نشریه بوم شناسی کشاورزی
سال دهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1397)

World population increasing need for food have prompted the rapid development of chemical fertilizer technology and also consumed them as a source of nutrition for the food production. Recently, chemical fertilizer consumption in conventional agro-ecosystems imbalanced soil nutrient, declined quantitative and qualitative crop yields, and polluted water and soil. Chemical fertilizers provide crop nutrients need in the short time, and thus farmers had forgotten long-time soil fertility and its controlling processes by using these fertilizers. Hence, ecological and low input farming systems can be considered as a suitable replacement for traditional systems, and they can sustain production systems and maintain environmental health. In order to reduce the pollution caused by the use of chemical fertilizers and the restoration of agro ecosystems, along with the reduction of the dependence on non-renewable resources used in the production of fertilizers, the use of fertilizers that are derived from the environments known as an alternative. It seems that with good and proper management of biological and organic fertilizers, we can provide better nutritional conditions for the plant, stepping in the path of regeneration of agroecosystems and sustainable agricultural development. Therefore, in this experiment, the effect of biological, manure and chemical fertilizers on the growth characteristics of anise plant has been studied. It seems that the information obtained from such experiments can increase the economic efficiency of producers as a means to develop agricultural policies that are consistent with the environment.

In order to study the effects of single and combined applications of biofertilizers and organic fertilizers on growth indices of Anise, a field experiment was conducted with 15 treatments based on a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications at Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in 2011. Treatments were: (1) Mycorrhiza (Glomusin traradices), (2) Mycorrhiza + Cow manure, (3) Mycorrhiza+Vermicompost, (4) Mycorrhiza + Compost, (5) Mycorrhiza + Chemical fertilizer, (6) Biosulfur (Thiobacillus sp.), (7) Biosulfur + Chemical fertilizer, (8) Biosulfur + Cow manure, (9) Biosulfur + Vermicompost, (10) Biosulfur + Compost, (11) Cow manure, (12) Vermicompost, (13) Chemical fertilizer (NPK), (14) Compost and (15) Control. Plant thinning and weeding were carried out in two stages of four and six leaves of anise, and finally the plant density reached 66 plants per square meter. Due to the adverse effects of chemical pesticides on medicinal plants, weed operation was carried out manually by the worker on several occasions. During the growing season, in order to determine the grow trend and leaf area of the anise, the sampling was started from 25.05.2011 at intervals of 15 days until the end of the growing season. The leaf area was determined by the Leaf Measurement System Area (I-COR model) and then leaf area index and other growth indices were calculated. At the same time as the plants were matured and yellowed on first of July, after removing the marginal effect, the biomass of the whole Anise plant was harvested at an area equal to 5 square meters, and after drying in open air, seed yield and dry matter were determined. Data were analyzed, with SAS Ver. 9.1 and MINITAB Ver. 16 statistical softwares. Duncan multiple test was used to compare the means at a probability level of 5%. Figures also were drawed with Excel Ver. 11 M.S office.

The results indicated that the highest (2.4) and the lowest (1.35) leaf area index (LAI) were shown in combination of Mycorrhiza + Chemical fertilizer and compost treatments, respectively. The highest dry matter production (DM) (348.744 g.m-2) and crop growth rate (CGR) (14.42 g.m-2.day-1) were resulted from combination of biosulfur+vermicompost treatment. Compost and control treatments produced the lowest DM (200 g.m-2) and CGR (4.93 g.m-2.day-1), respectively.

In generally, the results revealed that the application of organic and biological fertilizers particularly mycorrhiza and biosulfur had a significant effect on improving the growth indices of anise. Furthermore, the combined application of organic and biological fertilizers had higher positive effects on growth index than their single application

 

Sunlight is the main source of energy in Agro ecosystems. Light is absorbed by leaves and this energy is stored during the process of photosynthesis in chemical bonds of organic compounds and finally converts to the plant biomass. In order to increase the efficiency of this process and understanding how light changes within the plant canopy is necessary to be aware of how changes in light absorption within a farming system, especially when considering various intercropping systems, agroforestry systems and even non-crop species management. Available reports have shown that the higher resources use efficiency in intercropping systems, especially light, water and nitrogen.

This study was aimed to investigate radiation absorption and use efficiency in substitution intercropping of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) and fennel (Foenicolum vulgar L.). The experiment was set up with five treatments in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, during 2012- 2013 growing season. In order to implement an ecological and low input system, no chemical inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) was applied. The experiment constituted 5 treatments: sole crop of milk thistle and fennel, intercropping (75% milk thistle-25% fennel), intercropping (50% milk thistle-50% fennel) and intercropping (25% milk thistle-75% fennel). Crops were harvested every eight days corresponding to 6 harvests starting with the development of the fourth leaf and ending at the early flowering. Above ground dry matter (DM) was determined after oven drying at 70 ˚C for 48 h. Leaf area was determined on the same harvested area used for the measurement of above ground dry matter. Leaf area of the Milk thistle was determined by LI3100 area meter. The green area index of Fennel was also calculated, according to the equation 1.
GAI = M × LWR/SLW (Equation 1)
GAI: green area index, M: daily dry matter allocated to the leaf + stem, LWR: leaf weight ratio and SLW: specific leaf weight.
Incident and transmitted radiation of the canopy was measured using the Sun scan Canopy Analysis System (Accu PAR LP-80). The light extinction coefficient (LEC) was determined from the slope of the linear regression between the natural logarithm of radiation transmission and leaf area index. According to the equation 2.
Ii/Io = e-K.LAI (Equation 2)
Io:amount of radiation on the top of canopy, Ii: amount of radiation at the bottom of canopy, K: light extinction coefficient and LAI: leaf area index.
The daily light absorption for both species was calculated according to the equation 3 t0 5.
Ii = Io (1-exp((-KS.LS) + (-KF.LF))) (Equation 3)
Is= Ii( ) (Equation 4)
IF = Ii- Is (Equation 5)
Io: amount of radiation on the top of canopy, Ii: amount of radiation at the bottom of canopy, Is: amount of absorbed radiation by milk thistle, IF: amount of absorbed radiation by fennel, Ks: light extinction coefficient of milk thistle KF: light extinction coefficient of fennel and Ls: leaf area index of milk thistle and LF: leaf area index of fennel.
Radiation use efficiency (RUE) was computed by the linear regression between dry matter accumulation (g.m-2) and cumulative amount of radiation absorption (MJ.m-2). The data statistical analysis and draw the figures were performed by Minitab, V16, Excel and Edraw MaxV5.0. Means were also compared by HSD test at the 5% probability level.

Results indicated that radiation use efficiency of milk thistle throughout the growing season was variable from 1.91 to 2.36 g.MJ-1 and in intercropping treatment (50% milk thistle-50% fennel) was at the highest amount. The amount of radiation use efficiency in fennel was variable from 0.71 to 1.39 g.MJ-1. The best recommendable treatment for intercropping of milk thistle and fennel was (50% milk thistle-50% fennel), in which case radiation use efficiency of milk thistle was at the highest level (2.36 g.MJ-1) and radiation use efficiency of fennel was higher than sole cropping (0.93 g.MJ-1). Based on the findings of this study it seems that enhancing diversity in agronomic practices is an effective operational approach to increasing the efficiency of resources.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the project (Grant number 26556) by Vice President for Research and Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

  Medicinal plants are in use by a large portion of population for their medicinal therapeutic effects. Borage (Borago officinalis L.) is an annual herbaceous, and hairy medicinal plant which height changes within 70 to 100 cm. Stems are straight, often branched, hollow, and covered by tough fibers. Its leaves are alternate and simple and are covered with tough fibers. The flowers are blue and rarely appear white or rose colored. This plant belongs to the family of Boraginaceae. The plant is also commercially cultivated for borage seed oil extracted from its seeds. Water is one of the important factors affecting growth and yield of medicinal plant. Increasing plant production per unit of water is one of the greatest challenges facing the researchers especially in arid and semi- arid regions. Plant density is an important agronomic factor that manipulate micro environment of the field and impacts growth, development and yield of plants. Within certain limits, increase of plant population density decreases the growth and yield per plant but the reverse occurs for yield per unit area. The optimum plant density to attain highest yield may vary with the plant and geographical location. Present study aims to investigate the possibility of improving the yield and yield components of borage affected as irrigation levels and plant densities. A field experiment was conducted as split plot experiment based on a complete randomized block design (CRBD) with three replications at Agricultural Research Station, College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, during growing season of 2012-2013. Three irrigation levels (1000 (I1), 2000 (I2) and 3000 (I3) m3.ha-1) and four plant densities (16 (D1), 20 (D2), 26.67 (D3), 40 (D4) plants.m-2) allocated to the main plot and sub plot, respectively. Water requirement for the medicinal plant under Mashhad climatic conditions was determined by using AGWAT equal to 2000 m3.ha-1. When the plants were yellow harvesting operation was performed. At first, five plants per plot were randomly selected for measurement of yield components. After removal of margins, to determine the seed yield, the remaining area was harvested. The studied criteria were number of flowers, flower yield, biological yield, seed yield, number of seed, 1000-seed weight and number of branches per plant of borage. To analyze the variance of the experimental data and drawing of diagrams, MSTAT-C 8 and Excel software was used. Means were compared according to Duncan multiple test at the 5% probability level. Results showed that simple and interaction effects of irrigation level and plant density were significant on flower yield, seed yield, biological yield, flower number, branch number and seed number of borage. One thousand-seed yield affected significantly by different irrigation levels. These morphological changes in growth can be considered as a morphological adaptation of the medicinal plant to water and environmental stresses to decrease transpiration and to induce a lower consumption of water. The growth is the most important process that is affected by water stress and the decrease in the growth of cells leads to decrease the plant height and number of branches. The highest and the lowest flower yield were observed in I3D3 and I1D1 with 0.81 and 0.14 g.m-2, respectively. The maximum and the minimum flower number, biological yield and seed yield were recorded in D3I3 (with 69.60 flowrs.m-2, 592.07 g.m-2 and 29.57 g.m-2) and D1I1 (with 3.89 flowrs.m-2, 134.42 g.m-2 and 3.36 g.m-2) respectively. According to the results obtained in the present study, the effects of irrigation levels and plant densities had significant effects on yield and yield components of borage. By increasing in irrigation level improved growth characteristics and yield, but by increasing in plat density up to 40 plants.m-2 declined its growth and yield due to inter species competition for water and nutrient absorption.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by Vice Chancellor for Research of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which is hereby acknowledged

  Agrobiodiversity has been operated as a foundation for sustaining food production systems and ecosystem services function in human societies. Biodiversity is known as a source for the environmental process and ecosystem services. Ecologists believe that increasing the species richness in farms is the cause of ecological stability in crops. Many studies have been done in relation with the importance of crop diversity. Most of them stated that crop diversity is one the main key to form ecosystem services in ecological ecosystem. Economically, polyculture can reduce production risk. Furthermore, crop diversity can lead to increase productivity by several procedures such as pest control and soil fertility. Eventually, crop diversity brings economic stability. The purpose of this study, was to calculate crop diversity using the biodiversity indices in Kermanshah province. Kermanshah province is located in west of Iran with latitude of 33 to 35 and longitude of 45 to 47 and covers 2.5 million hectares. Crop data includes planting area in 13 cities during 1999 and 2010. Thirteen cities in the area were evaluated in the study, including Eslamabad, Paweh, Jawanroud, Dalahu, Ravansar, Sarpol-e Zahab, Sonqor, Sahneh, Qasr-e Shirin, Kermanshah, Kangawar, Gilan-e Gharb, Harsin. Crop data was obtained from ministry of agriculture. In order to quantify crop diversity, Species richness, Shannon, Simpson, Simpson evenness and Sorenson similarity, indices were calculated. We used the planting area of varoiuse crops to calculate the indices. The Ecological Methodology software was applied to calculate mentioned indices. According to our study, 19 crop species was planted in study area. Wheat was highest planted crop followed by wheat, chickpea, barley and corn so that 51% of planted area was devoted to wheat and 33% was devoted to chickpea. All the 19 crop species was classified into eight families. Leguminos, Poaceae and Solanaceae had highest number of species, respectively. Poaceae (71%) and Leguminos (25%) were highest in terms of planting area. The results of present study demonstrated that 23% of crops type was planted as irrigated and 77% as dry farming. Moreover, 14 species were categorized as summer crops and five species as winter crops. Species richness was 19 across the province. Species richness in Sahneh (19 species), Kermanshah (17 species) and Sarpol Zahab (17 species) were highest. A big difference was obtained between Species richness in irrigated lands (19) and drylands (8), irrigated lands was more that drylands. It may be as result of water availability in irrigated lands. Shannon index was acquired 1.92 in Kermanshah province and highest value was obtained in irrigated land of Pave (2.56) and followed by Sahneh (2.52) and Harsin (2.48). Shannon index in irrigated lands (2.51) was more than drylands (1.48). These findings may attribute to water availability; the crops such as sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) , potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) , cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) , alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), canola (Brassica napus L.) and paddy would plant if water is available for irrigation. Among the cities, highest Simpson evenness was belonged to dry lands of Ravansar (0.92) and Kermanshah (0.7). It implied that there is no dominant crop in these area or crops are uniformly distributed across the area. However, in other cities wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is dominated; so, evenness is low. Shannon index was highest for kitchen garden and it was around 2.1 followed by cereals (1.07), forage (0.97), industrial crops (1.33) and beans (0.18). Finally, correlation between Shannon and Simpson indices (0.78**) and species richness and evenness (-0.85**) were calculated. Wheat and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) are the most popular crops and are cultivated in Kermanshah province (west of Iran), however, these plants are dominance than others. Cultivate monoculture systems in the province has increased the vulnerability of agricultural systems and for the low diversity, the risk of pests, diseases, and weeds are high than diverse systems

  Conventional agriculture has led to a massive erosion of plant genetic resources in agroecosystems, due to agricultural intensification. Such process has resulted in underutilized and neglected crops, many of which were historically adapted to the local environmental conditions, they were grown. These crops were important in terms of both diet and socio-economic aspects of local communities. Underutilized crops are regarded as new crops for those who use them for the first time most of which were used widely once in the past but now due to different reasons are less attracted to the farmers and the users. Neglected crops are still cultivated in their center of origin by the local communities. They contributed significantly to biodiversity of cropping systems. However little is known about the agronomic and environmental criteria of these crops based on the new area of environmental changes. Since neglected crops are low input and extensive in terms of inputs, yield improvement, quality, marketing and policy framework strategies are needed in order to enhance their proper use and economic value. Traditionally these crops were used as food, fiber, fodder, oil and medicinal sources but at present due to their unrecognized properties and also poor consumer’s awareness they have not been brought to use in a wide scale. One of the important issues related to the reintroduction of these crops to the cropping system is proper understanding of their properties and the way they could be adapted to the new area of technologies. However, care should be taking to preserve their genetic identity based on the low input cropping systems. The aim of the present study was to identify neglected and underutilized crops in Iran for the possible reintroduction to the cropping systems on the account of serious environmental changes. This study was based on the field and documented data collection by questionnaire field visit, interview and literature review. Species were classified into two groups of underutilized and neglected and their specifications such as local and scientific names, ecological criteria, yield, life span (annual, biennial and perennial), growth form (herb, woody and …) and cultivation requirements, historical use and present status in the country were investigated. There were 17 less-used species (in 13 families) and 5 forgotten species (in 4 families). Low competitive value of these species compared with those of high productive value crops, introduction of new crop varieties, deep changes in food and drug consumption regime, political and socio-economic factors and finally prohibition for cultivation of some species such as opium were the cause of this neglect. In addition replacement with new species adapted to new technologies was also responsible for substitution. As the demand for new nutritional traits is increasing, neglected crops can overcome the constraints to the wider production and use. Although attempts for large-scale cultivation of neglected and underutilized crops appear to be increasingly exhausted, many species have the potential to contribute to food security, nutrition, health and income generation and consequently more socio-economic benefits. Despite their potential for food diversification and providing important nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, they continue to attract little research and development attention. In the context of the present study underutilized crops for Iran considered to be species such as sesame (Sesamun indicum), flax (Linum usitatissimum), Jutte (Hibiscus cannabinus), castor bean (Ricinus communis), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), hemp (Cannabis sativa), safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), Secale (Secale cereale), millet (Panucum miliaceum), lathyrus (Lathyrus sativus), Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), Rubia (Rubia tinctorum), Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas), Henna (Lawsonia inermis), Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and Rheum (Rheum ribes) and the important neglected crops are opium (Papaver somniferum), Eruca (Eruca sativa), Vasmeh (Indigofera tinctoria) and Rumex (Romex acetosella)

 

Study the phenology of the medicinal plant is important to manage the timing of recurring plant primary and secondary material utilizations, seed collection, pest control, prevent harvested untimely and weed control. Based on the weather conditions each plant for completing its phenological stages needs certain amount of heat units. The use of special codes to describe Phenological stages of plants has a long tradition in agricultural science. This scale has a table of 100 sections from 0-99 designed for different phases of the plants’ growth. In this scale, the growth stages are divided into two principal and secondary stages. The principal growth stages are described using numbers from 0 to 9; each principal stage is divided into secondary stages through coding from 1 to 99. The objective of this study was to describe the Phenological growth stages of ‘Roselle’ based on BBCH scale.

Phenological stages of ‘Roselle’ were described and defined according to the extended BBCH scale. The experiment was carried out as strip plot layout based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Iranshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iranshahr, Iran (Latitude 27o 12 ' N and longitude 60o 42' E; 591 m above sea level), during the growing season of 2013-2014. The experimental factors were: four rates of consumption of inputs and agricultural operations require in different cropping including Ecological system (No-tillage + Disk +Leveler +Furrower + 100% Manure), Conventional systems with low inputs (One-tillage + 0ne- Disk +Leveler +Furrower + 75% Manure + 25% NPK), Conventional systems with average inputs (One-tillage + Two-Disk +Leveler +Furrower + 50% Manure +50% NPK) and Conventional systems with high input (Two- tillage + Two-Disk +Leveler +Furrower + 100% NPK) and wheat straw application as residue mulch in four levels (6, 4, 2 t.ha-1 and control). In order to recognize the different stages of Roselle, three plants were appointed in each plot and monitored during growing season. All phenological stages of Roselle from germination to senescence were recorded based on BBCH.

The extended BBCH scale considers 10 principal growth stages, numbered from 0 to 9. Starting at Germination (stage 0) and ending at the beginning of the rest period (stage 9). Based on BBCH scale, nine phenological stages were recorded for Roselle that included: (0) Germination, (1) Leaf development, (2) Formation of side shoots, (3) Main stem elongation, (5) Inflorescence emergence, (6) Flowering, (7) Development of bolls, (8) ripening of sepals and (9) Seeds Senescence. Growing degree days to reach each stage were 153, 1051, 501, 506, 583, 730, 892, 349 & 246, respectively. Due to the high temperatures during the growing season of Roselle, the plant phenological stages were occurred more rapidly and the plant reaches its physiological maturity. Despite the interesting characteristics of this plant (Heat and drought tolerance), a detailed description of the phenological growth stages of Roselle has never been performed. A precise description of the different growth stages of this crop will provide a useful tool for agronomic and research activities. In this Study, the description of the phenological development of Roselle was proposed utilizing the expanded BBCH scale.

Roselle plant phenology is described here for the first time, according to the BBCH General scale. The use of extended BBCH scale for Roselle is important for successful implementation of farm management practices including disease and pest control. Based on our results it seems increasing wheat straw on the soil surface increased water holding capacity of the soil and reduced soil temperatures, which causes delay in the occurrence of Roselle phenological stages.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran (code 31152)

  Medicinal plants are used to treat many diseases that are untreated or rarely treated through modern medical systems. Approximately 80% of the world population depends on medicinal plants for their health and healing. Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) is an aromatic plant in the Apiaceae family that is used in foods, fragrances, and medical preparations (liqueurs, mouthwashes, toothpastes, soaps, and perfumes). They are used as antispasmodic, carminative, and appetite stimulating agents. Cumin is the most widely used medicinal plants in Iran, which is mainly cultivated in order to use its essence. Cumin cultivation area in Iran is 542841 ha that it is 25.7% of the total Iran cultivated area of medicinal plants. Cumin is considered to be a very good compatibility with semi-arid regions of the world. Since the proportion of the agricultural activities in each region with the weather conditions is necessary for any agricultural activity, Therefore, understanding the different factors affecting plant growth, such as climate conditions and genetic resources as well as their impact on quantitative and qualitative characteristics is the most important aspects of a successful product. The use of modern types of fertilizers and pesticides has increased the production of Cumin in Iran. However, there have been concerns of environmental problems caused by inorganic materials and it is very important to investigate the mode of fertilizer and pesticide use and their impact on soil fertility and surrounding environment.
Material and In order to study the organic and conventional production of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) as a medicinal plant, a field experiment was conducted in factorial experiment as randomized complete block design with three replications during 2012-13 in HesaroyehZahedan region. Treatments included herbicide and pesticide in two levels: application of herbicide and pesticide and without application of herbicide and pesticide as first factor, and four levels of organic and inorganic: without application of fertilizer, manure, chemical fertilizer (N) and 50% manure + 50% chemical fertilizer as second factor. In this experiment measured factors were plant height, No. sub stems per plant, No. capsule per plant, No. seed per capsule, 1000-seed weight, dry and fresh forage yield, seed yield, weeds biomass, essence percentage and essence yield. The results showed that the highest amount of all factors measured except weeds biomass and essence percentage obtained from treatment of consumption of 50% manure + 50% chemical fertilizer. The highest amount of weeds biomass was observed in the treatment of consumption of 50% manure + 50% chemical fertilizer. And the highest amount of essence percentage was achieved from treatment of without application of fertilizer. The effect of herbicide and pesticide on any of the measured factors was not significant. The study of correlation coefficient for cumin showed that forage and seed yield had a positive and significant relationship with all measured factors. The results of this study showed that the use of manure with chemical fertilizers and without the use of chemical pesticides in terms of biomass and Cumin yield compared to other treatments used in this experiment, especially using chemical fertilizer alone and using chemical fertilizer with pesticide was higher in rank and the quantity and quality of biological and grain yield production of this treatment was higher than other treatments. Manure combined with chemical fertilizers could increase the availability of plant nutrients through a direct impact on increasing yield and its essence content is cumin. In general, according to the results of this experiment we can recommend farmers to use manure with chemical fertilizers and without the use of pesticides to achieve the Cumin highest performance and the best quality

  Increasing agricultural production to match increasing demand of food sources is inevitable (FAO, 2006). It causes too much pressure on the agricultural resource base and threaten the sustainability of these systems. Crop mixture is an important method of high production in agriculture. This technique can affect the environmental conditions of the soil. Sustainable Agriculture, said to be the proper management of agricultural resources which in addition to changing human needs, maintaining environmental quality and capacity of soil and water resources. In order to study the effect of intercropping on the yield of maize and potatoes an experiment as 14 treatment in a randomized complete block design with three replications as replacement and additive approach has been conducted in the region of Nikshahr in 2013. The experimental treatment consisted of sole corn (T1), sole potato (T2), two-row corn + one-row potato (T3), two-row corn + two-row potato (T4), one-row corn + one-row potato (T5), one-row corn + two-row potato (T6), two-row corn + two-row potato (T7), (The difference T7 and T4 is that in T4, for each product optimal plant population density is 50%, while in T7 for both products 100% high density will be used), three-row corn + one-row potato (T8), one-row corn + three-row potato (T9), three-row corn + two-row potato (T10), two-row corn + three-row potatoes (T11), two-row corn + four-row potatoes (T12), four-row corn + two-row potato (T13), two-row corn + two-row potato (T14), (The difference of this treatment with T4 and T7, is that in this treatment optimal plant density was 100% for corn and 50% favorable for potato was used). Traits for corn included plant height, number of ears per plant, number of grains per ear, number of grains per row, number of rows per ear, grain yield and 1000 grains weight and for potatoes, including plant height, tuber weight and the number of tubers per plant. The results showed that, different planting systems on the number of grains per ear, number of grains per row and grain yield and plant height and size of potato tubers were significantly affected and improved the characteristics of plants have been mentioned. The highest biological yield (12.61 t.ha-1) of sole corn cropping (T1), respectively. Reduced biological function of monoculture corn compared to intercropping in this experiment can be attributed to inter-species competition of peanuts and corn. The highest grain yield (8957.3 kg.ha-1) was observed in treatment (T3). Production due to reduce competition between species, compared to the competition within the species increased. Most weight tubers of potato (73.54 g) treatment (T2), respectively. Potato tuber weight loss in the intercropping to monoculture in this experiment can due to inter-species competition potatoes and corn. The highest land equivalent ratio in one- row potato + three-row corn (T8) was obtained which shows the superiority of intercropping to monoculture. The results of variance analysis showed that:Intercropping of maize and potatoes with increasing plant density, increased the grain yield 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.
Reduced grain weight with increased density often is the result of intensified competition intra-species over the use of existing resources. Corn in different densities is able to take advantages of photosynthetic material and grains of similar weight at different densities produce.
In monoculture of potatoes because the only governing competition is intra-species so the plant is not affected in much higher density. Reducing the height of potato plants in intercropping to monoculture in these experiments can be attributed to intr-species competition of potatoes with corns.
In monoculture because only intra-species competition is dominant so the tuber weight is not affected in higher densities. Due to fact that the monoculture system has been threated, the benefits of providing better distribution of light in the canopy, Suitable spatial distribution of shrubs and reducing competition between plants to use environmental factors to provide an appropriate manner, as a result significantly increase economic yield.
The LER in most intercropping was more than one which indicates the superiority of intercropping to monoculture.

  Agricultural conservation technologies maintain water and soil, keep soil moisture and increase crop yield and soil quality, which are beneficial for sustainable development of agricultural production. Hence, conservation tillage may improve crop yield, among other economic benefits. Conservation tillage is a crop management system that increases the efficient use of nutrients and water. Conservation tillage includes any method of soil cultivation that leaves the previous seasons crops residues on fields before and after planting the next crop. Intercropping has been long practiced in many parts of the world and continues to be widely employed not only in tropical, but also in temperate regions. Compared to sole crops, intercropping system has higher utilization of resource i.e., nutrient use efficiency, water use efficiency, and land use efficiency.
Material and A split plot experiment was designed based on randomized complete blocks with three replications and implemented on a clay loam soil during the growing seasons of 2013 and 2014, at the Agricultural Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Bu-Ali Sina, Hamedan, Iran. Tillage (reduced tillage by chisel and disc and conventional tillage) as main factor and planting pattern (sole cropping of bean and sunflower and additive intercropping 30 and 60% bean with sunflower) were considered as sub-plot. Twenty days before planting, the soil was tilled by harrow for conventional tillage and by chisel and disc for minimum tillage. Sunflower and soybean were considered as main and secondary crops, respectively. The crops' seeds were simultaneously sown. Harvest operation was done on September 30, 2013 and September 27, 2014. After considering of border effect random samples 2 m2 areas was harvested by cutting the stems near ground level to determine the crops’ grain and straw yield. The land use efficiency (LUE) was calculated to measure efficiency of intercropping compared to pure cropping. Land use efficiency calculated as: LUE = (I1/P1) + (I2/P2). Grain oil percent and grain protein percent were determined by Soxhlet and Kjeldahl methods. SAS procedures and programs were used for analysis of variance (ANOVA) calculations. ANOVA indicated that bean biologic and grain yield was not significantly affected by the tillage but, bean biologic and grain yield was significantly (p> 0.01) affected by the planting pattern. Also, tillage × planting pattern effect was significant on these properties. Effect of planting pattern was significant on the most of traits, but the most properties were not affected by tillage. The highest grain yield, protein yield and oil yield of sunflower (356.22, 160.90, 77.27, respectively) were achieved at sole cropping treatment, but intercropping decreased these traits significantly. The highest total biological and grain yield (1189.40 and 437.28 g m-2, respectively) belonged to additive intercropping 60% bean + sunflower treatment. One of the important intercropping benefits is the higher productivity and profitability per unit area When the value of LUE is less than 1, the intercropping negatively affects the growth and yield of crops grown in mixtures but when the value of LUE is greater than 1, the intercropping favors the growth and yield of the crops. Land use efficiency at additive intercropping 60% bean + sunflower treatments with different tillage were more than one, so highest LUE was obtained at × 60% bean +sunflower. Moreover, the total land use efficiency was higher in intercropping system compared to the sole cropping system, indicating the advantage of intercropping over sole cropping in utilizing environmental resources for crop growth. In general, reduced tillage by chisel could say that additive intercropping 60% bean + sunflower had total yield in comparison to sole cropping of both two crops and increase land use efficiency. Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the funding from Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

  Regarding to the high cost and environmental pollution due to the overuse of chemical fertilizers, an adoptable option for farmers are biofertilizers to increase crop productivity per unit area. Bio-fertilizers are essential components of organic farming that play a vital role in maintaining long-term fertility and sustainability of the soil by their ability to provide micro- and macro-nutrients and also to convert insoluble phosphorus (P) into available forms to plants. Phosphorus as an essential nutrient is often fixed by most soils and is unavailable to the plants. Therefore, application of the plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) such as phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) can be proposed as an efficient solution to provide P for plants. These microorganisms by staying on the plant roots surface through production of organic acids, vitamins and other growth promoting materials could increase grain yield (GY) in many crops. In addition, Trichoderma spp. fungus species symbiosis with plant roots and root growth stimulation could control plant pathogens by production of antibiotics, induced systemic resistance and improve plant health that are known as other plant growth promoting microorganisms. It has been reported that Trichoderma species have an ability to solubilizing soil insoluble phosphate which resulted in improving the soil fertility and plant growth as well. Wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) is an important source of human foods which its production is highly depending on the application of chemical fertilizers. Therefore, to reduce the economic and environmental problems, this study aimed to investigate the effect of Trichodermahamatum fungi along with Enterobacter sp. as a PSB on yield and yield components of wheat (cv. ‘Milan’) in different levels of phosphorus fertilizer (TSP). A field experiment was conducted in Mazandaran province (Sari city, located at 36°38' N, 53°32' E and 13.5 m asl) in 2014-15. The experiment was carried out in a factorial split plot arrangement based on a randomized complete blocks design with three replications.Three levels of triple super phosphate (TSP; zero, 50 and 100 kg ha-1) were used as the main plot and both fungal (inoculation with Trichodermahamatum and uninoculated control) and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) inoculations (inoculation with Enterobacter sp. and uninoculated control), were served as the sub-plots. In this experiment, the traits related to yield and yield components including number of spikes per square meter, grain number and grain weight per spike, straw yield and biological yield, grain yield (t.ha-1), harvest index and 1000-grain weight (g) were measured. Finally, data analysis was performed using SAS 9.1 and means were compared by the least significant difference (LSD) test at a 5% level of probability. The results indicated that the effect of both Trichodermahamatum and Enterobacter sp. were statistically significant on yield and yield components of wheat. GY increased from 2.66 to 3.45 (29.69%), 3.19 to 3.79 (18.80%) and 3.34 to 4.39 t.ha-1 (31.43%) for 0, 50 and 100 kg.ha-1 of TSP, respectively, when Trichodermahamatumwas used separately. In contrast, single PSB inoculation increased GY from 2.66 to 3.37 (21.06%), 3.19 to 3.46 (8.46%) and 3.34 to 5.10 t.ha-1 (52.69%) when applied 0, 50 and 100 kg.ha-1 of TSP, respectively. Simultaneous application of these microorganisms significantly increased GY from 2.66 to 3.78 (42.10%), from 3.19 to 3.85 (20.68%) and from 3.34 to 4.48 t.ha-1 (34.13%) for 0, 50 and 100 kg.ha-1 of TSP, respectively. The result of this study clearly indicate that presence of both Trichodermahamatum and Enterobacter sp. along with different levels of TSP can increase yield and yield components of wheat as compared to the application of TSP alone (without Trichodermahamatum and Enterobacter sp.).
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant from the Genetics and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute of Tabarestan and Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Iran. The authors thank Mr. FarzinGoran for his assistance in the field experiment.

 

Intercropping is an old and widespread practice used in low input cropping systems in many areas of the world. Intercropping systems, especially those employing cereals with legumes, have several major advantages such as higher total yield and better land use efficiency yield stability of the cropping system, better utilization of light, water, and nutrients. The reasons for the higher yield in such systems is that the intercropped species do not compete exactly for the same growth resource niche and thereby tend to use the available resources in a complementary way. Several indices such as land equivalent ratio (LER), competitive ratio (CR), aggressivity (A), actual yield loss (AYL), and intercropping advantage (IA) have been developed to describe the competition and the economic advantage in intercropping. With respect to drought stress in late season of Sothern Iran and the importance of intercropping to reach stability and sustainability in production, the aim of this study was to assess the changes in yield and competition and economic indices of intercropping barley with legumes under late season drought stress.

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the competitive and economic indices of intercropping barley cultivars with pea and fababean under different irrigation regimes at College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Darab, Shiraz University during 2014 growing season. Treatments were included two levels of irrigation regimes (full irrigation and cutting off irrigation at milk development of barley) and 8 cropping treatments consisted of monoculture of Nimroz tow-rowed barley, Zehak six-rowed barley, pea and fababean and intercropping of Nimroz+pea, Nimroz+fababean, Zehak+pea and Zehak+fababean with a ratio of 1:1 which laid out as split plot arrangement in randomized complete block design with three replicates. Competitive and economic indices were including land equivalent ratio (LER), competitive ratio (CR), aggressivity (A), actual yield loss (AYL), intercropping advantage (IA), and system productivity index (SPI). Analysis of the variance was performed using MSTATC ver 2.10 software (1991) and the mean comparisons were performed by LSD test at 5% probability level.

Analysis of variance showed that irrigation regimes and cropping treatments had significant effect on barley and legume yields, LERtotal, Atotal, SPI, CR, AYL total, and IAtotal. Cutting off irrigation, decreased 20, 43 and 40% barley cultivars, pea and fababean yield, respectively and increased 1.9, 42 and 20% LER of cereals, legumes and total, respectively. Also, under cutting of irrigation, intercropping of Zehak+pea had the lowest yield loss (13%) while Zehak+fababean had the highest yield loss (27%) among the intercropping treatments. A and CR indices showed that in full irrigation conditions, barley cultivars were dominant species and at drought stress condition competitive power of legumes increased. In full irrigation, actual yield loss indices of barley cultivars, legumes and total was positive, negative and zero, respectively and intercropping advantage indices of barley cultivar was positive and in legumes and total was negative. Likewise, AYL and IA indices, in cereals, legumes and total were positive. The maximum grain yield in barley cultivars, pea and fababean was obtained at sole cropping treatments, while LER of all intercropping treatments was higher than 1. SPI for all of the intercropping treatments was positive.

Evaluating competitive and economic indices showed that intercropping systems of six-rowed Zehak barley cultivar with pea was advantageous than sole cropping system under drought stress condition because of betterland use efficiency and better economics than the other mixtures examined. This mixture could be economically and environmentally promising in the development of sustainable crop production and thus can be adopted by farmers for maximization of economic yields especially under drought stress condition

  Pea plants are grown in hot and arid and semi arid weather conditions in cold areas in spring and autumn in the tropics. Iran is the fourth largest producer of peas in the world after India, Turkey and Pakistan. Despite the high-yielding cultivars development, weather is one of the most important determinants of the plant's performance. In this study, with the use of meteorological data, physiographic regions favorable for the cultivation of pea in Ardabil are identified. Collecting of data in this study is as follows. 1- Collecting climatic elements such as temperature and precipitation in the Province Ardabil during the period 1988 to 2013. 2- The preparation of topographic map with a scale of 1: 50,000 of the Armed Forces Geographical Organization. 3- Preparation maps of slope, elevation 4- Preparing soil maps and land use 5- Preparation of physiographic and climatic zonation map of pea cultivation of combining all data using AHP. In this study, each of the data after a review of the valuation methods were studied in GIS environment and the combination of the following options, criteria and sub-criteria, the final map was prepared. Precipitation play an important role in maintaining moisture and water requirement of pea. In this study, the amount of precipitation was used in the weather stations in April, May, June and July. Temperature is one of the decisive factors in the geography of plants and garden areas. Climatic factors such as: the distribution of the amount of rainfall during the growing of peas, average minimum temperature, germination, flowering temperature, temperature and relative humidity during their growth and climate elements by analyzing the data was about 37 percent very suitable, 21 percent suitable, 20 percent average and 22 percent was unsuitable for the cultivation of peas. Physiographic data played a significant role and is a limiting factor during the growing season of pea. The results of physiographic maps show that about 55 percent very suitable, 25 percent fair and 20 percent is unsuitable for cultivation of pea.
The aim of this study was to investigate the role of physiographic and climatic elements in the cultivation of pea, each of them prepared in different forms and was weighted, and results of zoning pea cultivation in this Province are as follows.
1. The areas are very suitable for cultivation of peas, plain and south of the cities of Ardabil is Meshkinshahr that is consistent with agricultural areas and there are no limitations for pea and constitute about 18 percent of Ardabil Province.
2. The regions in terms of Pea has the perfect conditions surrounding cities of Khalkhal and Sareyn, Kowsar and central areas of the city, Nir, northeast and constitute Meshkinshahr cities. A major constraint in the areas of water requirements and minimum temperature that is about 45 percent of the total area of the province.
3-Areas that slope, soil depth, elevation, temperature fluctuations are considered a major factor in limiting Pea-are the northern and southern areas and around the city Meshkinshahr form and about 27 percent of the total area of the province.
4-The areas of the Ardabil province due to the mountainous area, cold air and a lack of proper soil horizon with severe limitation is facing the possibility of planting about 12 percent of the Province Ardabil. In addition to the fact that peas are cultivated as human and animal food, the cultivation of this plant should be included in the crop pattern due to the contribution of soil fertility as one of the components of sustainable agricultural systems.
The final results show that:1- Among the main criteria, 0.603 climate, topography, 0.245, 0.114 soil and land use 0.038 higher priority on locating the pea are grown.
2-The results show consistency index criteria, all criteria are used with consistency index less than 0.1

 

Undoubtedly, development of agricultural production systems without sufficient knowledge of the current situation and defining constraints is impossible. The potential of lands for cultivation of crops is determined by evaluation of biophysical and environmental variables. Therefore, climate, soil and geomorphologic environmental components are the most important agro-ecological variables for the evaluations. GIS is a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving, transforming and displaying spatial data of the real world. Much progress has been made over the last twenty years in developing methods of multi criteria-land suitability evaluations, especially by integrating GIS with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). From MCDM, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is one of the most common methods to determine criteria weights. The integration of GIS and AHP approach is a useful method for decision-making, suitable for analysis of a big amount of data with a new set, enabling to show them in the form of maps and shapes. The aim of this study was to investigate the potentiality of lands for cultivation of Canola and Wheat in order to increase the sustainable productivity of the crops in Maroon basin of Khuzestan province, Iran, using a GIS based approach.

The study area of this experiment is located in the Maroon basin of Khuzestan Province in South West Iran with hot and dry climatic conditions. This area contains nearly 30 percent of current agricultural lands in Khuzestan province. Relevant environment components such as soil properties (pH, EC, texture, organic matter), topography (Elevation and slope), climate factors (precipitation and temperature) and water resources potential for cultivation of canola and wheat at different spatial resolutions were considered, collected from scientific references and then classified. Afterwards, digital information layers for Wheat and Canola were prepared based on the growth parameters and available environmental conditions, with AHP weighting using GIS. Experts’ opinions were employed to determine the sufficient weights of each factors using relevant questionnaires. Finally, the generated agricultural land suitability maps were divided into 5 categories according to FAO classification guidelines as: highly suitable, suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable and not suitable.

The results of the research showed that among the factors contributing to land, the weightings of soil salinity and slope, with 0.2231 and 0.0254 were the highest and lowest limit, respectively. The weights are applied in overlapping layers of existing conditions using GIS software shows that an area of 632473 hectares of land in the basin Maroon, each year, and the different potential for canola and wheat crops. According to the agricultural land use suitability map, it was determined that 7.4% (46890 ha) of the studied area is highly suitable, 9.8% (62013 ha) suitable, 27.8% (175950 ha) moderately suitable, 29.4% (185434 ha) marginally suitable and 25.6% (162186 ha) not suitable for cultivation of wheat and canola. High soil salinity and limited water resources in the studied area were the most effective factors lowering the suitability of agricultural lands, in this study.

GIS is a powerful tool, as it provides many special features in a single system usable for land suitability. Generally, the goal of this study was to achieve some conclusions on the quality of land, decide on crop rotation and scheme for the management of the farms. This study were realized with the aid of GIS and AHP. It determined spatial highly suitable in Maroon basin district of Khuzestan province which help to sustainable agricultural production.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Jehad Agricultural and Water and Power Authority of Khuzestan province. We acknowledge them for their assist

  Lack of attention to the quantity and quality of forage crops led to shortages and low qualities of meat and dairy products. Using cattle manure, plant residues, and green manure increased the dynamic components of the soil. Recently the tendency of farmers toward organic fertilizers have increased due to high costs, demolition of proper soil conditions, environmental consequences and low quality of products produced with chemical fertilizers. It has been reported that combination of manure with chemical fertilizer has increased soil fertility and crop's quality and quantity characteristics due to meeting nutritional needs and increasing the input absorption and use efficiency. In order to assess the effects of different fertilizer sources on maize yield and yield components under different tillage managements, a field experiment was conducted at Zahak Agricultural Research Station for two years (from 2013 to 2014) with a split plot arrangement based on completely randomized block design with three replications. The main plot factors were tillage and no tillage, and sub plot factors were: 1-control, 2-barley green manure without application of fertilizer, 3-barley green manure with application of 100% chemical fertilizer (NPK) to the barley, 4- green manure with 2/3 of chemical fertilizer to the barley and 1/3 to the maize, 5- green manure with 1/3 of chemical fertilizer to the barley and 2/3 to the maize, 6- barley green manure with 50% of animal manure and chemical fertilizer, 7- barley green manure with 40 t.ha-1 of animal manure. The total amount of Nitrogen was measured by digestion method. Likewise, the distillation and titration was tested by using Kjeldahl method. Phosphorus content was measured by a spectrophotometer using colorimetric approach. Potassium content was measured using wet digestion method with salicylic acid and hydrogen peroxide obtained using a photometer movie. The concentration of Zn was measured by atomic absorption. Measurement of grain ash was done through burning and using an electric furnace. Combined variance analysis of data was performed using MSTAT-C statistical software, and the comparison of the means was done at the 5% probability level using Duncan multiple range test. The highest yield was obtained from conventional tillage, 1563 kg.ha-1 more than non-tillage. Fertilizer sources had a significant effect on the concentration of Zn, N, P, K, NDF, grain production, fresh and dry forage production and ash content of the grains. Returning green manure to the soil, along with chemical fertilizer application, not only increased P and N availability in the soil for the next crop, but also simultaneously increased organic matter as well as biological, chemical and physical improvement of the soil properties. The highest (7019 kg.ha-1) and lowest (2097 kg.ha-1) grain yield belonged to T5 and the control treatments, respectively. The highest content of grain ash was observed in the mixed treatment of green manure, cow manure, and chemical fertilizers (1.77%) and its lowest rate was obtained in control (1.125 %). The results showed that addition of cattle and green manure to the soil increased the plant ash, which shows the superiority of these organic manures to chemical fertilizers. Based on the obtained results of this experiment, it can be inferred that conventional tillage had better effects than no tillage due to its more suitability for soil degrading bacteria cultures, better acceleration of mineralization, and better root growth, resulted in greater access to nutrients and water, and ultimately improving plant growth. During the first year, the root growth limited mainly due to high soil density in the no-tillage treatments. Moreover, because of slow degradation, water and nutrients absorption was low. Due to chemical fertilizer application, nutrient supply was provided faster for the plant. Nevertheless, in long term, it would pollute the surrounding environment and degrade the soil structure. During its converting process in longer period, organic fertilizers provide environmental health and sustainable productivity of the soil; however, consolidated application of organic and chemical fertilizers under a conventional tillage system, support the initial growth, accelerate mineralization, and eventually, increase the uptake of nutrients such as N, P, K, Zn, and Ash content, leads to an increasing yield of maize

  Intercropping, the agricultural practice of cultivating two or more crops in the same space at the same time, is an old and commonly used cropping practice which aims to match efficiently crop demands to the available growth resources. Intercropping of chickpea with linseed reduced the chickpea yield by 60.3%, although linseed occupied only 33% of the total area. The loss of chickpea yield was compensated by the additional yield of linseed, and thus the system productivity of chickpea + linseed intercropping was increased by 43.4% compared to the sole chickpea. Of this increase in system productivity, 65.3 and 34.7% were contributed by higher seed yield and higher minimum support prices of linseed, respectively, as compared to chickpea. The objectives of the present study were to study the competition indices of Pea and Lettuce intercropping, such as land equivalent ratio, relative crowding coefficient, aggressivity, pea equivalent yield and effects of nitrogen and different intercropping arrangements on the yield of sole pea, sole lettuce and intercropping yield of two plants. In order to study the effect of planting pattern and nitrogen application on yield and competitive indicators of pea and lettuce, a factorial experiment based on Randomized Complete Block Design was conducted with three replications at research farm of Gonbad Kavous University during the growing season of 2014-2015. The treatments of the planting pattern were included 9 levels of sole pea, 67% pea + 33% lettuce, 50% pea + 50% lettuce, 33% pea + 67% lettuce, 100% pea + 33% lettuce, 100% pea + 50 % lettuce, 100% pea + 67% lettuce, 100% pea + 100% lettuce and sole lettuce and the nitrogen factor was included three levels of non-application and application of 25 and 50 kg N.ha-1. Row spacing was 30cm. Density of pea and lettuce was 33.3 and 16.7 plants.m-2, respectively. The results showed that the effect of planting pattern and nitrogen application on the yield was significant on the confidence level of 99%. Additive treatment of 100% lettuce + 100% pea and lettuce sole cropping with 61565 and 61473 kg.ha-1 were produced the maximum yields and pea sole cropping with 11759 kg.ha-1 produced the minimum yield. Total yield was increased with increasing nitrogen fertilizer application. The maximum and minimum equivalent yield was achieved in additive treatment of 100% lettuce + 100% pea and sole cropping of pea, respectively. The most and the least pea equivalent yield were obtained from treatments of 50 kg nitrogen/ha and non-application of nitrogen with 20669 and 16689 kg.ha-1, respectively. Land equivalent ratio in intercropping treatments was greater than sole cropping. The maximum land equivalent ratio with 1.48 belonged to additive intercropping of 100% pea + 100% lettuce. Therefore, intercropping of pea and lettuce, especially in additive series was appropriate. Relative crowding coefficient in all traits was more than 1. Aggressivity index showed that pea in additive treatments and replacement of 33% lettuce instead of pea was the dominant plant. Increasing of actual yield was observed in all treatments, especially in additive series. Intercropping advantage and system productivity index in all treatments of additive and replacement treatments was greater than 1, therefore Intercropping had sufficient economic benefits in this mixture. Of the two plants of pea and lettuce, lettuce produced more yield than pea in all treatments. Additive treatment of 100% lettuce to pea and lettuce sole crop with 61565 and 61473 kg.ha-1 produced the maximum yield and pea sole crop with 11759 kg.ha-1 produced the minimum total yield. With increasing of nitrogen fertilizer consumption, yield was increased. According to the results, it seems that obtaining the maximum yield in the intercropping system required increasing plant density

  Predicting the yield of strategic crops such as wheat and barley can provide liquidity to purchase products from farmers, suitable space for storage, sufficient pricing, and estimating the import and export needs of the agricultural products. Crop yield forecasting can be estimated using different methods. Artificial neural network is one of the methods recently has been considered and has high accuracy in crop yield estimation. In this approach the relationship between independent and dependent variables as well as their complex interactions will be studied and hidden correlatioins between the variables is discovered. Crop yield, particularly in case of rain-fed crops, severely affected by climatic factors such as rainfall, humidity, temperature fluctuations and solar radiation during the growth season. On this basis, it seems that in case of relationships between climatic data (as independent variables) and crop yield (as dependent variable) it would be possible to predict agricultural production. Considering the importance of forecasting agricultural production, an experiment was conducted in Kermanshah province, with the aim of estimating rainfed and irrigated barley yield using artificial neural network approach,. Barley yield data of 25 years (1991 to 2015) as well as raw and corresponding standardized meteorological data (total annual rainfall, average annual temperature, humidity annual average total sunshine hours, average annual evaporation and the number of frost days) were used as input data networks. To find the best network, performance of different types of neural networks was tested to barley yield evaluation. To evaluate models the statistics indices of correlation coefficient (R), coefficient of determination (R2), mean squared error (MSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) were used. The results showed that the best neural network built for rainfed barley was Modular Neural Network with Momentum learning law. The network had a correlation coefficient of 0.96 and 0.92, and coefficient of determination of 0.85 and 0.92 for raw and standard data, respectively. The best neural network built for irrigated barley was also Modular Neural Network with Momentum learning law. The correlation coefficient for the raw and standard input data was 0.78 and 0.72 with coefficient of determination of 0.60 and 0.51, respectively. The results showed the less efficiency of artificial Neural Network in predicting irrigated compared to rainfed barley yield. Comparison of MSE and RMSE between the models also revealed that networks related to rainfed barely with more accuracy had more correlation coefficient compared to irrigated barely. It seems that the managing operations such as watering in irrigated barley has reduced the effect of climate factors on barley yield. So that the sensitivity of irrigated barley yield was much less than the rainfed barley. In fact, in irrigated cultivations, depending on the amount of available water, crops were irrigated regularly. This would be in addition to supplying the needed water of crops, also reduce the impact of other climatic factors such as temperature. Generally based on the results of this study, the accuracy of Artificial Neural Network to predict the yield of rainfed barley was more acceptable than irrigated barley in Kermanshah province. Rainfed cultivation are more affected by climatic factors such as rainfall and temperature, which would be the reason of the achieved results. Hence, the accuracy of neural network for rainfed barley was more than irrigated barely, which represents more relationship between yield of rainfed barley with climatic factors as inputs of the model. So the sensitivity test of the yield to climatic factors revealed more sensitivity in rainfed than irrigated barley. Moreover, the accuracy of neural network showed that neural network was built for barley than wheat.

  Nowadays, due to population growth, decreased the arable lands and improved living standards, energy consumption in the agricultural sectors has been increased. Therefore, intensive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, energy and natural resources are required in order to supply the nutritional demands of the increasing population. Ahamadi & Aghaalikhani (2013) investigated the energy consumption in cotton production in Golestan province and showed that energy consumption for tractor and engine pump fuel was 24% and 30%, respectively, or totally 54% for diesel fuel. Also, fertilizers and chemical materials with 13% energy consumption had the second and third rank, respectively and total energy input for cotton production in Alborz province was 31 GJ/ha. Dastan et al., (2014) carried out a study on the rate of energy consumption in rice planting systems and the rate of carbon dioxide emission and concluded that the highest values of energy input in the production systems was related to the electric power to pump water for irrigation that had the highest value in terms of carbon dioxide emission and global warming potential and Nitrogen fertilizer and fuel also had the second and third rank in terms of carbon dioxide emission. One hundred cotton fields around the cities of Aliabad and Aq Qala in Golestan province were selected during two sowing years 2014 and 2015. All operations and events were observed during the growing season in these fields and detailed data of typical production methods and cultivation practices was collected in past years, this data included the use of equipment, fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides and so on. To this end, at first, all agricultural practices were divided into eight categories, including preparing the land, planting, fertilizing, plant protection, weed control, irrigation, harvesting and transport to the factory to crop delivery, then, different amounts of input use and more comprehensive information were collected and recorded at every stage from planting to harvesting and they were processed by Excel software, data analysis in three parts of energy input (consumption), energy output (production) and Global warming potential (GWP) of GHG emissions. In this study, input and output energy of GHGs emission and the GWP of agricultural activities in the cotton fields of Golestan province were investigated. The results revealed that the average energy input per hectare is 26 GJ/ha and the ratio of output energy to input energy was 154 GJ/ha and energy output was six times more than the input energy. There was a direct relationship between input energy and energy output, in other words, an increase in energy input, increases the crop performance, thereby increasing the output energy and GHG emission (Table 5). Figure 11 shows a significant direct relationship between performance and GHG emitted from the cotton production. The average of the GHG emission for cotton production was estimated 2181kg/ha that the maximum rate was 33% of total GHGs of chemical fertilizer inputs. Fuel and manure inputs had lower rates. Maximum energy was consumed for irrigation, nutrition and preparation that increased the GHGs. The comparison between energy output and a GWP of manure input showed a significant direct relationship difference between the output energy in cotton farms and its GWP. The results of this study indicated that by reducing the fuel consumption and chemical fertilizers, energy consumption and GHG emissions can be reduced. A number of management solutions for reducing the fossil fuel consumption and chemical fertilizers that result in GHG emission in agriculture include: conservation tillage that reduces the farm traffic, and consequently, reduces the fuel; use of legumes in agriculture that reduces nitrogen use, use of new methods of irrigation and increase in water efficiency, use of crop rotation and biological methods to control pests and weeds, application of nitrogen fertilizers based on soil test, adaptation of the fertilizing time to the plants' needs, improvement of fertilization methods such as placement in the soil rather than manual distribution and centrifuge, the use of inhibitors combinations of Nitrification or coated fertilizers, use of green manure

  In the corn and peanut intercropping system, the organic amounts of carbon, nitrogen, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in the soil were affected by sowing system after harvest and changes in each element varied according to the percentage of plant and different morphological structure between two plants. Intercropping of Roselle and mung bean was modeled based on different percentages of mix-culture and the results showed that, by increasing the cultivation area of Roselle would cause negative effects on soil properties and increasing in the mung bean cultivation area in comparison with the Roselle had a positive effect on the amount of nitrogen and carbon. To determine the best intercropping patterns and effect of vermicompost in corn, peanut and borage intercropping, a split plot test based on randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted at the Institute of Zabol University in 2015. The study factors consisted of various proportion of vermicompost as a major factor in three levels, including: 0, 2.5 and 5 tons per hectare, different patterns of intercropping as a sub-factor in 9 levels including monoculture of corn, peanut, borage, and mix cultivation which are including: 50% corn plus 25% peanut plus 25% borage, 100% corn plus 50% peanut plus 50% borage, 40% corn plus 30% peanut plus 30% borage, 100% corn, 75% peanut plus 25% borage, 60% corn plus 20%peanut plus 20% borage plus and 100% corn plus 25% peanut plus 75% borage. Soil sampling was conducted after harvesting three plants. Soil elements including organic carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium and sodium were measured in soil sampling. The effects of intercropping patterns and vermicompost on the amount of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium in the soil were significant at 1% probability level. Statistically, the mutual interaction between these two treatments also showed a significant effect on the amount of the elements. In the analysis of intercropping patterns, the cropping patterns of %100 corns plus %50 peanut plus %50 borage, and the use of 5 ton vermicompost per hectare resulted the maximum amount of organic carbon (%41). By increasing the amount of peanuts to %50 in the cropping pattern, the amount of carbon also increased and in the pattern with the least peanuts percentage, the amount of the element (carbon) decreased. The different root system among three plants, and their competition to absorb more of soil nutrients. The legumes in intercropping with positive effect increased the amount of phosphorus. Among different patterns of intercropping, the least amount of sodium in the soil (8.2m.e.l-1) was observed in %100 corn plus %25 peanut plus %75 borage treatments, while fertilizers were not used. As a result, by increasing borage percentage, the amount of sodium in the soil decreased. The highest yield rate of corn (17.3 t.ha-1) was observed in the intercropping pattern of % 100 corn plus %25 peanut plus %75 borage, and the highest yield rate of peanut (15.5 t.ha-1) was observed in the intercropping pattern of %100 corn plus %75 peanut plus %25 borage and usage of 2.5 ton vermicompost per hectare, and finally the highest performance rate of borage was observed in sole crop, and the use of 5 ton vermicompost per hectare. Furthermore, due to the physiological and morphological differences among the three plant species, the use of environmental resources efficiency in pattern designing increased in intercropping. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) of all the intercropping patterns was more than 1, which showed the advantage of intercropping over sole crop. Not only does choosing a suitable planting pattern increase the diversity in agricultural ecosystems, but also it plays an important role in both soil reclamation and protection. Both selection of plants and determination of appropriate intercropping percentages in a pattern are possible with respect to the reduction of competition between species and achievement of multiple ecological, economical, and agricultural goals. According to the results, intercropping pattern including %100 corn plus %50 peanut plus %50 borage, increased amount of organic carbon, nitrogen, and moisture in non-fertile soils and dry lands, hence it was the best model

  Today, mining led to severe degradation of natural and agricultural lands in a relatively large scale. Establishment of vegetation cover around the mining areas is a practical and enviromental sound strategy. However due to poor soil condition and presere of heavy metals this process is risky and establishment of plant cover is not an easy task. Achillea millefolium L. is one of the important species that is used as rangeland and medicinal plant and also as ornamental and cover plant. However, technical issues such as soil amendments type of plant and method of planting need to be considered for a successful establishment. Some soil amendments materials are zeolite, superabsorbent or hydrogel and also mycorrhiza. However initial establishment of proper plant species under field condition is required for feasibility of such studies. The purpose of the present study was to investigate suitability of Achillea millefolium L. for reclamation of contaminated soils around abandoned mines of Mashhad′ Shargh Cement Factory with inclusion of soil amendents. The effect of mycorrhiza (Glomus intraradices), superabsorbent (A200) and zeolite (Clinoptilolite) on the establishment and production of Achillea millefolium L. species in soils of abondened mines (Mashhad′ Shargh Cement Factory) was studied in 2015-2017. The experiment was based on a randomized complete block design with four replications consisting of four treatment (a plant species, mycorrhiza, zeolite and superabsorbent) criteria such as establishment percent, plant height, mycorrhizal colonization on roots, aerial and root dry weight and total dry matter was measured. Method of Giovannetti was used for colonization measurement of roots. The experimental data were categorized using the Excel database software and the charts were drawn. Analysis of variance was carried out by SPSS18 and Minitab16. Analysis of variance showed that zeolite, mycorrhiza and superabsorbent had significant effects on total dry weight, plant height, aerial and root dry weight of Achillea millefolium L. and also on establishment percent of the plant. Use of Mycorrhiza, zeolite and absorbent increased plant establishment by 50, 33 and 11 percent respectively. Zeolite and mycorrhiza increased plant height, aerial and root dry weight and also total dry weight compared with superabsorbent and control. When compared with the control zeolites, mycorrhiza and superabsorbent increased plant height by 14.3, 12.3 and 6.3 cm, dry aerial weight by 0.73, 0.57 and 0.5 g, dry root weight by 0.26, 0.15 and 0.14 gand total dry weight by 1, 0.73 and 0.64 g, respectively. Using suitable mycorrhizal fungi as an inoculum material in contaminated areas with heavy metals can reduce the effects of these toxic metals. Using suitable mycorrhizae fungi as an inoculum material in contaminated areas with heavy metals can reduce the effects of these toxic metals. In a study that was carried out in Germany, natural zeolite was used to remove heavy metals from mine water. Zeolite in reducing iron, lead was more effective than cadmium and zinc. According to the obtained results, the use of effective and affordable G. intraradices mycorrhiza and zeolite fertilizers as bio-fertilizers to increase yield and initial establishment Achillea millefolium L. plant and vegetation recovery of lands contaminated with heavy metals in mining area of Mashhad Shargh cement factory is recommended

  Agriculture is one of the most important effective sections toward the environment. One of the agricultural activities impact on the environment can be issues such as nitrate leaching to groundwater and surface resources, soil salinization, acidification and greenhouse gas emissions. Planting rice is an activity that causes a significant amount of pollution. Rice can be counted as an essential grain all over the world. In Iran, rice is the second most important crop after wheat, which is part of the main items of household consumption basket. Per capita consumption of rice in the country is 100 grams per day and Iran is ranked 13th in the world rice consumption. As the farmers are unaware and mostly ignorant of the fact, they use an inordinate amount of primary inputs like chemical fertilizers that are detrimental to the environment. Noticing the importance and strategic role of this product, hereby this study investigated the environmental effects of rough rice of different kinds (Tarim hashemi, Tarom sangi, Neda, Fajr and Shirudi) by evaluating the cycle of life. The area in this study is located in Kordkuy, Golestan. The sampling is done by random interviews with the farmers. LCA method was used according to the extent of natural factors in order to analyze the defective consequences due to use of the resources. By identifying the utilized elements, energy, material in the production procedure, the effects and defects can be estimated. Using this method, one can evaluate the potential effects on global warming, acidity, Terrestrial Eutrophication Potential, photochemical oxidation, and the toxicity effect on human (caused by Cadmium in phosphate), Terrestrial Eco toxicity potential, Aquatic Eco toxicity, fresh water potential, Fossil fuel consumption, Phosphate consumption, Potash consumption, and Water Consume. Chemical fertilizers (like urea, potassium, phosphate), fossil fuels, water and electricity are the causes of the pollution on the farms in this study. Using these inputs creates contaminants that can be categorized as nitrogen (N), carbon (C), sulphur (S), and phosphorus (P). Among all the inputs Nitrogen fertilizers is the most important factor to spread the mission of air pollutants. The estimated environmental effects in planting rice show that photochemical oxidation potential has the highest effect on producing rice. Moreover, depletion of phosphate and water resources are the other important effects as the result of planting rice. On average three effective factors like photochemical oxidation potential, depletion of phosphate and water resources are evaluated as 2.033, 1.296, and 0.896, respectively. And some other environmental effects like acidity, Terrestrial Eutrophication Potential, toxicity of water have the least destructive effects on average. Among all the other figures, Tarim hashemi and Tarom sangi figures have the highest range of creating pollution estimated as 1 ton rough rice per hectare and the least is determined to be a figure related to Neda variate. The final indicator shows the range of this variation from 0.0080 to 2.975. The most photochemical oxidation potential is attributed to Tarim hashemi and the least toxicity effect on water is recognized by the figures in Shirudi. In all the investigated effects in this study, the long-grain rice figures (Tarim hashemi, Tarom sangi) were shown to have more detrimental effects compared to productive igures (Neda, Fajr and Shirudi) since it has less output. The results of the study show that the figures with the highest output in production ,(Neda, Fajr and Shirudi) although has used more of the inputs , could spread less pollution in the estimate of 1 ton rough rice per hectare. By planting varieties that produce higher yields the amount of pollution reduced, can be reduced. Also, in order to reduce the amount of pollution, controlling the inputs can decrease the amount of pollution. The biggest pollutants such as nitrogen fertilizers that can be replaced by fertilizers such as stabilizers Nitrogen plants. This solution may reduce the emissions of pollutants from nitrogen fertilizers on the farm