Fertiliser, Plant Nutrient Management, and Self-reliance in Agriculture

The importance of agriculture in the economy of Pakistan is well established. Agricultural plays an important role both directly and indirectly in generating economic activity, growth and development. Agriculture has strong backward and forward linkages and is vital to the food security of the country. Fertilisers have played an important role in Pakistan agriculture particularly in meeting the growing demand for food grains, fibre, fuel and fodder. Fertiliser consumption has increased during the last four decades to 2.6 million tonnes by 1997-98. The use level is, however, not only sub optimal but also imbalanced. Better plant nutrient management is, therefore, necessary for achieving self reliance in agriculture.

CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS NON-LOCAL PRODUCTS: A CASE OF PAKISTAN

This study investigated the attitudes of Pakistani consumers towards non local (imported) products. Country of Origin (COO) effect was the main thing to find out. A survey questionnaire was distributed among 200 respondents in the twin cities Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The questionnaire contained the measure of, quality of the products, social status, and unavailability of local substitutes; admiration for EDCs life style, consumers’ ethnocentrism and attitudes towards non local products. Nine hypotheses were designed and tested by Pearson correlation and simple regression analysis by using SPSS 15 version. Analysis of the data showed that consumers in the developing countries like Pakistan considered the imported products as of high value and they feel a pride when having the products of the developed countries. The moderating impact of admiration for EDCs life style and consumers’ ethnocentrism was also confirmed by this study. The research findings suggest for the MNCs to go for a joint venture with a local firm or set up a foreign subsidiary to control the effect of ethnocentricity which is extremely important to cope with. Local producers and marketers should focus on the quality of their products to compete with multinational corporations in their domestic markets and survive with a rising head. This research showed that if the imported products are of high quality, more reliable and of reasonable price then ethnocentrism can not become hostile to them

Anthelmintic Activity of a Herbal Formulation Against Gastrointestinal Nematodes of Sheep

This study was carried out to evaluate the anthelmintic activity of a herbal formulation (HF) based on aqueous extracts of leaves of Azadirachta indica and Nicotiana tabacum, flowers of Calotropis procera and seeds of Trachyspermum ammi. In vitro, eggs and adult Haemonchus contortus were exposed to different concentrations of HF following the standard procedures of egg hatch test (EHT; 50 to 0.024414 mg ml-1) and adult motility assay (AMA; 200-0.1953125mg ml-1), respectively. The reference drugs used in the study were oxfendazole (0.0056704 to 0.0000027 mg ml-1) and levamisole (1.50 mg ml-1) for EHT and AMA, respectively. In vivo, pre and post-treatment (4 mg, 2 mg and 500 µg kg-1 body weight) fecal egg counts were determined following standard fecal egg count reduction test in sheep naturally parasitized with mixed species of gastrointestinal nematodes. In EHT, LC50 values of HF and oxfendazole (reference drug) were 275.1 and 0.016 µg ml-1, respectively. In AMA, 100% mortality of H. contortus was observed 6 hr post-exposure to 3.125-200 mg ml-1 concentrations of HF and 2 hr post-exposure to levamisole. In vivo, maximum (96.2%) fecal egg count (EPG) reduction was recorded in sheep treated with HF @ 4 mg kg-1 body weight; whereas, 89.3% reduction in EPG was recorded in sheep treated with levamisole @ 7.5 mg kg-1 body weight. A graded dose response was noted in all the tests used in the present study to evaluate the anthelmintic activity of HF. Therefore, HF seems to be promising as an anthelmintic for animals. Large scale trials on efficacy and safety, however, are recommended before the HF is considered for commercialization in crude form

Treatment outcome of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi

Objective: To assess the outcomes of pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients treated at Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases (OICD), a reference hospital for TB in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: Clinical study for the period 1996-2006, with follow-up until June 2007 was performed. All the culture and sensitivity proven cases of MDR pulmonary TB were initially admitted for 3-6 months till the sputum converted negative. Treatment regimen was decided on individual basis, and included 4-6 drugs. Supervised treatment was given to all patients during the hospitalization. After discharge from the hospital, patients were followed at monthly interval at the outpatient department of OICD for 18 months total. Results: Five hundred and seventy nine adult patients (59.93% male) with mean age of 32.44 ± 12.63 years were studied. All patients had a history of treatment with first line anti-tuberculosis drugs. Treatment was successful in 227 (39.2%). The mortality rate was 27(4.6%) during hospitalization. During admission 83(14.3%) left treatment and 239 (41.2%) were lost to follow-up during treatment. Treatment failure was observed in three patients. Conclusion: The treatment success rate in this study is satisfactory but high default rate is a challenge in the management of MDR tuberculosis (JPMA 59:694; 2009)

Drug Resistance Pattern in Multidrug Resistance Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

Objective: To evaluate accuracy of modified Kenneth Jones scoring criteria (MKJSC) as a screening tool to diagnose tuberculous meningitis in children. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Paediatric Medicine, Unit-I, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, from May 2006 to March 2007. Methodology: A total of 100 children admitted through emergency in Paediatric Medicine, Unit-I, were included who were having fever and features suggestive of central nervous system (CNS) infection. Lumbar puncture was done in all patients after written consent. Findings of lumbar puncture were taken as gold standard for the diagnosis of TBM. MKJSC was applied on each patient and accuracy determined against the gold standard. Results: Out of 100 children, 47 were diagnosed as TBM on the basis of CSF results. All children had scored 0-7 or above according to MKJSC. A score 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7 or more was obtained in 23, 25, 30 and 22 children respectively. Children who had scored 5 or more received ATT. Accuracy of MKJSC was calculated to be 91%. Conclusion: MKJSC is a simple and accurate tool to improve tuberculous meningitis case detection rate in children

Efficient PPA-SiO2-catalyzed synthesis of β-enaminones under solvent-free conditions

An efficient method has been developed for the synthesis of β-enaminones under solvent-free reaction conditions using PPA-SiO2 as catalyst. The reaction yields were good to excellent (up to 90%). This methodology affords high selectivity and good tolerance of a variety of different functional groups present on both aromatic and aliphatic amines. In addition, the methodology is environmentally benign and cost-effective due to absence of solvent and easy work-up

Primary drug resistance against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Karachi

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the primary drug resistance of new culture positive cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in Karachi. METHODS: All new suspected pulmonary tuberculosis patients were recruited initially. They were instructed to produce three-sputum samples for smear examination and on one of the specimen\u27s culture was applied. Bronchoscopy and bronchial wash was done in patients who were not expectorating. Bronchial wash was then applied for both smear and culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. RESULTS: Out of 79 cases recruited initially, 52 were able to produce sputum while bronchoscopy was performed in the remaining. AFB direct smear was positive in 32/52 sputum and 12/27 bronchial wash samples. Later, 02 sputums and 04 bronchial washes became culture positive which were initially smear negative. All cultures were of Mycobacterium tuberculosis species. These fifty culture positive cases were then included in the final analysis. Pyrazinamide was the most sensitive drug i.e. 49 isolates (98%). The resistance pattern is as follows: Streptomycin 13(26%), Isoniazid 08 (16%), Ethambutol 08 (16%), Rifampicin 04 (08%) and Pyrazinamide one (02%). Multi-Drug Resistant tuberculosis was observed in 02 (04%) patients. CONCLUSION: In this small study, the high prevalence of primary resistance against streptomycin, INH and Ethambutol raises an urgent need of a proper nationwide survey to evaluate the true picture of primary resistance

Epidemiology and Economic Benefits of Treating Goat Coccidiosis

A study was carried out to determine the prevalence of Eimeria species and to compare the efficacy of Toltrazuril and Amprolium against coccidosis. Of the total 121 fecal samples examined for Eimeria, 67 (55.99%) were found infected with four species of Eimeria. Amongst the identified species, E. ninakohlyakimovae was the commonest one (49.25%) followed were E. arloingi, E. caprina and E. hirci with prevalence of 44.78, 25.37 and 19.40%, respectively. Kids had significantly (P<0.05) higher prevalence of Eimeria than adults. Higher prevalence of Eimeria was observed in female goats. Forty five Eimeria positive animals were randomly divided into three equal groups, i.e., groups A to C. Group A was treated with Amprolium (2g/40kg BW) and group B was treated with Toltrazuril (15mg/kg BW) for three days each while no drug was given to Group C. On day 7 post treatment, all goats of group B stopped shedding oocysts while 8 (53.33%) goats of group A stopped shedding oocysts. After the treatment, goats of group B gained 2.2 kg body weight over a period of 15 days compared 1.2 kg weight in group A. The lowest weight gain (0.5 kg) was in goats of group C (untreated control). No significant difference in milk yield of the three groups was recorded. It can be concluded that control of goat coccidiosis through single treatment of Toltrazuril is economically beneficial

The Inheritance of Yield and Yield Components of Five Wheat Hybrid Populations Under Drought Conditions

The magnitude of genetic inheritance and expected genetic advance are important for the prediction of response to selection in diverse environments and provide the basis for planning and evaluating breeding programs. This work investigated the inheritance of traits related to drought in wheat under natural drought conditions. Cross combinations were made to produce F1 and F2 hybrid populations, which were evaluated in a randomized completed block design with three replications at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Six wheat varieties/lines and six derived F2 hybrids were studied to ascertain heritability and genetic advance for plant height, days taken to maturity, number of tillers per plant, spike length, number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, and grain yield per plant. Data were collected and subjected to statistical genetic analyses. Heritability estimates and expected genetic advance for plant height, days taken to maturity, number of tillers per plant, 1000-grain weight and grain yield per plant were high for the entire cross combinations while the estimates for spike length and number of grains per spike were relatively low. Our results suggest that improvement for these characters should be faster because of higher heritabilities and greater phenotypic variation. Prospects of genetic improvement for all the characters studied are evident. The most promising cross combinations were WL60 × LU26S and WL61 × LU26S. These traits, therefore, deserve better attention in future breeding programs for evolving better wheat for stress environments

Crystallized InBiS3 thin films with enhanced optoelectronic properties

In this paper, a one-step thermal evaporation approach was used for fabrication of indium bismuth sulphide thin films, and the synergetic effects of co-evaporation of two sources (indium granules and Bi2S3 powders) were investigated using different characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the crystalline orthorhombic structure for the postannealed samples. Surface roughness and crystal size of the obtained film samples were increased with increasing annealing temperatures. Analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed the formation of the InBiS3 structure for the obtained films, which is also confirmed by the XRD results. The optical absorption coefficient value of the annealed samples was found to be in the order of 10⁵cm-1 in the visible region of the solar spectrum. The optical band gap energy and electrical resistivity of the fabricated samples were observed to decrease (from 2.2 to 1.3 eV, and from 0.3 to 0.01 Ω-cm, respectively) with increasing annealing temperatures (from 200 to 350°C), indicating the suitability of the prepared InBiS3 thin films for solar cell applications