments. During storage of all cheese samples in the refrigerator, TS, acidity, total protein, SN/TN and FRI gradually increased with different rates, whereas only vitamin C content decreased. Evaluation of the organolptic properties revealed that the use of orange or lemon juice with yoghurt starter gave the best quality of fresh cheese with the higher scores for body and texture as well as the flavour of the cheese.

Sixteen flax genotypes {13 promising lines This study aimed at: (1) knowing about farmers’ views about advantages, disadvantages of mobile extension service and their suggestions to make this prospective initiative succeed; (2) discovering farmers’ behavioral intentions to use mobile extension service in Assiut governorate; (3) determining the kind of information that farmers will need by using mobile extension service; (4) examining the effect of the six antecedents proposed by Nysveen et al(2005a) on farmers’ behavioral intentions to use mobile extension service. Data were collected by questionnaire from 233 farmers randomly selected from two villages in Assiut governorate. The results showed the advantages, disadvantages of mobile extension service from the viewpoint of the respondents and their suggestions to make this prospective initiative succeed. It came out that the respondents have positive intentions to use mobile extension, and their prospective behavior proceeds to use mobile extension service if it comes into existence. It cleared up that the information needs of farmers by using mobile extension were related to market information (prices, and demand indicators) and know-how information (what to plant and which seed varieties to use). It became clear that the model of Nysveen et al (2005a) was overall significant and the six antecedents of behavioral intentions significantly explains 71% of variance in farmers’ behavioral intentions to use mobile extension service. Finally, based on the results of this study, major recommendations are derived for the potential producers when developing the prospective mobile extension service

Agriculture Investments play important role in agriculture sector, It contributes about 15.4 of total GDP for the period (1995 / 1996 - 2013 / 2014).  The research problem was the decrease in the contribution of the agricultural investment in the total investment and this has lead to a decrease in the contribution of the agriculture sector in the Egyptian Gross demostic products (GDP).  The results showed that agricultural sector contributes with about 5.6% of the total investments between different economic sectors. The study showed that there was an efficiency in the agricultural private investment and in total agricultural investment while there was unefficiency in the agricultural public investment. The study showed that the most important determinants of agricultural investment in Egypt were agricultural gross domestic product, GDP, the agricultural income, reclaimed area, interest rate of agricultural loans and agricultural labor. The agricultural investment value is inversely proportional to both of the interest rates of agricultural loans and the volume of agricultural labor, where by decreasing both of the interest rates of agricultural loans and size of agricultural labor by about 1% leads to an increase in agricultural investments with about 0.17, 1.88 billion pounds respectively, the reason of decline in the agricultural employment size was to expand in using the technology in the agricultural sector. From the estimated model indicators that increasing both of the agricultural gross domestic product and GDP and agricultural income with about 1% leads to increase agricultural investments with about 0.413 , 40, 30 million pounds, respectively, and by increasing the reclaimed area with about 1% the investment increased with about 3.2 million pounds. The study showed that ARIMA model was the most suitable model for forecasting public, private and total agricultural investment. The forecasted figures for public investment were about 3.4, 3.01, 3.04 billion pounds for the years 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, respectively while forecasting for the private agricultural investment were about 6.14, 3.99, 2.65 billion pounds, respectively for the same years. While forecasting for total agricultural investment will be about 10.04, 7.64, and 5.79 billion pounds during the forecasted years. Finally the study recommended some important and topical recommendations for raising the agricultural investment such as: 1. Unify the agencies responsible for data source of investments to design a correct and clear investment map. 2. Stimulate agricultural investment projects by reducing the taxes through designing good tax and investment policies. 3. To Integrate the young graduates and small farmers in great cooperation for land reclamation and other agricultural projects by the help and stimulation of Agricultural Development And Credit Bank.

Sixteen flax genotypes {13 promising lines and 3 check varieties viz., Giza 8 (oil type), Sakha 1 (dual purpose type) and Sakha 3 (fiber type)} were evaluated for straw, seed, oil yields and their related traits under twelve different environments; four locations (Sakha, Etay El-Baroud, Ismailia and Giza Exp. Stations through three successive seasons (2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14). These materials were evaluated in a randomized complete blocks design with three replications at the twelve above-mentioned environments. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among genotypes (G), environments (E) and G x E interaction for all studied traits except straw weight per plant, indicating a wide range of variation among genotypes, environments and these genotypes exhibited differential response to environmental conditions. The significant variance due to residual for all characters except both straw weight per plant and oil yield per fad indicated that genotypes differed with respect to their stability suggesting that prediction would be difficult, which means that mean performance alone would not be appropriate. Interaction component of variance (σ2ge) was less than the genotypic variance (σ2g) for all characters, indicating that genotypes differ in their genetic potential for these traits. This was reflected in high heritability and low discrepancy between phenotypic (PCV) and genotypic (GCV) coefficients of variability values for these traits indicating the possibility of using each of long fiber percentage, plant height and technical stem length as selection indices for improving straw weight per plant, as well as, using 1000-seed weight and capsules number per plant as selection indices for improving seed weight per plant. Yield stability (YSi) statistic indicated that S.541-C/3 and S.541-D/10 gave high mean performance and stability for straw, fiber, seed and oil yields per fad in addition to oil percentage, capsules number per plant and 1000-seed weight. Therefore, the two genotypes well be released under the name Giza 11 and Giza 12, respectively. These newly released varieties are of dual purpose type for straw, fiber, seed and oil yield. They may replace the low yielding cultivars Giza 8, Sakha 1 and Sakha 3.

The current research aimed to investigating the current situation of the research stations of Desert Research Center and possibility of achieving its roles in the development of the Desert communities, identifying barriers facing and badly affect its role from the viewpoint of its employees, in addition to identifying the current and expected role of these stations from the viewpoints of the surrounded farmers. Thirty six research stations’ employees represent about 32.7% of the total number of employees were selected from the studied research stations. In addition to twenty surrounded farmer were selected belonging to each station with a total number of 80. The research depends on the description approach to achieve its objectives. Frequencies, percentages, average, and weighted average were used for result presentation and analysis.      The main results were   1-   Lack of efforts for employees’ trainings that could affect their role in developing the desert communities they working in. 2-   There are several barriers faced the studied research stations and the employees suggests several points to overcome these barriers. 3-   More than two thirds of respondents (67.5%) were located in low and medium level of the role, that represent the low role of the studied research stations in the development of desert communities 4-   There are several activities and services were expected by the surrounded farmers that could activate the stations’ developmental roles. At the end, based on the research findings, four recommendations were formulated to activation the research stations’ role s in serving and development of desert communities.

The safe re-use of wastewater for agriculture is a desired goal in many arid zone countries. The potential of greywater as alternative irrigation source for vegetable crops was investigated. Tomato, pea and cantaloupe plants were drip irrigated with both fresh Nile water and greywater to access the impact on yield production and associated environmental and health risks. The biological properties of the two different sources of water clearly indicated that greywater was extremely higher in bacterial content compared with fresh Nile water. Pea plants showed significantly higher yield irrigated with fresh Nile water, however, tomato and cantaloupe plants gave significantly higher yield irrigated with greywater. Generally, the coliform populations in untreated greywater irrigated plants were higher than those irrigated with Nile water in all tested vegetables. The percentages of increasing in total coliform in untreated-irrigated greywater vegetables were 27.95%, 34.55% and 41.4% for pea, tomato and cantaloupe (averaged over outer and inner fruit tissues), respectively. Unexpectedly, central part of fruits for pea and tomato had highest coliform counts when compared to the outer surface using both Nile and untreated greywater. Overall, irrigation with greywater increased soil bacterial content by 15% while fresh Nile water increased it by 13% at the end of the experiment. In addition, greywater elevated the content of soil total coliform by 52% where fresh Nile water increased it by 30%. The results of this study indicated that untreated greywater should not consider as an alternative irrigation source for edible crops such as vegetables. In current investigation, the beneficial effects in tomato through giving significantly higher yield with greywater became worthless after the enormous fecal contamination that was detected in fruits. Several considerations must be adopted to minimize the health and environmental risks associated with greywater reuse in irrigation of vegetable crops.

Two field experiments were conducted at the Experimental Research Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Egypt during spring 2013 and 2014 using summer squash (Cucurbita pepo cv. Eskandarani) for studying the effects of PGPR strains. The objective of the first experiment was to study the efficiency of single, double and triple inoculations of Azospirillum brasilense (AC1), Bacillus subtilis (AC2) and Serratia marcescens (BM1) on summer squash fruit characters. Results showed that the double inoculations of tested PGPR strains in addition to single inoculation with Serratia marcescens produced non-significant higher fruit yield and average fruit weight compared to triple inoculation (AC1+AC2+BM1) and single inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense. However, non-inoculated control plants and plants inoculated with Bacillus subtilis showed lower fruit yield and average fruit weight. From the previous results, it concluded that the double inoculation were better than single and triple inoculations. However, the aim of the second experiment was to evaluate the efficiency of PGPR under N and P fertilization levels on plant growth, yield and nutrients uptake of summer squash as well as soil nutrient availability (available N and P). As per main effects, generally, plant growth, fruit yield, nutrients uptake and availability enhanced significantly by increasing N and P levels, except half dose of P which gave statistically equivalent values of plant fresh and dry weight as well as nitrogen uptake in shoots and fruits in addition to P in shoots compared to full dose. Also, main effect of PGPR showed that the inoculated plants gave significantly higher plant growth, fruit yield, nutrient uptake and availability compared to un-inoculated control plants. Inoculated plants with PGPR strains under full dose of N and P gave mostly highest plant growth, fruit yield, nutrients uptake and availability. This effect was at significant level in terms of fruit yield, soil nutrient availability and some nutrients uptake such as K in the shoots and N the fruits. Furthermore, PGPR significantly reduced P fertilizer application without any reduction in squash yield, especially under no and half dose of N fertilizer. Results revealed that the efficiency of PGPR strains increased by P increasing and decreased by N increasing.