Kufa Journal for Agricultural Sciences

Value addition has been reported as a panacea for poverty among small-scale farmers. However, the factors that determine its use among plantain farmers are unclear. Therefore, this study focuses on the variables that affect plantain value addition among small-scale farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Using a three-stage sample procedure, a structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 120 plantain farmers—44 value adders and 76 non-value adders. Descriptive statistics and the Heckman two-stage model were used to analyze the data. The majority of the plantain value adders (70.5%) were female, whereas the majority of non-value adders (81.6%) were male. About 56.8% of the value adders processed plantain into plantain flour, while 29.6% were engaged in the production of both roasted plantain and plantain chips. The Heckman two-stage model\'s outcome showed that the decision to add value to plantain is influenced by the availability of processing equipment, gender, farm size, access to training, and proximity to market while the amount of value added to plantains was positively influenced by processing equipment, farm size, education level, access to training, and plantain output. The study further revealed that poor processing facilities, inadequate finance, and a low level of awareness (mean = 3.6) were the most identified constraints faced by the farmers. The study therefore recommends that farmers should endeavor to process plantain flour, as it is seen to be more profitable and economical.

This study was conducted to diagnose the effect of variables in the movement of tides and the amount of water released from the Tigris River on some hydraulic properties in the course of the Shatt al-Arab, four stations were selected for the study, namely Al-Sada Al-Noor station, the paper factory, Al-Ashar, and Sehan, and included a measurement, which are the cross-sectional area, discharge volume, net discharge, and water levels. According to the tidal movement located within the lunar calendar for the months of Jumadi Al-Akhir, Rajab, Shaaban, and Shawwal for the year 1443 AH, corresponding to the months from January to June 2022, and for a full tidal cycle (13 hours). The results showed that there is a variation in the cross sections between the studied stations in terms of the shape of the section and depths, and there is a spatial variation in the levels of the studied stations and the variation of the daily and monthly tide range spatially and temporally and according to the studied stations and measurement periods in terms of being the period of flood tide or neap tide, as we note the height of this range in the southern part of the river. The water discharges of the tides varied spatially and temporally according to the stations and these discharges increase as we head towards the mouth of the river, and increase in periods of flood tide for periods of the tide, as for the net daily and monthly discharge, it decreased in the paper factory station from the station of Al-Sada Al-Nour by approximately 10 m 3 sec-1 to represent the water consumption of the area between the two stations.

In this laboratory study, the effect of different concentrations of local isolate of entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana against potato tuber moth Phthorimaea operculllella was evaluated. In addition, GC Mass technique was used to identify the chemical compounds in the crude filtrate, the most important of which are Phenol, Methane, Ethane of B. bassiana. The results showed that B. bassiana was significantly the highest efficacy against compared to fourth instar larvae of P. operculllella. Where the mortality rate was 41.67 and 32.96% when at a concentration of 7.5 g/L, respectively. The overall results indicated that the fungus has a high efficiency in affecting the eggs and larvae of the fourth instar of the insect, which can be used efficiently to reduce the infection rate in the insect and can be a promising method for insect control and plant protection.

The study aimed to extract the compound β-Glucan from the cell wall of Lb. fermentum Lactobacillus fermentum CECT5716 and study its effect in reducing cholesterol levels in the blood of laboratory animals (rats). The following results were obtained: Examination of the extracted compound by FTIR in the diagnosis of some major aggregates involved in the formation of the compound, peak absorption appeared at 1074 cm-1 and peaks at 1156-1165 cm-1 which is the defining feature of the structure of β-glucan extending with the standard 1051 cm-1 refers to the linear structure of β-glucan. UV was used to evaluate the compound to determine the amount of protein and carbohydrates in the substance. The results indicated that the percentage of carbohydrates and proteins extracted in glucan was 44% and 0.45% respectively. The components of glucose and protein gave an important indicator about the purity of glucan, containing a high number of sugars with a low content of proteins, and compared it to the standard compound Nutricost®, USA. The results showed that the extracted compound was identical to the standard compound when using FTIR and UV tests. In addition, it was noticed that the level of cholesterol decreased to (82.2) when the rats were treated with β-glucan extracted from L. b fermentum, where the treatment of the bacterium beta-glucan at a concentration of (mg / bw10) showed that the level of cholesterol in the blood approached the levels of normal cholesterol. While the level of cholesterol in the rats treated with the same bacterial beta-glucan at a concentration of (40 mg/ Bww) was about (163), and this may be attributed to the fact that the concentration (10 mg / Bw) was the ideal concentration in lowering the level of cholesterol. Triglycerides, LDL, and raising beneficial fats (HDL). The product has also been shown to be effective in raising beneficial animal blood cells and immune cells, stabilizing red blood cells, and reducing white blood cells.

Water samples were collected from twelve sites from the Al-Jazirah River, the Jibasi River, the Bab Al-Hawa River, and the Al-Faw River, in four locations each, during January 2019. Chemical analyses of the water were carried out and classified according to some international classifications to assess its quality. The agricultural experiment was carried out in the wooden canopy of the Department of Soil Sciences and Water Resources at the College of Agriculture / University of Basra in Karmat Ali for the spring season of 2020 to study the effect of Al Jazeera water in the above sites and the effect of adding four levels of phosphate fertilizer (0, 40, 80, 120) kg P ha-1 on sunflower plant growth. The results showed a significant decrease in the values of height and dry weight of the vegetative total of sunflower plants according to the values of water salinity and pollution, and there was an increase in the phosphorous concentration in the studied plants with an increase in the level of added phosphorus, as the concentration of 120 kg P ha-1 recorded the highest percentages in the growth vocabulary of sunflower plants.

Cells that are physiologically viable but cannot be cultivated on traditional culture media are referred to as viable and non-culturable cells (VBNC), because it cannot grow or divided. Those bacteria enter the (VBNC) state under stressed conditions, as a survival strategy. Although the bacteria that fail to grow on conventional culture media, but are actually alive and can be resuscitated from the VBNC state under suitable conditions. The VBNC state may pose a great threat to food safety and public health. The bacteria such as Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 was entered the VBNC state when exposed to harsh conditions like the addition of preservatives, disinfectants, and food processing steps. In this paper, some bacteria (Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 are all pathogens) were induced to enter the VBNC state by using sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide at different contact times. Culturable methods, which include (enrichment and resuscitation methods and the ATPase method, were used for detecting the bacteria used in this study. The result showed that Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 was lost culturability and were not detected when treated with 0.01% sodium hypochlorite and 5% hydrogen peroxide for 50 minutes when detected by the enrichment method , whereas were detected by the ATPase method. However, the H2O2 and NaClO -treated bacteria recovered from a non-culturable to a culturable state in M9 minimal medium with the presence of 30 mM sodium pyruvate, Thus, the results suggested that conventional methods of detection the pathogenic bacteria, like enrichment methods, can not be used and could be caused big problems for health. While, the best method for detecting VBNC bacteria was the ATPase method in terms of speed, accuracy, and ease.

The research objective is to define the adopting level of technologies and agricultural extension by farmers in cultivating potatoes in Al-Ghoba Region- Nineneveh Governorate, to know the level of adopting technologies and agricultural guidance for farmers in cultivating potatoes in Nineveh governorate measured by every research item and to find the correlation between the adoption of technologies and extension in planting potato with the independent variables of research. The society included all (500) potato farmers and a small random sample was chosen, representing (20%) of them. The final research sample was (100) farmers. Results showed, that level of adopting technologies and guidance was medium tends to be high, and the results had shown that the following variables (age, years of expertise, source of agriculture information) played an important role in accepting farmers for technologies and agricultural extension for growing potatoes.

Sulaymaniyah province, Kurdistan region, Iraq, is home to a large collection of wild and domesticated fig (Ficus carica L.) germplasms. But a lot of these valuable genetic resources have yet to be recognized or categorized by molecular markers. In this study, the identification and classification of 66-fig germplasms were done using phytochemical traits and SCoT (Start Codon Targeted Polymorphism) molecular marker. Total soluble solids (TSS), soluble sugar contents (SSC), total phenolic contents (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC), and antioxidant activity by DPPH all showed a large significant variation. There were 232 bands altogether, ranging from 13 bands for the SCoT03, SCoT12, SCoT14, SCoT15, and SCoT33, to 19 bands for the SCoT20. The polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.737 (SCoT3) to 0.983 in (SCoT21). The major allele frequency values ranged from 0.030 (SCoT21) to 0.500 (SCoT3). The number of alleles varied from 32 in SCoT3 to 63 alleles in SCoT21. The Marker index (MI) values ranged between 9.58 in SCoT3 and 18.67 in SCoT21. As well as, 15 SCoT primers were used to determine genetic diversity. The principal component analysis indicated that the fig accessions divided into 7.0 association groups. The dendrogram created by ward method classified the fig accessions into 5.0 clusters. Phytochemicals and SCoT marker data showed a wide range of diversity, with significant genetic variation across accessions originating from different populations. The conclusions of this study could aid in the conservation and further use of fig germplasms.

The potential losses of potato yield due to soft rot disease caused by Pectobacterium carotovorum constitute a major threat to this crop, as the pathogen adapts to environmental and nutritional changes resulting in genetic patterns that are more virulent in infection of plant tissue. Therefore, the current study aimed to determine the tissue and chemical sensitivity of some potato varieties infected with this bacteria. Results confirmed that the bacterial isolates belong to P. carotovorum according to diagnostic keys, microscopic and morphological examinations that indicated the bacteria is Gram-negative grew on the differential medium Yeast extract-dextrose-CaCO3 (YDC) as a yellow to cream colonies, convex, shiny, and circular. While on the D-3 agar medium, the colonies were white to cream, and on the Nutrient Agar medium (NA) was cream to shiny white. The outcomes of the biochemical tests indicated that P. carotovorum isolates gave positive results for some tests including Catalase and Hydrolysis of Gelatin. Other tests such as Oxidase, Starch hydrolysis, voges-proskauer, phynelalanen, and methyl red were negative. The isolates were molecularly diagnosed based on the 16 S rRNA gene, as new strains were obtained for the first time in the Iraq, which were deposited in GenBank (NCBI) under the accession numbers PP824981, PP824982, and PP824983. The highest percentage of infection and severity with the disease were recorded in Elmundo variety, which reached 42.10 and 22.14%, respectively. The results of the sensitivity test of some potato varieties to P. carotovorum showed that the highest rotted tissue was in Elmundo variety, which reached 4.98cm, compared to the control which reached 0.00cm. Based on the percentage of carbohydrates, protein and fats, Burren variety outperformed other studied varieties significantly reaching 8.44%, 1.17 mg/g and 0.15 mg/g, respectively, compared to the control treatment which reached 16.81%, 3.92 mg/g and 1.81 mg/g, respectively. While for phenols, flavonoids, nitrates and organic acids, Volare variety outperformed the other varieties, reaching 6.67 mg/g, 1.61 mg/g, 0.21% and 0.10%, respectively, compared to the control which reached 18.31 mg/g, 3.24 mg/g, 0.27% and 0.22%, respectively.

This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of chemical-inducing factors (melatonin, beta amino butyric acid, and salicylic acid) in inducing the systemic resistance of barley against the Fusarium oxysporum. Results of the collection sample that the Fusarium oxysporum was associated with collection samples. The results of the test of the inhibitory ability of the second inducing factors (Melatonin at a concentration of 200 mg L-1 and Beta Amino Butyric Acid (BABA) at a concentration of 2000 mg L-1 and SA at a concentration of )200 mg L-1) showed that all factors significantly reduced the colony growth rate of Fusarium oxysporum (4.33, 4.66, 5.66)cm compared with control treatment (9.00) cm. The treatment using Melatonin was significantly superior to the rest of the treatments in reducing the dry weight of the biomass, which reach 0.13 mg, followed by the treatment of SA and BABA, which reached (0.15, 0.16) mg respectively. The same induction factors also significantly decreased some of the studied growth parameters (germination percentage, plant height, number of stems, and grain weight). The results showed an increase (49.33 gm ) in the activity of the peroxidase enzyme and the rate (319.33 mg.g-1)of accumulation of phenols as a result of using all inducing factors.

The addition of manganese to the feed was applied to support the immune system of chickens and improve physiological characteristics and energy levels during and after the period of feed restriction of broiler (Ross 308). Using 180 chicks, divided into five groups with 45 chicks in each group and distributed into three replicates, each replicate contains 15 chicks. The groups were 0 manganese (Mn) + (ad libitum diets), 0 Mn + Feed restriction 8 h/day, 75, 100, and 125 mg Mn/ kg feed+ feed restriction 8 h/day for groups G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5 respectively, and were subjected to feed restriction (8 hours/day) for 8-14 days of the experiment. The results were: significantly (P≤0.05) superior to group G4 in the relative weight of the Bursa of Fabricius at the age of 21 days and for the groups G3 and G5 in the antibodies of Newcastle and IBD at the age of 21 and 35 days and group G3 in the relative weight of the thymus gland at the age of 35 days. In liver glycogen superiority of groups G1, G4, and G5 group increase in the muscle glycogen and red blood cells, the groups G1, G4 and G5 were significantly superior at the age of 21 days, and the group of G4 was superior at the age of 35 days compared with the rest of the groups , also significant increase in the ratio of H/L, triglycerides, uric acid, AST and ALT enzymes of G2 group at 21 and 35 days of age, while the cholesterol concentration of G2 and G4 groups increased at 21 days of age compared to the rest of the groups.

This study included implementation of a half diallel crosses among ten genotypes of durum wheat in 2020-2021. The next growing season 2021-2022, first generation and the parents have been planted at the Agricultural Research Station of Koya/ Erbil by using Randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The grain yield trait and its components were studied. General combining ability (G.C.A.) and specific combining ability (S.C.A.) and gene effects were estimated. The results revealed that parent (9) had desirable and high G.C.A. effects for all traits except of plant-height, while the cross (8×10) showed desirable S.C.A. effects for all traits. The additive variance (σ2A) was higher than dominant (σ2D) for the plant-height and number of grains/ spike. And the dominant variance was higher for the rest traits. High values of heritability in both broad sense (H2b.s.) and narrow sense (H2n.s.) were recorded for plant-height and number of grains/ spike. Average degree of dominance was greater than one for flag-leaf area, number of spikes/plant, 1000 grain weight and grain yield/plant. Whereas, moderate expected genetic advance was found for number of grains/spike and grain yield/plant.