The study aimed to evaluate the performance of 15 exotic indeterminate genotypes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) to determine their suitability for cultivation under greenhouse conditions. The study material was obtained from two globally known gene banks, namely, the Center for Genetic Resources of the Netherlands and the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (GRIN-Global) of the United States Department of Agriculture. One locally registered hybrid, Asya, was used as the control. The experimental layout was a complete randomized block design with three replications. The data collected were vegetative, flowering, and fruit characteristics as well as the number of fruits and both early and total yield per plant. High significant differences were observed among the exotic genotypes and control for all the studied attributes. The mean control values of fruit weight, firmness and pericarp thickness were significantly high, and several of the exotic genotypes exceeded the control values for vegetative, flowering, and yield characteristics under study. The genotypes coded as G.21 (Allround), G.18 (Alicante), G.6 (Marsol), G.7 (Harzer Kind) and G.3 (Robar) are promising for their overall performance in the total yield per plant and can be recommended for further exploitation to produce hybrids.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate different samples of  corn silage (Whole corn plant with ears) from different regions in Egypt to determine each sample has the highest nutritive value and nutrients digestibility and therefore reduce the feed cost, increase feed efficiency and probability of lactating dairy farms. Silage samples were collected from different four areas in Egypt; El-Salhya, El-Nobarya, El-Monofia and Ganakles. The study Included three field and laboratory work cores which were; chemical composition, in-vitro and in-situ evaluation studies. The samples were analyzed for its chemical composition, Dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). The silage samples were evaluated in-vitro and in-situ. In-vitro evaluation was conducted using gas production technic. Gas production (GP) was recorded at 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 hours of incubation. The organic matter digestibility (OMD), short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and metabolizable energy (ME) were measured. The in-situ experiment, involved nylon bags containing silage samples from different regions were incubated in three fistulated Barki rams for 24h. Samples were taken out at 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24h of incubation. The obtained results indicated that the Ganakles silage ampel recorded the lowest (P<0.01) values of GP within the different times compared to others. The silage from El-Salhya had the highest (P<0.01) values for OMD and SCFA. The DMD of in-situ samples was significantly (P<0.01) increased within the different times of incubation with Al-Salhia silage samples, but the lowest significant values (P<0.01) were recorded  with Al-Nobaria silage samples. Depending on invitro and in-situ results for silage type results, in vitro and in-situ for silage type from Al-Salhia area had a best characteristics of good silage and was chosen forever conducting lactation trial.

The study aims at estimating internal rate of return for the cultivation of date palms project in the new lands to encourage small investors and young graduates, to adopt projects of sustainable agricultural development under the assumption of change revenues and invested costs of the project. Also, explaining some productivity and economic indicators to produce dates in Egypt. The study showed that palm area, number of fruitful palms, palm productivity and the total production of dates annually increase at significant rates during the period of 1996 - 2010. The most important regions producing dates are Behera, Ismailia, 6 October, Aswan, New Valley, Matrouh and Noubaria zone. The most important cultivated varieties are Zaghloul, Samani, Meghal and Siwei. The study indicated that internal rate of return in the new lands as in Northern Sinai, Matrouh and the New Valley reached 28%. It was observed that decreasing total revenue up to 25% with increasing investment costs up to 25%, the internal rate of return is not less than 18%. So, cultivation of date palms is economically a profitable project. Thus, this project contributes to the horizontal agricultural expansion, reducing desertification, encourages some industries related to palm cultivation, creates new jobs, increases date export opportunities to overseas markets and increases agricultural income. Also, profits gained by young graduates are sufficient to pay annual premiums of received loans in addition to the interest of these loans, so that the left return is enough for their livelihood.

Different coloured plastic buckets (yellow, red, blue and white), filled with water were used as traps for adults of Tropinota squalida Scop. in apple orchards at El-Khatatba (El-Behaira Gover-norate) during seasons 2005 and 2006. The gen-eral mean numbers of adults/ trap were 6.0, 8.1, 14.4 and 24.1 in 2005 and 4.7, 6.7, 10.5 and 18.7 in 2006 seasons for white, red, yellow and blue traps, respectively. The general means for trap efficiency (two seasons) were 9.8, 13.7, 23.2 and 39.3 for white, red, yellow and blue traps, respec-tively. Two groups of white plastic cups, group filled with blue water solution and another group filled with water were used as traps and slung in apple trees. The general mean numbers of adults/trap were 8.1 & 7.5 for blue water solution and 5.8 & 5.2 for water traps during 2005 and 2006, respectively. The general means of trap effi-ciency (two seasons) were 36.8 and 25.9% for the above mentioned traps, respectively