Conservation agriculture is a concept which defines different farming systems. Its implementation depends on soil properties, climate and socio-economic considerations. Since two thousands, no-till technology; which is one facet of the conservation agriculture has begun to take place in the high plains of Sétif province-Algeria. Its adoption is facing several problems of socio-economic and technical issues. This work monitored the track of no-till adoption within a sample of 28 farmers during two years 2014 and 2016. During 2014 farmers were supported financially and technically through a subsidy program that aimed at the support of conservation agriculture via no-till technique. In 2016, the subsidy program has ended; hence, farmers have no longer incentives. Multivariate statistical analyses were performed to diagnose the evolution of no-till adoption and behavior’s farmers between the two periods. In 2016, results showed an increase of no-till area, even though, the drop of the number of adoptive farmers by 71%. The main reasons for adopting no-till according to the adoptive farmers were the minimization of farming operation costs and saving time. However, the major impediments facing no-till adoption; were the rise of weeding charges and the concern of weed infestation especially by bromus.sp, which is a vigorous prevalent weed, which locally developed some pesticide’s resistance. Also, the excessive use of pesticides may be considered as an environmental reason for no adopting no-till.

Analysis of consumer preferences for cowpea varieties in Osun State was carried out with a view to identifying attributes that determine price variation among cowpea varieties and the effect on consumer’s willingness to pay for those varieties. A multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select 240 respondents for the study, comprising 180 cowpea consumers and 60 retailers. Primary data were collected on cowpea varieties, their attributes and the consumer’s willingness to pay for cowpea varieties using well structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that out of thirteen varieties found in the area, only nine varieties of cowpea were common in the market. The quality of each variety differs which explained variation in their price. In terms of preference the Oloyin variety is preferred most by 78% of consumers. Weevil resistance had the highest rank among the cowpea attributes. Oloyin had the highest WTP followed by Milk and Drum with ₦303, ₦237 and ₦213 per kg, respectively. Hedonic pricing methods provide a statistical estimate of premiums and discounts for cowpea attributes. Results indicated that weevil resistance was the most important attribute to consumer. Cowpeas with weevil damage tolerance, brown colour, large grain size and short cooking time commanded price premium for almost all the varieties. The consumer discounted prices for insect damage, small size, white colour, smooth skin and grain colour mixed together. The study concludes on the need for breeders and research institutes to incorporate these cowpea attributes that attracted price premium into their cowpea breeding programmes.

The use of antagonist microorganisms against pathogenic organisms in organic agricultural systems was promising for biological control approach. The aim of this study was to determination of the potential biological control of some fungal isolates which characterized as endophytic and antagonistic against soil borne Fusarium culmorum (FC) and F. oxysporum f.sp. radicis lycopersici (FORL) pathogens. For this, seven isolates of endophytic Acremonium spp. that isolated from healthy wheat plants and eight isolates of antagonist Trichoderma spp., isolated from soil of organic vegetable areas, were performed as biological control agents (BCA). The agar media with hypha and mycelia of the BCAs and spore suspensions (106 spores/ml) of FC and FORL were treated for inoculation of wheat seeds and tomato seedlings. The harvested plants were statistically analyzed by some parameters (severity of crown rot disease (%DS and scale), plant lengths (cm) etc.). In conclusion, the Acremonium isolates (47.5%) were lower means of disease severity than Trichoderma isolates (74.6%) for FC and FORL assessments in wheat experiment. In tomato, the averages of disease severity between Acremonium and Trichoderma were similar while their means were lower than positive control (The Scale of DS=0.67

The aim of this review paper is to explore the available information from research findings on the use of Turmeric (Curcuma longa) as a reliable phytogenic antibiotic for poultry production in the tropics especially in Nigeria and other countries. A wide range of phytogenic additives has found a growing interest in fortification of poultry diets. Supplementation of natural alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters in order to maintain both birds’ performance and health in the tropics will be a welcome development. Turmeric has reportedly been widely supplemented in poultry diets as natural alternative antibiotics in several studies with outstanding performances. The nutritional, medicinal, haematological and phyto-toxicological effects of turmeric were reviewed in this paper. Hence, turmeric supplementation at recommended inclusion rate in poultry feeds without posing any deleterious effects to the birds’ performances as well as the consumers of the products, and ultimately, leading to better profitability on the part of the farmers, will be a nutritional breakthrough for the farmers in the tropics.

Tuzluluk, bitki yetiştiriciliğini kısıtlayan, dünyada ve Türkiye’de özellikle kurak ve yarı kurak bölgelerde görülen, bitkisel verimi sınırlandıran ve geniş alanların tarım dışı kalmasına neden olan ciddi bir tarımsal problemdir. Dünyanın farklı bölgelerinde bitki yetiştiriciliğinde ortaya çıkan bor (B) noksanlığı ülkemizde de önemli bir beslenme problemidir. Son yıllarda yapılan çalışmalarda, B noksanlığı altında tuz stresinin yol açtığı zararın arttığı bildirilmiştir. Türkiye'nin en önemli yemeklik yağ bitkilerinden biri olan ayçiçeğinin B noksanlığına en duyarlı bitkilerden biri olduğu bilinmektedir. Bu çalışmada ayçiçeğinde tuz zararının etkisinin azaltılması üzerine B uygulamasının etkisinin belirlenmesi amacıyla su kültüründe tuzlu ve tuzsuz koşullarda artan oranlarda B uygulaması altında iki ayçiçeği genotipi denenmiştir. Denemede bitkilerin kök ve yeşil aksam kuru madde verimi, B konsantrasyonu ve K/Na ve Ca/Na oranları belirlenmiştir. Denemeden elde edilen sonuçlara göre, kontrol uygulamasına göre tuz ilavesinin yeşil aksam kuru madde verimini azalttığı, buna karşılık B uygulamalarının ise kontrol uygulamasına göre kuru madde verimini görülmüştür. Bitkinin tuz zararını gidermede B’un belirgin bir rolünün olmadığı ve tuzlu koşullarda bitkinin B alım düzeyinin arttığı belirlenmiştir. Bu sonuçlara ilave olarak B noksanlığına ve tuz toksisitesine karşı dayanıklılıkta ayçiçeği genotipleri arasında farklılıkların olduğu gözlemlenmiştir.

Virüsler, az sayıda gen taşıyan küçük bir genomdan ve bu genomu koruyup konak hücreye girişini sağlayan protein bir kılıftan oluşurlar. Diğer canlılardan farklı olarak aktif bir metabolizmaya sahip değillerdir. Çoğalmak için içine girdikleri hücrenin protein sentez ve enzim sistemlerinin kontrolünü ele geçirir, çok sayıda kopyalarını ürettikten sonra çoğunlukla hücrenin ölümüne yol açarak hücreden dışarı çıkarlar. Gıda içerisindeki sayıları değişmez ancak gıda ile iletilebilirler. Uygun işlemlerle gıdalarda etkisiz hale getirilebilirler. Hastalık etmeni bazı virüsler et, süt ve enfekte olmuş hayvanlardan gelen ürünler arasında bulunabilirler. Virüslere bağlı gastroenteritlerin sıklığının özellikle gelişmiş ülkeler başta olmak üzere giderek arttığı gözlenmektedir. Viral gastroenterit etkenlerinden Rotavirüs ve Enterik Adenovirüsler, çocuklarda akut gastroenteritlerin en sık görülen etkenleridir. Gıdalardaki virüsleri saptama yöntemleri yeteri kadar tatmin edici değildir ve gıda tedarikinin rutin olarak izlenmesinde tespiti çok zordur.

Bu çalışmada, Türkiye’de başlıca zeytin yetiştiriciliği yapan Ege bölgesinin bazı illerinden (Muğla, Aydın, İzmir ve Manisa) 2 hasat dönemi (2007-2008 ve 2008-2009) süresince yerli zeytin çeşitlerinin (Gemlik, Memecik, Ayvalık, Uslu ve Domat) yağı incelenmiştir. Bu yağların toplam fenolik madde ve fenolik bileşimi belirlenmiştir. Yağların toplam fenolik madde içeriği, 2007-2008 hasat dönemi örneklerinde 23,69-153,64 mg kafeik asit/kg, 2008-2009 hasat dönemi örneklerinde 16,18-136,22 mg kafeik asit/kg aralığında belirlenmiştir. Tüm zeytinyağı örneklerinde tespit edilen fenolik maddeler; tirozol, oleuropein, 4-hidroksifenil asetik asit, luteolin, vanilik asit, hidroksitirozol, rutin, sinnamik asit, verbaskozit, hidroksi fenilkarboksilik asit, sirinjik asit, 3,4-dihidroksibenzoik asit, kafeik asit, ferulik asit, p-kumarik asit, taksifolin ve apigenindir. Tirozol ve oleuropeinin, 2007-2008 hasat döneminde 1,80-13,39 mg/kg, 1,26-19,50 mg/kg ve 2008-2009 hasat döneminde ise 1,76-11,66 mg/kg, 0,20-13,12 mg/kg aralığında en fazla miktarda değişen bileşenler olduğu saptanmıştır.

Fındık yılda yaklaşık 2 milyar dolarlık ihracat geliri ile ülkemiz için önem arz etmektedir. Dünyada üretilen toplam fındığın yaklaşık %65 i ülkemizde hasat edilmektedir. Uygun iklim koşulları ve çok nitelikli olmayan dağlık arazide yetişmesi dolayısıyla Ordu, Giresun ve Trabzon illerinde fındık dikili alanların korunması ve geliştirilmesi öncelikli konular arasında yerini almaktadır. Bu bölgede makineli tarıma geçilmemesi veya yaygınlaşmaması nedenleriyle üretim maliyetleri diğer illerle ve yurtdışı ile kıyaslandığında yüksek seviyelerde bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada fındık durum analizi, hasat makinelerinin sınıflandırılması, makineli hasata geçilmesinin gerekliliği ve tarım bakımından daha az nitelikli olan eğimli ve dağlık arazilerde fındık tarımının sürdürülebilirliği üzerinde durulmuştur.

The aim of this study is to determine the functionality period of pistillate and staminate flower types and the pollen viability and normally developed pollen rates with pollen production in staminate flowers of monoecious pecan nut cultivars in Adana ecological conditions. In the study, 11 pecan nut cultivars named as Coctaw, Comanche, Harris Super, Hastings, Ideal, Mahan, Royal, Shawnee, Texhan, Western and Wichita were used. Flowering periods of evaluated cultivars were determined as homogamous, protandrous, partially protandrous and partially protogynous. The flowering dates occur between 3rd-20th May in 2016 and 30th April-18th May in 2017. The pollen viability rates were found to be quite high in all cultivars, but in 2017 the rates were lower than 2016. The lowest pollen viability rates were obtained from Hastings in 2016 and 2017 (60.0% and 61.6%) respectively and the highest rates were in Shawnee (89.1%) at 2016 and in Mahan (87.7%) at 2017. Normally developed pollen rates were adequate for all cultivars and the rates were differed between 92.30% and 98.42% in 2016, and 90.20% 97.24% in 2017. The differences between cultivars in terms of pollen production were significantly important. The pollen number in one catkin was found between 3.512.382 and 11.097.407 at 2016 and 6.101.233 and 14.958.453 at 2017.

In this study, the removal efficiency of Pb(II) from industrial leachate was investigated by using expanded perlite by adsorption. The effects of pH, contact time, and adsorbent dosage were examined on the Pb(II) removal. The adsorption kinetics were tested to understand the adsorption mechanism using three kinetic models, i.e., Elovich, intraparticle diffusion, and the pseudo second order reaction kinetic models. As the result, the best conformity kinetic model for Pb(II) adsorption on expanded perlite was described as the pseudo second-order (R2>0.99). It is indicated that chemisorption is the determining step of adsorption process rather than mass transfer from industrial leachate. According to the data obtained from intraparticle diffusion model, the adsorption is composed of more than one step. This can be attributed to the fact that the adsorption in the final portion was the intraparticle diffusion while the adsorption in the first portion was the film diffusion. Both film diffusion and intraparticle diffusion processes in the adsorption of Pb(II) on expanded perlite are significant. This study indicated that expanded perlite was an influential alternative adsorbent for the removal of Pb(II) by adsorption from industrial leachate.