Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology
Volume:24 Issue: 5, Sep 2022

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether the European Union's high amounts of construction and technology grants provided to dairy farms under The Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for Rural Development (IPARD) program make a real contribution in terms of energy use and efficiency. The primary data of the study were obtained from Dairy Farms Supported (SDF) and Non-Supported (NSDF) by the IPARD program by using a questionnaire filled during the face-to-face interviews. The full count method was used to determine the 50 SDF while the Neyman allocation sampling method was used to determine the 100 NSDF. Energy indicators were used to evaluate the efficiency of input energy transformation into output and data envelopment analysis was used to calculate technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency. Unlike other studies in the literature, we analyzed energy efficiency of dairy farms in terms of the contribution of the EU supports. The results showed that SDF were more energy-efficient dairy farms with much better energy indicators and efficiency scores than NSDF. Productivity, benefit/cost ratios, and energy scores clearly show that EU grants given to dairy farms contribute to the efficient use of resources, including energy, increasing the competitiveness of dairy farms, and contributing to the rural area through energy efficiency and economic performance.

The recently emerged Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been identified as an pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and has affected all sections of human society including agriculture, livestock, manufacturing, and industry. In this research, we investigated the impact of COVID-19 on Iran’s livestock and meat market by using an equilibrium displacement model.  The prevalence of the Coronavirus has had the greatest economic effects on rising exchange rates and has reduced exports in Iran. The results also show that the factors of the Coronavirus (exchange rate and exports) have the highest effect on Iran’s meat market. The rising exchange rates and reduced exports lead to higher prices and lower quantities in the meat market, which increase the suppliers’ welfare at the retail and farm levels. These results show the negative effect of the outbreak of Coronavirus. Corona outbreak increases price at the farm and retail level, therefore, farm and retail quantities fall. Since the impact of an increase in the price is much greater than the effect of reducing production, producer surplus increases. A policy conclusion of this research is that the current situation in Iran is difficult for the poultry and livestock industry because of the need for foreign currency and the abuse of market power in the distribution system. Farmer cooperatives can overcome these problems because their objectives are to serve farmers and their goals align with farmers goals.

Having knowledge of Climate Change (CC) and its impacts on agriculture is essential for survival of the world and fulfilling the growing demand for food. Therefore, university graduates as future agricultural experts should have sufficient knowledge on CC and its impacts on agriculture. This study aimed to determine CC Knowledge Levels (CCKL) of candidate graduates and to examine the factors influencing their knowledge levels. The data were collected via a face-to-face survey with 506 students in 16 agricultural economics departments in Turkey. CCKL were determined through a five-point Likert scale statements and using ordered probit model to analyze the factors affecting CCKL. The results of the study revealed that 64.42% of candidate graduate students had high CCKL, whereas 33.2 and 2.37% of them had moderate and low levels. Probit model results showed that the variables of gender, acquiring CC knowledge from university, and number of sufficient academic staffs had statistically positive effects on CCKL of candidate graduates. The research mainly concluded that not all students could achieve sufficient knowledge on climate change from their undergraduate programs. The departments of agricultural economics should include more compulsory courses on CC in their undergraduate program curriculums and employ academic staff with specialization on CC in order to increase the students’ CCKL.

Sustainable agriculture highly depends on the actions taken by the farmers and their ability to make a decision by using their knowledge and information efficiently. Therefore, farmers' perception needs to transfer from a technocratic approach to a social approach for promoting sustainable agriculture. This study was planned to analyze the tea growers' perception of sustainable agriculture in Rize Province. For this reason, a stratified sample of 138 tea farmers was contacted to get their perceptions about predefined sustainable farming practices. A total of 60 items were factor analyzed and ultimately 33 items in four main factors, namely, policy, social, environmental, and economic were identified to construct a sustainability perception index. Considering this index score, farmers' perceptions were divided into three groups including low, medium, and high-level perception. The explanatory variables were selected from the socioeconomic characteristics and communication behavior of farmers. The model results showed that education level, age, participation in farming events, watching television, and using the internet affected farmers' perception of sustainable farming in the region. Government should focus on policy-related issues like illegal tea entry, social factors like increasing the communication and socialization level among stakeholders, and environmental problems as a result of farm practices through arranging appropriate workshops.

Environmental crises are among the most important problems and concerns in the 21st century. Many researchers and experts believe that by encouraging the pro-environmental behavior, these problems can be reduced and it requires increasing the human-environmental knowledge. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effects of environmental knowledge on students' pro-environmental behavior. This research is a descriptive and correlational study. The statistical population consisted of all agricultural students studying at the University of Zanjan (N= 1,127). The sample size was calculated using Krejcie and Morgan's sampling table (n= 290), and the subjects were surveyed using a proportional stratified random sampling method.  In the statistical process of data analysis, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with AMOS ver. 24.0 software was used to test the research hypotheses. The results indicated that students’ systematic knowledge had a positive and significant effect on students' pro-environmental behavior. Also, the findings indicated that action-related and effective knowledge had no significant effect on students' environmental behavior. Therefore, the systematic knowledge is, directly and indirectly, a good determinant for the environmental behaviors that should be taken into consideration to improve the students' environmental behaviors.

Examining the capabilities of social network sites in teaching and learning can be useful in higher education and can help improve students’ performance. This study investigated the factors affecting acceptance and educational use of social network sites and the effect of this use on academic performance by using the Technology Acceptance Model3. Four hundred agricultural students participated in the study survey, and data were analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling. Results show that the subjective norm, image, job relevance, and output quality were the predictors of perceived usefulness. Self-efficacy, anxiety, playfulness, and perceived enjoyment were also predictors of perceived ease of use. Findings suggest that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use had significant effects on behavioural intention to use, and this last variable had a significant effect on actual use. Educational use of social network sites also had a strong positive impact on academic performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the most significant health challenge humans experienced since World War 2, and its course can be affected by the stringency in undertaking individual and collective protective behavior. In this study, the health belief model structures in adopting the protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic were assessed. A sample of 375 household heads living in the rural areas of Lorestan Province was selected through a multi-stage stratified and random sampling method. Structural equation modeling showed that knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and cues to action affect the protective behaviors of Iranian rural households during COVID-19. Cues to action and knowledge were the most important predictors of protective behaviors in rural households. The results suggest the necessity to emphasize enhancing knowledge to highlight the negative impacts of COVID-19 and train rural households regarding the proper and effective preventive measures.

This research was designed to assess the economic, social, cultural and legal factors as main underlying drivers of land seizure in rural communities of Zagros regions in I.R. Iran. The study utilized a mixed research methodology based on an exploratory case study and a descriptive-explanatory survey. This methodology was conducted using the techniques of documents analysis, direct observation of land seizure in Zagros region, semi-structured and structured interviews using a questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of 80 households with a history of seizing and occupation of national lands in the villages of study area which all of them were questioned. The results of factor and regression analysis showed that economic components (with beta coefficient of 0.881) such as poverty, unemployment, low income and lack of permanent jobs have the most impacts on the destruction and seizure of national lands and socio-cultural components (with beta coefficient of 0.797) are at the next levels. In addition, the results of this survey revealed that legal issues such as the weakness of existing laws and the weakness of custodians to conserve and protect national resources had the least effect in comparison with other factors. Considering the increasing destruction and degradation of the national lands in Iran, in order to preserve the existing land and prevent the increase in the degradation and seizure of forests and rangelands, the conservation plans of the government and the authorities of natural resources protection should be aimed at improving the livelihoods of rural communities and creating sustainable jobs.

Demographic parameters of the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma embryophagum Hartig reared on Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) were determined for 40 generations (G5-G40). The experiments were done in a growth chamber at 26±2°C, 65±5% RH and photoperiod of 16:8 h (L:D). The results showed that the female longevity decreased significantly during successive production, ranging from 10.68 (in G5) to 9.64 days (in G40). On the other hand, the male longevity decreased significantly in the 20th generation and no significant difference was found from G20 to G40. The oviposition days and mean total fecundity of T. embryophagum decreased as the number of generations increased. Generally, the wasps in earlier generations had longer adult longevity, longer life span, and higher fecundity than later generations. Moreover, sex ratio of T. embryophagum was not significantly different in successive generations. Results of paired bootstrap test indicated that all population growth parameters of T. embryophagum reared on S. cereallela were significantly different in successive generations. The highest and lowest values of the intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), net Reproductive rate (R0), Gross Reproductive Rate (GRR) and mean generation Time (T) of T. embryophagum were observed in G40 and G5, respectively. These results suggest that T. embryophagum wasps reared in sequential generations can be used successfully in biological control programs until the 20th generation without any loss of quality or performance; after that, regular rejuvenation of laboratory population by occasional importing of field-collected parasitoids should be done.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production in countries like Mexico relies heavily on the use of chemical pesticides, which can be toxic to a host of other organisms including beneficial insects and human consumers. Environment-friendly methods of controlling tomato diseases include agroecological practices, organic fungicides, and biological control. Plants’ resistance against pathogens is induced by applying agents called elicitors to the plants and would lead to disease prevention or reduced severity. The objective of this research was to know the effect of three elicitor; namely, Activane (1.8 g L-1), Micobiol (3 mL L-1) and Stemicol (2.5 g L-1) plus a control on the incidence of diseases, vigor, yield and fruit quality of two cultivars of Bola tomato and Saladette in the greenhouse. Elicitors decreased the incidence and severity of presented diseases and increased plant survival. Additionally, the elicitors Micobiol® and Activane® were able to increase plant height, stem diameter, weight and fruit diameter, while Stemicol® considerably increased fruit color, °Brix and pH and Activane® increased titratable acid. In general, elicitors were able to reduce disease, increase plant survival, production and improve fruit quality. These findings provide positive directions for the possible use of these elicitors and induce resistance in plant protection.

Due to global climate change, environmental conditions change and cause alteration on the factors that affect the plants during their growth and development.  For this reason, it becomes important to determine the reactions of plants, which are evaluated in different ways in many areas and are a large source of raw materials, to these changing conditions. One of these plants is corn (Zea mays indentata Sturt.), which is used extensively in both human and animal nutrition. Therefore, besides the starch and protein content and quality of corn grain, oil content and the composition of fatty acids are important. This study was conducted to determine the effect of temperature parameters and grain filling duration, which varies depending on sowing dates, on the fatty acid composition of corn. Field experiments were conducted in the growing season of 2019 and 2020 in Hatay/Turkey ecological conditions. The experiment was designed as split plot on randomized complete block design with three replications. Three varieties of corn were cultivated in four sowing dates. The content of fatty acids was determined by chromatographic method. Variance analysis revealed that fatty acid composition was significantly affected by sowing dates and crop variety. It was determined that total fatty acid content decreased due to the increasing temperature by the delay in sowing dates.

Snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a warm-season plant, which is originated from Andes and Mesoamerica. There are wide range of morphological and biochemical characteristics in snap bean varieties. Snap bean is harvested for its green pods. The pods are a valuable source of dietary protein, essential vitamins, low-calorie carbohydrates, fiber, and minerals for human health. The evaluation of eight different snap bean varieties, namely, ‘Pirbakran’, ‘Sunray’, ‘Burpees’, ‘Valentine’, ‘Dragon’, ‘Kentucky’, ‘Cherokee’, and ‘Id-Market’ for their cultivation and nutritional value illustrated that P. vulgaris var. Burpees’ had higher carotenoid (56%), antioxidant (16%), and  phenolic compound (69%) than the popular commercial variety’ Pirbakran’. Folate content was 33%, and total essential amino acids were 20.6% higher than ‘Pirbakran’, while the pole type ‘Kentucky’ showed better vegetative and pod yield indices. Additionally, ‘Burpees’ had the highest calcium content, which was almost 40% higher than the other varieties and two times higher in Zn compared to ‘Valentine’ and ‘Kentucky’. In conclusion, ‘Burpees’ can be recommended based on its high productivity in terms of vegetative growth and pod yield, and nutraceutical values, including folate and total essential amino acids, compared to the other seven varieties.

Photoselective nets are used to protect horticultural plants from sunburn and prolong the cropping period in conditions of excess light. In this work, we studied the influence of four photoselective shading nets (Pearl 30, Red 30, Silver 30, Red 40), a standard black-colored net (Black 35), and a control (no cover) on the evolution of color during the ripening of two types of pepper, namely, Lamuyo and California. For this purpose, the evolution of the colors of the fruit was followed from the beginning of their formation until the harvest, and was correlated with the total radiation and the temperature. The plant material used were peppers of the California type -cultivars Bendigo and Cayetano- and of the Lamuyo type, cultivars Alcudia and Pompeo. The results showed that the rate of change of the pepper coloration depended on the net used in the greenhouse. The speed of the change in color from green to red was more dependent on the cultivar and the total radiation, as conditioned by the different photoselective nets, than on the type of pepper. The greatest differences were between the control (without a net) and the black net, the increase in the red color of the peppers being faster in the former. Radiation values below 75 W m-2 or greater than 110 W m-2 negatively affected the yield. The temperature below the net was not affected significantly by the type of net, and thus its effect on the different cultivars was similar.

This research work on structural stability analysis of naturally ventilated polyhouses was carried out at the Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. There were 12 treatments which were combination of four different sizes of polyhouses i.e. 560 (T1-T3); 1,008 (T4-T6); 2,080 (T7-T9); 4,000 m2 (T10-T12), with three design wind speeds of 100, 150, and 200 km h-1, respectively. Stability analysis of truss members, columns, and foundation was carried out by considering dead loads, live loads and wind loads. Support reactions were computed on truss and column joints. Member forces were computed by using force method.  For every 17 set of truss members, four members [two in compression (small arc) and two in tension (truss bracings)] failed in treatments with 150 and 200 km h-1 wind speed, while in treatments with 100 km h-1 wind speed, two members [in compression, (small arc)] failed. Minimum structural GI pipe material requirement for structurally stable polyhouses was under treatment T1 (2,407 kg) and the maximum was under treatment T12 (19,550 kg).

The purpose of this research was to study the relationships between surface nanomechanical properties and agronomic traits in different sugar beet varieties (Beta vulgaris spp.). Agronomic traits were related to the indicators of seed germination stage and resistance to rhizomania; and in correspondence, a group of nanomechanical traits of inner testa of seeds were examined using an atomic force microscope. The results of parametric and non-parametric correlation analysis between agronomic and nanomechanical traits showed that the single bud wet weight had a significant negative and positive relationship with, respectively, lower surface friction and adhesion of the inner testa. Similarly, thousand shell weight had a negative correlation with upper surface elasticity, and also seed vigor had a positive correlation with upper surface friction. Spearman's rho correlation coefficient showed that resistance to rhizomania also had a significant positive correlation with the upper surface adhesion of the inner testa. Three canonical variables between the two groups of physiological and nanomechanical traits were significant (r1= 0.972 and DF= 66; r2= 0.924 and DF= 50; r3= 0.839 and DF= 36). These traits have a kind of cause-and-effect relationship and, therefore, have the potential to be used for breeding programs and plant systematic studies.

Up to now, a large number of optimized plant systems have been established for various purposes in Japonica and Indica rice. Based on genetic diversity in rice cultivars, this study established highly efficient protocols for in vitro callus induction, cell suspension cultures, and genetic transformation for some Iranian rice cultivars using mature embryos. In this study, the effect of different concentrations of 2,4-D (0.0, 1.0, 1.5, and of 2.0 mg L-1) on callus induction were investigated in 10 cultivars. Regarding higher callus induction frequency and mean weight of fresh calli, Hashemi, Binam, and Kazemi cultivars were selected for the experiments. The effects of kinetin (0.0, 1.0, and 2.0 mg L-1) and sucrose (30.0 and 60.0 g L-1) concentrations were tested to improve the biomass yield of a cell suspension culture. The MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 2,4-D, 2.0 mg L-1 kinetin, and 60.0 g L-1 sucrose exhibited the maximum cell growth in the selected cultivars. The transformation efficiency for different bacterial strains (EHA105, LBA4404, and AGL-1), OD600 (0.1, 0.3, 0.6), the concentration of acetosyringone (50, 100, 200 μM), and co-cultivation period (1, 2, 3 days) were evaluated. The presence and expression of gusA gene in transgenic cultivars were determined by GUS histochemical assay, PCR, and RT-PCR analysis. The result showed that Hashemi cultivar had the highest cell biomass and efficiency of genetic transformation (58%) with EHA105 at bacterial OD600= 0.3, in 100 (μM) acetosyringone and two days of co-culture time. The findings offer insights for genetic transformation studies in Iranian rice cultivars.

Several viruses affect iris plants worldwide, and are major constraints in commercial production due to serious economic losses. The first genomic sequences of two potyviruses, namely, Iris Severe Mosaic Virus (ISMV) and Iris Mild Mosaic Virus (IMMV) from naturally infected iris plants (Iris versicolor) in Iran were determined using RNA deep sequencing and RT-PCR followed by sequencing of amplicons. Both viruses (ISMV-Ir and IMMV-Ir) had a typical potyvirus genetic organization, with a large open reading frame translated as a polyprotein, including nine autocatalytic cleavage sites, and a putative smaller protein P3N-PIPO. Phylogenetic analyses and sequence comparisons revealed close relationships between ISMV and members of group Onion Yellow Dwarf Virus (OYDV) of the genus Potyvirus. The ISMV-Ir showed > 92% nucleotide (nt) identity (> 96% amino acid (aa) identity) to the three previously reported ISMV isolates, the highest with the Japanese isolate J (94.10% nt identity, 97.41% aa identity) and the lowest with Chinese isolate BJ (92.73% nt identity, 96.77% aa identity). IMMV-Ir belonged to the Chilli Veinal Mottle Virus (ChVMV) group of potyviruses, had 82.36% nt identity (91.25% aa identity) with the BC32 isolate, and 75.55% nt identity (83.59% aa identity) with the WA-1 isolate from Australia. The genetic distance among IMMV polyprotein-coding genomic sequences or gene-specific sequences indicated a high genetic divergence of these isolates. Our analysis indicated that natural selection has contributed to the evolution of isolates belonging to the two identified potyviruses. The information on genomic sequences presented in this study will improve our understanding of virus function and pathogenicity leading to better control of the disease.

Chickpea wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris is one of the major yield-limiting factors in chickpea, particularly in west and northwest of Iran. Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) were used to determine genetic structure of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris populations from three infected areas located in west and northwest provinces of Iran during 2016-2017. A set of six microsatellite primer pairs revealed 35 alleles in each locus with an average of 5.83 per locus. The PIC value varied from 0.20 (FOAG11) to 0.39 (FODF7) with an average of 0.27 per locus. The average number of effective alleles (Ne), Number of private alleles (Na), allelic variability per locus (H), Shannon's Information Index (I) and percentage of Polymorphic Loci (%PL) in three populations were 1.33, 1.97, 0.2208, 0.357, and 74.29, respectively. The average genetic distance was calculated among the three populations. Nei’s pair-wise genetic distances between the populations varied from 0.0202 to 0.98. The total gene diversity (Ht) and gene diversities between subpopulations (Hs) were estimated to be 0.2208 and 0.2079, respectively. Gene diversity attributable to differentiation among populations (Gst) was 0.0585, while gene flow (Nm) was 8.0412. The AMOVA of genetic variation in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris populations revealed that 5% of the variance occurred among populations and 95% within populations. PhiPT value was 0.054. The lowest genetic distance was found between Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan with Lorestan populations, while the highest genetic distance was observed between Lorestan and Kermanshah populations.