Access to AgriculturalInputs, Technology and Information, Communicating with Farmers,and the Role of Women in Agriculture: Perceptions of Iraqi Extension Agents

The goal of this study was to gain a more comprehensive understanding ofaccess to inputs,technology and information available toIraqi extension agents,and to ascertain current farmercommunication strategies and gender roles within the diverse Iraq agricultural extension system.The conflicts, government policies, and economic sanctions that have enveloped Iraq over thelast several decades have significantly impacted access to agricultural resources. Iraqi extensionpersonnel participating inthe Iraq AgriculturalExtension Revitalization (IAER)programprovided their perspective on the availability of agricultural supplies, technology and relatedinformation. About two-thirds of the extension agents indicated that the flow and availability ofagricultural supplies has become less restricted and generally felt that there was greater accessto basic agricultural information compared to the previous decade. Despite perceivingnoticeable improvement overall in access to agricultural supplies and technology, over 83% ofthe program attendees agreed that access to agricultural inputs was currently insufficient tosuccessfully promote productive agricultural practices. An overwhelming preference for face-to-face communication by both farmers and extension personnel also limits the extent to whichagricultural information can be disseminated. In addition, several regional and gender-baseddifferences emerged.Notably, it appears that farmers donot approachfemaleextensionpersonnel equally, wherein better educated farmers are more likely to interact with femaleextensionagents.We suggest that an approach based on a horizontal exchange of knowledgebetween extension personnel and local farmers, coupled with a better integration of womenextension personnel, will help a revitalized Iraqi extension system achieve greater agriculturalsustainabilit

Optimizing biological nitrogen fixation and evaluating Iraqi extension education

An alternative to synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer is the use of legumes with rhizobia bacterial symbionts that fix soil atmospheric N into plant-available forms. In this study we evaluated biological nitrogen fixation by strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum associated with breeding lines of peas (Pisum sativum L.) and lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.). We also isolated Mesorhizobium ciceri from Middle Eastern soils and compared interactions of Middle Eastern and commercial strains of M. ciceri with U.S. and Middle Eastern varieties of chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.). In all trials, plant varieties had a greater effect in determining the proportion of plant N provided by fixation (PNF) than did rhizobial strains. Within each legume species, the greatest PNF was provided by Eston and Meritt lentils (80%), Shawnee and Bohatyr peas (91%), and Sierra chickpeas (87%). Our results suggest that crop breeding should be a fruitful avenue for increasing biological N fixation. Since science should utilize public outreach and serve society, extension education lectures were taught to Iraqis whose access to N fertilizers is limited. The recent war and instability have significantly impacted the country's agricultural production and knowledge support systems. To support revitalization of the Iraqi agricultural system, the USDA funded a consortium of five U.S. universities to provide training to agricultural extension personnel from Iraq. Surveys of the trainees guided training agendas and enhanced our understanding of extension, cropping systems, and information needs in Iraq. Both basic and advanced agricultural resources are lacking in Iraq, especially in plant protection, food and vegetable production, machinery use and repair, row crop production, and soil fertility. There is great demand for training, technology, basic farm equipment, seed, and fertilizers. In addition further training is needed in utilizing on-farm resources to efficiently produce crops while reversing the physical and chemical damage to Iraq's soil and other natural resources. Biological N fixation could provide significantly more N to cropping systems, both in developing countries where fertilizers are limited and developed countries where fertilizers are available but expensive. This work improves our understanding of both research and extension opportunities to increase use of biological N fixation

Use of pressure cycling technology for cell lysis and recovery of bacterial and fungal communities from soil

Selection of cell lysis methodology is critical to microbial community analyses due to the inability of any single extraction technology to recover the absolute genetic structure from environmental samples. Numerous methodologies are currently applied to interrogate soil communities, each with its own inherent bias. Here we compared the efficacy and bias of three physical cell lysis methods in conjunction with the PowerLyzer PowerSoil DNA Isolation Kit (MO BIO) for direct DNA extraction from soil: bead-beating, vortex disruption, and hydrostatic pressure cycling technology (PCT). PCT lysis, which is relatively new to soil DNA extraction, was optimized for soils of two different textures prior to comparison with traditional bead-beating and vortex disruption lysis. All cell lysis methods successfully recovered DNA. Although the two traditional mechanical lysis methods yielded greater genomic, bacterial, and fungal DNA per gram soil than the PCT method, the latter resulted in a greater number of unique terminal restriction fragments by terminal RFLP (T-RFLP) analysis. These findings indicate the importance of diversity and quantity measures when assessing DNA extraction bias, as soil DNA retrieved by PCT lysis represented populations not found using traditional mechanical lysis methods