Drought has become major environmental constraint to the crops productivity and the sustainability of agriculture. Recently, using biochar (BC) as a soil conditioner has aroused much interest and proved to be an effective tool for improving soil properties and crops growth and yield. Therefore, a pot trial was conducted using wheat plant (Triticum aestivum L.) with three water regimes (60, 30 and 15% of water holding capacity(WHC)) and three rates of biochar (0, 2%, and 5%) to investigate the impact of biochar on growth and yield components. The results showed that WHC enhanced in the presence of BC leading to improving the availability of water to wheat plants grown in BC-treated soil. Plants grown in BC-amended soil had higher growth and plant biomass, net assimilation rates than those in un-amended soil. Biochar addition positively affected wheat growth parameters including increases in leaf area, number of leaves per plant, tillers number per plant, height of plant as well as shoot to root fresh weight ratio. Particularly interesting is the improvements in yield attributes. These results led us to conclude that the application of black carbon would enhance the growth and yield of crops under insufficient water supply. On other hand, biochar can be considered an effective tool for sustainable agriculture and hence mitigating the injurious effects of drought conditions on plants.

The effect of chitosan and salicylic acid treatments to investigate the seedling growth parameters of Broccoli seed sprouts (Tiburon f1) cultivar was the aim of this study. Salicylic Acid and Chitosan are the )elicitors( that stimulate the sprout, which are divided into Biotic (biological origin), abiotic (chemical or physical origin) elicitors and phytohormones have been applied alone or in combinations, in hydroponic solutions or sprays, and in different selected time points of the sprout growth or during post-harvest. Cumulative time had been completed (harvest time) using tap water, chitosan at 25, 50,100 ppm and salicylic acid at 65,130,260 ppm for seed soaking and sprouting , then precooled and air-dried sprouts were randomly chosen from glass jar (replicate) to collect data of sprout length, hypocotyl length, radical length, dry weight and fresh weight. Also, Samples of harvested 3, 5 and 7 days old etiolated broccoli dried using air draft oven at 65.5C° then grounded into powder for chemical analysis while fresh sprouts and seeds were analyzed for total phenols. However treatment with chitosan at 100 ppm cleared that the moisture, protein, ash, fiber, calcium , potassium, and total phenols of sprouts were increased by 9.63%, 33.73%, 11.80, 11.67%, 336.50 ppm, 196.43 ppm and 66.51mg/100g, respectively. Treated sprouts with salicylic acid at 65 ppm concentrate were also induced an increments on the same constituents reached 9.53%, 33.40%, 11.63, 10.46%, 333.50 ppm, 190.60 ppm and 62.90mg/100g, respectively over control (untreated). Therefore, treated sprouts with chitosan or salicylic acid could be considered as useful tool for improving the growth characters and bioactive metabolites of Broccoli seed sprouts For their Production of anti-cancer materials, As well secondary metabolic pathways respond to specific treatments with elicitors would be the basis for to enhance the production of secondary metabolites, in order to produce quality and healthy fresh foods

Investment is one of the most important tools of the economic and social development plans in order to achieve its objectives. The success of development policies depends on several factors, including the volume of investments and the efficiency of their distribution in different fields. This requires that the investment plans and programs set in line with the state's ability to use these investments effectively. Agricultural investment is one of the basic means for the success of agricultural development as it is the main basis for increasing production as well as increasing income and creating more job opportunities and investment is a variable variable has an effective role in finding solutions to the problems of the economy sucking As well as absorbing a measure of manpower that is not working, thus contributing to reducing the problem of unemployment, and increasing the government agricultural investment, which opens the way for private investments in the form of productive projects that contribute to increase production and thus increase exports and reduce imports, thus improving the agricultural balance and increasing national and individual income. Which is reflected in the increase in savings, which in turn lead to the creation of new investments. It can be said that the strategy of agricultural development in Egypt aims to encourage and increase rates of investment growth, whether public investment owned by the state or private investment contributes to increase production And of improving the investment required for the projects of  infrastructure and this leads to increased investment activities by adding new projects within the economic structure. The strategy of agricultural  development in Egypt aims to encourage and increase the rates of investment growth whether it is a public investment owned by the state or other sectors that contribute to the productivity of the private sector and the infrastructure necessary for the production projects. This leads to increase the investment activities by adding new productive projects that diversify the production base Within the economic structure, despite the successive economic changes experienced by the Egyptian economy, there is still a slowdown in the advancement of government agricultural investments with a clear and significant decline in investments directed to Compared to agricultural sectors obeyed other than the impact is clearly on the performance of the agricultural sector and thus lower rates of agricultural development in Egypt. From the above, the total agricultural investment equation shows that this investment increased by 0.21%, 0.54%, 0.52% for each 1% increase in both agricultural and agricultural exports in the previous year and agricultural income in the previous year, respectively, while decreasing Total agricultural investment by about 0.91% and 0.23% for each increase in agricultural balance deficit and exchange rate by 1%. In other words, the most important variables affecting agricultural investment in a given year were the agricultural GDP of the previous year, the value of agricultural income, and agricultural exports. The statistical significance of this relationship was found at 0.05, and the significance of the model as a whole was found to be around 79% of the changes in the investment to the aforementioned factors.

This study focuses on the evolution of urban encroachment on arable land in Egypt. There are three forms of encroachment on arable land. The first type is the removal of the fertile topsoil of agricultural land for the main purpose of bricks manufacturing. The second type is the setting aside of arable land and letting the land go unproductive for long time periods. The third type is the permanent conversion of arable land to buildings. The total acreage lost to encroachment from January 25, 2011 revolution till November 18, 2018 is about 85 thousands feddans of fertile land.  The first type of topsoil removal constitutes 7.7 percent of the total lost acreage .While setting aside of arable land constitutes 35.5 percent and the conversion of arable land to buildings constitutes 57.8 percent of total land lost to encroachment . Rapid population growth is the main driver for accelerating encroachment on arable land in Egypt. This is especially evident in the governorates that are not endowed with desert backyard. Gharbeya governorate is a good example of densely populated regions with no desert backyard that could be used for urban expansion. The study  reveals that population in Gharbeya grew during the period 2006-2017 with an annually rate of 2.1 percent.  While cultivated area and cropped area declined with an annual rate of 1006 feddans and 2992 feddans respectively during the same time period. The continued encroachment on agricultural land is a major threat to Egypt’s food security due to the limited base of arable land in Egypt. In fact per capita share of arable land is declining very rapidly over the years. For example, the ratio of population to arable land increased from 10.4 in 2006 to 15.4 in 2017. The country is attempting to make up for the lost land through reclamation of desert land. Unfortunately, reclamation of desert land is very expensive endeavor and requires major investment in basic infrastructure such as roads, irrigation networks, power grids, and social infrastructure. Therefore it is of utmost importance for the government to pay due attention to the problem of urban encroachment on old arable land and devise policies and legislations that would put a brake on this phenomena .

Egypt’s demand for electricity is growing rapidly and the need to develop alternative power resources is becoming ever more urgent. It is estimated that demand is increasing at a rate of 1,500 to 2,000 MW a year as a result of rapid urbanization and economic growth. Egypt is now struggling to meet its own energy needs. Egypt has been suffering severe power shortages and rolling blackouts over the past years, necessitating the requirement to look to alternative energy options. Energy demand is increasing fastly so as to meet the requirements of growing population in the world. This study aimed to compare between traditional energy and solar generators in terms of energy consumption and cost effectiveness. Pumping systems were used to operate units of drip irrigation for the crop which was planted, so as to determine the best and least expensive energy consumption under this system. The required hydraulic experiment and measurements were performed on a private farm at Beni Salama, Giza which lies at latitude 30.32°N, 30.80°E during 2016 and 2017. Measurements were done at two days randomly selected in the months of December and March. This study evaluated the average monthly measurements for December 2016 and March 2017 where onions were grown. Maximum and minimum for Pv system DC power output were 6398 and 5755 W, the maximum and minimum for AC current were 5814 and 5548 W, respectively. Maximum and minimum for hydraulic power were 5911 and 3553 W, respectively. Efficiency of both photovoltaic, inverter, pump and overall system were also calculated for these days. Maximum and minimum for module efficiency were 14% and 13.2%, respectively, and maximum and minimum for inverter efficiency were 95%, 89%, respectively. Maximum and minimum for pump efficiency were 64%, 54%, respectively. While for overall efficiency, they were 8% and 3%, respectively. The results showed that solar pumping system is a reliable system

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of seed treatments of lupine plants (cv.Giza 2) with chemical inducers Bion (5mM) , salicylic acid (5mM) and saccharin (3mM) as well as as well as Paenibacillus polymyxa and Trichoderma harzianum as biotic inducers on the infection with Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lupine under greenhouse and field conditions. Under greenhouse condition (Agricultural Research Centre, Giza) all treatments significantly reduced the percentages of pre- and post-emergence damping-off compared with the untreated control, the highest percentage of survived plants was achieved 92% by Bion and T. harzianum as well as fungicide Rizolex-T followed by salicylic acid and P. polymyxa as 88%. On the other hand, all treatments decrease significantly the incidence and severity of wilt, also increased the percentage of survived plants compared with untreated control. Under field conditions at Giza and Ismailia Agricultural Research Stations (Giza and Ismailia governorates) during winter season 2016-2017, all the treatments decreased the percentage of pre- and post-emergence damping-off as well as the percentage of wilted plants and increased the percentage of survived plants compared with untreated control in two locations. At Giza research station, the highest percentages of survived plants were recorded with Rizolex-T followed by Bion, P. polymyxa, and salicylic acid. While at Ismailia, the highest percentage of survived plants were recorded with Rizolex-T followed by Bion, P. polymyxa, T. harzianum, and salicylic acid. Meantime, these treatments improved growth parameters i.e. plant height, number of pods/plant, the weight of seeds /plant and the weight of one hundred seed. The higher increase in seed yield (ton /feddan) was obtained with Rizolex-T and Bion treatments followed by Salicylic acid, P. polymyxa, and T. harzianum at two locations. Activities of peroxidase (PO), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzymes and phenol content were determined. Bion treatment showed the highest increase in PO and PPO activity, and total phenols followed by salicylic acid and P. polymyxa treatments in the presence of R. solani or F. oxysporum. f. sp. lupine.

Projects of various sizes and types contribute to the success of the economic development plans in general. Agricultural industrial projects are the basis for agricultural development in the economies of many countries, so this research aims to identify the economic feasibility of one of the productive activities in the New Valley governorate, On the efficiency of the work in the manufacturing units and the possibility of expansion in the future establishment in addition to identify the implications of the establishment of those units. The problem of research is that the packaging industry is very important because of its ability to absorb a large proportion of the labor force by creating many direct and indirect employment opportunities, from agriculture to storage of agricultural and industrial products that are produced to distribution to complementary industries such as Packaging The focus was on date factories as the main product of the New Valley Governorate. However, the expansion of these units has led to an imbalance between the production capacities and the availability of commodity inputs on the one hand, and the extent to which the revenues and investment profits of that unit.  The research aims to identify the current status of agricultural processing in the New Valley Governorate by identifying the number of factories, their relative importance and the activities of agroindustries, focusing on the most important activities of agro-industries and the importance of agricultural processing, especially in the field of date   industry. In addition to trying to identify the most important problems and obstacles that hinder the development of the industry of processing and preserving dates in the New Valley Governorate for the development of this sector by evaluating the factories that rely on agricultural products as raw material. The questionnaire was prepared and completed by (16) establishments working in the field of packing dates, semi-automatic, The research data were collected in 2019 through a personal interview with the factory managers, The questionnaire included data on production values, raw materials, wages, commodity and service inputs, number of workers, … etc., These data were analyzed using financial and economic criteria. As it achieves an annual trading profit ranging between ( 9.6–092.61) million pounds, which represents a commercial profitability ratio ranging from (1.50 - 2.59) pounds, which is a high percentage reflecting the profitability of this productive activity, while the income of the investor invested between (0.50 - 1.59) pounds Which indicates the efficiency of this industry economically, while the value of the break-even point ranged from (6.77-104.94) million pounds, while the percentage of the margin safety of production ranged between (32.18 - 61.16)%showed the ability of these manufacturing units to cope with the potential risk conditions of lower production. Or lower product price.

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the oldest trees cultivated by human; Egypt has been ranked as the first country in the production of dates, soft, semi dry and dry date cultivars are cultivated in wide area of Egypt. Therefore, this work was carried out to determine the Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) of five Egyptian varieties of date fruit in healthy subjects. Chemical composition analysis was carried out for five types of date fruit (Partamoda, Malakabi, Saadi, Zaghluol and Samani); also, antioxidant power was determined. The study subjects were ten healthy volunteers, each subject was tested on six separate visits with 50 g of glucose and 50 g equivalent of available carbohydrates from the five date varieties. Capillary glucose was measured in the healthy subjects at 0, 30, 60 and 120 min. The GI was determined as ratios of the incremental areas under the response curves for the dates compared to glucose. Collecting data showed that Egyptian varieties of date fruit contain a good nutrients and antioxidant power. Among the five Egyptian varieties of date fruit, the chemical characteristics by moisture content in fruits was the highest in Samani date fruit and lowest in Partamoda dates; also, the five Egyptian varieties of date fruit contain available carbohydrate (7.4% - 69.2%), proteins (1.85 % - 7.0 %), total dietary fiber, TDF (11.82% - 15.63%) and Energy value (76.2 - 297.9 Kcal/100g). The antioxidant activity ranged between 52.61 and 79.12% as scavenging activity for free radicals; also, dates rich in phenols. The medium GI was recorded by Malakabi followed by Saadi and Partamoda which had high GL; while, the lowest GI was recorded for soft date fruit (Zaghluol and Samani) which had medium GL. These findings point to the potential benefits of Egyptian date fruit for healthy subjects when used in a stable healthy diet.

During summer seasons of 2015 and 2017, a field experiment was conducted at the Research and Experimental Station (30°19′ N, 31°16′ E), Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University at Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate, Egypt, to investi-gate the effects of combinations between hydroxyl apatite nanoparticles (0, 3, and 6 kg/fad) and cal-cium carbonate nanoparticles (0, 500g/fad) as nano-fertilizers under irrigaton intervals, (irrigation every 2 or 3 weeks whereas irrigation every 2 weeks as a recommended practice) on growth of soybean plants. Irrigation intervals had statistically significant effect on plant height (cm), number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, leaf area index, number of pods per plant, number of root nodules per plant, root dry weight per plant, stem dry weight per plant, leaves dry weight per plant and pods dry weight per plant. These results were fairly true in the two studied seasons 2015, 2017 and combined result. plant height, numbers of branches per plant, numbers of leaves per plant, leaf area index, number of nodules per plant and number of pods per plant of soybean plants which treated with 500 g/fed surpassed untreated plants in the two studied seasons 2015, 2017 and com-bined. Soybean plants treated with 6 kg hydroxyl apatite nanoparticles per feddan out-numbered other plants in its numbers of leaves per plant, leaf area index, number of root nodules per plant and number of pods per plant in the two growing sea-sons 2015, 2017 and combined data. Results showed that normal irrigation x 500g/fed calcium carbonate nanoparticles x 6kg/fed hydroxyl apatite nanoparticles was the effective combination for producing the highest values of plant height (cm), number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, leaf area index, number of pods per plant, number of root nodules per plant, root dry weight per plant (g), stem dry weight per plant (g), leaves dry weight per plant (g) and pods dry weight per plant (g). There weren’t significant results be-tween plants treated with nano-mineral fertilizers under irrigation every 3 week and plants untreated but irrigated every 2 week in all growth traits, which reflect appositive result of this chemical substance in mitigation harmful effect of water shortage in season 2015, 2017 and combined data.

This study was conducted to demonstrate the effect of feeding on defatted soy bean and flaxseed flour as protein and phytoestrogen sources; broccoli and red cabbage as antioxidant sources; in addition to skimmed milk powder as a calcium source in prevention of bone loss and cell damage that usually accompanies aging process. Raw materials were subjected to proximate analysis and biologically evaluation on ninety six 4 month aged female albino rats. Eight rats were regarded as an initial group. Other eight rats were hold as a normal negative control group and fed on a basal diet. The remaining rats were ovariectomized and fed on low calcium diet for 8 weeks to produce osteoporosis model. Osteoporotic rats were divided into 9 groups (each of 8 rats) fed on standard diet supplemented with: I) soy bean flour, II) soy bean flour and broccoli, III) soy bean flour and red cabbage, IV) soy bean flour and mixture of broccoli and red cabbage, V) defatted flaxseed, VI) defatted flaxseed and broccoli, VII) defatted flaxseed and red cabbage, VIII) defeated flaxseed and mixture of broccoli and red cabbage. Skimmed milk powder and vitamin D were added to the diet of each tested group. One group was kept as a positive control and fed on a standard diet. The results showed a decreases in body weight, changes in relative weight of kidney and liver organs, physical properties of bone, also decreases in serum and bone minerals including; calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in osteoporotic model .A decreasing in estradiol and increasing in parathyroid hormone as a bone marker were also found. Results observed in tested groups showed that the highest recovery for the parameters were found in group IV which fed on standard diet supplemented with soy bean flour and mixture of broccoli and red cabbage followed by group VIII which fed on standard diet supplemented with defatted flaxseed and a mixture of broccoli and red cabbage. Therefore, it could be concluded that the aforementioned mixtures may be a promising sources to produce a functional food for prevention of bone loss and cell damage.