Organic Farming: From Perspective of the Students at Al -Balqa Applied University at Amman Governorate

Organic farming is a collection of agricultural practices that excludes the use of synthetic inputs in food production system. In Jordan, there are 54 farms adopting organic farming. Several studies had researched the status of organic farming in Jordan from farmers and experts of Ministry of Agriculture perspective. So, our study aimed to investigate organic farming from the perspective of students at Al- Balqa Applied University, where (250) students were interviewed and given a questionnaire consisted of questions about organic farming. The obtained data revealed that, most of students in the study have moderate knowledge about organic farming (3.1±0.82), while they see that organic farming is of great importance (4.2±0.61). Data also showed that, health reasons have highly motivated students' knowledge about organic farming (4.1±0.64). Moreover, students approved highly the environmental benefits of organic farming and considered that organic farming maintains natural balance to nearly a very high extent (4.7±0.78). Also obtained results for students answers showed that, they see that organic farming can maintain nutritional value of food nearly to a very high extent (4.8±0.68). Meanwhile, most of the students see that organic farming affect economy moderately. On the other hand, students find that the strong competition of conventionally produced agricultural products and high prices of organic farming products are the most threating constrains for organic farming, while conducting training workshops for farmers about organic agriculture in addition to providing financial and moral support to the farmers were the best solutions to improve of organic farming in Jordan. Key words: Al- Balqa Applied University, Jordan, Organic farming, Students

Improving solanine production in in vitro cultures of Solanum nigrum L. using different chemical and physical factors

Solanum nigrum L. is a medicinal plant of solanaceae family with distinguished therapeutic properties. Traditionally, S. nigrum. had been used as an anti-tumorgenic, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, diuretic, and antipyretic agent. The most important alkaloid member in this plant is solanine. Therefore, this study was conducted to utilize tissue culture techniques for the enhancement of solanine production in the in vitro grown cultures of this promising neglected plant. For callus growth and development experimental part, the highest callus growth parameters (callus diameter (21.4 mm) and callus fresh weight (2202.4 mg) were obtained in callus grown on Murashige & Skoog MS media supplemented with 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2.0 mg·L-1) plus 1.5 mg·L-1 Thidiazuron. Similar trend was also obtained in cell suspension culture experiment, as maximum growth was recorded at similar hormone combination. Moreover, High-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed that, solanine was affected by growth regulator type and concentration. The highest solanine levels were obtained when the explants were treated with 6-benzylaminopurine at level of 2.0 mg·L-1, as solanine content reached up to (2.61, 1.53 mg.g-1) for callus and cell suspension, respectively, while, microshoot contained the highest solanine (4.52 mg.g-1 DW) at 6-benzylaminopurine level of 1.6 mg.L-1. Additionally, carbon source had positively affected solanine level, where 0.2 M sucrose resulted in production of the highest amounts (3.13, 2.03 and 1.20 mg.g-1 DW) of solanine in microshoots, callus and cell suspension, respectively. Also, exposing microshoots and callus to light intensity of (100 µmol.m -2 s-1) yielded the highest solanine content (4.03 and 1.26 mg.g-1 DW, respectively),while the lowest solanine levels (1.50 and 0.48 mg.g-1 DW) were observed in plant material exposed to the lowest light intensity treatment (25 µmol.m -2 s-1)