Iran Agricultural Research
Volume:40 Issue: 1, Winter and Spring 2021

This experiment was conducted in order to study the sensitivity of sesame (Sesamum indicum) and lentil (Lens culinaris) crops to soil residue of three herbicides including total, apirus, and atlantis under greenhouse conditions. It was observed that the low level of atlantis residue reduced the sesame stem length (91.61% compared to control). Besides, the lowest sesame stem length (33.30% compared to control) was observed at high level of the herbicide residue. Total herbicide compared to the other two herbicides had a greater destructive impact (89.93%) on the sesame stem dry weight. The results indicated that the maximum and minimum damages on the lentil stem length were created by the total (46.78%) and atlantis (23.33%), respectively. Furthermore, the values of GR50 and HR50 for sesame were significantly lower than lentil against application of total, apirus, and atlantis. Generally, sesame showed higher sensitivity than lentil against application of total, apirus and atlantis.

To investigate the effect of some edible coatings on weight loss and storage life of two thorny cucumber cultivars including Tiba’ and ‘Kurage’ cultivars, this research was conducted in a factorial experiment using a completely randomized design with three replications. The experiment comprised five treatments including three edible coatings (olive oil, almond oil and liquid paraffin), packing in brown paper bag without any edible coating and control treatment. All of the treated samples were placed in a thin plastic container having eight holes and control samples were placed in a plastic box solely. Packages were stored at 10 ºC and 85-90% RH for 14 days. The results showed that ‘Tiba’ cultivar had higher firmness than ‘Kurage’ cultivar. Cucumbers coated with almond oil had the least weight loss in comparison with other coating materials, but the differences between two cultivars were not significant. The highest color difference was belonged to the paper bag treatment which had the significant difference with control and the other coating treatments. Cucumbers placed in paper bag resulted in the highest greenness value. In conclusion, both thorny cucumber cultivars covered with coating materials showed the best appearance and luster shape which was related to the effects of edible coatings on reducing water loss, chlorophyll degradation and softening.

The agricultural entrepreneurial process in developing countries is one of the most understudied issues in entrepreneurship research. Opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation as two considerable components of the entrepreneurial process are among the most important abilities of successful entrepreneurs. Factors influencing opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation in the Iranian agriculture sector was the aim of this study. The survey research method was used to collect data from a sample of 246 awarded agricultural entrepreneurs (N= 721), selected by Iran’s Ministry of Cooperatives Labor and Social Welfare, through proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected using a questionnaire and were analyzed using R software. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts from the School of Agriculture, Shiraz University and the reliability was examined using Cronbach’s alpha through a pilot test. Independent variables were considered according to a sector-specific perspective, including social media networks, the success and failure of prior businesses, and environmental uncertainty. The findings showed that social media networks have positive effects on opportunity recognition and exploitation alike. The prior successful business also influenced opportunity recognition and recognition positively. The influence of prior failed business on opportunity recognition was positive, while its effect on opportunity exploitation was not significant. The effect of environmental uncertainty on two dependent variables was vice versa, a positive effect on opportunity recognition and a negative effect on opportunity exploitation. The results of this study indicated that the factors may not have a similar effect on opportunity recognition and exploitation.

To evaluate the effect of sowing density (300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 plants/m2) on the growth of wheat under deficit irrigation (100, 75 and 50% crop water requirement, I100, I75 and I50, respectively), an experiment was carried out during 2009 and 2010. In both years, deficit irrigation resulted in a considerable reduction in yield, yield components, leaf area index (LAI) and leaf water potential (Ψw). In contrast, the canopy temperature (CT) significantly increased under deficit irrigation. Furthermore, increasing of sowing density from 300 to 600 plants/m2 resulted in a significant increase in grain yield under I100 and I75. Maximum grain yield as 525.9 and 564.2 g/m2 was obtained in the first and the second years, respectively in sowing density of 600 plants/m2 and I100. This sowing density was also the proper density in I75 and I50 irrigation regimes. Increasing of sowing density reduced 1000-grain weight and grain number per spike and increased spike number per square meter. In the first year, increasing of sowing density from 300 to 600 plants/m2 caused a significant increase in LAI in all irrigation regimes, while in the second year, maximum LAI was observed in 700 plants/m2 sowing density. It was found that increasing of sowing density significantly reduced the Ψw and the CT in both well-watered and deficit irrigation. In conclusion, the results suggest that 600 plants/m2 would be the optimal sowing density under different water conditions. Alleviation of water stress by the increasing sowing density was found to be associated partly with enhanced LAI and reduced CT.

It is crucial to benefit from the lentil genetic resources to select them for greater economic yield and take advantage of the maximum production potential by local germplasms. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the phenological, morphological characteristics, yield, and yield components of 15 lentil genotypes in the Research Field, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in February 2019. The experiment was carried out based on completely randomized blocks with three replications. According to the results, the MLC47 genotype was superior to other genotypes with a plant height of 44.7 cm and 4.4 branches per plant. In addition, the MLC33 genotype had the most filled pods with 79.4% fertility, and no significant difference was observed between this genotype and 60% of the entire genotypes in this regard. Moreover, the MLC454 and MLC47 genotypes had the highest seed yield with 133.8 and 125 g seeds per plant, respectively. Cluster grouping and comparison of means of the groups with the total mean showed that the MLC33 and MLC454 genotypes had a higher mean, compared to other genotypes in 69% of the studied traits. So that these two genotypes could be used in future research projects to identify and select the superior lentil genotypes.

To investigate the effects of drought stress and delayed planting on oil quality and fatty acids composition of canola cultivars, a factorial split-plot test was conducted in a randomized complete blocks design with three replications at Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran for two years (2015-2017) ‎. Planting date at two  levels of timely planting (Oct. 27) and late planting (Nov. 27) and irrigation at two levels of normal irrigation (control) and restricted irrigation from pod formation stage on wards were considered the main factors. Canola cultivars including Kodiak, Traviata, Compass, Diffusion, Mehr2, Elvise and Tassilo were the variables. The simple effects of planting date, irrigation, and cultivar on all research parameters were significant. The interaction effect of planting date × irrigation was significant on oil yield and oil content at the level of 5% and in terms of linoleic and palmitic acids, and stomatal resistance; it was significant at the level of 1%. The interaction effect of irrigation × cultivar was significant on palmitic acid, glucosinolate and stomatal resistance at the level of 1%. Late season drought stress and late planting dramatically reduced oil yield (58%), oil content (8%) and qualitative characteristics of canola cultivars. Among the studied cultivars, with considering all conditions of this research, the Tassilo cultivar having the seed yield (4407 kg ha-1), oil yield (2007 kg ha-1), chlorophyll content (1.43 mg g-1fw), high oleic and linoleic fatty acids, as well as low and standard erucic acid (0.41%) and glucosinolate (22.8 μmol g-1). was recommended as a favorable cultivar for planting in temperate cold regions with arid and semi-arid climates.

Cultivation of medicinal plants, such as fenugreek, is important for producing healthy food and preparing raw materials for herbal medicines. Determining the appropriate planting date and tolerance of fenugreek to low temperatures can help to gain more economic yield. The effects of cold and fall planting on the Iranian fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graceum L.) landraces were evaluated under controlled and field conditions in two years (2013-2015). Ten fenugreek landraces including Azari, Ardestan, Tall, Dwarf, Shiraz, Shirvan, Mashhad, Neyshabour, Hamedan, and Hendi landraces were planted on five planting dates (September 14, October 15, and November 14 in 2013; March 6 and April 4 in 2014). These landraces were also planted on four planting dates (September and October in 2013; March and April in 2014) in pots and were transferred to a thermogradient freezer to apply frost temperatures (-6oC, -9oC, -12oC, and -15oC). Four landraces including Dwarf, Shirvan, Mashhad, Neyshabour landraces were planted on five planting dates similar to the first year in the second year. Shirvan landrace showed more tolerance to freezing temperatures. Evaluation of survival rate showed that the controlled grown landraces had higher survival rates than the field-grown landraces. Mashhad (55%) and Shirvan (44%) had the highest and lowest yield reduction rates as a result of delaying the planting date from September to April. The branch number/plant in the first year of the field experiment and 1000-seed weight (TSW) in the second year had the most important impact on the seed yield. The most suitable sowing dates for the highest seed yield were October 15 and November 14. Shirvan landrace had the highest seed yield in all the planting dates in both years, and it can be recommended for cultivation in the regions.

The hydrotime analysis can predict the germination of plants at reduced water potential (ψ). The effects of reduced ψ on seed germination properties in three safflower cultivars including Padideh, Faraman and Isfahan cultivars at 10, 20 and 30 ºC were analyzed using the hydrotime model. Five ψ values (0, -0.3, -0.6, -0.9 and -1.2 MPa) prepared in polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG) solutions were used in the experiment. The results indicated that all three tested cultivars had the highest germination rate at 30º C and better tolerance to osmotic stress at 20º C. At 20º C, Faraman cultivar had the lowest medium base water potential [ψb(50)]. The standard deviation of ψb (σψb) among cultivars and temperatures could be as high as 0.52 MPa for the Faraman cultivar at 20º. Three tested cultivars had statistically different hydrotime constant (θH) at 10º C. The lowest ψb(50) for achieving 50% germination at 10º C was seen in the Isfahan cultivar, and at either 20º C or 30º C was seen in Faraman and Padideh cultivars. The suppressing effect of drought stress on seed germination was greater in Padideh and Faraman cultivars than that in the Isfahan cultivar. Overall, applying of hydrotime model allowed identifying osmotic stress-tolerant cultivars such as Isfahan during germination; and which might be helpful to seed germination prediction and providing more accurate information for sowing time of safflower.Abbreviations: ψ (water potential); PEG (polyethylene glycol); ψb(50) (medium base water potential); θH (hydrotime constant); σψb (standard deviation of ψb); MGT (mean germination time); FGP (final germination percentage).

Parboiling is one of the postharvest hydrothermal treatments applied on rough rice before drying and milling processes. This process has an important role in retaining the quality of rice kernels during storage, milling, and cooking. In this study, two rough rice cultivars, Tarom and Fuji Minory, were subjected to conventional and multi-step soaking for 90 minutes in water at temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C as a part of the parboiling process. Multi-step soaking was conducted in two and three steps followed by 15 minutes steaming at atmospheric pressure. Drying was performed by a fixed bed hot air dryer at 35 °C. The results indicated that in the conventional soaking, soaking temperature and steaming time affected the percentage of broken rice, bending strength and head rice yield (HRY) for both cultivars in a significant manner (P<0.05). The effect of soaking steps and steaming duration on the percentage of broken rice, bending strength, and HRY at temperature 70 °C were significant (P<0.05) for both rice cultivars. In overall, the multi-step soaking showed a significant positive impact on measured traits as compared to conventional soaking.

The increase in the performance of cultivated plants is under the influence of various features including the soil properties. The nutrient elements of the soil are among the important soil features. The soil fertility should be studied to determine the proper level of fertilizer application. The improper use of chemical fertilizers with no attention to soil fertility not only does not increase the quality and quantity of the products but also imposes extra costs while unbalancing the level of nutritional elements of the soil and causing environmental problems. In this regard, the determination of soil fertility and providing a soil fertility map sounds necessary. In this study, the soil fertility of Shadkam plain in Eghlid county of Fars province was determined to prepare the soil fertility map for the cultivation of bean. The soil fertility map was obtained by a fuzzy system using a hierarchical analysis in a GIS environment. To this end, soil sampling was conducted from 210 locations and the input data including organic matter, potassium, phosphorous, iron, manganese, zinc, and copper concentrations were measured.  The interpolation of each soil element was achieved by the inverse distance weight (IDW) model in the GIS environment. Then, a membership function was prepared for each factor to obtain the fuzzy map considering their corresponding critical values. Finally, each layer was allocated with weight using the analytic hierarchy process. Based on the relative weight of each criterion, the highest relative weight (0.354)  was obtained for organic carbon while iron showed the lowest (0.031)  relative weight. The results also indicated that 0.3, 80.3, and 19.4% of the studied region can be categorized as very poor, poor, and moderate groups in terms of fertility for bean cultivation, respectively.

In this study, various agricultural and industrial organic wastes were mixed with cow manure (CM) as the main raw material to compare their properties for the production of vermicompost and as feed material for earthworms. Cow manure, alone and in mixed with sugarcane bagasse (BG), date palm wastes (DW) and grape waste (GW) at the ratios of 3:1, 1:1, and 1:3 were used for culturing of the earthworm, Eisenia foetida. Total number, final biomass and the final length of earthworms and resulting vermicomposts were analyzed for their properties and chemical compositions after 70 days. Results showed that the growth of the earthworms in terms of the total number, final biomass and final length in CM mixed with GW at the ratio of 3:1 were significantly greater than those in other mixture treatments probably due to the neutral pH condition (pH = 7.1). The mixture of cow manure and bagasse resulted in the highest rate of vermicompost production that was 24.6 Kg m-3. The mixture of CM and GW provided the best conditions for E. foetida growing. CM mixed with GW produced the best results in terms of the chemical composition of the resulting vermicompost. Results of this study showed that vermicomposting was an adequate process for the degradation of sugarcane bagasse, grape waste and date fruit waste. The aforementioned organic wastes could be mixed with cow dung to produce quality vermicompost.