The domestic water is provided at low prices for most residents in comparison to the actual cost of supply. This situation accompanied with the modest improvement of the operation and service performance leaded to large deficit in investing in the water system infrastructure to maintain and expand it. The objective of this paper is to estimate the value of domestic water as tools to assist in setting the appropriate water tariff and through recognizing the actual economic value of domestic water. The value to users of water is a key component of the extrinsic values that can be measured using the willingness to pay approach which could be expressed by the cost of water on users. Data availability is a key factor considered in determining the appropriate approach for valuing water. This factor leaded to apply the opportunity cost approach. The full water supply costs and the opportunity costs are the key components of this approach. The results show that the average domestic water value of a cubic meter is estimated at 1.85 JD and the total domestic water in Jordan is estimated at JD 338 million with spatial difference between governorates, while it is the highest in the remote areas in Jordan with a value of about 2.35 JD/m3.This higher values is a result of the high cost of water service provision in these areas due to the less efficient operation. Improving the utilities performance by reducing the non-revenue water would reduce the costs of water service provision, and thereby the domestic water value. Water pricing is a sensitive political issue. At the same time, serious problems arise when water charges fail to cover the costs of providing, and maintaining the services. The water utility needs to take appropriate action in this regard. Cost recovery requires expensive and effective services to cover the costs of metering, billing, illegal connections, and leakage. Pricing combined with properly enforced pollution penalties should be an important part of water conservation strategies.

Today, the use of plant growth regulators (PGRs) in agriculture is of great importance in terms of agricultural sustainability and crop production especially stress conditions. In this study, safflower seeds were primed with 2 PGRs (salicylic and giberellic acid). In the study, 3 different doses of salicylic acid (SA) (0(control) (SA1), 5(SA2), 10(SA3)mg/l) and gibberellic acid (GA3) (0(control)(GA31), 5(GA32), 10(GA33)mg/l) and seeds were primed for 12 hours. Unprimed (UPS) seeds were also used as control. PS and UPS 50 seeds for each priming application in 4 different salt doses (0(control)(S1), 25mM(S2), 50mM(S3), 100mM S4)) were germinated for 14 days. In the study; germination percentage (GP), mean germination time (MGT), salt tolerance percentage (STP), seedling length (SL), root length (RL), relative water content (RWC), real water content (GSI), total chlorophyll (Total Chl), chlorophyll stability index (CSI) parameters were examined. The results showed that salt stress affected all parameters and priming application improved seed germination performance, seedling growth and other characteristics, especially with the 3rd dose of both PGRs. It was concluded that the PGRs applications under salt stress caused an increase in the germination performance of the seeds when compared to the control applications under the same stress.

This study was conducted in the poultry unit / School of Agriculture, at the University of Jordan. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of prebiotics and probiotics on growth of broiler chicks, and carcass characteristics. A total of 420 day-old chicks (Indian River), were randomly allotted to four experimental treatments. Each treatment contained 3 replicates and each replicate contained 35 birds. Pelleted feed (starter, grower, and finisher), diets were based on the nutritional guide of the Indian River strain. The addition of the prebiotics and probiotics was commenced at 15 days of age – two phases (grower 15 to 28 days, and the finisher 29 to 35 days). The dietary treatments consist of control; control plus 0.15% yeast extract (prebiotic); control plus 0.2% dried yeast culture (probiotic); and control plus 0.2% dried yeast culture and 0.15% yeast extract (synbiotic). Results showed that feed intake for birds fed on the control and prebiotic diets was the higher (p>0.05) to other two treatments. Herein results showed that feed conversion ratio was the lowest (p>0.05) in the birds fed probiotic and synbiotic diets with a significant improvement (p>0.05) in the birds fed prebiotic diets compared to control. Mortality, there was no significant difference among all treatments. Body weight and bodyweight gain of the birds fed prebiotic, probiotic, and synbiotic diets were significantly (p>0.05) superior to control treatment. Also there were a significant and tendencies in organs weight (heart, liver, wings, chest, thigh, neck, and back) also in intestine length and weight.

Knowledge of genetic divergence of traits in any crop population is important for the continued improvement of the crop as well as for its development in the agricultural system. The study was designed to assess genetic diversity of traits in linseed (Linum usitatissimum L) genotypes evaluated at Ambo University Gundar campus during 2019 cropping season. The experiment was conducted using simple lattice design with two replication and the trails was totally consisted fifty six genotypes. Using Euclidean distance value (D2) the studied genotypes were grouped into seven different clusters. Among the clusters cluster III and IV consisted largest number of genotypes while cluster VI and VII consisted small number of genotypes. Maximum inter cluster genetic divergence (D=71.64) was revealed between cluster II and VI, while minimum genetic divergence (D=19.74) was manifested between cluster V and VI. Whereas maximum (11.85) intra clusters distance was manifested for cluster V, while minimum (7.14) intra cluster was revealed for cluster VII. Genotypes in cluster II revealed highest mean value for seed yield per hectare. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first four principal components accounted for 75.96 of the total variation, of which nearly 53.08 % was contributed by the first two principal components (PCA1 and PCA2. Therefore the result of this study suggests existence of genetic divergence for seed yield and other agronomic traits in the studied linseed genotype, which should be exploited in linseed breeding program

Improving farmers’ welfare has been the concern of the government and International donors in sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in Cameroon. Encouraging farmers to adopt agricultural extension services is one of the most important measures implemented to improve rural farmers’ welfare situation. Thus, the main aim of our study is assess the impact of adoption of agricultural extension services on the welfare (food security) of smallholder rural farmers in the Centre region of Cameroon. Our study employs the endogenous switching regression model to account for both selection and endogeneity bias on a survey data obtained from two divisions in the Centre region of Cameroon. Using Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) as a measure of our food security indicator, results suggest that adoption of agricultural extension services significantly reduces the HDDS of rural farmers by 0.267 points at 5 percent significance level. This result demonstrates that adopting agricultural extension services doesn’t improve the diversity of nutritional intake or food consumption by rural farmers. Given that food security has no standard measurement, extension services adoption could improve other aspects of food security. However, more studies are needed to verify this hypothesis. The originality of our study is that it focuses on the household food security of all agricultural farmers irrespective of the food crop (s) they produce compared to previous studies which focused on specific groups of farmers. Moreover it provides empirical evidence to complement previous extension services impact research in Cameroon.

Field experiment was conducted at the Bila Tserkva Research-Selection Station (Ukraine) on leached loamy black soil (Mollisol) during 2017–2019. The study was aimed to investigate the effects of nitrogen doses and the ways of fertilization with nitrogen on the formation of the productivity elements, grain yield and quality of winter wheat. The soil was rich in organic matter, mobile phosphorus (P2O5) and potassium (K2O), pHKCl 5.8–6.3. The highest productivity of winter wheat was achieved when nitrogen fertilizers have been applied three times with a total dose of N110, including N60 to the frozen surface of the soil in early spring as ammonium nitrate plus two foliar feeding with urea solution at BBCH 31–32 (N30) and BBCH 75–77 (N20). Both soil and foliar fertilization with the nitrogen significantly contributed to an increase in grain yield and quality. In years of regular precipitation during the growing season (2018-2019) nitrogen fertilizers had more pronounce effect on winter wheat yield than in year of precipitation deficiency (2017). The increase in protein content of the grain less depended on the weather conditions and was stable through the years of experiment.

Diseases of agricultural crops are the main reason of decrease in yield and product quality. Blast is the most dangerous disease in all areas of world rice cultivation. The most effective, economically viable and environmentally friendly strategy to combat it is the development of resistant varieties. Relevant in this direction is the use of DNA markers linked to loci of blast resistance. The purpose of the work was to introgress and pyramid genes effective in the south of Russia for race-specific resistance to blast Pi ta, Pi-b, Pi-1, Pi-2, Pi-33, Pi-40 into the genotypes of highly productive rice varieties of domestic breeding to obtain new, resistant to P. oryzae forms. To achieve this goal, varieties Flagman and Boyarin were hybridized with donors of resistance to blast IR-36, Bl-1, C101-Lac, C101Lac-A-51, IR 83260-2-10-5-2-1-B which have the genes Pi-ta, Ρi-b, Pi-1 + Pi-33, Pi-2, Pi-40, respectively, with a growing season of more than 150 days. Three backcrosses were carried out and breeding material was obtained. Several samples with high rates of milled rice quality and blast resistance, productivity and other economically valuable traits were identified. The program for combining the genes of resistance to blast was performed. A hybridization of the obtained genotypes with the integrated Pi genes between themselves in their various combinations was carried out. The result was a breeding variety with three resistance genes (Pi-1, Pi-2, Pi-33). The cultivation of such varieties in production will reduce the use of chemical protective equipment and avoid pollution of grain ecosystems.

Era (E. coli RAS-like protein) forms a unique family of GTPase, its functions in cell cycle control by coupling cell division with growth rate. In the present paper, a cDNA sequence coding GTPase Era mRNAwas cloned from mulberry. Sequence analysis showed that its open reading frame (ORF) is 1275 bp in length encoding a protein of 424 amino acids. The GTPase Era gene had era domain and belonged to the FeoB_N superfamily. Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequences encoded by the GTPase gene from various species showed that the mulberry was closely related to Morus notabilis, Ipomoea nil, Capsicum annuum, Solanum pennellii, Nicotiana sylvestris and Nicotiana tubacum. The expression patterns of GTPase Era treated under drought, low temperature and salt stresses were examined using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The expression level of the mRNA had a significant change under drought, cold and salt stress treatments compared to the normal growth environment with the maximum expression on third day for drought stress, the sixth day for the low temperature stress and the seventh day for the salt stress. These data provide a better understanding of the molecular basis of signal transduction during stress responses in mulberry trees.