Mesopotamia Journal of Agriculture

The study has investigated the effects of three factors, which were feeding rate, the rotational speed, and the type of used hammers on the some important indicators that could reflecting the performance of the hammer mill. These indicators were: grinding fineness (%), productivity (Kg hr-1), and consumed energy (KW). The experiment parameters were organized using a Randomized Complete Design (CRD) with three replications. The results showed that by increasing the feeding rate from 2 cm up to 4 cm, the fineness of grinding, productivity and energy consumed for both crops increased. The results also indicated that by increasing the rotational speed, the productivity and energy consumption increased, while the speed of 2154 rpm achieved the fineness grinding of barley and corn. The results also indicated that the use of conventional hammer led to the highest value concerning the fineness of grinding, and to the highest energy consumptions for both crops, barley, and corn. As for productivity, the manufactured hammer led to the highest values for both crops. However, considering the triple interaction between the studied factors (grinding fineness, productivity, and consumed energy), the manufactured hammer led to the highest value in productivity.

An experiment was conducted in Nineveh, Iraq. The study evaluates the efficacy of three methods for harvesting potato crops (Semi-Mechanized Harvesting, which includes singlerow and two-row harvesting, and manual harvesting). Evaluation through study effects of ways on the undamaged tubers, severely damaged tubers, slightly damaged tubers, qualitative loss, quantitative loss, produced tubers, the time of the harvest process, and harvest costs with the total loss which goes in line with each method). The best performance was obtained for semi-mechanized harvest (2-row harvesters); it recorded the lowest percentage of severely damaged tubers of 0.2 ton. ha-1 and the highest rate of lifted tubers was 24.6 ton. ha-1. The production of the best sample about 25.49 ton. ha-1 while the highest productivity about 2.24 ha. h-1. Moreover, the lowest harvest costs were 4.5$. ha-1, and less time for completion of the harvest process was 0.44 h. ha-1. At the same time, the manual harvesting process has recorded a higher percentage of undamaged tubers was 20.76 ton. ha-1 and a lower percentage of damaged tubers about 3.63 ton. ha-1, a

Nanotechnology is a rising revolution with enormous potential in a variety of professions, including medicine and mechanics, also the food industry, and the definition of this technology is the study of creating and processing substances at nanoscales, where the characteristics vary from those seen at bigger scales such as atomic and molecular levels. In this article, we gathered information about nanoscience from previous reviews and studies. Lately, nanoparticle delivery devices have been discovered where they transport functional substances, food ingredients and additives to specific locations. Although nanotechnology is a promising prospect with advanced applications varying from increasing the mechanical strength of packaging materials to delivering functional substances to food, more efforts are needed to conduct a detailed investigation in the nanofood system and raise consumer understanding. This review aims to shed light on the important applications of nanotechnology in food processing and food packaging including improved, active, and smart packaging.

The study aims to find the added value of the agricultural industrialization of mills in Nineveh Governorate for the year 2020, and to calculate costs, revenues and profits and to diagnose the challenges and problems of the wheat grain milling industry. For the year 2020, out of a total of (41) mills distributed throughout the governorate, the results of the study indicated that the average total value added for grinding one ton of wheat grain amounted to (27,632.414) dinars / ton, and that the average net added value of grinding one ton amounted to (26556,617) dinars / ton, and the average total cost per ton of the crop amounted to (14,394.891) dinars / ton. and the average profit for grinding per ton was (13237.951) dinars / ton, and As for the average revenue per ton, it amounted to (56824.958) dinars / ton. The results indicated that the greater the share supplied to the mill by the General Company for the manufacture of grains, the production costs would decrease, which leads to that the added value would increase, and then the profits of the mill would increase and an increase in the national income would be achieved. One of the problems that mills suffer from is the low grinding wages per ton of wheat crop. The study recommended increasing the milling wages per ton of wheat crop paid to the mills in order to cover the high costs.

Mitochondrial cytochrome b gene plays a serious role in studying adulteration of meat species. This research study designed to distinguish the raw meat species of sheep, goat, cattle and donkey using RFLP-PCR technique of a universal cyt b gene 359bp. Ten indigenous samples were collected from each animal in different parts of the body. All the samples were processed for DNA isolation and amplified with a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amplicons were cleavage with HinfI and RsaI restriction enzymes, digestion of PCR product resulted in production of specific characterization bands for each species then analyzed by agarose electrophoresis. HinfI RE created three fragments for sheep, goat and cattle, with some similarities in a few bands between them, while yielded two bands for donkey. RsaI RE produced two bands for all species with different length except sheep and goats have the same length. Thus, results recommend that the RFLP-PCR technique with HinfI and RsaI play an important role to detect the animal meat species, since it is a fast, simple and easily handle method for identification of animal species.

This experiment was carried out in the shade of the green network of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape, College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Mosul, for the period from Apr. 11, 2019 to Sept. 30, 2019, with the aim of producing corm and cormlets in the summer of three varieties of Gladiolus X hortulanus L. They are: "Break of dawn" White flowers, "Espresso" with red flowers, and "Blue frost" with purple flowers after being treated with salicylic acid (SA) at 0 and 250 mg.l-1, as well as treatment with calcium chloride in three concentrations: 0, 500 and 1000 mg.l-1 by spraying them on the foliage twice. The Factorial Experiment conducted by RCBD. The results show that the red cultivar recorded the largest weight of the corm was 28.98 g, its volume was 34.01 cm3, its diameter was 4.94 cm, and the number of cormlets was 12.33. per plant, the size of the cormlets is 13.52 cm3. Spraying with salicylic acid at 250 mg.l-1 had a significant effect in recording the largest values for the corm diameter and their volume. Treatment with calcium chloride at both concentrations 500 and 1000 mg.l-1 resulted in a significant increase in the corm weight, its diameter and the volume of cormlets. The treatment with calcium chloride at 1000 mg.l-1 caused to record the largest values for the number of cormlets are 9.53 cormlet. pl-1, while the treatment with calcium chloride at 500 mg.l-1 increased of the corm volume is 27.68 cm3. The red cultivar plants treated with or without salicylic acid interact with calcium chloride at 500 mg.l-1 was gave the best grade of corms ranked 7.00 (Jumbo).

The study was carried out at Grdarasha field in Erbil from November 4th of 2019 to April 20th, 2020.The purpose of this study was to study different levels of foliar spray of Atonik (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 ml.L-1) affected the growth and yield of two pea cultivars (Utrillo and Nihal). The majority of the parameters investigated yielded significant outcomes. Cultivars had a substantial reaction on some of the tests, according to the findings. Parameters of pea vegetative growth and yield, the Utrillo cultivar produced the best results. Furthermore, Atonik foliar spraying had a considerable impact. The number of leaves and branches has the biggest influence on vegetative parameters (110.74 and 2.69 respectively), according to the findings (1ml.L-1). From 0.2 ml.L-1 of Atonik the maximum values of vegetative growth, fresh weight, and total chlorophyll were recorded. Atonik foliar spraying also improved yield parameters significantly. However, at 0.2 ml.L1 of Atonik, the highest numbers of seeds per pod, yield per plant, yield per plot, and yield per hectare (6.00, 0.16 kg, 1.00 kg, and 1.68 tons, respectively) were obtained. Meanwhile, the majority of vegetative development and yield indices, particularly Nihal, exhibited a substantial response to Atonik treatment.

Antioxidants have an important and vital function in preserving animal health and have a special role in animal physiological, reproductive, and productive performance. In general, poultry are subjected to a wide and varied range of stressors, including environmental, biological, nutritional, and productive stresses. These stresses frequently occur in quick and intensive poultry production systems, causing health issues related to their physiological and productive performance that may increase the formation of free radicals, which in turn cause lipid peroxidation, leading to a decline in their physiological and productive performance. Therefore, it requires an antioxidant system that can delay the initiation or slow the going rate of harmful oxidative reactions and prevent cellular and molecular damage that results from the influence of free radicals in the cellular metabolism process. Phytochemicals, which are plantderived non-vitamin, non-mineral substances such as flavonoids and carotenoids, are considered dietary nonenzymatic antioxidants that play a protective role against oxidative reactions and minimize the effects of the body's oxidative stress, which supports the animal's physiological productive efficiency and health.

Fourteen local isolates of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae were isolated from root nodules of Vicia faba plants collected from agricultural soils of different regions of Nineveh Governorate/Iraq. Six isolates with mucoid colonies were selected as follows: WS14, WS15, WS18, WS21., WS23 and WS26. These local isolates were incubated for periods 1, 2, 3 and 4 days. Dry biomass weight and exopolysaccharide (EPS) (g/L) were recorded. Results revealed that WS18 isolate was the best among the six mentioned isolates of R. leguminosarum biovar viciae, which it gave the maximum production of EPS (6.31 g/L) after two days of incubation. Maximum dry biomass w1.22 g/L after three days of incubation by the same isolate. The effect of addition of different carbon sources to yeast extract mannitol (YEM) broth medium on EPS production by WS18 isolate showed that mannitol, as carbon source was the best for production of EPS (6.36 g/L), after two days of incubation. Two percent was the optimal concentration of mannitol which supported the maximum production of EPS (9.67 g/L) after two days of incubation. The effect of addition of different nitrogen sources at 0.10 % concentration to YEM broth medium (supplement with 2.0 % mannitol) revealed that NaNO3 gave the best production which reached to 12.94 g/L after two days of incubation. The effective concentration of NaNO3 support the maximum production was 0.1 %.