FOREST COVER CHANGE DETECTION IN PAKTIA PROVINCE OF AFGHANISTAN USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS: 1998-2018

Monitoring changes in forest cover is important to address issues like biodiversity conservation, sustainable management, and climate change. The study has been conducted in the Paktia province of Afghanistan to assess the changes in different forest classes which occurred together with political changes by using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). The change was analyzed for a period of two decades, i.e., 1998 to 2018. Landsat TM and OLI satellite images of 30m resolution for the years 1998 and 2018 were used respectively. The overall classification accuracy of the mapping was estimated as 82.67% and the kappa coefficient was estimated as 0.8081. The study area was delineated via visual image interpretation technique into 11 LULC classes’ viz., closed forest, open forest, forest scrub, grassland other classes (Agriculture, Agroforestry, horticulture, habitation, waterbody, wasteland, and snow). The comparison of maps 1998 and 2018 revealed that the total area under closed forest, open forest, showed an increase of 0.43%, 0.73%, respectively. While the areas under forest scrub, showed a decline of 0.30%, during the study period (1998-2018)

Certified Organic Production of Babycorn (Zea mays L.) based Legume Intercropping System as a Substitute Pathway for Sustainable Agriculture - A Review

Baby corn (Zea mays L.) refers to the whole, entirely edible cobs of immature corn harvested just before fertilization at 2-3 cm long silk emergence stage. The baby corn has a medium plant type and provides sweet, succulent and delicious green cobs within 65-75 days of sowing. Low quality yield of legumes and low yield of baby corn experienced due to continuous monoculture resulting from persistent soil depletion in the developing world have caused the need for a sustainable practice to improve quality and yield of aforementioned

Growth and Survival of Chilgoza Seedlings as Influenced by Different Types and Size of Sowing Media

Chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana Wall.) is an important but endangered tree species in Afghanistan. Due to poor natural regeneration, seed-related dormancy and anthropogenic factors, the IUCN put this species on the red list. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate the effect of growing medium and polybag sizes on seedling growth and survivability. In this study, four growing media of soil (So), compost (Co), forest soil (Fs) and sand (Sa), viz., M1 (So + Co + Fs); M2 (Fs + Co + Sa); M3 (So + Fs + Sa); and M4 (Sa + Co + Fs) and three polybag sizes including P1 (16 cm×16 cm), P2 (18 cm×18 cm), and P3 (21 cm×26 cm) were used and arranged in the frame of 4×3 factorial design to assess their effects on seedling growth and survivability. The results revealed that among different growing media treatments, higher seedling growth parameters and survival rate percentage were observed on treatment M4 (Sand + Compost + Forest Soil). Seedling growth parameters and survivability were significantly affected by polybag size, and the highest seedling growth parameters and survival rate were obtained for Large Polybag size (P3)