a. koocheki

IntroductionAt present, farmers are facing problems of shrinking landholding size, degradation of natural resources, climatic vulnerabilities and low financial returns due to escalating cost of cultivation and inefficient utilization of agroinputs. Thus, production per unit area of land, time and inputs needs to be improved by efficiently capturing the solar energy and carbon dioxide for conversion into economic product. In recent years, there has been increased interest in agricultural production systems in order to achieve high productivity and proIntroduction
At present, farmers are facing problems of shrinking landholding size, degradation of natural resources, climatic vulnerabilities and low financial returns due to escalating cost of cultivation and inefficient utilization of agroinputs. Thus, production per unit area of land, time and inputs needs to be improved by efficiently capturing the solar energy and carbon dioxide for conversion into economic product. In recent years, there has been increased interest in agricultural production systems in order to achieve high productivity and promote sustainability over time. Intercropping as a common method in sustainable agricultural systems, plays an important role in increasing productivity and yield stability to improve utilization of resources. One of the most important benefits of intercropping is increasing production per unit area compared with sole cropping. The reason for increasing the yield in the intercropping is the better use of environmental factors such as water, nutrients and light. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of mixed and row intercropping on yield and yield component of sunflower, cotton and fodder beet.

In order to study the effects of mixed and row intercropping of cotton, sunflower and fodder beet on yield and yield components in three species, a split-plot experiment based on randomized complete blocks design with three replicates was performed in research farm of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 2017-2018. Cropping pattern (mixed or row intercropping) was allocated to the main plots and different planting ratios (50% Cotton +37.5% Sunflower +12.5% fodder beet, 50% Cotton +37.5% fodder beet +12.5% Sunflower, 33.3% Cotton +33.3% Sunflower +33.3% fodder beet, sole cropping of Cotton, sole cropping of Sunflower and sole cropping of fodder beet) were assigned to the sub-plots. Yield and yield component, indices such as Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) were measured. For analyzing data, SAS ver.9.1 was used and mean comparison was performed based on Duncan test.

The results indicated that in intercropping of cotton, fodder beet and sunflower and in all plant ratios, the total LER was more than one. The highest LER was obtained in 50% cotton + 37.5% sunflower + 12.5% ​​fodder beet ratio and in both mixed and row intercropping patterns. The lowest LER was observed in ratio of 50% cotton + 37.5% fodder beet + 12.5% ​​sunflower and in mixed intercropping pattern. The highest amount of LER in cotton was obtained in ratio of 50% cotton + 37.5% fodder beet + 12.5% sunflower and in both methods of mixed and row intercroping and in ratio of 50% cotton + 37.5% sunflower + 12.5 % fodder beet was obtained in row intercroping pattern. In 33.3% cotton + 33.3% fodder beet + 33.3% sunflower ratio, cotton had the lowest partial LER in both mix and row intercroping patterns. Among different ratios of cotton planting, sole cropping with 0.32 kg / m3 had the highest and ratio of 33.3% cotton + 33.3% fodder beet + 33.3% sunflower, with 0.13 kg / m3, had the lowest water use efficiency.

Due to the different morphology, phenology and growth type of plants used in the present study, it seems that the intercropping of cotton-sunflower and fodder beet can increase the efficiency of using resources, especially water. So intercropping is one of the highly promising approaches for enhancing agricultural productivity and profitability that can provide sustainability in agricultural ecosystem. Intercropping  reduces  the  risk  of  crop  failure, improves  productivity  per  unit  area,  improves  profitability  and can  provide  a  pathway  to  food  security  in  vulnerable  production systems.

This research (Grant No. 47291), was funded by Vice Chancellor for Research of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which is hereby acknowledged.

 Quinoa, which is known as the mother grain,has higher protein content than common cereals and possesses a large lysine content. Quinoa is composed mainly of carbohydrates (60-75%), of which 10-13% is dietary fiber. Quinoa also has a slightly higher protein content (12-16%) compared with cereal grains and fat content (5-9%) that is rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Quinoa seeds contain similar or slightly higheramounts of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols (2.7-3.8 g/kg). Moreover, quinoa is gluten-free, thus providing the ability to enhance the selection of gluten-free products forconsumers with celiac disease, but this type of characteristicis challenging to development of bakery products from quinoa with desirable physicochemical properties. Processing of cereal grains and pseudo-cereals into products that deliver a nutritive valueto consumers represents a considerable opportunity for large scale food processing. There havebeen some reported studies on roasting, extrusion, steam pre-conditioning and pearling of quinoafor further uses. Extrusion cooking is a promising technology for improvement of functional properties of quinoa flour. The Evaluation of physicochemical properties and microstructure of Expanded quinoa as affected by extrusion conditions was the main goal of this project.

 In this study, a parallel twin-screw extruder (Jinan Saxin, China) with die diameter of 3 mm was applied. The effects of extrusion process parameters including feed moisture content (14 and 16%) and die temperature (130, 150 and 170 °C) on final moisture content, bulk density, water absorption index (WAI), color parametersL* (lightness), a*(redness), b*(yellowness), hardness, and microstructure of Expanded quinoa were studied. Extrusion was carried out using a co-rotating twin screw extruder with L/D ratio of 10:1 and die diameter of 4 mm. The feed rate of flour and the screw speed were set at 40 kg/h and 200 rpm, respectively. The physicochemical properties were measured using standard methods. The hardness measurement was performed by a texture analyzer. The cylinder steel probe (2 mm diameter) was set to move at a speed of 1 mm/s The samples were punctured by the probe to a distance of 10 mm . The color parameters of the samples were determined by the Hunterlab machine. The morphology of samples was assessed using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

 A comprehensive study on impacts of extrusion processing conditions on quinoa flour was conducted. The effect of process variables on the physicochemical attributes of the extrudates was observed. the expanded quinoa with higher feed moisture content had greater moisture and those extruded at higher die temperatures showed lower moisture content (p<0.05). Moisture can reduce the shear force as a plasticizer and increase the amount of moisture absorption of the product. While increasing the die temperature, the effect of shear force on starch dextrification increases and reduces moisture absorption (p<0.05). WAI was significantly influenced by extrusion variables. In fact, feed moisture content and die temperature both positively changed the WAI of quinoa flour so that all extruded samples had significantly higher WAI than the untreated sample (p<0.05). Moreover, the sample with the higher feed moisture content (24%) treated at the highest extrusion temperature (170 °C) showed the largest and lowest water absorption and Hardness respectively (p<0.05). Another important feature of expanded quinoa is the lightness index, the results revealed that extrusion cooking caused a reduction in L* and enhancements in a* and b*. While changes in color parameters were more pronounced at more severe die temperature, higher feed moisture content counteracted the effects of cooking temperature on the color of the products. As expected from changes in the abovementioned color parameters, the sample with lower feed moisture content (16%) treated at the highest extrusion temperature (170 °C) experienced the greatest color change (ΔE). The texture profile analysis (TPA) indicated that higher feed moisture content yielded extrudates with harder texture whereas, extrusion at higher temperature resulted in lower hardness. The scanning electron micrographs showed that the native quinoa flour encompassed both small- and large-sized starch granules while the extruded sample mainly consisted of disaggregated particles. Furthermore, extrusion cooking of samples with higher feed moisture content caused formation of more uniform starch aggregates with smoother surfaces.

 Curcumin, as a natural polyphenolic nutraceutical has been shown many health-promoting effects, mainly associated with its chemical structure. In various studies, different properties of this compound, including anti-tumor and anti-cancer activity, reduction of blood and liver cholesterol levels, increase of immune function, prevention of cardiovascular diseases, prevention of damage to biological membranes against peroxidation and anti-inflammatory properties have been reported. Despite possessing a potential health benefits to humans, the susceptibility of this polyphenol towards environmental conditions and low chemical stability has restricted the direct usage of curcumin into aqueous-based food formulations. The encapsulation of curcumin in liposomes is a potentially effective way to protect them from degradation during passing the digestive system.

Curcumin (powder, purity greater than 99%, 368.38 g/mol), lecithin, cholesterol (C3045-25G), pancreacin (extracted from porcine pancreas, P7545-25G), bile salts (B8756-10G) and calcium chloride (CaCl2) was obtained from Sigma Aldrich (USA). Consumable ethanol was purchased from Pars Ethanol Company (96%, Iran). Lipase enzyme (extracted from pig pancreas, L8070) and pepsin (activity 3500-3000 NFU/g, P8390) were obtained from Solarabio (China). Potassium chloride, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HPO4) and alpha-amylase enzyme with a purity of at least 99% were obtained from Merck, Germany, sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and calcium chloride were obtained from Sigma. The effect of lecithin content (0.02- 0.08 g), lecithin cholesterol ratio (0.5- 4), curcumin level (1.5- 6mg) and ultrasound treatment time (1-5 minutes) on production of liposomes containing curcumin was evaluated. The particle size, particle size distribution, zeta potential and efficiency were determined by response surface methodology. Furthermore, physical nature, molecular structure, physical stability at 4ºC and 25ºC and release behavior of curcumin loaded-liposome in mouth, stomach and intestines were explored.

 The results showed that all independent variables had a significant effect on liposome particle size and increasing the ratio of lecithin: cholesterol caused more uniform particle size. Lecithin was determined to be the only component affecting the zeta potential of liposome particles, and increasing the ultrasound time increased the efficiency of curcumin encapsulation in liposomes. The optimal point of liposome preparation conditions in the amount of 0.08 g lecithin, 4: 1 the ratio of lecithin: cholesterol, 4.16 mg curcumin and 5 minutes the ultrasound treatment was introduced by Design Expert software. In addition, curcumin was amorphous in optimal liposome spherical particles. Furthermore, the results of TEM showed that the liposomes are in the form of single-layer particles, spherical and without membrane rupture. This makes the bilayered nature of the vesicles clearly visible in this micrograph. The size of the particles obtained from this method was consistent with the data obtained from the dynamic light scattering method. From the results of infrared spectroscopy, it can be seen that curcumin is trapped in the liposome through hydrogen bonding in the double-layered vesicle of the liposome, the phenolic ring of curcumin with the phospholipid head group, as well as the hydrophobic interactions of the aromatic rings with the acyl phospholipid chains. Liposomes were more stable at refrigeration temperature. A very small amount of curcumin was released in the simulated oral phase, which is probably due to the short time and lack of specific enzymes to disrupt the phospholipid bilayers of the liposome. Although the pepsin enzyme is unable to penetrate the liposome membrane, acidic conditions change the angle of the head and tail groups of the lipids and lead to a change in the surface charge of the liposomes. The release of curcumin from liposome vesicles was greatly increased in the intestine. This sudden increase is due to the presence of bile salts as an emulsifying agent that can disrupt the phospholipid membrane and make the membrane more fluid. In addition, pancreatic lipase is adsorbed on the surface of lipids and then hydrolyzes the phospholipid into 2-acyl and 1-acyl lysophospholipids and free fatty acids. The release behavior of curcumin under gastrointestinal conditions was based on the Fick mechanism.

Predicting yield is increasingly important to optimize irrigation under limited available water to enhance sustainable production. Calibrated crop simulation models therefore increasingly are being used an alternative means for rapid assessment of water-limited crop yield over a wide range of environmental and management conditions. AquaCrop is a multi-crop model that simulates the water-limited yield of herbaceous crop types under different biophysical and management conditions. It requires a relatively small number of explicit and mostly-intuitive parameters to be defined compared to other crop models, and has been validated and applied successfully for multiple crop types across a wide range of environmental and agronomic setting. This study was conducted as a two-year field experiment with the aim of the simulation of water productivity, above ground biomass and fresh and dry yield of tomato using AquaCrop model under different irrigation regimes applied at two growth stages in Mashhad climate conditions. A two-year field experiment was conducted during 2016-2017 growing seasons in the experimental field of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad located in Khorasan Razavi province, North East of Iran. The water-driven AquaCrop model developed by FAO was calibrated and validated to simulate water productivity, above-ground biomass and yield of tomato crop under varying irrigation regimes. AquaCrop was calibrated and validated for tomato under full (100% of water requirements) and deficit (75 and 50% of water requirements) irrigation regimes at vegetative (100V, 75V, and 50V) and reproductive stages (100R, 75R, and 50R). Model performance was evaluated in terms of the normalized root mean squared error (NRSME), the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (EF), Willmott’s index of agreement (d) and coefficient of determination (R2). The drip irrigation method was used for irrigation. The tomato water requirement was calculated using CROPWAT 8.0 software. The irrigation water was supplied based on total gross irrigation and obtained irrigation schedule of CROPWAT. The 2016 and 2017 measured data sets were used for calibration and validation of AquaCrop model, respectively. Calibration results showed good agreement between simulated and observed data for water productivity in all treatments with high R2 value (0.93), good ME (0.23), low estimation errors (RMSE=0.09 kgm3) and high d value (0.85). The goodness of fit results showed that measured WP values were closer to simulated WP values for the validation season (2017) than for the calibration season (2016). During calibration, (2016), the model simulated the biomass with good accuracy. The simulated above ground biomass values were close to the observed values during calibration (2016) for all treatments with R2 ranging from 0.92 to 0.99, NRMSE in range of 7.4 to 23%, d varying from 0.94 to 1, and ME ranging from 0.71 to 0.98. Validation results indicated good performance of model in simulating above ground biomass for most of the treatments (0.92 < R2 < 0.98, 6.5% < NRMSE < 21.3%, 0.76 < ME < 0.99). During validation (2017 growing season), overall, the trend of biomass growth (or accumulation) was captured well by model. However, the range of biomass of simulation errors was high, especially in treatments with higher stress. Accurate simulation of the response of yield to water is important for agricultural production, especially in an arid region where agriculture depends closely heavily on irrigation. During validation, the model predicted dry and fresh yield satisfactorily (NRMSE = 15.64% and 11.80% for dry and fresh yield, respectively). In general, the AquaCrop model was able to simulate the observed water productivity, above ground biomass and yield of tomato satisfactorily in both calibration and validation stage. However, the model performance was more accurate in non- and/or moderate stress conditions than in sever water-stress environments. In conclusion, the AquaCrop model could be calibrated to simulate growth and yield of tomato under temperate condition, reasonably well, and become a very useful tool to support decision on when and how much irrigate. This study provides the first estimate of the soil and plant parameter values of AquaCrop for simulation of tomato growth in Iran. Model parameterization is site specific, and thus the applicability of key calibrated parameters must be tested under different climate, soil, variety, irrigation methods, and field management.

The modeling approach for the simulation of the growth and development of tomatoes in Iran has been overlooked. Calibrated crop simulation models, therefore, are increasingly being used as an alternative means for the rapid assessment of water-limited crop yield over a wide range of environmental and management conditions. AquaCrop is a multi-crop model that simulates the water-limited yield of herbaceous crop types under different biophysical and management conditions. It requires a relatively small number of explicit and mostly intuitive parameters to be defined compared to other crop models and has been validated and applied successfully for multiple crop types across a wide range of environmental and agronomic settings. This study was conducted as a two-year field experiment with the aim of the simulation of soil water content, evapotranspiration, and green canopy cover of tomato using AquaCrop model under different irrigation regimes at two growth stages in Mashhad climate conditions.

A field experiment was conducted over two consecutive seasons (2016-2017) in the experimental field of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, located in Khorasan Razavi province, North East of Iran. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with different irrigation regimes at the vegetative and at the reproductive stage as the main and subplot factors, replicated thrice. In total, 27 plots of 4.5×3 m (13.5 m2) were used at a planting density of 2.7 plants per m2. Seedlings were planted in a zigzag pattern into twin rows, with a distance of 1.5 m between them, so there were four twin rows of three meters in each plot. The distance between tomato plants within each twin-row was 0.5 meters. A buffer zone spacing of 3 and 1.5 m was provided between the main plots and subplots, respectively. The following experimental factors were studied: three irrigation regimes (100= 100% of water requirement, 75= 75% of water requirement, 50= 50% of water requirement) and two crop growth stages (V= vegetative stage and R= Reproductive stage). The drip irrigation method was used for irrigation. The tomato water requirement was calculated using CROPWAT 8.0 software. The irrigation water was supplied based on total gross irrigation and obtained irrigation schedule of CROPWAT. Model accuracy was evaluated using statistical measures, e.g., R2, normalized root means square error (NRMSE), model efficiency (E.F.), and d-Willmott. The 2016 and 2017 measured soil and canopy data sets were used for calibration and validation of the AquaCrop model, respectively.

For a water-driven model, such as AquaCrop, it is important to evaluate its effectiveness in simulating soil water content. During calibration (2016), the model simulated the soil water content with good accuracy. The simulated soil water content values were close to the observed values during calibration (2016) for all treatments with R2 ranging from 0.90 to 0.97, NRMSE in range of 8.47 to 17.96%, d varying from 0.76 to 0.99, and M.E. ranging from 0.87 to 0.96. Validation results indicated the good performance of the model in simulating soil water content for most of the treatments (0.79<R2<0.99, 10.04%<NRMSE<18.65%, 0.77<ME<0.92). Appropriate parameterization of canopy cover curve is critical for the model to provide accurate estimates of soil evaporation, crop transpiration, biomass, and yield. In general, the calibration results showed good agreement between simulated and observed data for canopy cover development in all treatments with high R2 values (>0.87), good E.F. (>0.61), low estimation errors (RMSE, ranging from only 4.5 to 9.2) and high d values (>0.92).

The AquaCrop model (version 6.1) was calibrated and validated for modeling soil water content, evapotranspiration, and green canopy cover for tomatoes under drought stress conditions. In general, soil water content, evapotranspiration, and green canopy cover of tomato were simulated by AquaCrop model with acceptable accuracy in both calibration and validation stages. However, the model performance was more accurate in no and/or moderate stress conditions than in severe water stress environments. In conclusion, the AquaCrop model could be calibrated to simulate the growth and soil water content of tomatoes under temperate conditions reasonably well and become a very useful tool to support the decision on when and how much irrigate. For R2, values > 0.90 were considered very well, while values between 0.70 and 0.90 were considered good. Values between 0.50 and 0.70 were considered moderately well, while values less than 0.50 were considered poor. Root mean square error ranges from 0 to positive infinity and expresses in the units of the studied variable. An RMSE approaching 0 indicates good model performance.

Recently self-sustaining, diversified, low-input, and energy-efficient agricultural systems like intercropping have been considered as the efficient way to achieve the sustainability in agriculture. Intercropping as an old agricultural practice, have been followed especially at the small scale and subsistence farming. It can be defined as the agricultural practice of growing two or more crops or ecotypes together in the same field. Intercropping brings diversity of species in the cropping systems, and is considered to make the systems more resilient against environmental perturbations, thus enhancing food security. It provides high insurance against crop failure, especially in the extreme weather conditions like temperature stress, drought, flood, frost, pest infestation etc. In fact, intercropping is claimed to be one of the most significant cropping techniques in sustainable agriculture, and many researches and reviews attribute its utilization to the number of environmental benefits from promoting land biodiversity to diversifying agricultural outcome. Legumes after cereals are the second source of human food and in Iran they are the second most important food. Due to the importance of legume intercropping in the sustainability of agricultural systems, the objective of the present work was to evaluate the effect of row intercropping of three bean ecotypes red bean, pinto bean and cowpea bean as replacement series on the physiological growth indices under climatic conditions of Mashhad.

This experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with nine treatments and three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2016-2017 growing season. Treatments were 75% red bean+ 25% pinto bean, 75% red bean+ 25% cowpea bean, 25% red bean+ 75% pinto bean, 25% red bean+ 75% cowpea bean, 75% pinto bean+ 25% cowpea bean, 75% cowpea bean+ 25% pinto bean and their monoculture. In order to measure the growth indices, the destructive samplings were carried out every 14 days from 0.15 m2 of row in each plot. All bean ecotypes were harvested by cutting at the soil surface. The studied indices were leaf area index (LAI), dry matter accumulation (DM), crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR).

The highest leaf area index for red bean, pinto bean and cowpea ecotypes were observed in their monoculture with 2.45, 1.45 and 3.60, respectively. The fast period of vegetative growth and dry matter accumulation were observed at 65-80 days after planting with a small decline afterwards until physiological maturity. The maximum dry matter accumulation for these ecotypes was obtained in their monoculture. Crop growth rate reached its peak 65 days after emergence followed by a decreasing trend afterwards. The highest crop growth rate was observed in pinto bean with 27 g m-2 day-1. At the beginning of growth stage, due to more penetration of light into the canopy and less shadow of the leaves the less respiration, RGR was more and its reduction slope was less. As time passes and vegetative and reproductive organs grow more, the shadow of leaves on each other increases and therefore after words RGR decreased. Also, net assimilation rate reached to its peak 60 days after emerging and decreased.

The results of showed that intercropping of bean ecotypes with increasing plant density, increased the leaf area index (LAI) and dry matter accumulation (DM) of both crops in monoculture and mixed culture which could be due to increased vegetation and it's closer to optimum density in mixed culture and better use of environmental resources. However due to different criteria of these ecotypes associated with better use of water, radiation and nutrient resources when they are intercropped, physiological growth indices were increased. Overall following this agroecological practice in cropping systems could keep contribution to move the current agroecosystems one step towards sustainability.

Intercropping is an old agricultural practice which is growing of multiple crop species at the same time in the same place. Traditionally, intercropping has been used to increase crop production and the efficiency of the resource as well mitigate any possible risk. Intercropping has been shown to decrease the risk of crop failure by increasing the crop yield stability over time. Intercropping creates biodiversity in the cropping systems, and it is considered to make the systems more resilient against environmental perturbations, thus enhancing food security. Land equivalent ratio (LER) is often conceded as an indicator to determine the efficacy of intercropping that measure the land productivity. LER may be interpreted as the relative area required by sole crops to produce the same yields as achieved in a unit area of intercrop. The objective of the present work was to evaluatethe effect of row intercropping of three plant species such as sunflower, pumpkin and common bean on the yield, yield components and land equivalent ratio under climatic conditions of Mashhad.  

This experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran during two growing seasons of 2015-2016 and 2016-2016. The treatments were double (H:C, H:P, C:P) and triple (H:C:P and HH:CC:PP including one row and two rows of each species) arrangements of sunflower, pumpkin and common bean as replacement series and their sole cropping. Investigated traits were plant height, 100-seed weight, number of seeds per head, head diameter, seed weight per plant, biological yield, seed yield and harvest index of sunflower, seed weight per fruit, 100-seed weight, fresh weight of fruit, dry weight of fruit, number of seeds per fruit, dry weight of plant, biological yield, seed yield and harvest index of pumpkin and plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pods, number of branches per plant, dry weight of plant, pod weight per plant, seed weight per plant and 100-seed weight, biological yield, seed yield and harvest index of common bean. The LER was calculated as the sum of relative yields of component crops in an intercrop versus sole crops. For analysis of variance SAS ver 9.2 was used. All the means were compared according to Duncan multiple range test (p≤0.05).

The results showed that the effect of different intercropping arrangements of sunflower, pumpkin and common bean was significant (p≤0.05) on their yield components, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index. The highest seed yield of sunflower, common bean and pumpkin were observed in triple cropping as two rows (10158 kg.ha-1), sole cropping(10493 kg.ha-1) and common bean+ pumpkin (25014 kg.ha-1), respectively. The maximum biological yield of sunflower, pumpkin and common bean were observed in it sole cropping, triple cropping as one row and sole cropping. The highest and the lowest land equivalent ratio were calculated with triple cropping as one row (1.69) and sunflower+ common bean (1.06), respectively.

Results revealed that growth, yield components and yield of sunflower, pumpkin and common bean were significantly affected by intercropping arrangements. However due to different criteria of these species associated with better use of water, radiation and nutrient resources when they are intercropped, land use efficiency was increased. Acknowledgement This research (40982) was funded by the Vice Chancellor for Research of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which is hereby acknowledged.

In this study, the effect of glycerol concentrations (60, 70 and 80 %) and drying temperatures (45, 60 and 75 °C) on physical and mechanical properties of Lepidium perfoliatum seed gum-grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) protein isolate composite film was investigated. Results showed that with increasing the temperature from 45°C to 75°C, the drying time needed for the composite film containing 60 and 70% reduced. Whilst, drying times of the samples with 70 and 80% glycerol were nearly the same. Water solubility, moisture absorption and elongation at break (E%) reduced when the drying temperature increased and the elastic modulus (EM) decreased. With increasing glycerol concentration from 60 to 80 %, water solubility and moisture absorption increased and E% and EM reduced.

In the foreseeable future, plants are still the most important source of human food supply, and given the rapid rise in demand for food in developing countries, the demand for food will increase sharply over the next 20 years. Compression is the most important factor in increasing agricultural production. One of the useful indicators in determining the compression rate is the use of agronomic index. In Nepal, an applied definition has been used to compress agriculture, which includes increasing the number of crops per unit area in a crop season, along with the trend of chemical changes to improve plant performance. One of the important indicators used by many researchers is made by Boserup (1966). In this definition, agricultural compression  means increasing the cultivation of crops in a given period in an agricultural system., The idea of increasing the frequency of planting important crops originated in agriculture prior to industrialization and was the only way to increase crop production in one year. This concept later became more comprehensive by other researchers by adding the differences in the length of sowing and planting of crops. In a number of studies, the frequency of products indicating the amount of land use has been used as a compression index.

In order to study the trend of changes in crop density, agronomy and stability in agricultural production, statistical data of 15 agricultural variables including crop area and rainfall in different provinces of the country for the period of 50 years from 1961 to 2011 have been obtained from the Statistical Yearbook, databases The Ministry of Agriculture, the Center for Statistics of Iran and the FAO Database.
Agronomic index was used to study the land use status of arable land and an aspect of compression including land cover with one-year cultivars.

Based on the average, total agricultural density in 1971, 2004 and 2011were 9.26, 8.48 and 8.80, respectively, and the mean of three years was 8.94 months. The lowest index of agricultural density index in 1350 belonged to southern coastal provinces (Hormozgan and Bushehr) and Mazandaran with average of 6.98 and 7.33 months, respectively. In 2004 Guilan and Mazandaran provinces had the least index of 4 and 62.5 months, and in 2011 the lowest rate of this indicator was in Gilan and southern coastal provinces, with a period of coverage of 63.6 and 5.3 months, respectively. Considering that in most regions of the country more than half of the cultivated area is allocated to wheat, and also wheat remains on the ground  longer than the other crops, therefore, wheat cultivation owns the most important share  in the determination of the index of agronomic agglomeration (or crop cover). On the other hand, in the northwestern regions due to climatic conditions and colder periods of time, cereals especially wheat remail on the ground longer ,so the main reason for the higher index of agronomy in these areas is that wheat is present at the surface of earth. The study of agronomy in the country's arable crops showed that, contrary to expectation, in areas with higher rainfall the duration of land cover is less and soil remains without cultivation a long time in the year, due to the cultivation of crops such as rice. Therefore, changing the pattern of planting is essential in these areas .

The results of this study showed that due to the dominance of cereal cultivation in cropping pattern, crop density was affected by the cropping area of ​​these plants. Food security is one of the basic needs and increasing the production per unit area isone of the important ways to achieve it.  So, changing the pattern or planting system is necessary in areas where compression is low.

Canola (Brassica napus) is a major oilseed crop in the world, and its oil is used not only for salad and frying but also in the processing of margarines, shortenings, and other food products. Canola (Brassica napus L.) is often called a flexible or plastic crop because individual plants can adjust the number and size of branches and pods they produce in response to available moisture, light and nutrients. Therefore, canola naturally compensates for variations in plant population over relatively wide ranges with very little effect on final yield. At plant densities of 70-100 plants per square meter (approximately 7-10 plants per square foot), canola plants normally produce 3-5 secondary branches, in addition to the main stem. At low densities of 20-30 plants per m2, this plant can produce up to four times the number of branches that stands of 70-100 plants per m2 produce. Extension of canola cultivation varieties need effective instruments to follow up characters associated with yield and yield components. Therefore, determination of the response of canola cultivars to plant density is principally important and in general plant density is the most important factor which limit yield production on farmlands.

In order to determine the best planting density for rapeseed cultivars, this experiment was conducted at the agricultural research field of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, in 2011. A factorial experiment based on RCBD with three replications was used. Factors were cultivars (Hayola401 and Modena) and planting density (40, 70, 100, 130, 160 and 190 plants.m-2). A composite sample of soil from the surface of the ground down to the depth of 30 cm was taken and sent to a laboratory for determining the physical and chemical features of the soil. Results of tests carried out on these samples showed that the available phosphorous, and the available potassium contents of the soil were 31.5 mg.kg-1 and 267 mg.kg-1, respectively. The soil pH was 7.3 with texture containing 40% clay, 41% silt, and 19% sand. Distance between plots was 0.5 meter and between replications 1 meter used as passage way. At crop maturity, five plants were randomly selected from each plot and the seed yield and yield components (including number of seeds per pod, number of pods per plant and the 1000-seed weight) were measured. Analysis of the variance was performed using the SAS statistical software, and comparison of the means was performed on the basis of duncan’s multiple range test at five percent probability level.

Results showed that there were significantly differences between plant density on rapeseed cultivars. Canola crops need 30-40 plants per m2 (approximately 3-4 plants per square foot) to maintain yield potential. Plant populations lower than this is more likely to have yield loss. The average grain yield in Modena cultivar was 13.5% higher than in Hayola401 cultivar. Number of pods per plant in Modena was significantly higher than in the Hayola401.When plant density decreased from 40 to 190 plants.m-2, plant height of rapeseed increased. The greatest number of seeds per pod, biological yield, harvest index and oil percentage were observed in 70 plants.m-2.

Rapeseed cultivars responded strongly to changes in plant density. The average grain yield in Modena cultivar was higher than in Hayola401 cultivar. The maximum seed yield was observed in 70 plants.m-2.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by Vice Chancellor for Research of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which is hereby acknowledged.

Medicinal plants are looked upon not only as a source of affordable health care products but also as a source of income. There is a growing demand for plant-based medicines, health products, essential oils, fragrances, cosmetics and natural aroma chemicals in the markets. Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants has several advantages such as higher net returns per unit area, low incidence of pests and diseases, improvement of degraded and marginal soils, longer shelf life of end products and foreign exchange earning potential. Intercropping is a multiple cropping system that has been practiced for many years in various methods in most of the regions. It has played important roles in the redistribution of soil nutritional resources and establishment of soil microbial diversity. Legumes have been intercropped with medicinal plants for many years. Land equivalent ratio (LER) is often used as an indicator to determine the efficiency of intercropping. It is the most common index adopted in intercropping to measure the land productivity. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of black seed (Nigella sativa L.) intercropped with fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) in additive series on their yield and yield components and LER.
 

An experiment was performed based on a randomized complete block design with six treatments and three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during growing season of 2015-2016. Intercropping ratios were 25% B (black seed) +100% fenugreek (F), 50% B+100% F, 75% B +100% F, 100% B+100% F and their monoculture. Studied traits were the number of branches per plant, the number of follicles per plant, the number of seeds per follicle, 1000- seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index for black seed and the number of branches per plant, the number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod, 1000- seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index for fenugreek. LER was calculated as the criterion for intercropping.
The treatments were run as an analysis of variance (ANOVA) by using Minitab to determine if significant differences existed among treatments means. Multiple comparison tests were conducted for significant effects using the LSD test.
 

The results showed that the different intercropping ratios of black seed with fenugreek had significant effect on the number of branches per plant, the number of follicles and pods per plant, the number of seeds per follicle/pod, seed yield and biological yield. The highest and the lowest seed yield of black seed were observed for monoculture and 25% black seed+100% fenugreek with 291 and 107 kg.ha-1, respectively. The maximum and the minimum seed yield of fenugreek were related to its monoculture and 100% black seed+100% fenugreek with 655 and 363 kg.ha-1, respectively. When the two plants are grown together, yield advantages occur due to their differences to use resources.
LER of the black seed/ fenugreek intercropping system ranged from 1.12 to 1.24, and thus land use efficiency was significantly enhanced by this intercropping system. LER was much higher than one in all of the intercropping ratios, indicating the intercropping yield advantage. The maximum LER was calculated for 75% black seed+100% fenugreek with 1.24.
 

Fenugreek intercropped with black seed showed a significant increase in yield, yield components and LER. It has been proved that the effects of intercropping by its involvement in improved soil chemical characteristics, increased nitrogen content (nitrogen biological fixation) has greatly contributed to agroecological services. It can be concluded that intercropping of fenugreek with contributed to productivity increases per unit area of black seed.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by Vice Chancellor for Research of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which is hereby acknowledged.

Integration of animal in crop production systems has a long history in the course of agricultural evolution. In this context, domestication of sheep and goat in Iran coincided with the beginning of rain fed cropping in dry areas in the Near East, hence animal husbandry and crop production were evolved simultaneously in the dry areas in an integrative manner. Inevitably, conflict of interest was raised due to forage shortage for the herders and cultivation land for the farmers. On the other hand, this conflict never stopped the cooperation between them based on mutual interests rooted in integration of animal and crop which is termed integrative agriculture. Crop residue which is the main component of integration was left to the nomad herders in exchange of animal products and manure on a national scale. On farm scale, different combination of activities such as rearing animal with forage production, utilization of crop and orchard residue and grazing the animal in rangeland was practiced and still is continued. Diverse crop residue is still used in the country due to high biodiversity of crops with a large amount produced annually, almost all of which is fed to animals. However, with the needs for the amendment of low organic content of the soils, expansion of conservation agriculture, paper industry and biofuel needs, there will be competition for crop residues in the future. Old generation of farmers associated with this system are retiring and the new generation is not much eager to work on the land and/or with animal. On this base, proper technology should be provided to these young people in order to encourage them to remain in the rural areas. Meanwhile, a new look into the integration process in small holding farming system is needed based on the emergence of new technologies.

The concept of ecological footprint was first proposed by Rees (1992) and further developed by Wackernagel and Yount (2000). This is an index based on the land area needed for basic requirements and also the waste disposal of an individual in a specific geographic location and usually calculated on the basis of area per capita which is normally global hectare (Gha) per capita. Based on the report of World Wildlife Found, total world ecological footprint for the year 2010 has been estimated to be 18.2 billion global hectares (Gha) with a per capita 2.7 Gha. This index is reciprocal of carrying capacity.
During the last two decades ecological footprint accounting is used widely for evaluation of ecosystems sustainability. However, limited information is available about ecological footprint of Iran and its components. In this research the state of production and consumption of different food stuffs and ecological footprint of food were calculated for Iran and the results are compared with other countries.

Data was collected for different group of agriculture foods including cereals, oil crops, pulses, dairy products, meat, fruits and vegetables from Ministry of Jihad Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce and also from other published data in official databases in the country. Calculation was made by the method provided in the literature.
Based on these factors ecological foodprint for each food product (efi) on the bases of Gha can be calculated from equation 1.
Equation (1)
In which efi: is the foodprint for product i, Ai: is the land area required for the same product i and fe,i: is the conversion factor for product i (Gha per ha).
Calculation of foodprint
Equation (2)
Equation (3)
Where EF is total ecological footprint (Gha), ef: per capita ecological footprint in terms of Gha and N: total population of the country.

The amount of total food production and consumption in 2013 were estimated as 89.5 and 94.6 Mg, respectively with self-sufficiency coefficient (production: consumption ratio) of 0.87. Self-sufficiency of cereals, oil crops and sugar crops were calculated as 0.69, 0.12 and 0.48, respectively that shows these food groups are highly import-dependent. However, production of vegetables and fruits exceeded their consumption and for other food items consumption was balanced by production. Ecological footprint of food estimated as 0.88 Gha/person and increased to 1.04 ha/person when calculated based on local hectares. Component analysis showed that this difference was due to lower efficiency of cereal and meat and dairy production systems of the country compared to world averages. Meat and dairy products accounted for 48% of food footprint of Iran and 33% of this footprint was due to cereals. Based on our results, Iranian food footprint is higher than Asia (0.7 Gh/person) and is almost the same as the world average (0.9 Gh/peron). Moreover, footprint of food is increased over the country by 76% during years 2000-2013 and this trend could led to severe environmental consequences.

Except for vegetable oils, sugar and cereals, the production and consumption of other groups of food materials are in balance, even for some groups such as fruits and vegetables. There is a small surplus in production over consumption for some extent dairy products. Foodprint for Iran is higher than the value for Asia and is similar to average for the world. In general, foodprint differs significantly amongst the nation and as expected this value is higher in those countries with higher consumption of meat. Higher demand for consumption of meat has caused an increase in indirect consumption of cereals for meat production. It should be noted that since foodprint is based on global hectare, comparison between countries and regions are simply possible. In fact if yield of a crop at national level is increased but world mean yield does not change, foodprint based on global hectare remains unchanged but if it is calculated on the bases of local hectare, foodprint will decrease. Therefore, system efficiency can be evaluated at national level, by comparison of foodprint at two different scales of global hectare and local hectare.

This research (14920.1) was funded by vice chancellor for research of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which is hereby acknowledged.

To realize global food demand by 2050 world cereal production should be increased up to 49% compared to 2006. This level of production could be achieved by annual yield increment of 1.16%. However, the current rates are much lower. At the same time, there is a very restricted area to increase cultivated lands because of resource limitation, provided that increase in crop yields is the main option to sustain food security. Potential yield (YP) could be achieved when limiting and reducing factors are completely absent during crop growth. YP is an indicator for the yielding capacity of a given environment and management system and estimating the difference between YP and actual yield, known as yield gap, is crucial for improvement of crop production systems at regional or national scale. In this study yield gap and its temporal trend for sugar beet, irrigated and rainfed wheat are estimated over Khorasan Razavi province based on the method developed by Global Yield Gap Atlas. Following the protocol provided by Global Yield Gap Atlas, Khorasan province was clustered into agroclimatic zones using the proposed indices (cumulative degree days above 0 ºC, aridity index and temperature seasonality) based on 10 years (1384-1393) weather data. YP of sugar beet and irrigated wheat for the study period in the climatic regions was first estimated for selected cities within each region using LINTUL model and finally the simulation results were up scaled from cities to region and from regions to the whole province. The model was cross-validated against measured data using leave-one-out (LOO) method to increase accuracy of predictions. Potential yield of rainfed wheat (YW) was estimated from frontier production function which was fitted to yield data over a wide range of annual precipitation. Yield gap (YG) of the studied crops was estimated as the difference between potential (YP) and actual yields (YA) for each region and over the 10-year period. In addition exploitable gap (YG85%=85%YP-YA) was also calculated. The accuracy of LINTUL model for simulation of sugar beet and irrigated wheat yields was considerably increased after cross validation and the prediction error was reduced by 6.5 - 7.8%. Mean YP of irrigated wheat in the climatic region 1 (temperate, semi-dry), 2 (hot, dry) and 3 (temperate, dry) was respectively, 7248, 6478 and 7852 and for the whole province 6936 kg ha-1. Time trend of YP for irrigated wheat was not significant in 3 climatic regions however, high annual variation of YP was found over the studied period. Results indicated that up to 74% of this variation was accounted for by changes in the effective grain filling period in response to temperature. YG85% of irrigated wheat in all climatic regions was increased up to 4 t ha-1 during 1384-1388 but decreased later on so that relative gap was 0.48-0.50 of YP in 1993. Average YW of rainfed wheat in the climatic regions of the province was estimated as 2000-2800 kg ha-1 with a negative trend due to decreased precipitation, the highest negative slope in YW (59 kg ha-1 y-1) was found in the hot dry region. Rainfed wheat showed an extremely high yield gap in all climatic regions and mean relative yield gap (YG/YW) was estimated as 0.75-0.80 over the province. Mean YP of sugar beet in different climatic regions of the province was estimated from 78 to 88 t ha-1 with the lowest potential in hot-dry region. However, declining trend was found in the yield gap of sugar beet in all studied regions with the highest gap filling rate of 1.44 t ha-1 y-1 in temperate-dry region. Simulated YP of sugar beet and irrigated wheat were higher in temperate-semi arid regions of the province and lower in hot-dry regions. However, cold-semi arid regions had the highest YW of rainfed wheat. When up-scaled over the province, YG85% was about 50% of YP for irrigated wheat and sugar beet and 25% for rainfed wheat. It was concluded that closing yield gap of sugar beet and irrigated wheat would be possible mainly by improving management practices however, for rainfed wheat breeding strategies should be considered as the first priority.

  Potential production condition is defined as situation where water and nutrients are supplied in ample with no damage from weeds, pests and diseases. Under this situation potential yield (Yp) which is defined by solar radiation, temperature, CO2 concentration and genotypic characteristics of the crop species could be achieved. Closing the gap between Yp and actual yield (Ya) harvested by farmers is considered as the main challenge of agronomic sciences all around the world. Crop simulation models provide a powerful tool for prediction of Yp at regional and national scales. However, the accuracy of these models is highly dependent on the quality of input data which are usually not fully available even in developed countries. Simplified models designed based on few simple equations may be considered as an alternative where accurate data sets are lacking. In this research, Yp of wheat and sugar beet were estimated using some simple methods and the results were compared with those of complex simulation models under the same climatic and management conditions in Khorasan province, north east of Iran. Potential yields of wheat and sugar beet were estimated by three simple calculation methods including FAO method (FAO, 1981), modified FAO, FAO-M (Versteeg and van Keulen, 1986) and RUE-based method (Nonhebel, 1997) at three different regions (Torbat, Mashhad and Neishabor) in Khorasan province. In these methods total above ground dry matter (DM) is calculated using two equations and Yp is estimated as the product of DM and harvest index with minimum weather data requirements. In addition, Yp for both crops and at the same locations was predicted using LINTUL and SUCROS simulation models which were previously calibrated for yield estimation of wheat and sugar beet at regional level. The accuracy of predicted potential yields by five methods was compared statistically against the measured yields obtained from the field experiments and high yielding farms at the studied regions. Mean observed yield of wheat over the three studied regions was 7.18 t ha-1 and the estimated potential yield in the same regions using two simulation models and three simplified models was ranged between 6.92 and 7.63 t ha-1. Prediction error for the simulation models was 1.39 and for simple methods less than 5% (4.64%). Relative root mean squared error (RMSEn) for the simple methods was higher than that of complex models. However, it was between 7.11 and 10.16 % of the mean measured wheat yield which could be statistically considered as reasonable. Calculated values of modeling efficiency (ME) were positive and higher than 0.60 except for FAO-M method (ME=0.48). Measured sugar beet yield averaged over regions was 82.5 t ha-1 and estimated potential yield by different methods was between 89 and 91 t ha-1. Simple calculation methods had lower accuracy in predicting sugar beet yield compared to simulation models but RMSEnof simple methods never exceeded 11.5% showing statistically acceptable prediction. Cross validation indicated significant correlation between the results of three simple methods and that of complex simulation models. Results of this study showed that potential yields of different crops can be estimated accurately using simple calculation methods with minimum weather data requirements. Such methods may be used as an alternative for agroecological zoning and yield gap analysis at regional level where calibrated simulation models and complete daily weather data sets are not available

Nowadays, demands for hydrocolloids which improve the rheological properties of foods as well as retain their properties under the influence of food additives have increased. In this study, dilute solution properties were employed to understand the molecular and conformational properties of Alyssum homolocarpum seed gum (AHSG), in presence of sucrose and lactose. The model of Tanglertpaibul & Rao was selected as the best model for the estimation of the intrinsic viscosity. It was shown that except for water, the solutions of sucrose and lactose are poor solvents for AHSG as indicated by a decrease in intrinsic viscosity, swollen specific volume, shape function, and coil dimensions. As the sucrose and lactose concentrations increased, the coil radius decreased. The reduction in the shape and swollen volume parameters in the presence of sucrose and lactose as compared to the sugar-free solution indicated the negative effect of the opted sugars on the molecular volume of the gum. Evaluations of the dilute solution properties of the gum in sucrose and lactose solutions revealed that the existence of a conformation tending to ellipsoidal shape and the probability of the conformation of random coil with no molecular entanglements in AHSG solutions.

Optimum uses of water and nitrogen resources are the most important factors in agricultural systems due to limitations of agricultural inputs especially water. In order to investigate the effect of different levels of nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation on efficiency and productivity of water consumption in three crop (sugar beet, corn and sesame) an experiment was carried out as strip split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during growing season of 2008-2009. The main, sub and strip factors were three species (sugar beet, corn and sesame), three irrigation levels (100, 75 and 50% of water requirement of each crop) and four nitrogen levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg.ha-1), respectively. The result showed that the highest water use efficiency was observed as 2.4, 1.8 and 1.5 kg DM.m-3 in corn, sugar beet and sesame, respectively. The maximum water use productivity was obtained for sugar beet (4200 Rails.m-3), sesame (2123 Rails.m-3) and then for corn (1768 Rails.m-3). Interaction effect between water and nitrogen was significant on water use efficiency and productivity for all three studied crops. Water use efficiency declined up to 19% by decreasing 25% of water requirement. Water use productivity decreased in all three studied crops by increasing nitrogen consumption. It seems that high nitrogen level could not be affect on reducing drought stress effects.

In order to investigate the effects of fertilizer types and irrigation regimes on quantitative criteria of three medicinal plants: lavander, rosemary and hyssop, an experiment was conducted at Research Field of Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, during two growing years of 2007-2010. A split-split plot design with three replications was used. Treatments were three irrigation intervals (10, 20, 30 days) as main plots and three types of fertilizers in six levels: control, Nitroxin containing Azotobacter sp. and Azospirilum sp. (5lit/ha), nitrogen fertilizer (50 and 100 kg/ha), cow manure (10 and 20 ton/ha) as subplots. Animal manure and chemical fertilizer were applied at the time of transferring seedlings to the field and Nitroxin was used with the first irrigation. Shoot harvesting was performed twice during the plant growth at the time of full flowering. Increasing irrigation intervals reduced dry matter yield of three species and the highest yield of lavender (3990 kg/ha), rosemary (2380 kg/ha) and hyssop (7380 kg/ha) were obtained with 10 days interval. Also the effect of fertilizer was not significant but the highest yield for lavender (3930kg/ha), rosemary (2535kg/ha) was obtained with 50 kg/ha chemical fertilizer and the highest yield of hyssop (6117kg/ha) resulted in application of 20 ton/ha animal manure. The ratio of leaf dry weight to stem dry weight for both years was gained with 30 days irrigation interval at 20 ton/ha animal manure. In general, the best treatment was 30 days interval irrigation and 20 ton/ha animal manure for the best yield and respective in local conditions

To study the effects of soil solarization, barley straw mulch and hand weeding on weed seedbank, a field experiment was conducted at Research Farm of College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2007-2008 growing season. This experiment was based on a randomized complete block arranged as a split-split plot design with three replications. Clear and black polyethylene, and non-solarized control were arranged on main plots. A different straw mulch rates (0, 300 and 600 gm-2), and weeding treatment were in the sub-plots and sub-sub plots, respectively. A total of 19 weed species was recorded in all treatments which were mainly annual broad leave species. Results indicated that solarization with clear sheets had 1.8 times less seed density than the control plots. Application of straw mulch decreased weed seed population. Also, hand weeding was effective in reducing weed seeds. Weed seedbank density in no-weeding plots was 3 times greater than weed control plots. The interaction between soil solarization, straw mulch and weeding on seedbank size was significant. The lowest number of weed seeds was observed in clear polyethylene, 300 gm-2 straw mulch and weeding.

This research was conducted to evaluate the impacts of climate change on rainfed wheat growth and yield at country level. Weather data generated by a General Circulation model based on the ICCP scenarios for the target years of 2025 and 2050. Daily weather data including minimum and maximum temperatures, precipitation and radiation were used as the inputs of a growth simulation model for rainfed after calibration and validation for predicting wheat yield under current climatic conditions. Using the model, the impacts of climate change on wheat growth and yield was predicted and compared with the current data. The simulation results indicated that leaf area index and absorbed radiation by wheat canopy was reduced under climatic conditions of the target years. Reduction of absorbed radiation resulted to a lower crop growth rate and consequently drastic reduction in dry matter production. Estimated drought stress index for the future climate conditions showed that reduction of crop growth rate was mainly resulted from water shortage due to increased evapotranspiration. Reduction of the length of growth period together with a considerable decline of harvest index resulted in a significant reduction of rainfed wheat yield despite the positive effects of increased CO2 concentration and this negative impacts on wheat yield was intensified from 2025 towards 2050. Simulation results showed that the potential impact of climate change on rainfed wheat yield was more pronounced in Eastern regions of the country compared to the Western production areas. The overall country level reduction of rainfed wheat yield was estimated in the range of 16 to 25 % and 22 to 32% for the years 2025 and 2050, respectively.

In order to evaluate the effect of intercropping with replacement and additive series for hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) and sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), a field experiment was conducted during growing season 2006-07 at the Agricultural Research Station of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used. Treatments included different combinations of intercropping with replacement (75%sesame+ 25% hemp, 25%sesame+ 75% hemp, 50%sesame+ 50% hemp) and additive (50%sesame+ 100% hemp and 100%sesame+ 50% hemp) series and their monoculture. Results indicated that the highest and the lowest leaf area index (LAI) and dry matter (DM) accumulation of hemp were observed in 50% sesame+ 50% hemp (2.99 and 1921.7 g.m-2) and 50% sesame +100% hemp (1.06 and 929 g.m-2), respectively. The highest and the lowest LAI and DM accumulation of sesame were observed in monoculture (1.34 and 551.27 g.m-2) and 50%sesame+ 100% hemp (0.23 and 51.73 g.m-2), respectively. The maximum crop growth rate (CGR) of hemp and sesame were observed in 50% sesame+ 50% hemp (76.58 gm-2day-1) and monoculture (22.78 gm-2day-1), respectively. It seems that the intercropped sesame with hemp reduced the growth indices of sesame due to increasing shading on it and decreasing the absorption of radiation.

In order to study radiation use efficiency and radiation interception in intercropping of herb sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), an experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran during growing season of 2008. Treatments were 1) sole crop of bean, 2) sole crop of sweet basil, 3) strip intercropping of bean and sweet basil (four rows bean and two rows sweet basil), 4) strip intercropping of bean and sweet basil (two rows sweet basil and four rows bean), 5) row intercropping of bean and sweet basil. Sweet basil was harvested at two times during the course of experiment. For this purpose a complete randomized block design with three replications was used. Results showed that in intercrop the fraction of intercepted radiation (F) was higher than the sole crop F. radiation use efficiency (RUE) of sweet basil in intercrop treatments was increased compared to sole crop and highest RUE of sweet basil obtained in secondary harvest of row intercropping (3.4 g.MJ-1), and the highest RUE of bean obtained in row intercrop too (2.4 g.MJ-1). Light extinction coefficient of bean was obtained as 0.55 and sweet basil 0.47, respectively. The highest Leaf area index (LAI) in bean was obtained in sole crop (4.3) and the highest LAI in sweet basil in first harvest was in strip intercropping with 4 rows sweet basil (3.2) and secondary harvest was in sole crop sweet basil (2.5).

In order to determine the effects of emulsifiers (Lecithin, E471 and E472) and their levels (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%) and also addition of fungal α-amylase (0, 5, 10 and 20 g/100 kg flour) on bread staling, a completely randomized experiment with factorial design and 3 replications was conducted. Bread staling was determined after 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours of storage. Correlation between variables was analyzed by simple and multivariate regression. Results indicated that addition of emulsifiers reduced the firmness of bread. E472 had the most and E471 had the least effect on bread firmness after 72 hours of storage. Addition of α-amylase reduced the bread firmness and this effect was less pronounced after 72 hours of storage. Correlation between variables based on the development of a model showed that in the first day of bread production, optimal levels of emulsifiers were 1%, 0.25% and 0.5% for Lecithin, E471 and E472, respectively. In case of simultaneous application of emulsifiers and enzyme, the optimal level of enzyme was 5 g/100 kg flour.

Of all types of xenobiotics, pesticides such as herbicides play a significant role in soil and water pollution due to their widely usage all over the world. This study addresses the ability of organic amendments to enhance atrazine and metamitron degradation in two herbicide contaminated soils with contrasting textures under laboratory conditions. Soil samples were collected from surface soils with textures of sandy loam and silty clay, from northeastern part of Iran. Initial concentration of herbicides was 50 mgkg-1 soil. Contaminated soil samples were treated by manure, compost and vermicompost at the rates of %0.5 and %2 (w/w). Residual concentrations of atrazine and metamitron were determined by HPLC at the end of incubation periods of 20,40 and 60 d. Residual concentrations of atrazine were 93, 77.8 and 72.4 % of the initial concentration after 20, 40 and 60d incubation, respectively. Residual metamitron concentrations were clearly lower than atrazine. After 20,40 and 60 d., the remaining concentrations of metamitron were 5.8, 2 and 1.2 %, respectively. Organic amendments at the rates of .5 and 2 % showed similar effects on the enhancement of herbicides degradation in soils. However, no significant effect was observed between types of organic amendments. Degradation was clearly affected by soil textures. Residual concentrations of herbicides were higher in sandy loam than in silty clay soil.