Organic farming aims not to use chemical inputs, to increase quality not the yield, control and certify every steps of the production and is a human and environmental friendly production system. In recent years, use of organic food has increased parallel with the increasing interest in the environmental protection and safe foods in the developed countries. Turkey has a great potential for organic farming due to its wide diversity of climatic and soil conditions. KOP (Konya Plain Project) Region, includes the provinces as Aksaray, Karaman, Konya, Niğde, has a wide agricultural fields where not used chemical fertilizer and not contaminated with pesticides. Therefore this region is very important for organic agriculture. In 2013 year, planting area is 769.014 hectares and organic production is 1.620.466 tons in Turkey. KOP Region has a 0.47% planting area and 3.4% organic production in Turkey. Niğde which had the first rank in terms of organic production, constituted about 61% organic production amount. KOP Region could present significant opportunities and benefits to potential investors in terms of organic farming. In KOP Region, organic farming practices should be cared and supported.

Aflatoxins are the potential carcinogens produced as secondary metabolites by Aspergillus flavus. They have the ability to contaminate large number of food which ultimately affect the human population. Malt extract agar was selected for the growth of control stains of fungus. The aim of the study was to develop a reliable and quick method for the detection of aflatoxin producing strains in peanuts by using molecular approaches. Total 80 samples of infected peanuts were collected from four different cities of Punjab and checked for their aflatoxin contamination. For aflatoxin detection, three target genes nor1, ver1 and aflR were selected which was involved in the aflatoxin biosynthesis. In all examined cases, 24 out of 80 (30%) samples successfully amplified all three genes indicating aflatoxigenic activity. Discrimination between aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic strains were also determined on the basis of amplification of these three target DNA fragments. In this study, it was also demonstrated that only specific strains were able to produce the aflatoxin contamination in peanuts.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting the consumption of bee products and honey and also determine consumption habits and awareness of bee products in some selected province in Turkey. The main material of the study was formed by the original survey data which were collected from randomly selected 1112 people from Batman, Bursa, Diyarbakır, Erzincan, Kayseri, Kırşehir, Mersin, Muğla, Muş, Ordu, and Samsun as random provinces in 2014. The data in the study were examined in two parts. The first part consisted of the consumption habits and awareness of honey, whereas the preferences of individuals usage of bee product such as pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom were examined in the second part. Multivariate logistic regression model was applied for each section including variables data for bee products. According to the survey, it was found that 39.6% of consumers consumed honey between 0-500 grams on a monthly basis. 51.2% of consumers bought honey from beekeepers, and 41% of them stated that they received from the market and bazaar. 5.9% of consumers believe the advertisement on television about bee product. 45.8% of consumers using honey stated that they could understand the quality of the honey. The proportion of consumers who kept a trademark for bee products was determined as 52.7%. Age of the consumer, honey that where consumers bought, honey brand preference and convincing of honey advertisement were significant for P

Guinea fowl live on the Africa continent as wild and where used intensively family livestock farming in the rural. Although the homeland of the Africa continent, Guinea growing rapidly increasing in the World. Nowadays, Guinea fowl is an important alternative genetic resource can be used in organic livestock farming which developing quickly. Able to adapt to different climatic conditions, have an economic efficiency level in the don’t good environmental conditions and being resistant to diseases are the biggest advantages. Besides, Guinea fowl eats insects, ticks, worms, mouse and snakes, especially in the surrounding of the livestock farming in the rural it can be used for biological control of these pests easily. Because of these advantages, Guinea fowl has a potential for alternative poultry production in Turkey. In this review, importance and general characteristics of Guinea fowl are given.

This study during the spring of 2014, effects of plant extract and oil mixture obtained from various plants added to the syrup given to the forces equalized bee on physiological characteristics of the colonies were examined. Bee colonies (10 colonies in each group) were randomly divided into two groups. When the first group feed syrup and plant extract oil mixture, at the same rate with feed syrup only test group to control group (1/1 sucrose-water) was applied. According to the research results, the plant extract-oil mixture was not effective on the number of frames and hive weight. The mixture although numerically increased the amount of brood rearing area, this effect was not statistically significant. However, provided statistically significant increase in honey production. We concluded that, while the plant extract-oil mixture tested is not effective in brood production, is effective on honey production.

In our study we aim to increase frost resistance and improve the yield and quality of apple is important in Turkey and world economy. Phenological and morphological observations, physiological and biochemical analyzes were carried out in apple (Malus domestica L.) plants. It was studied to determine the effects of foliar Salicylic acid (0, 500 ppm/plant and 1000 ppm/plant) on adaptation of this plant when exposed to freezing stress, the quality and yield. Leaf photosynthetic pigment contents, total protein amount, proline amount, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase enzymatic activities were measured. The study planned by random experimental design and statistical analysis of data with SPSS program (LSD test) were made. It was determined that fruit and shoot numbers were increased in samples exposed to 500 ppm salicylic acid and while fruit weights were increased in samples exposed to 500 ppm and 1000 ppm salicylic acid compared to the control. Also, colour of plants were darkened. Chla, chlb, total chl, proline, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase amounts were increased significantly compared to the control group. Increases occured in the carotenoid and the protein amounts are not significant statistically. In the light of obtained data, foliar application of salicylic acid were found to reduce the effects of freezing stress and to increase the yield and quality of apple plants.

Combining ability analysis has an important position in rapeseed breeding. To evaluate genetic and combining ability effects, three Brassica napus L. testers “Punjab Sarson, Legend and Durre-NIFA” and five lines “Duncled, K-258, ZN-R-1, ZN-R-8, ZN-M-6” were crossed using line × tester design in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Mean sum of squares of the analysis of variances (ANOVA) for genotypes was highly significant for all of the traits. Most of the lines and testers exhibited significant results of mean sum of squares for combining ability. Line ‘Duncled’ was proved good general combiner for oil (8.8), protein (3.7), erucic acid (33.0), oleic acid (13.0) and glucosinolate (-19.3) over other lines and tester ‘Durree-NIFA’ for protein (6.6), erucic acid (-23.4), and linolenic acid (-5.3) over other testers. Significant specific combining ability effects were also observed. The best hybrid combinations were Legend × ZN-R-1 for oil (9.6), Punjab Sarson × Duncled for minimum erucic acid (-14.0) and linolenic acid contents (-6.0), and Legend × ZN-M-6 for maximum protein (8.2) and minimum glucosinolate contents (-11.1). The maximum oil contents were observed in ‘Legend × ZN-R-1’ (52.4%). The cross ‘Punjab Sarson × Duncled’ expressed maximum values of protein (26.5%) and oleic acid (62.5%) while minimum for erucic acid (2.3%), linolenic acid (5.4%) and glucosinolate contents (19.3µmol/g). This research discloses the significance of non-additive genetic effects for most of the studied traits except oil contents. These studies will also help to improve nutritional values of rapeseed crop by selecting noble crosses.

This study evaluated the correlation between scrotal circumference (SC), body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) in relation to breeding age in West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks. A total of 320 WAD bucks from birth to 15 months of age from various farms in Ibadan, Nigeria, were studied. They were grouped as A-birth to 3, B-4 to 7, C-8 to 11 and D-12 to 15 months old respectively, comprising of 80 bucks per group. Semen was collected from 10 randomly selected bucks in each group and analysed. Results showed positive correlation between SC and age; SC increased with age; and at about 8 months of age and over, a consistent SC of 17 cm–18 cm was observed. BW also increased with age; BW significantly affected SC. Also, at 8 months of age and over, SC of 17 cm-18 cm was observed from 9 kg BW and above. However, the correlation between SC and BCS was low and not significant. Semen analysis revealed the best semen quality for groups C and D bucks. In conclusion, we suggest that WAD bucks of 8 months and above, with at least SC between 17 cm–18 cm and of over 9 kg BW, could be used to breed does successfully on the farm.

This study was conducted in order to determine the effect of the mechanical properties such as maximum force at the skin rupture point, energy at the skin rupture point and the skin firmness on color maturity of tomato by supervised learning algorithms of data mining. In the present study, a total of 88 tomato samples were used, and color measurements for each tomato in 4 different equatorial regions were performed and a total of 352 color measurement units were used. In the classification processes performed according to these mechanical properties, K-Star, Random Forest and Decision Tree (C4.5) algorithms of data mining were utilized, and in the comparison of comprising classification models, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean absolute error (MAE), Root relative squared error (RRSE) and Relative absolute error (RAE) values, which are some of the criteria of error variance, were considered to be low, while the classification accuracy rate was considered to be high. As a result of the comparison made, the classification model formed according to K-Star instance-based algorithm [MAE: 0.004, RMSE: 0.006, %RAE: 1.73, %RRSE: 1.70] has been found to be a better classifier compared to the others. With the classification made according to K-Star algorithm, the maximum force at the skin rupture point on the degree of maturity of tomato and the skin firmness were found to be green, light red, and their effects are non-significant during the color conversion periods, and found significant during other periods while the energy at the skin rupture point is only pink and has been to be significant during the color conversion stages and non-significant during other stages.

The present study was conducted to investigate the carcass traits of Karayaka lambs slaughtered at different slaughter weights (SWs) and to find out optimum SWs. Male Karayaka lambs with 20 kg live weight (n=30) constituted the animal material of the study. Lambs were randomly divided into five SW groups; 30 (GI; n=6), 35 (GII; n=6), 40 (GIII; n=6); 45 (GIV; n=6) and 50 (GV; n=6) kg. Lamb fattening feed (concentrate feed, ad libitum) and forage (lentil straw, 100g/lamb/day) were used as the feed material. Lambs were sent to slaughter at target SWs. Following the slaughter, non-carcass components, tailless hot and cold carcass weights were taken. Carcasses were separated into six sections as leg, foreleg, back, loin, neck and others. Physical dissection was performed to investigate carcass composition. Only the differences in carcass dressing and skin percentages of slaughter groups were not found to be significant. Increasing carcass fat percentages and decreasing carcass lean and bone percentages were observed with increasing SWs. Considering the consumer preferences, current findings revealed that Karayaka lambs should be sent to slaughter at weights between 30-35 kg. However, considering the red meat deficit of the country, current market conditions and producer preferences, the optimum SW for Karayaka lambs were recommended to be between 40-45 kg.