STUDY ON FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE WATER EROSION ON AGRICULTURAL LAND - REVIEW

Soil erosion is a global threat to the natural resources and is particularly responsible for reduction in crop yield due to reduction in land productivity and storage capacity of multipurpose reservoirs due to continuous siltation (Rupesh Jayaram Patil, 2018). Soil erosion is process of soil loss. Particularly from the surface, but sometimes a large mass of soil may be lost, as in landslides and riverbank erosion. Soil erosion processes are mainly caused by two mechanisms: raindrop impact and surfacewash resulting fromwater in excess of infiltration (Ellison, 1947). Soil erosion is determined by a number of factors such as: relief, climate, soil and solidification rock, vegetation. Soil erosion is a natural process, occurring over geological time, and most concerns about erosion are related to accelerated erosion, where the natural rate has been significantly increased by human activity. Soil erosion poses severe limitations to sustainable agricultural land use, as it reduces on-farm soil productivity and causes the accumulation of sediments and agro-chemicals in waterways

Germplasm collection – valuable resources of variability for plant and ear traits in maize breeding

Maize is one of the most important crops, both worldwide and in Romania, and preserving the diversity of the biological material used in the breeding of this plant is of particular importance. The Agricultural Research and Development Station (ARDS) Turda, Romania, inbred lines collection includes both its own genotypes and some obtained as a result of germplasm exchanges with other institutions in the country or abroad. In the present study, 575 lines created at Turda were analysed regarding some traits of the plant (plant height, ear height, total number of leaves, number of tassel branches) and the ear (ear length and weight, number of kernel rows and number of kernels/row). The biological material used in this study shows a great diversity: a medium or high variability coefficient was identified for several of the traits analysed (number of tassel branches, ear height, ear height). Frequency histograms were made for the studied lines, for plant and ear traits. A great variability also was observed in the colours of the anther and silk, but also for kernel type and colour and cob colour