JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (JAST)
Year:2008 | Volume:10 | Issue:5|Papers Count:10

Pistachio is a major agricultural export commodity in Iran. Nowadays, it ranks first among Iran’s agricultural exports. This paper focuses on the comparative advantage in pistachio production and the export market in Iran. A policy analysis matrix (PAM) framework and revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index are applied to 2000-2004 data to study Iranian government policy regarding pistachio production and export. In addition, the producer protection indices in the framework of the aforementioned matrix were calculated in order to study input and output protection policy. Results showed that Iran has a comparative advantage both in the production and export of this commodity, but the comparative advantage in pistachio production is diminishing. The RCA index showed that the comparative advantage of pistachio exports from Iran has progressed.Indices showed a high net social profitability and government protection of pistachio producers in terms of input subsidies. Then, the effects of the changing world price, exchange rate, cost of domestic factors, and cost of tradable inputs on the comparative advantage and protection indices showed that, for retaining comparative advantage in pistachio production, productivity and production costs must be both increased and decreased, respectively. In order to increase the productivity of pistachio, farmers should use scientific on-farm management and should employ modern production methods, and the government should develop research and development institutes.

The paper attempts to study the efficiency of crop production and resource use efficiency on temple tenants and owner farms in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu. A sample of 90 temple tenants and 50 owner farmers from two taluks of Tirunelveli District, nawely, Shencottah and Tenkasi were selected for the study. The reference period of the study was 2002-2003. The efficiency analysis with the stochastic frontier production function has shown, and a resource use efficiency analysis implied that there was ample scope to increase the productivity of the temple tenants and owner farmers by adopting appropriated technologies as well as the optimum allocation of the available resources. Efficiency of the farmers could be supported by technical efficiency, the results of which had indicated that owner farmers were more efficient than the temple tenants. This reveals that there is wider scope for further improvement in the technical efficiency of the temple owned lands.

The larval feeding preference and damage potential of Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) on promising cotton genotypes/hybrid were studied during 2004 under laboratory and field conditions at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India. Third and fifth instar larvae were allowed to feed on different types of fruiting body (squares, flowers and young bolls) of various genotypes/hybrid in the laboratory to determine the relative feeding preference by the larva. For studying damage potential, the larvae were allowed to feed individually up until pupation on a single or all types of fruiting body of different genotypes/hybrid, both under laboratory and field conditions. The mean number of fruiting bodies damaged by a larva was determined. The results indicated that the arboreum genotypes (HD-123 and HD-324) and the hirsutum genotype, H-1226, were preferred by neither third nor fifth instar larvae for feeding. The order of preference of the remaining genotypes/hybrid was HS-6> H-1117> HHH-223 (hybrid)> H-1098 with respect to third instar and HHH-223> H-1098> H-1117> HS-6 for fifth instar larvae. Among different fruiting bodies, the third instar larvae exhibited greater preference for flowers while the fifth instar for young bolls, irrespective of genotypes. Under laboratory conditions, a larva damaged more squares, followed by flowers and young bolls. Larvae caused significantly greater damage to fruiting bodies in the arboreum than the hirsutum genotypes/ hybrid during the course of development. The hybrid generally recorded significantly lower square and boll damage. Under field conditions, a larva from hatching till pupation required on average 9.00 squares, 7.88 flowers or 4.20 bolls of H-1098 when restricted to feeding on a single type of fruiting body but 1.25 squares, 2.75 flowers and 2.12 bolls when all types of fruiting bodies were available to.

Staff job satisfaction is very important for assessments leading to organizational development. Job satisfaction is a general attitude of workers towards with their job and it depends on the sum of all factors in organizational relations. The correlates of organizational leadership style such as process of leadership, motivating factors, communication, process of decision making, and characteristics of the control process all directly affect job satisfaction. This study was conducted to determine the correlates of leadership style that affect the job satisfaction of Jihad-e-Keshavarzi staff working in Yazd Province. The population consisted of all the Jihad-e-Keshavarzi staff in Yazd (N=298). The sample was obtained through simple random sampling technique (n=100) and 91 questionnaires were completed and returned. Data was analyzed by SPSS. There was a positive and significant relationship between job satisfaction and the leadership style correlates of the respondents (process of leadership, motivating factors, communication, process of decision making, and characteristics of the control process). The best predicators of job satisfaction were found to be the leadership and communication processes.

The present study was conducted to measure the level of job satisfaction among agricultural education teachers in Yazd Province of Iran. Agricultural education teachers from Yazd Province with a minimum of one year experience were included in the study. As a result so, the sample consisted of 60 agricultural education teachers. To study the job satisfaction level among respondents, the Brayfield and Rothe Job Satisfaction Index was used. A data form was used to collect information about demographic (independent) variables and effective constraints reducing job satisfaction. The findings revealed that the majority of agricultural education teachers (56.7%) had a median level of job satisfaction, followed by 33.3 and 10 percent belonging to a low and high level of job satisfaction, respectively. According to regression analysis, "level of education", "number of students taught each year" and "class time (per day)" were found to have contributed to the increase in job satisfaction among agricultural education teachers. The effective constraints that had the most important impact on decreasing job satisfaction included an "absence of realistic expectations of teachers by society", "inadequate time for learning-by-doing programs" and an "inappropriate student-teacher ratio in class".

A knowledge of soil surface conditions, especially desert crust, salt crust and desert varnish is useful for improving classification of remotely sensed data. Desert crust can generate high levels of reflectance, similar to those areas with high salt concentration and non-saline soil. Therefore, soil surface crusts might bias thematic remote sensing of soils. In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of the Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) reflective and thermal bands in detecting crusted surfaces and soil salinity conditions. The study areas were Ardakan, Damghan, Lut Desert, Qom, and Abarkooh which are located in arid regions of Iran. To assess the Landsat TM thermal data for detecting land cover types, the following steps were taken: 1) determination of correlation coefficients between TM wavebands, 2) assessment of the relationship between TM thermal and TM reflective bands on land cover types, 3) assessment of the relationship between soil salinity and TM Digital Numbers (DN), 4) two dimensional Feature Space (FS) analysis of the training samples, 5) field sampling, 6) image classification and accuracy assessment, and 7) comparison of surface reflectance of different soil surface types. The results show that the trend of correlation coefficients of TM6 with reflective bands is completely different from the correlation between reflective bands. The behavior of the thermal band on gypsiferous soils is completely different from that on saline soils. Moreover, with an increasing correlation between soil salinity and reflective bands, the correlation between soil salinity and the thermal band decreases. In image classification, the thermal band improved the separability of the crusted and gravely classes. Therefore the TM/ETM+ regions of the electro-magnetic spectrum have complementary capabilities for spectral separability of gravely and crusted surfaces. In general, selection of the TM/ETM+ thermal band combination is an important step for classifying the remote sensing data and for securing class separability of gravely and crusted surfaces in arid regions. We also concluded that TM/ETM+ thermal bands may contain information complementary to the TM/ETM+ reflective bands and therefore this combination of the TM/ETM+ thermal and reflective bands provide a viable method for soil salinity studies in arid regions.

Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) was produced using moist depithed bagasse stored dry or wet. The duration of storage for either method varied between 0 to 4 months. Two steaming temperatures of 175°C and 185°C were also used. MDF boards were produced in the laboratory and the common mechanical and physical properties were measured and compared. Results showed that an increased steaming temperature and storage time (especially for the wet storage method) have negative effects on the mechanical properties and positive effects on the physical properties (water absorption and Thickness swell). The mechanical properties of boards produced from bagasse as received (fresh bagasse) and at a steaming temperature of 175°C were superior to others. The modulus of Rupture (MOR), Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) and Internal Bond (IB) of boards from fresh bagasse were 29.7 MPa., 3,127 MPa., and 0.52 MPa respectively. However, the physical properties of boards produced from bagasse after 3 months’ wet storage and a steaming temperature of 185°C were superior, and were measured at 44.3% and 63.9% for water absorption after two and 24 hours’ immersion (WA2, WA24 ), and 11.5% and 17.6% for Thickness Swelling after two and 24 hours immersion (TS2, TS24 ) respectively.

Chlorophyll fluorescence was studied as a rapid technique to detect weight loss of table grape cultivars "Thompson and Flame seedless" under air storage conditions (20°C) and in a 0°C cold room. Grape clumps (ca. 1kg) were divided into 12 groups (six for each cultivar) and initial fresh weight, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, pH and color values were recorded. Three groups were placed inside ventilated baskets with a Harvest Watch sensor facing down on the grapes and placed in a 20°C room in front of a forced air fan. These samples were used to generate continuous recording of F-a. The other groups were handled in a similar manner and were used to generate weight loss. The control treatments were held in a 0°C cold room and constantly measured by a Harvest Watch sensor. F-a (F0) ratio curve for Thompson generally declined over times, and the rate of reduction was maximal between days 1 and 6 which is equal to ca. 20 percent in weight loss. The response for Flame grapes was almost the same as for the Thompson cultivar. There were good relationships between F-a values and weight loss values for both cultivars. From these relationships it appears that, for both cultivars, at about 20% weight loss (equal to 0.8 weight loss ratio), the F-a value stopped its decline. The other fruit quality such as SSC, TA, pH and color value indicated that the drying treatment affected these responses, compared with the fruit in the control treatment. Our results indicated that chlorophyll fluorescence techniques can detect weight loss in grapes after harvest, and thus has a potential as a rapid and non-destructive method for monitoring fruit weight loss and senescence in grape during storage.

Lack of adequate organic matter (OM) in the agricultural soils of Iran is responsible for the poor physical condition of these soils. Thus, increasing soil OM is very important. On the other hand, the eutrophication of surface water caused by continuous use of phosphorus (P) fertilizer has created an interest in the combined use of organic wastes and P fertilizer.Hence, the present study was undertaken to study the effects of several levels of municipal waste compost (MWC), poultry manure (PM) and P on the growth and elemental composition of lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.) and on selected soil chemical characteristics. There was a consistent increase in the shoot dry weight as the levels of MWC, PM or P increased. However, rice shoot growth was stimulated more by MWC than by PM and the enhancing effect of P on shoot growth was greater in MWC-treated plants than that of PM. Shoot P concentration increased with increasing levels of MWC, PM and P, whereas nitrogen (N) concentration was only affected significantly by the two organic wastes. Iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) concentration was suppressed by P supply in PM-amended soil and was not affected by MWC treatment. Rice seedlings treated with either of the biosolids accumulated more Fe, Zn, chloride (Cl) and sodium (Na) but less manganese (Mn) than the control plants. Furthermore, rice plants grown on MWC-amended soil contained higher Fe and Mn and lower Cl and Na than those grown on PM-treated soil. In the present study, lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) concentrations did not follow a definite pattern with either of the organic wastes, whereas they increased with P application. Post-harvest soil sample analysis indicated that soil addition of MWC and PM increased concentrations of soluble salt, OM, N, NaHCO3- soluble P and DTPA-extractable Fe, Mn, Cu, and Pb.

In this research, 514 soil samples and dead larvae were collected from Khorassan, Lorestan, Tehran, Ghazvin, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Mazandaran and Hamedan Provinces. B. thuringiensis was isolated from the samples using a heat-acetate method and the isolates were identified and classified using biochemical tests. The frequency of B. thuringiensis in soils with different plant communities was studied. According to results, 127 isolates were collected from the samples collected. Most isolates produced atypical and heterogenic and some bipyramidal crystals. Nearly all the isolates were able to hydrolyze starch and gelatin and ferment glucose and fructose, but could not produce indole and H2S or ferment galactose and lactose. The isolates were divided into 8 biochemical types, among which B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki was the most frequent type. Total Bt frequency, corresponding to the whole sampling areas, was calculated as being 3.1%; the highest frequency was recorded for Khorassan Province (5.1%) and the lowest for Lorestan Province (0%). No realtionship was found between B. thuringiensis frequency and vegetation status of the soils examined.