Abstract: A comparative study was undertaken to evaluate the performances of plant cakes and synthetic chemicals against nematodes infesting tea at Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) during March 2012 to June 2012. The indigenous plants i.e. Bishkatali (Polygonum hydropiper), Mahogani (Swietenia mahagoni) and Neem (Azadirachta indica) and synthetic chemicals i.e. Carbofuran (Furadan 5G), Fipronil (Goolee 3GR) and Rynaxypyr (Ferterra 0.4G) were considered as treatments. The dose of tested plant cakes @ 50g/pot and synthetic chemicals i.e. Furadan 5G @ 35g/pot, Fipronil 3GR @ 35g/pot and Rynaxapyr 0.4G 15g/pot were used in this experiment. Soil samples are regularly collected at weekly interval and samples were analyzed for nematode count at Entomology Laboratory through Baermann funnel method. Result revealed that all the treatments had showed the toxic effect on nematodes and significantly reduced nematode population from the soil. The nematode population in the soil treated with Rynaxypyr 0.4G was the lowest due to the highest mortality of nematodes (85.80%) followed by Fipronil 3G (82.00%), and Carbofuran 5G (81.71%) which was satisfactory. Among the plant cakes, Mahogani cake showed the highest (79.89%) mortality of nematodes in the treated soil. The cakes of Bishkatali (74.82%) and Neem (71.57%) also reduced the nematode population significantly. Rynaxapyr and Mahagani Cake can be used as soil treatments for the management of nematodes to get nematode free soil or safe soil with less nematode for establishing tea nursery. Crude plant cakes of P. hydropeper, S. mahagoni and A. indica can effectively be utilized beside the use of chemical nematicides as safer nematicidal products in integrated pest management of nematodes in tea in Bangladesh.

Abstract: Lead (Pb) concentration was assessed of the arable soils in the vicinity of mining and dumping sites in Nigeria. Its contents in the arable soils assayed by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry, (AAS) ranged from 6.8 – 47.8 mg/kg. The enrichment factor (EF) calculated by using calcium as a reference element fell within a range of 5.6 – 36.9. The mean values of the enrichment factor of 18.5 classified the soil as significantly contaminated with lead. Anthropogenic activities contribute significantly to the elevated level of lead in the studied areas. This poses serious debilitatiing effects on the agro – ecosystems, since lead has no known essential functions in plants metabolism.

Abstract: The objectives of the present study were to study the morphological characteristics, yield components, chemical compositions and genetic relatedness of six wheat Triticum spp genotypes frequently grown under rain-fed conditions at the southern highland of West-Bank, Palestine. Three local genotypes commonly known as Black-Depia, White-Depia, and White-Hetia, and three introduced ones namely Ambar, Sham-3, and Sham-5, were allocated at three different agro-ecological conditions namely Al-Arroub, Dora, and Janata using completely randomized block design, with five replications (net plot size of 25 m 2 areas per replicate). The results showed significant variations among the six wheat genotypes almost for all measured parameters (maturation and harvesting date, stem length, tillering, number of grains per spike, average spike weight, spike length, spike length with awns, weight of 100 seeds per genotypes, and total yields). Generally, local wheat genotypes presented better yield than the introduced ones. Black-Depia genotype showed the highest yield (grain plus hay) among the three examined sites therefore, it could be a promising cultivar for any further breeding program especially for drought tolerance; however, the lowest yields were obtained in Sham-5 and Sham-3 at Janata site, respectively. Regarding wheat quality parameters, no significant variations were observed for any conducted analyses, however, there were trends for higher protein contents in Sham-5 and White-Hetia genotypes. UPGMA dendrogram clustered the examined six wheat genotypes into two main clusters related to Black-Depia as an isolated genotype. The first cluster is composed of “Sham-5, White-Hetia and Sham-3 genotypes; and the second cluster consisted of White-Depia and Amber genotypes.

Abstract: The replacement of open pollinated varieties by hybrids is an effective way to increase the maize production. The access to hybrid maize is very limited for Nepalese farmers. In order to identify high yielding maize hybrids, eighteen maize hybrids were tested under coordinated varietal trial using randomized complete block design in two replicates in 2007/08 to 2008 /09 during winter seasons at National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. The results showed that, among studied traits, hybrids exhibited significant differences for tasseling, silking and grain yield in both years. The hybrid namely L3/L2 produced the highest grain yield (7.2 t/ha) followed by L1/L3 (6.4 t/ha) and P UTU-20/AG-27 (5.9 t/ha), respectively. The results indicated that these hybrids were promising; they should be tested under on-farms and promoted for general cultivation in Terai region of Nepal.

Abstract: Munronia pinnata (Wall) The ob (Meliaceae) is a rare, therapeutically important medicinal plant used in traditional and folklore medicine in Sri Lanka. Available species/morphotypes/ecotypes of M. pinnata in different locations exhibit diverse range of variations suggesting the possible revision of current taxonomic status. Present study compares seventy different vegetative and reproductive morphological characters in order to suggest the possible taxonomic delimitation of 13 populations of M. pinnata available in Sri Lanka. A cluster analysis and a Principle Component analysis (PCA) were performed using average taxonomic distance. A single access (sequential), key to sub specific taxa was constructed using stable morphological characters. In the cluster, APRG - 5 populations (Population collected from Ritigala forest) has got separated from all the other populations at a distance of about 100%. Populations collected from the same geographical areas (Gampaha district GPPW - 3, GPWP - 3; Moneragala district MGMG - 9 MGWW - 7; Nuwara Eliya district NEKP - 3, NEMR - 3) have grouped closely either in the dendrogramme or in PCA or both. Based on the results, it could be concluded that population APRG - 5 is distantly related to all others and deserved placing as a sub specific taxon of M. pinnata. Further, populations collected from the same geographical area seem to be closely related with one another. Sequential key prepared using morphological characters could be used for the identification of M. pinnata populations even in the absence of flowers.