Identifying the constraining factors of production and yield gap is very important. Therefore; this research was performed to identify the production constraining factors of local rice cultivars. All management practices from nursery preparation to harvesting stages for 100 paddy fields of local rice cultivars were recorded through field studies, in Sari, from 2015-2016. In the CPA, the actual and calculated potential yield were 4495 and 5703 kg/ha, respectively and the gap was 1221 kg/ha. The yield gap caused by number of top-dressing variables was 324 kg/ha, equal to 27% of the total yield gap. The yield gap related to previous year of legumes cultivation was 218 kg ha-1, equal to 18% of the total yield variation. Among the 10 variables entered in the CPA model, the effects of top-dress fertilizer application and its application frequency and foliar application were remarkable, which could compensate a significant part of the yield gap (444 kg/ha, 37% of total) in the farmers’ fields by managing these variables. According to boundary line analysis (BLA) finding, actual yield mean on the basis of optimal limit related to 12 variables under study was 5369 kg/ha, with 881 kg/ha yield gap . Mean relative yield and relative yield gap for 12 variables (transplanting date, seedling age, number of seedlings per hill, planting density, nitrogen and phosphorous per hectare, nitrogen before transplanting, harvesting date, lodging problem, pest problem, diseases problem and weeds problem) were 83.64 and 16.35 kg/ha, respectively. Based on the finding, it can be stated that the model precision is appropriate and can be applied for both estimation of the quantity of yield gap and determining the portion of each restricting yield variables.

We conducted this study in the Agogo Traditional Area of the Ashanti REGION of Ghana where there are numerous cases of conflicts between crop and animal farmers as a result of insufficient pasture for livestock, especially during the dry seasons. This has drawn the attention of various stakeholders in agriculture to the need for supplement feed through pasture establishment. The study examines farmers’ perception and the financial viability of pasture establishment for small ruminant production. The specific objectives of the study are as follow: to identify the cost and returns for the establishment of an acre of pasture, to assess the financial viability of pasture establishment on ‘cut and sell’ basis, to investigate farmers’ perception of pasture establishment for cattle production, to conduct a SWOT analysis of the establishment of pasture in Agogo. The study purports to analyze in detail, farmers' perceptions about the nature of the proposed 'Fodder Bank' policy and its likely effect on crop and livestock production, and whether the proposed policy could generate adequate monetary returns to induce its adoption at the farm level. The study seeks to provide evidence in support of SDG goals 2 (Zero hunger) and 12 (Responsible consumption and production) of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. To the authors' best of knowledge, this is envisage to provide valuable information to support policy initiatives intended to tackle the root cause of farmer-herder conflicts. The Asante Akim North Municipal is one of the 27 administrative Districts in the Ashanti REGION. Its capital is Konongo- Odumasi. The population for this study comprises livestock and crop farmers in Agogo. Asante Akim North Municipal was purposively selected for the study because it is noted for its agrarian abilities and massive production of food in the Ashanti REGION. The multi stage sampling was employed in this study. At the first stage, Asante Agogo traditional area was selected purposively due to the fact that majority of the inhabitants engage in agricultural activities (GSS 2010). At the second stage, three communities in Agogo namely, Hwidiem, Ananekrom and Bebuso were selected purposively. At the third stage, quota sampling was used to obtain a specific number of farmers from each of the three communities to sum up to 150 respondents as shown in table. Simple random sampling technique was then used to engage the selected farmers in these communities. A sample size of 150 respondents were obtained using the Slovin’s formulae which is a scientific method of obtaining the sample size for a given population. Structured questionnaires consisting of open and close ended questions were used to gather primary data from respondents through face-to-face interviews. Interviews were conducted using the local dialect mostly to enhance communication and to clear all language barriers but English was used where the respondents could give accurate answers in English Language. Data per the questionnaires from respondents were concerning their perception of pasture establishment and the assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of pasture establishment. Secondary data was sought from books, journals, dissertations and the internet. Useful and relevant information on the appropriate materials and their costs for establishing pasture was also obtained from the Agogo MoFA office, and the KNUST Department of Animal Science. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, tables and means were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of respondents. It was revealed in the study that majority of crop farmers have had their crops destroyed by ruminants especially cattle at least once. Additionally, the study showed that pasture establishment is one way through which crop farms destruction by livestock can be prevented as about 99% of farmers responded in the affirmative. The results for the financial viability of the venture under the assumptions used gave relevant results with BCR of 1.18 and NPV of GHC 3,160. The Internal Rate Return of the venture is estimated at 40.1% and a Pay Back period of 2.61 years. Therefore, it will be economically prudent for investors to commit resources towards establishing pasture. The perception index for commercial, economic and financial concerns of pasture establishment was 3.7 which is skewed toward agree. The statement that had the highest positive perception index was about the fact that pasture establishment will increase the quality of meat. This implies that respondents perceive that the commercial, economic and financial results of pasture establishment will be positive. The perception index for the social category was 3.66. The statement with the highest positive assertion by respondents is the fact that pasture establishment will help control the movement of animals. The perception index of 3.66 which is skewed towards agree means that pasture establishment will attract the support from the community and also bring more benefits to the society. In the category of technical concerns of pasture establishment, the overall perception index for this category is 3.15, which means that the respondents perceive they have a fair technical know- how concerning pasture establishment even though the venture requires technical know-how. In the category of institutional concerns, support and involvement in pasture establishment, the statement with the highest perception index is that MoFA will support farmers with the necessary resources in its capacity. With reference to the chi-square test, the study can conclude that there is a significant relationship between the type of farmer and the perception that support can be drawn from farmer-based associations, and the perception that pasture establishment will increase livestock production as well as the general sales of farmers. Lastly, the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between the educational background of the farmer and the perception that it is not difficult to select planting materials for pasture establishment. Farmers in Asante Akim Agogo should adopt the establishment of pasture since it is financially viable. The establishment of pasture in Asante Akim Agogo should be encouraged since it has the potency to reduce the farmer - herder conflicts and ensure food security. For successful pasture establishment, technical know-how is essential.

Introduction: Social responsibility from an ethical point of view includes the obligations and duties of natural and legal persons towards society and the environment. The moral behavior of people, like understanding of social responsibility, depends on their liberal ideology, beliefs and human values. Therefore, the aim of the current research is to study the relationship between liberalism and human values with the moral understanding of social responsibility. Material & Methods: The research method is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlational survey. The statistical population includes the financial managers of the companies admitted to the stock exchange, and the questionnaire was randomly distributed among them and 110 questionnaires were received. The sampling method is random. The research tool is a questionnaire and multivariate regression using SPSS software was used to analyze the data. Results: The research results show that human values based on public INTEREST have a significant and positive relationship with the moral understanding of social responsibility. But the thinking of liberalism does not have a meaningful relationship with the moral understanding of social responsibility. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, human values based on public INTEREST can be considered as a tool to strengthen the moral behavior of company managers regarding corporate social responsibility. Also, improving the thinking of liberalism in managers can strengthen their social responsibility. In this case, the policy makers of Stock Exchange can direct the managers of the listed companies to comply more with the social responsibility of the company, through teaching human values and strengthening those values, as well as monitoring the implementation of ethical regulations

In order to investigate the possibility of quinoa producing in Garmsar, Iran, a factorial experiment conducted in randomized complete block design with three replications in 2018-2019 growing season at Garmsar Agricultural Research Station. The factors were planting date at three levels (March 6th, April 1st and April 6th) and the three genotypes of quinoa (Q26, Q29 and Titicaca). Results showed that the effect of planting date was significant for all studied traits except the harvest index. Also, all studied traits were significantly different in all genotypes. Titicaca planted on March 6th had the highest yield (2276 kg.ha-1).The grain yield and yield components decreased with the delaying the planting date. Compared to early plantings, Latest date, April 6th, led to reduction of all traits, especially grain yield (about 50%). The results of simple phenotypic correlation between the studied traits showed that grain yield per hectare had the highest correlation with plant yield (0.877) and then with leaf area index (0.832), panicle weight (0.815) and number of branches per plant (0.745) that was significant at the 1% probability level.

Recognition and understanding the genetic control of traits, combining ability and genetic structure are directly related to the success of breeding programs. For this purpose, a 7 × 7 one-way diallel design was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The measured traits were included plant height, height to the first capsule, number of days to 50% and 90% of flowering, number of capsules per plant, number of seeds per capsule, number of days to physiological ripening, number of branches, leaves number and length, 1000-seeds weight, capsule weight, length and width, chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll, biological andeconomic yields, harvest index, oil and protein percentage. Analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between genotypes and diallel analysis showed that the additive variance of all traits and dominant variance of all traits except height to the first fruit-bearing capsule were significant. The oltan cultivar was the best and Ardestan genotype was the worst genotype in terms of general combining ability. Sabzevar×TS-3 and Sirjan×Fars were the best hybrids in most traits. The general heritability was between 0.90 to 0.96 for biologic yield and number of branches, respectively and narrow heritability was between 0.36 to 0.91 for the number of branches and harvest index, respectively. The analysis of variance by Hayman method confirmed the results of Griffing analysis.

The objective of this study was to determine the allowed and desired limits for heavy soils of texture (clay loom), as it has operational capability (friability), These limits were 6.34 mm for planting and 10.62 mm for harvesting in each raining or irrigation episode. We determined some factors that affect soil wetness and water content as follow: the amount and severity of rain, the condition of soil’s drainage, the percent of air moisture, evapotranspiration, the amount of runoff, the amount and severity of sunlight, the ambient temperature, the condition of vegetation and, the soil texture. The time needed for dryness and removal of soil moisture as evapotranspiration in each over- desired and allowed capacity rains are 5-7 days. Also, because of higher evaporation in planting time (late April and early May) than in harvesting time (November), and also higher surface temperature in spring, both result in moving the vapor from deeper layers of soil to surface. Therefore, as our result showed, the time needed for readiness of soil for machinery operation at time of planting are 5 days for planting (late April and early May) and 7 days for harvesting time (November). According to our calculation, 19.5% of rains at planting time and 7.5% at harvest time changed to run- off; and with taking this amount of run- off in account at allowed- limit calculation, and also because of texture of the studied soil, the maximum allowed rain in which the soil remains in proper condition for machinery planting and harvesting activities exceeded 7.6 and 11.41 mm in each rainy day. As a result, according to limiting factor of well doing of operations and also factors affecting these restricting factors, the number of working days for mechanized planting operation was found to be about 19.69 days and also 21.98 days for harvesting operations in farms with heavy soil with 98% of probability.

To investigate the effect of weed interference and weed-free periods on Balangu (Lallemantia royleana Benth. in Wall) and to evaluate the critical period of weed control (CPWC) in this oilseed crop, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications in Naghadeh REGION in 2018. Experimental consisted of two groups of treatments; weed infestation treatments (infestation for 144.2, 345.9, 574, 848.2, 1147.6 and 1451.3 growing degree day (GDD) after transplanting and then plots were remained weed-free the rest of the growing season) and weed-free treatments (weeding for 144.2, 345.9, 574, 848.2, 1147.6 and 1451.3 GDD after transplanting and then plots were remained infested until harvesting time). In each block, one weed free and weed infested control was for all the growing season. Results indicated that the density and dry biomass of weeds were increased as weed removal was delayed. In contrast, density and dry biomass of weeds were decreased as weeds establishment was delayed. Height, tetrachenes fruits, ripened achenes, 1000-seed weight and biological, seed and relative yields of Balangu were decreased and increased as the duration of weed-infested and weed-free period increased, respectively. Also, logistic and Gompertz curves fitted to data showed that the beginning and end of the CPWC based on a 10% yield loss of relative yield, was estimated to be from 11 to 108 days after transplanting (97 days weed-free period) in order to prevent a noticeable yield loss.

Since the evaluation of the diversity indicators in consumption of medicinal species by the beneficiary’s households and its driving factors is of utmost importance in marketing, multi-purpose planning of rangelands and sustainable development, a questionary-based study was carried out to determine the diversity indices of medicinal species consumption in settled nomadic communities living under different management and livelihood situations in the rangelands of Dyvaroeieh in Bardsir township, Kerman province, Iran. To this end, the medicinal species consumed by each household (as a study unit) in addition to the diversity indicators of consumption (i.e., dominance coefficient and Shannon-Weiner index) were evaluated under two management sites comprising Rangeland Management Plan (RMP) (i.e.,Dvyaroeieh 1) and the nearest adjacent rangeland without RMP (i.e., Dyvaroeieh 2, as control treatment ) and three livelihood levels (i.e., very poor (<50 million Rials monthly income), poor (50-100 million Rials monthly income) and moderate (100-150 million Rials monthly income)) under factorial test in SPSS software environment. The study's results revealed that both of management and livelihood factors can be applied by manager to increase diversity indices in medicinal plants consumed by beneficiaries. More specifically, management through RMP was more powerful and effective tool in this way. Therefore, it could conceivably be argued that RMP can be considered as a driving factor in increasing the diversity of medicinal plant consumption and also be a suitable platform to meet the needs and demands of rangelands’ beneficiaries in this field.

Due to having spring and autumn genotypes and adaptation to weather conditions, rapeseed is considered as a point hope to provide edible oil of country. Two separate experiments were set up as split-plot in a RCBD design with three replications in two fall and winter seasons during two years (2014-2015 and 2015-2016) at the research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute to investigate the effect of sowing season and date on the quantitative and qualitative yields of rapeseed genotypes in Karaj, Iran. In this study, the main plots were sowing dates (7, 17, and 27 October in fall sowing and 9 and 19 February, and 1 March in winter sowings) and sub-plots consisted of genotypes (RGS003, Dalgan, Zabol10, Hyola401, and Hyola4815). Rapeseed genotypes grain and oil yields were 4330 and 1840 kg ha-1 in fall sowing, respectively, while these traits were decreased 43.3 and 46.6% respectively, when rapeseed genotypes were planted in winter season. The highest grain and oil yields (5033 and 2202 kg ha-1) belonged to 7 October sowing date in fall sowing, while 9 February had the highest grain and oil yields (2996 and 1248 kg ha-1) in winter sowing. In general, the Dalgan genotype is recommended for cultivation due to suitable agronomic traits such as number of silique per plant, number of grain per silique, silique length, 1000-grain weight, as well as high grain and oil yields in cold temperate REGIONs with arid and semi-arid climates such as Karaj, Iran.

Medical images show a great INTEREST since it is needed in various medical applications. In order to decrease the size of medical images which are needed to be transmitted in a faster way; REGION of INTEREST (ROI) and hybrid lossless compression techniques are applied on medical images to be compressed without losing important data. In this paper, a proposed model will be presented and assessed based on size of the image, the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), and the time that is required to compress and reconstruct the original image. The major objective of the proposed model is to minimize the size of image and the transmission time. Moreover, improving the PSNR is a critical challenge. The results of the proposed model illustrate that applying hybrid lossless techniques on the ROI of medical images reduces size by 39% and gives better results in terms of the compression ratio and PSNR.