• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2012

$Calotropis$ $procera$ L. is a perennial shrub distributed in saline areas of deserts of South Asia. Salt stress is a very challenging subject in arid and semi-arid areas. Germination stage is very sensitive and many plants do not germinate in saline soil. The objective of this study was identifying the salinity effect on seed germination of $Calotropis$ $procera$ L. The experimental design was a complete randomized block design with NaCl and $CaCl_2$ at five levels of isobar concentrations: 0.0, -0.01, -0.05, -0.1, and -0.15 MPa. Osmotic potential had significant effects ($P$ < 0.01) on germination percentage, germination rate, shoot length, root length, and seedling dry weight. All seedling characteristics decreased with decrease in osmotic potential. Shoot length and root length decreased more than the seedling characteristics. Germination was completely inhibited in -0.1 Mpa. Priming with NaCl and $CaCl_2$ (-0.1 MPa) for four days had significant effects ($P$ < 0.01) on the germination percentages. Priming improved the seedling characteristics in all samples, especially in -0.05 Mpa, but a decrease with decrease in osmotic potential.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.251-273
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• 2020

Soil degradation has become a major worldwide environmental problem, particularly in arid and semi-arid climate zones due to irregular rainfall and the intensity of storms that frequently generate heavy flooding. The main objective of this study is the use of geographic information system and remote sensing techniques to quantify and to map the soil losses in the Wadi Saida watershed (624 ㎢) through the revised universal soil loss equation model and a proposed model based on the surface erosive runoff. The results Analysis revealed that the Wadi Saida watershed showed moderate to moderately high soil loss, between 0 and 1000 t/㎢/year. In the northern part of the basin in the region of Sidi Boubkeur and the mountains of Daia; which are characterized by steep slopes, values can reach up to 3000 t/㎢/year. The two models in comparison showed a good correlation with R = 0.95 and RMSE = 0.43; the use of the erosive surface runoff parameter is effective to estimate the rate of soil loss in the watersheds. The problem of soil erosion requires serious interventions, particularly in basins with disturbances and aggressive climatic parameters. Good agricultural practices and forest preservation areas play an important role in soil conservation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.122-142
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• 2012

The importance of rainfed areas and animal agriculture on productivity enhancement and food security for economic rural growth in Asia is discussed in the context of opportunities for increasing potential contribution from them. The extent of the rainfed area of about 223 million hectares and the biophysical attributes are described. They have been variously referred to inter alia as fragile, marginal, dry, waste, problem, threatened, range, less favoured, low potential lands, forests and woodlands, including lowlands and uplands. Of these, the terms less favoured areas (LFAs), and low or high potential are quite widely used. The LFAs are characterised by four key features: i) very variable biophysical elements, notably poor soil quality, rainfall, length of growing season and dry periods, ii) extreme poverty and very poor people who continuously face hunger and vulnerability, iii) presence of large populations of ruminant animals (buffaloes, cattle, goats and sheep), and iv) have had minimum development attention and an unfinished wanting agenda. The rainfed humid/sub-humid areas found mainly in South East Asia (99 million ha), and arid/semi-arid tropical systems found in South Asia (116 million ha) are priority agro-ecological zones (AEZs). In India for example, the ecosystem occupies 68% of the total cultivated area and supports 40% of the human and 65% of the livestock populations. The area also produces 4% of food requirements. The biophysical and typical household characteristics, agricultural diversification, patterns of mixed farming and cropping systems are also described. Concerning animals, their role and economic importance, relevance of ownership, nomadic movements, and more importantly their potential value as the entry point for the development of LFAs is discussed. Two examples of demonstrated success concern increasing buffalo production for milk and their expanded use in semi-arid AEZs in India, and the integration of cattle and goats with oil palm in Malaysia. Revitalised development of the LFAs is justified by the demand for agricultural land to meet human needs e.g. housing, recreation and industrialisation; use of arable land to expand crop production to ceiling levels; increasing and very high animal densities; increased urbanisation and pressure on the use of available land; growing environmental concerns of very intensive crop production e.g. acidification and salinisation with rice cultivation; and human health risks due to expanding peri-urban poultry and pig production. The strategies for promoting productivity growth will require concerted R and D on improved use of LFAs, application of systems perspectives for technology delivery, increased investments, a policy framework and improved farmer-researcher-extension linkages. These challenges and their resolution in rainfed areas can forcefully impact on increased productivity, improved livelihoods and human welfare, and environmental sustainability in the future.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2008

Sudan is the largest country in Africa with an area of $2,505,810km^2$, of water constitutes $129,810km^2$, and cultivable land is 34%. Sudan has a total land boundary of 7,687 km with 9 border countries. This vast country embraces different vegetation patterns reflecting various climatic zones, grading from tropical rain forests in the south through semi-tropical savannah to arid zone in the extreme north, with annual rainfall ranging from 1,600 mm in the south to 25 mm in the north. The aquaculture industry is not developed as yet. Because of their basic characteristics, the Sudan inland and marine capture fisheries are of a small-scale and semi-industrial nature. The demand for fish and fish preparations is growing steadily. The animal resources sector (which includes fisheries) contributes 21% of Sudan GDP. The contribution of fisheries to Sudanese GDP is currently marginal. The per caput supply is only 1.6 kg/year, which is mostly obtained by capture fish landings. Despite the fact that fisheries GDP is extremely low, fish and fish preparations contribute to the food security of a wide sector of the rural and urban communities. Fisheries also provide work opportunities in the form of secondary employment as a source of income that indirectly contributes to household food security.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.146-146
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• 2018

Basin evapotranspiration is the result of water balance and energy balance, which is affected by climate and underlying surface characteristics, the process is complex, and spatial and temporal variability is large, the evapotranspiration estimation of river basin is an important but difficult problem in the field of hydrology, over the years, many scholars devoted to the basin actual evapotranspiration estimation and achieved excellent results. We discuss Budyko coupled water-energy balance theory and evaporation paradox, then use the Fu's equation to estimate actual evapotranspiration yearly in different areas with different dryness. The result shows that Fu's equation has high precision for estimating evapotranspiration yearly in our selected study area, and the estimation result has higher precision in the area with high dryness. Then, we propose an improved formula which can be used to estimate actual evapotranspiration monthly. Furthermore, we found that the parameter in the formula reflects general conditions of underlying surface and it is affected by several factors, at last, we tried to propose the calculation formula. The study indicates that Fu's equation provides a reliable method for evapotranspiration estimation in dry regions as well as semi-humid and semi-arid regions, which has great significance for forecasting river basin water resources and inquiring into ecological water requirement.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.475-480
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• 1992

The effect of mechanical factors and season of the year on milking characteristics (milk yield, time of milking, rate of milk flow, stripping time and tripping milk) were studied on 26 Holstein Friesian cows, raised under Saudi Arabia environmental conditions. Cows were in the third and fourth lactation and reached the peak. Cows milked twice a day with equal intervals. Three vacuum levels (34, 38 and 42 cfm) and two pulsation ratios were used to form six vacuum-pulsation combinations. The study was carried during two seasons Autumn-Winter (S1) and Spring-Summer (S2). After absorbing the cow equations least square analysis was used to analyze the data. Vacuum level 38 cfm and pulsation ratio 70:30 was the best among all combinations of vacuum level-pulsation ratio. No significant effect (p < .01) for season, up to the seventh half minute, on the rate of milk flow. However, season of the year has a significant effect on total milk yield, stripping time and stripping milk.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 1994

Pearl millet is a $C_4$ plant and summer crop originated from west Africa, and the sixth most important cereal in the world and the most widely cultivated millet in the semi-arid tropics as a major staple food crop. Its grain of higher quality protein is used to make unleavened bread chapatis and prepared as gruel, dumplings, couscous and beer. It is also used as animal feed and forage in both temperate and tropical regions because it has a capability to grow well not only in the fertile soil, but also in the poor and dry soil. Most of the current breeding procedures used in pearl millet are aimed at maximum exploitation of hybrid vigor for both grain and forage yields in Korea. Pearl millet is ideally suited for exploitation of heterosis using cytoplasmic male sterile lines as seed parent, and fertile inbred lines and open-pollinated cultivars as pollen parent. Pearl millet hybrids developed in Korea produced 3 to 7 tons of grain and 100 to 150 tons of green fodder per hectare.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2007

Genetic diversity among selected isolates of Macrophomina phaseolina, a causal agent of charcoal rot (stalk rot) disease in sorghum was studied using PCR-RAPD markers. A set of ten isolates, from ten different rabi sorghum genotypes representing two traditional sorghum growing situations viz., Dharwad- a transitional high rainfall region and Bijapur- a semi-arid low rainfall region in South India. From a set of 40 random primers tested, amplicon profiles of 15 were reproducible. A total of 149 amplicon levels, with an average of 9.9 bands per primer, were available for analysis, of which 148 were polymorphic (99.3%). It was possible to discriminate all the isolates with any of the 15 primers employed. UPGMA clustering of data indicated that the isolates shared varied levels of genetic similarity within a range of 0.14 to 0.72 similarity coefficient index and it was suggestive that grouping of isolates was not related to sampling location in anyway. A high level of genetic heterogeneity of 0.28 was recorded among the isolates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.268-268
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• 2017

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.399-405
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• 2016

Poor subsistence farmers who live in a semi-arid area of northern Ethiopia build irrigation systems to overcome water shortages. However, there is a high risk of malaria transmission when increased standing water provides more favorable habitats for mosquito breeding. This is a serious problem because there are many barriers to malaria control measures and health care systems in the area. Using a causal loop diagram and computer simulations, the author attempted to visually illustrate positive and negative feedbacks between mosquito and human populations in the context of Simret, which is a small village located in northern Ethiopia and is generally considered a malaria-free area. The simulation results show that the number of infectious mosquitos increases to 17,215 at its peak, accounting for 3.5% of potentially dangerous mosquitos. At the same time, the number of sick people increases to 574 at its peak, accounting for 15% of local population. The malaria outbreak is controlled largely because of a fixed number of vulnerable people or local population that acts as an intermediate host.