Agriculture and Food Sciences Research

Moroccan and Spanish agriculture comparative analysis 2008-2021

Lahoucine Asllam — 2024-01-01

In the general context of Morocco's New Development Model, where public policies need all their credentials, and more specifically in the context of Morocco's new agricultural strategy (Green Plan), the challenge is to develop modern agriculture with high added value and high productivity, capable of competing with agricultural production in other countries. This article compares the overall characteristics of agricultural production in Spain and Morocco. To make this comparative analysis, we have focused on a set of agricultural statistical aggregates, such as cultivated area, level of production and yield in relation to each family of agricultural products. These are calculated, using the Laspeyres index, over the period 2008 to 2021. In addition, we have chosen 2008 as the base year for plotting the evolution of Moroccan agricultural performance against that of Spain. The results of our comparative analysis showed that agriculture in Spain is more stable than in Morocco, particularly in cereals and fresh vegetables. Thus, they showed that the majority of Spanish agricultural products outperform those of Morocco. On the other hand, this comparative analysis showed that Moroccan agriculture outperforms Spanish agriculture in the production of sheep, apples, fresh peas, carrots, turnips, broad beans, green beans, goat meat, dried lentils and chickpeas, and that Moroccan agriculture outperforms Spanish agriculture in the production of dates and unshelled peanuts.

Inoculating plant growth-promoting bacteria - effects on soil hydraulic properties and tomato root development under water stress conditions

Dragonetti Giovanna — 2024-02-06

The plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) harbored in the rhizosphere develop specialized mechanisms that may have a key role to ameliorate soil properties and plant growth under prolonged dry conditions. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess the effects of bacterial growth on the soil hydraulic properties and the root response under water stress conditions induced by drip irrigated tomato. At pot scale, a silty soil was inoculated with two PGPB strains (Micrococcus yunnanensis M1 and Pseudomonas stutzeri SR7-77) to cultivate tomato plants under three different water regimes: full irrigation (100% of Pot Capacity- PC), moderate and severe water stress levels (75 and 50% of PC, respectively). Bacterized soil altered the pore size distribution of the rhizosphere compared to no-bacterized soil, increasing root zone plant-available water holding capacity. On the contrary, PGPB occupying the pores reduced the saturated hydraulic conductivity near-saturated soil conditions compared to the uninoculated trial. PGPB shown root surface density (RSD) equal to 0.540 % and 0.355 % to inoculated SR7-77 and M1 tests, respectively and under 50% PC, compared to 0.097% to the uninoculated soil test. Soil water potential values, retrieved through soil water retention parameters, were more negative to M1 and SR7-77 strains tests, corresponding to water hold in the pores with smaller radii conferring resistance to the plant following contrasting stresses. The results demonstrated that PGPB elongated continuous transmission pores and bridged with air-filled spaces in stressed periods.

Agro-morphological analysis of yield and yield attributing traits of wheat under heat stress condition

Pragyan Bhattarai — 2024-03-21

Wheat is the most important cereal crop worldwide and ranks third in Nepal. Improvements in wheat yield can be done effectively by selection for yield attributing traits. In this experiment, twenty wheat genotypes were evaluated in the terai region of Nepal at Paklihawa, Rupandehi in Alpha lattice design under heat stress conditions. The characters were evaluated to find their correlation and direct and indirect effects on yield. Positive significant correlation of grain yield with No. of spikes m-2 (0.405) and harvest index (0.647) were found whereas Spike weight (-0.322) showed a significant negative correlation with grain yield. Similarly, Path analysis showed that the Harvest index (0.5511) and No. of spikelets per spike (0.3365) had a high direct effect, whereas Thousand kernel weight, Spike m-2, and Plant height showed a lower positive direct effect on grain yield. Ten spikes weight, spike length, and No. of grains per spike showed low negative direct effects. The conclusions drawn from this analysis can be useful for breeding programs under heat stress by providing information on which characteristics significantly affect the yield. However, multi-locations and multi-year trials need to be done for further verifications on the selection of such traits for improving yield.