Effect of nitrogen levels on growth and yield of popcorn maize (Zea mays var. everta) in Mid Hills, Parbat District, Nepal

A field experiment was conducted from March to July 2020 to investigate the impact of varying nitrogen levels on the growth and yield of popcorn maize in Parbat. The experiment was laid out in single factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) comprising nine levels of nitrogen: 0, 50, 75, 100, 120, 125, 150, 175 and 200 kg ha-1 as treatment with three replications. "Lumle Yellow" variety was cultivated in an acidic (pH 4.9) clay loam soil with moderate levels of total nitrogen (0.19%), high levels of available phosphorus (126.6 kg ha-1), potassium (427.68 kg ha-1), and moderate organic matter content (4.36%). The findings showed that an increased N-level significantly increased plant height and the leaf area index, reaching a maximum at 175 kg N ha-1. While number of cob plant-1 and kernel row cob-1 were non-significant, yield attributing parameters such as cob length, cob diameter, number of kernel rows-1, thousand grain weight, and grain yield were significant and determined to be maximum at 150 kg N ha-1. With subsequent increases in N to 175 and 200 kg N ha-1, the yield-attributing features did not show an increase. The highest grain yield (4.97 Mt ha-1) produced from 150 kg N ha-1 was 98 percent higher than the yield obtained from control (2.5 Mt ha-1) and 28 percent higher as compared to lowest level of N (50 kg ha-1). However, reduction in grain yield was found with increase in N levels above 150 kg ha-1

Assessment of onion farming practices and purple blotch disease knowledge among farmers in varied agro-ecological zones of Nyeri County, Kenya

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is the second most produced vegetable globally, following tomato and plays a vital role in both cuisines and daily diets. However, the threat of diseases, such as purple blotch caused by Alternaria porri, poses a substantial risk to onion production, particularly in Nyeri County, Kenya. Despite its critical impact on farming, there is a lack of information on farmers' knowledge of purple blotch in this region. This study aimed to assess the onion farming practices and farmers' understanding of purple blotch disease across various agro-ecological zones (AEZs) in Nyeri County. Specifically, the study examines farmers' demographics, cultivated onion varieties, and their knowledge of purple blotch disease. Farms were selected using cluster random sampling. Data were collected from 100 onion farmers through semi-structured questionnaires, and statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test in Scientific Analysis System (SAS) version 9.4 at α=0.05. The findings revealed that while the Rucet F1 onion variety was popular among the farmers (52%), there is no significant association (X2 (6, 100) = 11.947, p = 0.063) between the choice of variety and AEZs. Similarly, the preferred source of onion seeds, mainly Agroshop (84%), showed insignificant association (X2 (9, 100) = 7.153, p = 0.621) with AEZs. Despite 65% of farmers reporting knowledge about onion diseases, there is no significant association (p > 0.05) between their awareness of purple blotch and AEZs. In conclusion, the study highlights a significant gap in farmers' understanding of purple blotch disease, emphasizing the need for training programs to enhance disease identification skills. Early detection can empower farmers to implement proactive measures, ultimately improving onion productivity. This study recommends diversifying onion varieties for disease resilience, promoting awareness and training on purple blotch identification, engaging women and youths in farming, and fostering collaborative networks for ongoing knowledge exchange and improvement in onion cultivation in Nyeri County

Impact and tolerance mechanism of heat stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): A review

Wheat is one of the major cereal crops preferred by world’s population.  About 55% of world’s population depend on wheat to meet their 20% calorie requirement. Wheat being a winter crop grows best in 15-25 degree Celsius of temperature range. But due to increasing global warming climatic requirement of wheat is not fulfilled and suffer different abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, salinity, cold, excess water etc. Among which heat stress is one of the major abiotic stresses faced by wheat. It has different morphological, biochemical and physiological consequences on wheat for instance poor grain quality, decreased grain number and weight, decreased photosynthesis due to disruption in chlorophyll structure and function, reduced starch content due to poor efficiency of enzyme required in biosynthesis. To cope up with all these impacts of heat stress wheat has developed various tolerance mechanisms such as release of heat shock protein, antioxidant defense mechanism, membrane thermostability, stay green, omics approaches etc. Heat shock protein helps to prevent death of cell, accumulation of denatured protein, refolding of protein, transmission of heat shock responses etc. While omics approaches help in gene profiling, protein identification etc. knowledge about both the effect and tolerance mechanism of heat stress in wheat helps to develop heat tolerant varieties with collaborative effort of plant breeder, physiologist etc. that helps to maintain food security

Evaluation of the degrading potentials of plasmid and non–plasmid borne soil bacterial strains on bonny light crude oil

This study was undertaken to evaluate the degrading potentials of plasmid and non–plasmid borne soil bacterial strains on Bonny light crude oil. Enrichment technique, turbidometric test, plasmid curing test as well as gas chromatographic flame ionization detection technique was adopted for isolating and evaluating the oil degrading capabilities of the selected bacterial strains. The preliminary physicochemical results revealed that pH was recorded slightly neutral, higher conductivity (0.41 to 0.44 μS/cm), higher organic carbon (2.32 to 4.34 %) but lower nitrogen and phosphorus contents (0.27 % and 10.11 kg) as well as lower water holding capacity was noted, respectively. The results indicated that 22 out of the 60 isolated bacterial strains had high crude oil degrading potentials (A600nm > 0.3). The result further indicated that bacterial strains belong to various species which are Bacillus cereus C12, Pseudomonas aeruginosa KAVK01, Bacillus licheniformis 126, Ochrobacterium intermedium E85b, Bacillus subtillis SDDlas, Bacillus subtillis LK4.5, Enterobacter cloacae GEBRI III and Bacillus cereus So24. Plasmid borne P. aeruginosa strain KAVK01 was the best degrader with 88 % remediation efficiency within the period while the plasmid cured P. aeruginosa strain KAVK01 had 65 % degradation with the order of n – alkane hydrocarbon degradation: (n-C8 - n-C17) > (n-C18 - n-C25) > (n-C26 - n-C32). The data obtained from the current study could help in the selection of bacterial species, most especially plasmid borne bacteria that can be employed in the restoration of oil contaminated soil ecosystem in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

Retracted: An assessment on environmental law to manage forest resources: A study from Ramechhap District of Nepal

This article has been retracted from the journal due to significant concerns regarding authorship and ethical misconduct by the original authors. The editor no longer has confidence in the integrity of the article

Combined hot water extract of lentil and grass pea increase weed control efficiency and yield of boro rice

The agriculture sector is continuously adopting environmentally friendly and sustainable methods to reduce the harmful effects of herbicides on crop production. In this context, an experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory (AFL), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh, from December 2021 to May 2022, to investigate the effect of combined hot water extracts of lentil and grass peas (ELG) on weed control efficiency and yield performance of boro rice. The experiment involved four varieties of boro rice (BAU dhan3, BRRI dhan28, BRRI dhan81, and BRRI dhan96) and four treatments of crop residues. For most weed species, varieties and crop residue extracts significantly impacted weed population (WP) and weed dry weight (DW). The highest numbers of effective tillers (NET) hill-1, numbers of spikelets panicle-1 (NSP), 1000-grain weight (TGW), grain yield (GY), and straw yield (SY) were observed in the three-times hand weeding treatment. This was followed by the combination of hot water ELG applied as a pre-emergence treatment three days after transplanting and post-emergence ten days after transplanting, with the lowest values found in the no-extract treatment. Considering interaction effects, the highest GY (7.07 t ha-1) and SY (8.23 t ha-1) were observed with hand weeding combined with the variety BAU dhan3. The results of this study indicated that hand weeding, followed by the combined application ELG crop residue, showed potential activity to suppress WP and significantly affected the yield of boro rice

Citrus growers' knowledge, attitudes, and implementation towards Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) in Palpa, Nepal

There is a high demand of citrus fruits in mid-hills region of Nepal. To increase its productivity, it is important to incorporate sustainable practices into orchard management. Therefore, the study was conducted in summer 2022 to understand commercial citrus farmers' knowledge on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and correspond production methods of GAP aware farmers with GAP standards in the Palpa, Nepal. Altogether, 64 commercial citrus growers were interviewed with pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires for the data collection. The farmers were categorized into GAP aware and unaware based on the criteria made by the group discussion with the leading farmers and GAP standards. The result revealed that out of ten selected standards, adoption of GAP standards by GAP aware farmers are positive in relation to orchard management practices (99%), plantation (90%), harvest and storage (90%), soil management and fertilization (63%), and hygiene and environment management (61%)— with human welfare (100%) adopted by all of the aware respondents and GAP related to documentation and records (25%) were found to be least adopted. The entire aware respondents agreed to the fact that GAP produced fruit have a better appearance and improved quality, satisfies national and international standards and enhances the export potential of fruits but 97% of respondents didn’t agree that adopting GAP helps in providing incentives or support from governmental organizations. The understanding of GAP among the citrus growers is limited and hence, it is crucial to organize awareness programs and provide supplementary training sessions to enhance their understanding and adoption of GAP practices

Factors affecting the adoption of farm mechanization in Rupandehi, Nepal

Agricultural mechanization is pivotal in farmer’s fields as it functions more efficiently and helps increase farm productivity. Despite the massive involvement of people in agriculture, farm productivity is relatively low. One main reason for this is the staggered implementation of farm mechanization. This paper aims to explore the factors affecting the adoption of farm mechanization using the Chi-square test and identify the major problems using relative frequency values.  A total of 112 respondents, 28 each from 4 municipalities of Rupandehi district were interviewed based on stratified random sampling technique. The results showed that the adoption rates of various farm machinery were notably high, with tractors, cultivators, mills, and sprayers being universally employed by 93.75 % of the surveyed individuals. The government subsidies to only 7% of farmers facilitate machinery procurement. The size of the total cultivated land was found to be significant over the use of harvester, grass cutter, and power tiller, and owing of milling machine. The availability of subsidies and owning of mills were found inter dependent. The annual expenditures of farmers and their access to theCusto m Hiring Centre were found to be significant. Lastly, with index values of 0.402 and 0.393, the high costs of farm machinery and small land holdings were major problems in the adoption of farm mechanization. Therefore, addressing the high initial costs of modern farm equipment, providing targeted subsidies, innovative institution formation to provide better services to marginalized farmers, and expanding extension services are essential steps to promote the adoption of farm mechanization

Comparative analysis of red and green lettuce microgreens under different artificial LED lighting conditions

This study investigated how LED light exposure influences the growth and nutrient content of two lettuce microgreens over 10 days in a randomized setup. Lettuce seeds underwent surface sterilization, germination in prepared soil, and exposure to different LED light conditions. Morphological parameters and pigment analysis, including stem length, petiole length, leaf area, plant height, root length, fresh weight, dry matter percentage, were evaluated. Green lettuce outperformed red lettuce in the studied morphological parameters, including stem length (2.74±0.22 cm), plant height (4.54±0.21 cm), and fresh weight (3.79±0.32 g/100 plants) under different LED. White light promoted taller plants with higher fresh weight (4.45±0.43 g/100plants), dry matter (4.84±0.38%), and leaf area (0.76±0.06 cm2) in both lettuce species. In contrast, red light reduced overall growth and development, as evidenced by a 54% decrease in leaf area, despite a 23.36% increase in plant height. Chlorophyll levels varied significantly among LED treatments, with white LED yielding the highest levels in both red and green lettuce. Highest chlorophyll a (146.37±6.27 µg/g FW), chlorophyll b (86.74±2.44 µg/g FW), total chlorophyll (233.11±8.69 µg/g FW) and relative chlorophyll (215.84±8.05 µg/cm²) content was found in green lettuce under white light condition. Similarly, green lettuce grown under white LED had the highest total carotenoid, β-carotene, and lutein. The study concludes that optimizing white LED illumination has the potential to improve the nutritional value of lettuce microgreens by enhancing growth and pigment content, particularly in green varieties. These findings emphasize the crucial role of LED light color in optimizing the nutritional quality of microgreens

Length frequency distribution, length-weight relationship and condition factors of Hilsa Shad, Tenualosa ilisha from Bangladesh

Hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha, a cherished and economically vital species, thrives in the waters of Bangladesh. It holds a prominent role in bolstering the nation's food security and influencing the ecological dynamics of aquatic ecosystems along the Bangladeshi coast and estuaries. This comprehensive study encompasses data collection efforts on the Hilsa fish species, conducted at 12 commercial landing centers throughout Bangladesh over the course of 2020. The study describes some fundamental components, including length frequency distribution, length-weight relationships, and condition factors, offers invaluable insights into the growth, health, and overall well-being of Hilsa population. Notably, the length-weight relationship analysis revealed size ranges of 11.5-59.2 cm and 11.0-49.0 cm total length for females and males, respectively. The observed b values indicated positive allometric growth (b > 3.00) for female population and negative allometric growth (b < 3.00) for male population in the length-weight relationship. Among the condition factors scrutinized, Fulton's condition factor emerged as the most reliable indicator for assessing the health and condition of the Hilsa population. This study offers valuable insights for biologists, aiding in the assessment of the species' status and providing essential information for fishery biologists and conservation biologists. Such insights are instrumental in the management and ultimate conservation of this iconic species in Bangladesh