Weeds are the major hindrance in the adoption of conservation agriculture in a rice wheat cropping system. There exists a conflict in the agronomic and soil requirements between a conventional rice production system and the following wheat crop. Puddling in the conventional rice productions system helps in controlling weeds in rice and following crops, but disturbs the soil structure resulting in poor stand establishment of the following wheat crop. This study was conducted to monitor the soil properties, weed dynamics and stand establishment of wheat grown by conventional and conservation tillage options after different rice production systems. Maximum soil bulk density and root penetration resistance was observed after a conventional flooded rice system with the lowest values in aerobic rice culture. Wheat stand establishment was impeded following flooded rice system; however this was quite better after the aerobic rice. However, after flooded rice, wheat stand establishment was improved with deep tillage. Hydropriming was better in improving the stand establishment than osmopriming. Weed biomass was highest after the aerobic rice; however it was a minimum after the flooded rice. Amongst the tillage systems in wheat, maximum weed flora was observed in zero tillage; however that was a minimum in bed sowing. Conservation agriculture may help in improving the stand establishment in rice wheat cropping system by improving soil physical properties, but weeds are still a major threat to adopting this form of agriculture.

Wheat flour supplemented with 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% sorghum flour and sourdough bread made thereof were evaluated for mineral contents, phytic acid, tannin, total phenols and in vitro protein digestibility. Effect of supplementation was assessed on nutritional quality of the sourdough flatbread. Analyses of the sorghum supplemented flours revealed a significant (p<0.05) increase in crude fat(%), crude fiber(%) and NFE (%)with a decreasing pattern in crude protein and ash contents. Sourdough fermentation appeared to improve mineral contents in bread since the concentration of iron, zinc and manganese were increased from 3.07-4.41, 0.87-0.95 and 2.48-2.56 mg/100 g, respectively. Phytic acid (%) and tannin (%) were reduced from 1.14 to 0.57, and 0.40 to 0.22, respectively in flatbread. Total phenols of composite flour decreased from 342 to 104 mg/100 g in sourdough flatbread. Similarly, in vitro protein digestibility was shown to increase from 74.81 to 81.14% apparently due to reduction in concentration of chelating agents by fermentation process. Conclusively, composite flour technology in combination with lactic acid fermentation was found quite successfully exploited to reduce anti-nutritional compounds, enhance availability of minerals and improve the digestibility of non-conventional cereal grains.

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of selenium priming on growth and productivity of maize at Agronomy Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Maize seeds were primed with different concentrations of selenium (0, 5, 25, 50 and 100 JlM) while untreated seeds were taken as control. Results showed that seed priming with all levels of selenium improved the germination parameters, growth and yield of maize. Seed priming with 50 JlM of selenium recorded maximum grain yield (2.35 t ha- 1) while minimum (1.66 t ha-1) grain yield was observed in case of untreated seeds (control). Further research should be carried out to find out mechanisms of growth and yield improvement of maize as a result of seed priming with selenium.

In the current research, the insect pathogenic fungus, Is aria fumosorosea was assessed for its pathogenecity against adults of different aphid species of wheat and Brassica crop i.e. Schizaphis graminum, Rhopalosiphum padi, Brevicoryne brassicae and Lipaphis erysimi. I. fumosorosea (IF-01) was found effective at all concentrations i.e. 1x106, 1x107 and 1x108 spores/ml on all aphid species, but the uppermost concentration (lx108 spores/ml) provided maximum control within short period of time (P < 0.05). The results showed that the effect of I. fumosorosea on different aphid species was dose and time dependent. I. fumosorosea with LC50 value of 9.02 x 105 proved to be lethal to L. erysimi after 3rd day. Mortality of B. brassicae was observed maximum on highest concentration of 1x108 spores/ml with LC50 value of 1.64 x 107 , while the LT50 values were in range of 1.78-4.53 days for different aphid species treated at various concentrations. By checking the field efficacy of I. fumosorosea against aphid species, this entomopathogenic fungus can be used as possible biological control agent for suppressing aphids.

Chilling resistance at sowing is pre-requisite to avoid high temperature stress at terminal stage of spring planted maize crop. Seed priming offers promising solution to improve crop resistance against low or high temperature stress. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the role of seed priming in improving the performance of spring planted maize under various sowing dates. Seeds of hybrid maize FH-810 were soaked in aerated solution of CaC}z (2.2%), moringa leaf extracts (MLE, 3.3%) and salicylic acid (SA, 50 mg L- 1 ) while dry and water soaked seeds (hydropriming) were used as controls. Both primed and untreated seeds were planted on 02 and 22 Feb, and 14 March. Late planted maize observed notable decline in mean emergence time than early planted crop owing to high temperature at planting. Both low and high temperature in early (02 Feb) and late (14 March) planted maize resulted in reduced seedling growth and tissue water status accompanied with elevated membrane electrolytes leakage. Moreover all the priming techniques improved the studied parameters of crop compared with control at all planting dates. Seed osmopriming with SA improved crop stress resistance by earlier emergence, increased seedling dry weight, tissue water status and improved membrane stability followed by osmopriming with CaC12.

With escalating economic growth during the last three decades, flower industry of China, especially cut flower is sharply developed. In this paper a brief review of the cut flower current situation of globe and current status of flower industry of China especially of cut flower in the world is presented. The acreage, yield, potential of cut flower in China along with distribution of major cut flower products and constraint of cut flower also was indicated in this paper was also presented.

Negative implications of indiscriminate use ofherbicides in agricultural systems have forced the scientific community to develop alternate weed control strategies. Allelopathy appears one of the possible alternatives for achieving sustainable weed management. Study was designed to evaluate the allelopathic potential of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. cv. Azargol) water extracts on germination, early seedling growth and lipid peroxidation of Johnson grass (Sorghum halepnse) and wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis). Three levels of sunflower water extract viz. 5%, 10% and 15% were evaluated against both species in two separate experiments by using distilled water as control. Sunflower water extracts considerably delayed and reduced the germination percentage, along with fresh weight and length of both Johnson grass and wild mustard seedlings. Highest reduction was noticed at higher concentration (15%) of sunflower water extract. Nonetheless, sunflower water extract application enhanced malondialdehyde content (lipid peroxidation) along with reduced activities of antioxidants (catalases and peroxidases) in both Johnson grass and wild mustard seedlings. Such effects can be explored further under field conditions

Water scarcity around the globe and climate change challenges has forced the researchers to develop alternative production systems with higher water use efficiency. Direct seeded rice is the emerging water saving rice production system having higher water use efficiency. Field experiment was conducted to assess the role of different mulch systems in improving water use efficiency and productivity in direct seeded and transplanted rice. Three different rice production systems viz., transplanted rice with continuous flooding, two weeks continuous flooding after transplanting and direct seeding with supplemental irrigation only were evaluated under two ground cover systems i.e., plastic and straw mulching with no mulch taken as control. Super Basmati was used as experimental material. Continuously flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching resulted in higher paddy yield (4.04 t ha- 1 ); while performance of no mulch direct seeding remained poor in this regard. Two weeks flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching followed continuous flooding in paddy yield (3.94 t ha- 1 ). Continuously flooded transplanted rice with plastic mulching observed substantial improvement in yield related attributes such as panicle length, number of grains per panicle and 1000 grain weight. Plastic mulching improved the productivity and water use efficiency of transplanted as well as direct seeded rice. Higher water use efficiency was observed in direct seeded rice with plastic mulching as it was grown on supplemental irrigations. In crux productivity and water use efficiency of transplanted and especially direct seeded rice can be improved by using plastic film as mulch in current scenarios of water shortage. Key Words: mulching, rice production systems, water use efficiency, productivity

Significant variations occur in pigmented rice germplasm with respect to their antioxidant potential. Therefore this study was designed to evaluate the antioxidant potential of exotic rice germplasm collected from different parts of the globe. Grain samples of exotic rice germ plasm (21 0 accessions) were collected from different countries of Asia, America and Europe and their ground grain samples were extracted with 80% methanol at 30 oc using sonicater for 30 minutes to estimate their total polyphenol and flavonoids contents and antioxidant activity. Rice germplasm had tremendous variations with respect to total polyphenols (0.0800.71 mg g- 1) and falvonoid contents (0.091 00.413 mg g" 1 ) and antioxidant activity (18096%). Rice cultivars with red and black seed coat had higher antioxidant activity owing to significantly higher polyphenols and falvonoid contents in their grains. Therefore rice cultivars with red and black seed coat color should be included in breeding rice genotypes with higher nutritional value.

This study was conducted to investigate the biomedicinal worth of different parts of Geranium sibiricum Antioxidant, anti-inflammatoty and anticancer activities of methanolic extracts of root and shoot of Geranium sibiricum were determined. Methanolic extracts of root and shoot parts of Geranium sibiricum had antioxidant activity in the range of 40-50 jlg mL·1, and shoot extract was best in this regard. Likewise, anti-inflammatory activities of extracts was in the range of 60-100 jlg mL-1 and root extract of Geranium sibiricum seemed more useful with 87.38% higher anti-inflammatory activity than shoot with 63.63% activity. Regarding cytotoxicty test against two cancer cell line i.e. SK-Hep1 (liver) and HeLa (uterus), the methanolic extracts of shoot and root of Geranium sibiricum showed the highest toxicity with IC50 values of 10-30 jlg mL-1 and root extract proved more beneficial in this regard. In conclusion, methanolic extract of shoot of Geranium sibiricum had higher antioxidant while root extract had higher anti-inflammatoty and anticancer activities.

Plenty of variations in nutritional, morphological and agronomic traits occur in the pigmented rice germplasm. The current study was conducted to evaluate the growth characteristics of 71 pigmented rice genotypes having different origin taking one Korean landrace (Heugjinjubyeo) as control. Amongst the twenty eight growth characters studied; leaf length, leaf width, ligule length, panicle length and panicles per hill showed a higher degree of variance. The heading dates of the pigmented rice germ plasm were distributed from Aug. 1 to Sep. 28. Thirty five cultivars that headed or flowered in August were found adaptable for cultivation in Korea. The mean culm length and panicle length were significantly higher than Heugjinjubyeo but most of cultivars having strong or middle of culm strength made it possible to produce the stable yield. Some cultivars showed unique qualitative characters such as openness of culm angle, purple ligule, auricle, awn and glume colors, poor panicle exsertion and long empty glume. Nine cultivars including Heugjinjubyeo showed purple seed coat color while those of the others (62 cultivars) were of red seed coat.

The aim of this study was to determine the responses of some selected wheat varieties to high ambient C02 under salinity stress at seedling stage. The results revealed that applied salinity affected the growth of all the varieties while high (700 ppm) concentration of C02 substantially reduced the adverse effect of salinity and enhanced growth, by improving osmolytes (free proline, glycinebetaine and soluble sugars) accumulation. Furthermore, elevated C02 increased the contents of K+ and enhanced K+ INa+ ratio, whilst decreasing the contents Na + and cr as compared to respective control, although varietal differences were evident. Overall, there was a 6016% increase in growth attributes and 15020% increase in the K+ contents and K+/Na+ ratio, while reducing the toxic ionic contents. For all the parameters, relatively salt sensitive varieties benefitted greatly from C02 enrichment than the tolerant varieties. In conclusion, increased ambient C02 concentration acted as foliar fertilizer for salinity grown wheat varieties and substantially enhanced the growth, osmotic and ionic characteristics.