Search results for: wheat diversity
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2183

Search results for: wheat diversity

2093 Managing Diversity in MNCS: A Literature Review of Existing Strategic Models for Managing Diversity and a Roadmap to Transfer Them to the Subsidiaries

Authors: Debora Gottardello, Mireia Valverde Aparicio, Juan Llopis Taverner

Abstract:

Globalization has given rise to a great diversity in the composition of people in organizations. Diversity management is therefore key to create growth in today’s competitive global marketplace. This work develops a literature review related to the existing models for managing diversity covering the period from 1980 until 2014. Furthermore, it identifies limitations in previous models. More specifically, the literature review reveals that there is a lack of information about how these models can be adapted from the headquarters to the subsidiaries. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is to suggest how the models should be adapted when they are directed to host countries. Our aim is to highlight the limitations of the developed models with regards to the translation of the diversity management practices to the subsidiaries. Accordingly, a model that will enable MNCs to ensure a global strategy is suggested. Taking advantage of the potential incorporated in a culturally diverse work team should be at the top of every international company’s aims. Executives from headquarters need to use different attitudes when transferring diversity practices towards their subsidiaries. Further studies should reassess local practices of diversity management to find out how this universal management model is translated.

Keywords: culture diversity, diversity management, human resources management, MNCs, subsidiaries, workforce diversity

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2092 Enhancing Wheat Productivity for Small-Scale Farmers in the Northern State of Sudan through Developing a Local Made Seed Cleaner and Different Seeding Methods

Authors: Yasir Hassan Satti Mohammed

Abstract:

The wheat cleaner was designed, manufactured, and tested in the workshop of the department of agricultural engineering, faculty of agricultural sciences, university of Dongola, the northern state of Sudan, for the purpose of enhancing productivity for small-scale-farmers who used to plant their saved wheat seeds every season with all risk of weed infestation and low viability. A one-season field experiment was then conducted according to the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) experimental design in the demonstration farm of Dongola research station using clean seeds and unclean seeds of a local wheat variety (Imam); two different planting methods were also adopted in the experiment. One is the traditional seed drilling within the recommended seed rate (50 kg.feddan⁻¹), whereas the other was the precision seeding method using half of the recommended seed rate (25 kg.feddan⁻¹). The effect of seed type and planting method on field parameters were investigated, and the data was then analyzed using a computer application SAS system version 9.3. The results revealed significant (P ≥ 0.05) and highly significant (P ≥ 0.01) differences between treatments. The precision seeding method with clean seeds increased the number of kernels per spike (KS), tillers per plant (TPP), one thousand kernels mass (TKM), the biomass of wheat (BWT), and total yield (TOY), whereas weeds per area (WSM), the biomass of weeds (BWD) and weight of weed seeds were apparently decreased compared to seed drilling with unclean seed. Wheat seed cleaner could be of great benefit for small-scale wheat farmers in Sudan who cannot afford the cleaned seeds commercially provided by the local government.

Keywords: wheat cleaner, precision seeding, seed drilling method, small-scale farmers

Procedia PDF Downloads 94
2091 To Include or Not to Include: Resolving Ethical Concerns over the 20% High Quality Cassava Flour Inclusion in Wheat Flour Policy in Nigeria

Authors: Popoola I. Olayinka, Alamu E. Oladeji, B. Maziya-Dixon

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Cassava, an indigenous crop grown locally by subsistence farmers in Nigeria has potential to bring economic benefits to the country. Consumption of bread and other confectionaries has been on the rise due to lifestyle changes of Nigerian consumers. However, wheat, being the major ingredient for bread and confectionery production does not thrive well under Nigerian climate hence the huge spending on wheat importation. To reduce spending on wheat importation, the Federal Government of Nigeria intends passing into law mandatory inclusion of 20% high-quality cassava flour (HQCF) in wheat flour. While the proposed policy may reduce post harvest loss of cassava, and also increase food security and domestic agricultural productivity, there are downsides to the policy which include reduction in nutritional quality and low sensory appeal of cassava-wheat bread, reluctance of flour millers to use HQCF, technology and processing challenges among others. The policy thus presents an ethical dilemma which must be resolved for its successful implementation. While inclusion of HQCF to wheat flour in bread and confectionery is a topic that may have been well addressed, resolving the ethical dilemma resulting from the act has not received much attention. This paper attempts to resolve this dilemma using various approaches in food ethics (cost benefits, utilitarianism, deontological and deliberative). The Cost-benefit approach did not provide adequate resolution of the dilemma as all the costs and benefits of the policy could not be stated in the quantitative term. The utilitarianism approach suggests that the policy delivers greatest good to the greatest number while the deontological approach suggests that the act (inclusion of HQCF to wheat flour) is right hence the policy is not utterly wrong. The deliberative approach suggests a win-win situation through deliberation with the parties involved.

Keywords: HQCF, ethical dilemma, food security, composite flour, cassava bread

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2090 Study on the Quality of Biscuits Prepared from Wheat Flour and Cassava Flour

Authors: Ramim Tanver Rahman, Muhammad Mahbub Sobhan, M. A. Alim

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This study reports on processing of biscuits using skinned, treated and dried cassava flour. Five samples of biscuits S2, S3, S4, S5, and S6 containing 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40% cassava flour with wheat flour and a control sample (S1) containing no cassava flour were processed. The weights of all the biscuit samples were higher than that of control biscuit. The biscuit containing cassava flour was lower width than the control biscuit. The spread ratio of biscuits with 16% cassava flour was higher than other combinations of cassava flour. No remarkable changes in moisture content, peroxide value, fatty acid value, texture, and flavor were observed up to 4 months of storage in ambient conditions (27° to 35°C). A decreasing trend in color, flavor, texture and overall acceptability was observed with the increased incorporation of cassava flour. The sample S1 (no cassava flour) secured the highest overall acceptability and sample S6 (40% cassava flour) obtained the lowest overall acceptability. It is recommended that good quality cassava flour fortified biscuits may be processed in industrial-scale substituting the wheat flour by cassava flour up to 24% levels.

Keywords: cassava flour, wheat flour, shelf life, spread ratio, storage, biscuit

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2089 Glycine Betaine Affects Antioxidant Response and Lipid Peroxidation in Wheat Genotypes under Water-Deficit Conditions

Authors: S. K. Thind, Neha Gupta

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Glycine betaine (N, N’, N’’– trimethyl glycine), (GB) as aqueous solution (100 mM) containing 0.1% TWEEN-20 (Ploythylene glycol sorbitan monolaurate) was sprayed on selected nineteen wheat genotypes at maximum tillering and anthesis stages. Water-deficit conditions resulted in lipid peroxidation. GB applications reduced lipid peroxidation in all wheat genotypes at both the stages. Catalase (CAT) activity was recorded more in control than under stressed conditions in selected wheat genotypes at both the stages; GB had no effect. The ascorbic acid content in leaves of selected genotypes increased under water deficit. A genotypic variability in Ascorbate peroxidase (APx) activity was recorded and GB treatment decreased it. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was increased significantly under water-deficit at both stages in all genotypes. In present study, prolonged water-deficit conditions caused CAT deficiency/suppression which was compensated by APX and SOD; and GB exogenous application mitigated negative effect of water-deficit stress on lipid peroxidation.

Keywords: glycine-betaine, lipid peroxidation, ROS, water deficit stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 448
2088 Bayesian Networks Scoping the Climate Change Impact on Winter Wheat Freezing Injury Disasters in Hebei Province, China

Authors: Xiping Wang,Shuran Yao, Liqin Dai

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Many studies report the winter is getting warmer and the minimum air temperature is obviously rising as the important climate warming evidences. The exacerbated air temperature fluctuation tending to bring more severe weather variation is another important consequence of recent climate change which induced more disasters to crop growth in quite a certain regions. Hebei Province is an important winter wheat growing province in North of China that recently endures more winter freezing injury influencing the local winter wheat crop management. A winter wheat freezing injury assessment Bayesian Network framework was established for the objectives of estimating, assessing and predicting winter wheat freezing disasters in Hebei Province. In this framework, the freezing disasters was classified as three severity degrees (SI) among all the three types of freezing, i.e., freezing caused by severe cold in anytime in the winter, long extremely cold duration in the winter and freeze-after-thaw in early season after winter. The factors influencing winter wheat freezing SI include time of freezing occurrence, growth status of seedlings, soil moisture, winter wheat variety, the longitude of target region and, the most variable climate factors. The climate factors included in this framework are daily mean and range of air temperature, extreme minimum temperature and number of days during a severe cold weather process, the number of days with the temperature lower than the critical temperature values, accumulated negative temperature in a potential freezing event. The Bayesian Network model was evaluated using actual weather data and crop records at selected sites in Hebei Province using real data. With the multi-stage influences from the various factors, the forecast and assessment of the event-based target variables, freezing injury occurrence and its damage to winter wheat production, were shown better scoped by Bayesian Network model.

Keywords: bayesian networks, climatic change, freezing Injury, winter wheat

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2087 Recent Trend in Gluten-Free Bakery Products

Authors: Madhuresh Dwivedi, Navneet Singh Deora, H. N. Mishra

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In the context of bakery products, the gluten component of wheat has a crucial role in stabilizing the gas-cell and crumb structures, appearance, mouth feel and maintaining the rheological properties, thus the acceptability of these products. However, because of coeliac disease, some individuals cannot tolerate the protein gliadin present in the gluten fraction of wheat flour. Also termed as gluten-sensitive enteropathy, it is a common chronicle disorder in populations throughout the world with average prevalence of 0.37%. The safest way for celiac sufferers is to stay away from gluten-containing foods such as wheat, rye, barley as well as durum wheat, spelt wheat, and triticale. Thus, in view of the current increasing incidence of gluten intolerant sufferers (due to improved diagnostic procedures), the development of gluten-free cereal-based bakery products suitable for celiac patients represents a challenging and serious task, but also very demanding call for food technologists as well as for the bakers. The use of alternative cereal starches (like rice, soy, maize, potato and so on), gums, hydrocolloids, dietary fibres, alternative protein sources, prebiotics and combinations of them represent the most widespread approach used as replacement to mimic gluten in the manufacture of industrial processable gluten-free bakery products due to their structure-building and water binding properties.

Keywords: gluten-free, coeliac disease, alternative flour, hydrocolloid, crumb structure

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2086 Introgression of Improved Root Biomass Traits into Wheat Hybrids

Authors: F. N. U. Abdullah, A. M. H. Ibrahim, Shuyu Liu

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Hybrid wheat root system is the major plant organ for water and nutrient acquisition. An initial wheat root study with Winrhizo scanner showed that entries with high root surface area but narrow root angle are associated with past drought tolerance in Texas, while those with wide angle can perform best under normal growing conditions. In a hybrid field experiment, commercial heterosis up to 8.3% in grain yield was obtained from diverse parents selected from male and female diverse groups. These hybrids showed promising yield at Greenville and McGregor, Texas, with grain yield up to 4412 Kg ha⁻¹ as compared to best performing commercial varieties ‘TAM-304’ (4075 Kg ha⁻¹) and ‘Gallagher’ (3981 Kg ha⁻¹). Among 130 hybrids produced, a subset of 50 better-performing hybrids and parents was subjected to one-month-old plant root studies scanned with Winrhizo. The results showed a significant positive correlation of grain yield with initial root angle and a negative correlation with root length.

Keywords: hybrids, root studies, heterosis, wheat breeding

Procedia PDF Downloads 59
2085 The Analysis of Cultural Diversity in EFL Textbook for Senior High School in Indonesia

Authors: Soni Ariawan

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The study aims to explore the cultural diversity highlighted in EFL textbook for Senior High School grade 10 in Indonesia. The visual images are selected as the data and qualitatively analysed using content analysis. The reason to choose visual images because images are not always neutral and they might impact teaching and learning process. In the current study, cultural diversity aspects are focused on religion (Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian), gender (male, female, unclear), ethnic (Melanesian, Austronesian, Foreigner) and socioeconomic (low, middle, high, undetermined) diversity as the theoretical framework. The four aspects of cultural diversity are sufficiently representative to draw a conclusion in investigating Indonesian culture representation in EFL textbook. The finding shows that cultural diversity is not proportionally reflected in the textbook, particularly in the visual images.

Keywords: EFL textbook, cultural diversity, visual images, Indonesia

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2084 Improvement in Drought Stress Tolerance in Wheat by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

Authors: Seema Sangwan, Ekta Narwal, Kannepalli Annapurna

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The aim of this study was to determine the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation on drought stress tolerance in 3 genotypes of wheat subjected to moderate water stress, i.e. HD 3043 (drought tolerant), HD 2987 (drought tolerant), and HD 2967 (drought sensitive). Various growth parameters were studied, e.g. total dry weight, total shoot and root length, root volume, root surface area, grain weight and number, leaf area, chlorophyll content in leaves, relative water content, number of spores and percent colonisation of roots by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Total dry weight, root surface area and chlorophyll content were found to be significantly high in AMF inoculated plants as compared to the non-mycorrhizal ones and also higher in drought-tolerant varieties of wheat as compared to the sensitive variety HD 2967, in moderate water stress treatments. Leakage of electrolytes was lower in case of AMF inoculated stressed plants. Under continuous water stress, leaf water content and leaf area were significantly increased in AMF inoculated plants as compared to un-inoculated stressed plants. Overall, the increased colonisation of roots of wheat by AMF in inoculated plants weather drought tolerant or sensitive could have a beneficial effect in alleviating the harmful effects of water stress in wheat and delaying its senescence.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, wheat, drought, stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 196
2083 Effect of Silicon Sulphate and Silicic Acid Rates on Growth, Yield and Nutritional Status of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Authors: R. G. Shemi, M. A. Abo Horish, Kh. M. A. Mekled

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The utilization of silicon (Si) sources is a crucial agricultural tool that requires optimization to promote sustainable practices. The application of Si provides the implementation of biological mechanisms of plant nutrition, growth promotion, and protection. The aims of this experiment were to investigate the relative efficacy of Si sources and levels on the growth, yield, and mineral content of wheat. The study examined the effects of silicon sulphate and silicic acid levels on growth, spike characteristics, yield parameters, and macro- and micronutrient concentrations of wheat during the 2-season. The entire above-indicated parameters were significantly (p < 0.05) increased with increasing levels of silicon sulphate and silicic acid compared to the control. Foliar application of silicon sulphate 150 ppm and silicic acid 60 ppm statistically (p < 0.05) enhanced grain N concentration and the grain yield by 136.14 and 77.85%, 43.49 and 34.52% in the 1st season, and by 78.62 and 54.40%, 43.53 and 33.18% in the 2nd season, respectively, as compared with control. Overall, foliar applications of silicon sulphate at 150 ppm and silicic acid at 60 ppm were greatly efficient amongst all Si levels and sources in improving growth and spike characters, increasing yield parameters, and elevating grain nutrients. Finally, the treatment of silicon sulfate at 150 ppm was more effective than the treatment of silicic acid at 60 ppm in increasing growth, grain nutrients, and productivity of wheat and attaining agricultural sustainability under experiment conditions.

Keywords: wheat, silicon sulphate, silicic acid, grain nutrients

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2082 Effect of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) Leaves on Wheat Offal Replacement for Chicks Feed Production

Authors: C. C. Okafor, T. M. Ezeh

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The effect of addition of sweet potato leaves in replacement of wheat offal in the production of broiler chicks feed was studied. 72 day-old marshal strain chicks were used and brooded for two weeks with a normal commercial feed in Nigeria called top feed and weighed separately at the end of the two weeks, complete randomized design (CRD) was used. The weighed broiler chicks were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments. Each treatment was replicated to twice with eighteen birds per replicate. The four dietary treatment identified as T1, T2, T3 and T4. T1 served as control diet with 21% crude protein content, while T2 was prepared with Enzyme and in T3 and T4, wheat offal was replaced with sweet potato leaves and in T4 with inclusion of enzyme. Growth performance was studied using the following daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed efficiency. The result in daily weight gain showed that chicks fed with T2 feed had the highest weight gain (93.75) while chicks fed with T3 had the least weight gain of (34.5 gm). In daily feed intake chicks fed with T4 fed more (53.06 gm) than chicks fed with T2 (51.08 gm). In feed efficiency T3 had the highest value of 30% while the T2 had the least efficiency of 22%. There was no significant difference (P≥ 0.05) in all the three parameter tested. Sweet potato leaves can replace wheat offal in broiler feed production without any adverse effect on the growth performance.

Keywords: broiler, diet, dietary, potato leaves, wheat offal

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2081 Fuzzy Inference System for Risk Assessment Evaluation of Wheat Flour Product Manufacturing Systems

Authors: Yas Barzegaar, Atrin Barzegar

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The aim of this research is to develop an intelligent system to analyze the risk level of wheat flour product manufacturing system. The model consists of five Fuzzy Inference Systems in two different layers to analyse the risk of a wheat flour product manufacturing system. The first layer of the model consists of four Fuzzy Inference Systems with three criteria. The output of each one of the Physical, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Failures will be the input of the final manufacturing systems. The proposed model based on Mamdani Fuzzy Inference Systems gives a performance ranking of wheat flour products manufacturing systems. The first step is obtaining data to identify the failure modes from expert’s opinions. The second step is the fuzzification process to convert crisp input to a fuzzy set., then the IF-then fuzzy rule applied through inference engine, and in the final step, the defuzzification process is applied to convert the fuzzy output into real numbers.

Keywords: failure modes, fuzzy rules, fuzzy inference system, risk assessment

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2080 Energy Budgeting, Carbon and Water Footprints Under Conventional and Conservation Tillage Practices of Rice-Wheat Double Cropping System

Authors: Ahmad Latif Virk, Naeem Ahmad, Muhammad Ishaq Asif Rehmani

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Amid the present environmental crises, developing environment-resilient and cost-effective conservation agriculture strategies to feed the world's ever-growing population is pertinent. Therefore, a field study was conducted to test the hypothesis that residue retention under no-till (NTR) would enhance energy productivity (EP) and energy use efficiency (EUE) while offsetting the carbon footprints (CF), water footprints (WF) and greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs) in rice (Oryza sativa L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) double cropping system. Two tillage systems viz., conventional tillage (CT) and conservation tillage (no-till; NT), with or without residue retention, were combined into four treatments as CT0 (puddled rice, conventional wheat - residue); CTR (puddled rice, conventional wheat + residue); NT0 (direct rice seeding, zero-tilled wheat - residue); NTR (direct rice seeding, zero-tilled wheat + residue) were evaluated. Overall, results showed that the NT system had 34.2% lower energy consumption, 1.2 times more EP than CT system. Moreover, NTR had 19.8% higher EUE than CT0. The overall system grain yield ranged from 7.8 to 9.3 Mg ha−1 under NT0 and CTR, respectively. The NTR had 56.6% and 17.9% lesser CF and WF, respectively, than CT0. The net GHGs emissions (CO2-eq kg ha−1) under CT0 were the highest, while NTR had the lowest emissions. The NTR enhanced carbon sequestration in soil that can offset half of the system's CO2 emissions. The findings of this study might help develop a suitable strategy for resource/energy conservation and higher productivity while offsetting GHGs emissions in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Keywords: residue, yield, indirect emissions, energy use efficiency, carbon sequestration

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2079 The Influence of the Normative Gender Binary in Diversity Management: A Multi-Method Study on Gender Diversity of Diversity Management

Authors: Robin C. Ladwig

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Diversity Management, as a substantial element of Human Resource Management, aims to secure the economic benefit that assumingly comes with a diverse workforce. Consequently, diversity managers focus on the protection of employees and securing equality measurements to assure organisational gender diversity. Gender diversity as one aspect of Diversity Management seems to adhere to gender binarism and cis-normativity. Workplaces are gendered spaces which are echoing the binary gender-normativity presented in Diversity Management, sold under the label of gender diversity. While the expectation of Diversity Management implies the inclusion of a multiplicity of marginalised groups, such as trans and gender diverse people, in current literature and practice, the reality is curated by gender binarism and cis-normativity. The qualitative multi-method research showed a lack of knowledge about trans and gender diverse matters within the profession of Diversity Management and Human Resources. The semi-structured interviews with trans and gender diverse individuals from various backgrounds and occupations in Australia exposed missing considerations of trans and gender diverse experiences in the inclusivity and gender equity of various workplaces. Even if practitioners consider trans and gender diverse matters under gender diversity, the practical execution is limited to gender binary structures and cis-normative actions as the photo-elicit questionnaire with diversity managers, human resource officers, and personnel management demonstrates. Diversity Management should approach a broader source of informed practice by extending their business focus to the knowledge of humanity studies. Humanity studies could include diversity, queer, or gender studies to increase the inclusivity of marginalised groups such as trans and gender diverse employees and people. Furthermore, the definition of gender diversity should be extended beyond the gender binary and cis-normative experience. People may lose trust in Diversity Management as a supportive ally of marginalised employees if the understanding of inclusivity is limited to a gender binary and cis-normativity value system that misrepresents the richness of gender diversity.

Keywords: cis-normativity, diversity management, gender binarism, trans and gender diversity

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2078 Elucidating the Defensive Role of Silicon-Induced Biochemical Responses in Wheat Exposed to Drought and Diuraphis noxia Infestation

Authors: Lintle Mohase, Ninikoe Lebusa, Mpho Stephen Mafa

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Wheat is an economically important cereal crop. However, the changing climatic conditions that intensify drought in production areas, and additional pest infestation, such as the Russian wheat aphid (RWA, Diuraphis noxia), severely hamper its production. Drought and pest management require an additional water supply through irrigation and applying inorganic nutrients (including silicon) as alternative strategies to mitigate the stress effects. Therefore, other approaches are needed to enhance wheat productivity during drought stress and aphid abundance. Two wheat cultivars were raised under greenhouse conditions, exposed to drought stress, and treated with silicon before infestation with the South African RWA biotype 2 (RWASA2). The morphological evaluations showed that severe drought or a combination of drought and infestation significantly reduced the plant height of wheat cultivars. Silicon treatment did not alleviate the growth reduction. The biochemical responses were measured using spectrophotometric assays with specific substrates. An evaluation of the enzyme activities associated with oxidative stress and defence responses indicated that drought stress increased NADPH oxidase activity, while silicon treatment significantly reduced it in drought-stressed and infested plants. At 48 and 72 hours sampling periods, a combination of silicon, drought and infestation treatment significantly increased peroxidase activity compared to drought and infestation treatment. The treatment also increased β-1,3-glucanase activity 72 hours after infestation. In addition, silicon and drought treatment increased glucose but reduced sucrose accumulation. Furthermore, silicon, drought, and infestation treatment combinations reduced the sucrose content. Finally, silicon significantly increased the trehalose content under severe drought and infestation, evident at 48 and 72-hour sampling periods. Our findings shed light on silicon’s ability to induce protective biochemical responses during drought and aphid infestation.

Keywords: drought, enzyme activity, silicon, soluble sugars, Russian wheat aphid, wheat

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2077 An Evaluation of Different Weed Management Techniques in Organic Arable Systems

Authors: Nicola D. Cannon

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A range of field experiments have been conducted since 1991 to 2017 on organic land at the Royal Agricultural University’s Harnhill Manor Farm near Cirencester, UK to explore the impact of different management practices on weed infestation in organic winter and spring wheat. The experiments were designed using randomised complete block and some with split plot arrangements. Sowing date, variety choice, crop height and crop establishment technique have all shown a significant impact on weed infestations. Other techniques have also been investigated but with less clear, but, still often significant effects on weed control including grazing with sheep, undersowing with different legumes and mechanical weeding techniques. Tillage treatments included traditional plough based systems, minimum tillage and direct drilling. Direct drilling had significantly higher weed dry matter than the other two techniques. Taller wheat varieties which do not contain Rht1 or Rht2 had higher weed populations than the wheat without dwarfing genes. Early sown winter wheat had greater weed dry matter than later sown wheat. Grazing with sheep interacted strongly with sowing date, with shorter varieties and also late sowing dates providing much less forage but, grazing did reduce weed biomass in June. Undersowing had mixed impacts which were related to the success of establishment of the undersown legume crop. Weeds are most successfully controlled when a range of techniques are implemented to give the wheat crop the greatest chance of competing with weeds.

Keywords: crop establishment, drilling date, grazing, undersowing, varieties, weeds

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2076 Estimation of Carbon Losses in Rice: Wheat Cropping System of Punjab, Pakistan

Authors: Saeed Qaisrani

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The study was conducted to observe carbon and nutrient loss by burning of rice residues on rice-wheat cropping system The rice crop was harvested to conduct the experiment in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with factors and 4 replications with a net plot size of 10 m x 20 m. Rice stubbles were managed by two methods i.e. Incorporation & burning of rice residues. Soil samples were taken to a depth of 30 cm before sowing & after harvesting of wheat. Wheat was sown after harvesting of rice by three practices i.e. Conventional tillage, Minimum tillage and Zero tillage to observe best tillage practices. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted on wheat to assess best tillage practice and residues management method with estimation of carbon losses. Data on the following parameters; establishment count, plant height, spike length, number of grains per spike, biological yield, fat content, carbohydrate content, protein content, and harvest index were recorded to check wheat quality & ensuring food security in the region. Soil physico-chemical analysis i.e. pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and carbon were done in soil fertility laboratory. Substantial results were found on growth, yield and related parameters of wheat crop. The collected data were examined statistically with economic analysis to estimate the cost-benefit ratio of using different tillage techniques and residue management practices. Obtained results depicted that Zero tillage method have positive impacts on growth, yield and quality of wheat, Moreover, it is cost effective methodology. Similarly, Incorporation is suitable and beneficial method for soil due to more nutrients provision and reduce the need of fertilizers. Burning of rice stubbles has negative impact including air pollution, nutrient loss, microbes died and carbon loss. Recommended the zero tillage technology to reduce carbon losses along with food security in Pakistan.

Keywords: agricultural agronomy, food security, carbon sequestration, rice-wheat cropping system

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2075 Irrigation Scheduling for Wheat in Bangladesh under Water Stress Conditions Using Water Productivity Model

Authors: S. M. T. Mustafa, D. Raes, M. Huysmans

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Proper utilization of water resource is very important in agro-based Bangladesh. Irrigation schedule based on local environmental conditions, soil type and water availability will allow a sustainable use of water resources in agriculture. In this study, the FAO crop water model (AquaCrop) was used to simulate the different water and fertilizer management strategies in different location of Bangladesh to obtain a management guideline for the farmer. Model was calibrated and validated for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The statistical indices between the observed and simulated grain yields obtained were very good with R2, RMSE, and EF values of 0.92, 0.33, and 0.83, respectively for model calibration and 0.92, 0.68 and 0.77, respectively for model validations. Stem elongation (jointing) to booting and flowering stage were identified as most water sensitive for wheat. Deficit irrigation on water sensitive stage could increase the grain yield for increasing soil fertility levels both for loamy and sandy type soils. Deficit irrigation strategies provides higher water productivity than full irrigation strategies and increase the yield stability (reduce the standard deviation). The practical deficit irrigation schedule for wheat for four different stations and two different soils were designed. Farmer can produce more crops by using deficit irrigation schedule under water stress condition. Practical application and validation of proposed strategies will make them more credible.

Keywords: crop-water model, deficit irrigation, irrigation scheduling, wheat

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2074 Determination of Some Chemical Properties of Uncommon Flours

Authors: Sónia C. Andrade, Solange F. Oliveira, Raquel P. F. Guiné, Paula M. R. Correia

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Flours of wheat, chestnut, acorn and lupin were evaluated in relation to phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity, and oxalate content. At the chemical level the results show some variability between samples by type of flour, and the sample of chestnut flour presented the higher value of oxalate (0.00348 mg/100g) when compared to the other samples in the study. Considering the content of phenolic compounds, the sample that stood out was the acorn flour, having a high value of 0.812 g AGE/100 g. All the samples presented intermediate content of antioxidant activity and the sample that showed a slightly higher value was the wheat flour with a value of 0.746 mM TRE/g sample.

Keywords: Wheat, Acorn, Lupin, Chestnut, Flour, Antioxidant properties, Oxalate

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2073 Wheat Yield and Yield Components under Raised Bed Planting System

Authors: Hamidreza Miri, Farahnaz Momtazi

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Wheat is one of the most important crops in Fars province, and because of water shortage, there is a great emphasis on its water use efficiency in the production field. A field experiment was conducted in 2021 and 2022 in order to evaluate wheat yield and its components in raised planting system in Arsanjan, Fars province. The experiment was conducted as a split plot with three irrigation treatments (irrigation equal to evapotranspiration, 80% of evapotranspiration irrigation (moderate drought stress), and 60% of evapotranspiration irrigation (severe drought stress)) as the main plot and three planting methods (conventional flat planting, 60 cm raised bed planting and 120 cm raised bed planting) as a subplot. The results indicated that drought stress significantly decreased traits such as plant height, grain yield, ear number, seed number, and biological yield while increasing seed protein. Raised bed planting significantly increased the traits in comparison with conventional flat planting. So that plating with a 120 cm raised bed increased grain yield by 22.1% and 25.9% in the first and second years, respectively. This increase was 17% for biological, 75 for ear number, and 21% for seed number. Planting in raised bed system reduced the adverse effect of drought stress on wheat traits. In conclusion, based on the observed results planting in raised bed system can be adopted as an appropriate planting pattern for improving yield and water productivity in experimental regions and similar climates.

Keywords: wheat, raised bed planting, drought stress, yield, water use

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2072 Analyzing the Climate Change Impact and Farmer's Adaptability Strategies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Authors: Khuram Nawaz Sadozai, Sonia

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The agriculture sector is deemed more vulnerable to climate change as its variation can directly affect the crop’s productivity, but farmers’ adaptation strategies play a vital role in climate change-agriculture relationship. Therefore, this research has been undertaken to assess the Climate Change impact on wheat productivity and farmers’ adaptability strategies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. The panel dataset was analyzed to gauge the impact of changing climate variables (i.e., temperature, rainfall, and humidity) on wheat productivity from 1985 to 2015. Amid the study period, the fixed effect estimates confirmed an inverse relationship of temperature and rainfall on the wheat yield. The impact of temperature is observed to be detrimental as compared to the rainfall, causing 0.07 units reduction in the production of wheat with 1C upsurge in temperature. On the flip side, humidity revealed a positive association with the wheat productivity by confirming that high humidity could be beneficial to the production of the crop over time. Thus, this study ensures significant nexus between agricultural production and climatic parameters. However, the farming community in the underlying study area has limited knowledge about the adaptation strategies to lessen the detrimental impact of changing climate on crop yield. It is recommended that farmers should be well equipped with training and advanced agricultural management practices under the realm of climate change. Moreover, innovative technologies pertinent to the agriculture system should be encouraged to handle the challenges arising due to variations in climate factors.

Keywords: climate change, fixed effect model, panel data, wheat productivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 121
2071 Fuzzy Inference System for Risk Assessment Evaluation of Wheat Flour Product Manufacturing Systems

Authors: Atrin Barzegar, Yas Barzegar, Stefano Marrone, Francesco Bellini, Laura Verde

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to develop an intelligent system to analyze the risk level of wheat flour product manufacturing system. The model consists of five Fuzzy Inference Systems in two different layers to analyse the risk of a wheat flour product manufacturing system. The first layer of the model consists of four Fuzzy Inference Systems with three criteria. The output of each one of the Physical, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Failures will be the input of the final manufacturing systems. The proposed model based on Mamdani Fuzzy Inference Systems gives a performance ranking of wheat flour products manufacturing systems. The first step is obtaining data to identify the failure modes from expert’s opinions. The second step is the fuzzification process to convert crisp input to a fuzzy set., then the IF-then fuzzy rule applied through inference engine, and in the final step, the defuzzification process is applied to convert the fuzzy output into real numbers.

Keywords: failure modes, fuzzy rules, fuzzy inference system, risk assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 75
2070 Off-Line Detection of "Pannon Wheat" Milling Fractions by Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Methods

Authors: E. Izsó, M. Bartalné-Berceli, Sz. Gergely, A. Salgó

Abstract:

The aims of this investigation is to elaborate near-infrared methods for testing and recognition of chemical components and quality in “Pannon wheat” allied (i.e. true to variety or variety identified) milling fractions as well as to develop spectroscopic methods following the milling processes and evaluate the stability of the milling technology by different types of milling products and according to sampling times, respectively. This wheat categories produced under industrial conditions where samples were collected versus sampling time and maximum or minimum yields. The changes of the main chemical components (such as starch, protein, lipid) and physical properties of fractions (particle size) were analysed by dispersive spectrophotometers using visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) regions of the electromagnetic radiation. Close correlation were obtained between the data of spectroscopic measurement techniques processed by various chemometric methods (e.g. principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA) and operation condition of milling technology. Its obvious that NIR methods are able to detect the deviation of the yield parameters and differences of the sampling times by a wide variety of fractions, respectively. NIR technology can be used in the sensitive monitoring of milling technology.

Keywords: near infrared spectroscopy, wheat categories, milling process, monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 405
2069 Resistance Gene Expression and Antioxidant Enzymes Activities in Wheat Genotypes Affected by Bipolaris sorokiniana and Heterodera filipjevi

Authors: Maryam Monazzah, Ronak Samadpour, Mehdi Nasr-esfahani, Fatemeh Qalavand, Marziye Motamedi

Abstract:

Bipolaris sorokiniana, and Heterodera filipjevi, are important wheat diseases that lead to yield losses worldwide. Identifying novel resistant sources helps us combat these devastating diseases. In this study, we studied the role of Cre3 gene and antioxidant enzymes in the immune responses of wheat genotypes to H. filipjevi and B. sorokiniana. Therefore, real-time PCR analysis using Cre3 gene marker, a resistant gene to cereal cyst nematodes, was conducted on leaves and roots, along with changes ‎in the activity of antioxidant enzymes, peroxidase, and catalase. Enzyme activity assay was performed on roots attacked by nematode and in leaves infected with Bipolaris. Wheat accessions including “Bam” (resistant), “Parsi” (moderately-resistant), “Azar2”, “Ohadi”, “Homa” (highly-susceptible) were previously screened against both stresses under greenhouse and field conditions. Results showed that Cre3 expression against cyst nematodes was significantly higher in resistant cultivars compared to susceptible cultivars. Cre3 was used in marker-assisted selection programs to identify genotypes carrying resistant genes to cyst nematodes. Interestingly, Cre3 was also up-regulated in both tissues of resistant cultivars to B. sorokiniana. Therefore, Cre3 in wheat similarly modulates immunity against B. sorokiniana and might be one of the central components of the induced immune system in wheat. The activity of antioxidant enzymes also indicated the highest increase in resistant genotypes upon both stresses that subsequently neutralize oxidative stress in tissues and decrease damage. Further studies on these resistance components may help us gain insight into the molecular basis of resistance and shed new light on the interaction and overlap between different forms of stress.

Keywords: Bipolaris sorokiniana, Heterodera filipjevi, resistant gene expression, wheat

Procedia PDF Downloads 94
2068 Coding and Decoding versus Space Diversity for ‎Rayleigh Fading Radio Frequency Channels ‎

Authors: Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed Abouelmagd

Abstract:

The diversity is the usual remedy of the transmitted signal level variations (Fading phenomena) in radio frequency channels. Diversity techniques utilize two or more copies of a signal and combine those signals to combat fading. The basic concept of diversity is to transmit the signal via several independent diversity branches to get independent signal replicas via time – frequency - space - and polarization diversity domains. Coding and decoding processes can be an alternative remedy for fading phenomena, it cannot increase the channel capacity, but it can improve the error performance. In this paper we propose the use of replication decoding with BCH code class, and Viterbi decoding algorithm with convolution coding; as examples of coding and decoding processes. The results are compared to those obtained from two optimized selection space diversity techniques. The performance of Rayleigh fading channel, as the model considered for radio frequency channels, is evaluated for each case. The evaluation results show that the coding and decoding approaches, especially the BCH coding approach with replication decoding scheme, give better performance compared to that of selection space diversity optimization approaches. Also, an approach for combining the coding and decoding diversity as well as the space diversity is considered, the main disadvantage of this approach is its complexity but it yields good performance results.

Keywords: Rayleigh fading, diversity, BCH codes, Replication decoding, ‎convolution coding, viterbi decoding, space diversity

Procedia PDF Downloads 438
2067 Estimating Leaf Area and Biomass of Wheat Using UAS Multispectral Remote Sensing

Authors: Jackson Parker Galvan, Wenxuan Guo

Abstract:

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is being increasingly adopted in high-throughput plant phenotyping for applications in plant breeding and precision agriculture. Winter wheat is an important cover crop for reducing soil erosion and protecting the environment in the Southern High Plains. Efficiently quantifying plant leaf area and biomass provides critical information for producers to practice site-specific management of crop inputs, such as water and fertilizers. The objective of this study was to estimate wheat biomass and leaf area index using UAV images. This study was conducted in an irrigated field in Garza County, Texas. High-resolution images were acquired on three dates (February 18, March 25, and May 15th ) using a multispectral sensor onboard a Matrice 600 UAV. On each data of image acquisition, 10 random plant samples were collected and measured for biomass and leaf area. Images were stitched using Pix4D, and ArcGIS was applied to overlay sampling locations and derive data for sampling locations.

Keywords: precision agriculture, UAV plant phenotyping, biomass, leaf area index, winter wheat, southern high plains

Procedia PDF Downloads 93
2066 Impact of Tillage and Crop Establishment on Fertility and Sustainability of the Rice-Wheat Cropping System in Inceptisols of Varanasi, Up, India

Authors: Pramod Kumar Sharma, Pratibha Kumari, Udai Pratap Singh, Sustainability

Abstract:

In the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South-East Asia, the rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) is dominant with conventional tillage (CT) without residue management, which shows depletion of soil fertility and non-sustainable crop productivity. Hence, this investigation was planned to identify suitable natural resource management practices involving different tillage and crop establishment (TCE) methods along with crop residue and their effects, on the sustainability of dominant cropping systems through enhancing soil fertility and productivity. This study was conducted for two consecutive years 2018-19 and 2019-20 on a long-term field experiment that was started in the year 2015-16 taking six different combinations of TCE methods viz. CT, partial conservation agriculture (PCA) i.e. anchored residue of rice and full conservation agriculture (FCA)] i.e. anchored residue of rice and wheat under RWCS in terms of crop productivity, sustainability of soil health, and crop nutrition by the crops. Results showed that zero tillage direct-seeded rice (ZTDSR) - zero tillage wheat (ZTW) [FCA + green gram residue retention (RR)] recorded the highest yield attributes and yield during both the crops. Compared to conventional tillage rice (CTR)-conventional tillage wheat (CTW) [residue removal (R 0 )], the soil quality parameters were improved significantly with ZTDSR-ZTW (FCA+RR). Overall, ZTDSR-ZTW (FCA+RR) had higher nutrient uptake by the crops than CT-based treatment CTR-CTW (R 0 ) and CTR-CTW (RI).These results showed that there is significant profitability of yield and resource utilization by the adoption of FCA it may be a better alternative to the dominant tillage system i.e. CT in RWSC.

Keywords: tillage and crop establishment, soil fertility, rice-wheat cropping system, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 103
2065 Winter Wheat Yield Forecasting Using Sentinel-2 Imagery at the Early Stages

Authors: Chunhua Liao, Jinfei Wang, Bo Shan, Yang Song, Yongjun He, Taifeng Dong

Abstract:

Winter wheat is one of the main crops in Canada. Forecasting of within-field variability of yield in winter wheat at the early stages is essential for precision farming. However, the crop yield modelling based on high spatial resolution satellite data is generally affected by the lack of continuous satellite observations, resulting in reducing the generalization ability of the models and increasing the difficulty of crop yield forecasting at the early stages. In this study, the correlations between Sentinel-2 data (vegetation indices and reflectance) and yield data collected by combine harvester were investigated and a generalized multivariate linear regression (MLR) model was built and tested with data acquired in different years. It was found that the four-band reflectance (blue, green, red, near-infrared) performed better than their vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, WDRVI and OSAVI) in wheat yield prediction. The optimum phenological stage for wheat yield prediction with highest accuracy was at the growing stages from the end of the flowering to the beginning of the filling stage. The best MLR model was therefore built to predict wheat yield before harvest using Sentinel-2 data acquired at the end of the flowering stage. Further, to improve the ability of the yield prediction at the early stages, three simple unsupervised domain adaptation (DA) methods were adopted to transform the reflectance data at the early stages to the optimum phenological stage. The winter wheat yield prediction using multiple vegetation indices showed higher accuracy than using single vegetation index. The optimum stage for winter wheat yield forecasting varied with different fields when using vegetation indices, while it was consistent when using multispectral reflectance and the optimum stage for winter wheat yield prediction was at the end of flowering stage. The average testing RMSE of the MLR model at the end of the flowering stage was 604.48 kg/ha. Near the booting stage, the average testing RMSE of yield prediction using the best MLR was reduced to 799.18 kg/ha when applying the mean matching domain adaptation approach to transform the data to the target domain (at the end of the flowering) compared to that using the original data based on the models developed at the booting stage directly (“MLR at the early stage”) (RMSE =1140.64 kg/ha). This study demonstrated that the simple mean matching (MM) performed better than other DA methods and it was found that “DA then MLR at the optimum stage” performed better than “MLR directly at the early stages” for winter wheat yield forecasting at the early stages. The results indicated that the DA had a great potential in near real-time crop yield forecasting at the early stages. This study indicated that the simple domain adaptation methods had a great potential in crop yield prediction at the early stages using remote sensing data.

Keywords: wheat yield prediction, domain adaptation, Sentinel-2, within-field scale

Procedia PDF Downloads 63
2064 Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Iranian Purslane (Portulaca Oleracea L.) Accessions Using ISSR Makers

Authors: Mehdi Mohebodini, Iman Khalili-Baseri, Mehdi Behnamian, Sara Dezhsetan

Abstract:

Diversity analysis at the molecular level using PCR-based markers is the efficient and rapid method of identifying the relationships and differences among the genotypes. In the present study, genetic diversity and relationships among 20 collected purslane accessions were evaluated using ISSR markers. The genotyping data were used to understand the relationships among the collected accessions and identify genetically diverse purslane accessions. The 25 primers gave a total of 92 bands, of which 62 were polymorphic (67.4%). The genetic diversity as estimated by Shannon’s information index was 0.55, revealing a quite high level of genetic diversity in the germplasm. The average number of an observed allele, effective allele, polymorphic information content (PIC) and Nei’s index were 2, 1.65, 0.37 and 0.37, respectively.

Keywords: Portulaca oleracea L., genetic diversity, ISSR, germplasm

Procedia PDF Downloads 450