Application of Silica Gel on Growth and Yield of Camelina sativa L.

The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of Silica gel on the growth and yield of Camelina sativa. A pot experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications at Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Agronomy, PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi. The experiment consisted of 4 levels (0.15 mg/g, 0.30 mg/g, 0.45 mg/g and 0.60 mg/g) of each mentioned nutrient along with control. The data were recorded and analyzed according to recommended procedure for following parameters viz., germination %, root and shoot length (cm), root and shoot biomass (g), relative water content of leaf and leaf membrane stability index. It was observed that 0.60 mg/g silica gel application increased the seed germination (80%), root length (6.67) cm, shoot length (35.33) cm, root biomass (1.7) g, shoot biomass (5.57) g, relative water content of leaf (0.69) and leaf membrane stability index (0.07). The study concluded that significant effect of silica gel application is crucial and important to improve vegetative attributes of false flax.

Promoting Organic Production & Consumption: A Case of Punjab, Pakistan

The study seeks to investigate the impact of major determinants influencing marketing potential and consumer’s willingness to pay for organic vegetables in Punjab, Pakistan. In this regard, two districts (Lahore and Toba Tek Singh) were selected purposively. Information was collected for the main organic vegetables. Convenient sampling technique was used to collect data because limited numbers of respondents were available. A sample size of 50 organic farmers (25 from each district) and 50 consumers (25 from each district) was selected. Multivariate regression analysis was employed to identify and evaluate the effects of marketing potential (farmers) and the consumer’s willingness to pay for organic vegetables in the study area. According to selected organic vegetable growers’ potential existed for the organic vegetables farming in the country and major variables influencing significantly the market potential for organic vegetables as income, price, no pesticide residues whereas hygienic food and more nutrients in the organic vegetables affecting insignificantly the market potential for organic vegetables in the study area. The relationship between the dependent variable (demand for organic vegetables) and independent variables (income, hygienic food, price, pesticide residues and more nutrients in the organic vegetables) was estimated by using a regression model. On the other hand, a consumer survey was conducted in order to delineate the effect of consumer’s willingness to pay for organic vegetables in the selected area. The findings of the research depicted that no synthetic pesticide residues, appearance and prices of organic vegetables influencing significantly the consumer’s willingness to pay for organic vegetables whereas quality, long shelf life and taste affecting insignificantly the consumer’s willingness to pay for organic vegetables in the study area. The price of the organic vegetables should be low that’s why every consumer will purchase organic vegetables instead of conventional vegetables. It should be assured by the government that there are no pesticide residues in the organic vegetables. The farming community may be motivated to produce quality seeds of organic vegetables. A pilot farming program should be initiated with joint involvement of public and private sectors.

Effects of Brand Trust, Brand Identification and Quality of Service on Brand Evangelism: A Study of Restaurants in Multan

The purpose of this study is to investigate how customer-band relationships and quality of service influences brand evangelism. And more importantly, this study examines the moderating effect of the brand love on brand trust, quality of service, brand identification and brand evangelism relations. Brand evangelism mends to customers’ advocacy behaviour and positive or negative word-of-mouth (for a particular brand) that influence the purchase decision. Based on the prior studies conducted on the brand relationships, an integrated conceptual framework on consumer-brand relationships, quality of service and brand evangelism is developed. The snowball sampling technique was employed in this study, and the sample drawn was consisted of 400 brand conscious customers of the different restaurants serving in Multan. The sample was focused on the salaried class, working at different organizations in Multan only. For more robust testing of the theory, brand love was included as a moderating variable. For testing of the moderation effect Process by Andrew F. Hayes was used with the assistance of SPSS version 23. Research findings revealed that the impacts of the brand trust, quality of service and brand identification on brand evangelism are significant. And brand love as a moderating variable moderate the relationships between brand trust, quality of service, brand identification and brand evangelism. The mindsets of the today customers are changing, and they are getting more brand conscious, they love to share their good and bad experience about the different brands that exist in the market. Today, it is very important for brand managers to know the feelings of the customers about their brands. This study suggests the brands to cultivate brand trust, quality in their services, brand identification and brand love in their service for longer standing in diversifying the market. Brand evangelism is not an old construct, especially, it is new for the graphical location where we are conducting this study, because there is no similar study available here. This study is only focused on the restaurants in Multan, other geographical locations or industries (e.g. beverage industry, cellular operators, electronics etc.) may be used to more clearly understand the brand evangelism construct. Also, comparative studies can be performed to compare the brand evangelism level in customers of a specific at different graphical location markets. This study takes brand customers as brand evangelists but persons from sales department workforce may also be considered as a brand evangelist, because evangelism may also reside there.

Investigating the impact of Zero Tillage on small farmer’s wheat production and Income: A case of District Sialkot, Pakistan

Zero tillage (ZT) implies the practice of planting a new crop in the soil left unprepared after the harvesting of the previous crop. The most dominant benefit of no-tillage is an improvement in soil biological fertility, making soils more resilient. Zero-tillage also reduces the cost of production and saves time for sowing of wheat by 10-15 days as compared to conventional tillage. District Sialkot was selected as the study areas of this study based on its diversity in agriculture and the probability of zero tillage practices in this area. Two groups of respondents were selected with almost similar socioeconomics characteristics practicing their farming operations under similar biophysical conditions. The first group comprises small farmers who were practicing conventional tillage technology and the second group include small farmers who were practicing zero tillage technology. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of zero tillage on small farmers’ wheat production and to assess the impact of zero tillage on small farmers’ income arising from the wheat crop. We collected primary data from 150 farmers through a structured questionnaire in district Sialkot of Punjab Province of Pakistan. The study identified that zero tillage wheat growing farmers used more quantity of seed than conventional wheat growing farmers in the study area. While a number of irrigations is also used more in conventional wheat as compared to Zero Tillage wheat. The results reflected that conventional farmers spend more on fertilizer, irrigation, chemical application than the zero tillage farmers. Variable cost is also higher for the conventional technique (Rs. 13698.02) than the zero tillage technique (Rs. 9723.9). Conventional wheat farmers have to spend more not only for irrigation but have to take extra care to look after in form of labor for their wheat crop, because of heavy investment made in conventional tillage wheat crop.

Zinc and Boron Application Improves Yield, Yield Components and Gross Returns of Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.)

Among pulses, mungbean is being considered as valuable cash crop in Pakistan but its productivity is under stress due to various agronomic and nutrient related management factors. Current study was planned to assess the interactive effect of soil applied zinc (Zn) and boron (B) under both field and pot managed conditions. Experiment was conducted at the Agronomic Research Area, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad which is located at 31ᵒ North latitude and 73ᵒ East longitude with an altitude of 185 meters above sea level. The experimental treatments were comprised of three Zn (0, 2 and 4 kg Zn ha-1) and three B (0, 2 and 4 kg Zn ha-1) rates which were applied in nine combinations viz., B0Zn0, B0Zn2, B0Zn4, B2Zn0,B2Zn2,B2Zn4, B4Zn0, B4Zn2, B4Zn4. Results revealed that, variations between field and pot trials as treatment B0Zn4 helped to increase plant height (60.66 cm) and pod length (10.17 cm) in field trials while B2Zn4 positively affected plant height (56.8 cm 27 cm), number of pods per plant (38.78 20.66), pod length (9.28 cm 10.18 cm), number of nodules (12.56 9) and seed yield (1402 t ha-1 6.42 g plant-1) in both field and pot trials, respectively. Moreover, B2Zn4 treatment also improved the number of pod bearing branches per plant (9.03) and number of seeds per pod (8.36) in field trial as compared to control and other set of treatments. Yield related attributes were also significant with B2Zn2 treatment under field conditions but negative effects in terms of low yield and its related attributes were witnessed with other set of treatments under both experimental conditions. Based on this data, B2Zn4 isrecommended to farmers facing soil related Zn and B deficiency problems, to get maximum economic returns of mungbean.

Influence of contrasting canopy architecture on yield of maize hybrids

The yield and productivity of maize is influenced by several factors of which the orientation of canopy in time and space is a crucial one. A field study was undertaken at Agronomic Research Area, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan during autumn 2015 to compare the impact of contrasting canopy architecture on yield and yield components of maize hybrids. Two maize hybrids with contrasting canopy architecture viz., Pioneer 30Y87 (semi-erect canopy) and Monsanto’s DK6789 (droopy canopy architecture) were sown in 75 cm spaced ridges. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (split-plot arrangement) with three replications. Data on yield attributes of maize were recorded following standard procedures. Differences among treatments’ means were compared using Tukey’s honest significant difference test (HSD) at 5% probability level. Results revealed that there were significant differences among hybrids regarding the number of grains per cob, the 1000-grain weight and ultimately the yield of maize crop. Almost all of the parameters were significantly affected by Hybrid 30Y87 and it attained the grain yield. This was due to its better light attenuating properties and the shading effect of its canopy which helped in suppressing the weeds growing underneath.

Foliage applied Selenium Improved the Productivity and Quality of White Mustard under Arid Climate

Oilseeds crops have a strong bearing on national economy as they constitute about 5 percent of total imports and 50% of agricultural imports. Productivity enhancement of oilseeds, therefore, is of vital importance. Our national consumption of edible oils is around 1.95 million tones, of which about 70% is met through imports. Due to these reasons it is very necessary to enhance the area as well as productivity of oil seed crops. Therefore; a study was carried out to evaluate the productivity and quality of white mustard by exogenous application of selenium under arid climate of Thal at Agronomic Research Area, BZU, Bahadur Sub-Campus Hafizabad Layyah Pakistan, during the year 2016. This experiment was conducted using the RCBD with split plot arrangements. The results revealed that the plant height, stem diameter, 1000-seed weight, seed and biological yield were significantly improved by selenium at Thal region.

Exogenous application of potassium improves the drought tolerance in chickpea

Drought is one of the major agricultural problems which cause losses to crop productivity. It is a worldwide problem and prevails in many parts of the world as a major threat to agriculture. Potassium (K) is considered to be an essential nutrient that plays an important role in growth, development and defense response in the plant under stressful conditions. This work investigated the effects of K in drought tolerance of chickpea seedlings by examining growth, photosynthetic performance, total osmo-regulation substance contents and antioxidative enzymes subjected to drought stress. The drought stress impaired the growth (root and shoot dry weight, root: shoot ratio, seedlings biomass), water relations, photosynthetic attributes, transpiration rate and chlorophyll contents and anti-oxidants activity of chickpea seedlings. Nonetheless, the foliar application K improved the growth, water relations, photosynthetic attributes, transpiration rate, chlorophyll contents and anti-oxidative activity of chickpea under drought conditions. Moreover, an increase in antioxidant enzyme activity and accumulation of osmoprotectants (proline, soluble protein and soluble sugar) was noted under stressed conditions, which was more pronounced in chickpea which experienced of K application. To conclude that, foliar application of K mitigated the adverse effect of drought, K was proved to be even more effective in alleviating the adverse effect of drought stress on chickpea.

Various tillage systems and sowing methods affect growth and yield related characters of cotton

Seedbed preparation and sowing methods play significant role in obtaining good crop yields. To explore the agronomic productivity and economic efficacy of different tillage and sowing methods in cotton, a two year field study was conducted during 2010 and 2011. The experiment comprised of two tillage systems viz; conventional tillage (one time disc harrow + two cultivations + planking) and deep tillage (chiseling twice + one cultivation + planking) along with three sowing methods viz; flat sowing, ridge sowing and bed sowing. Split plot design was used with three replications. Deep tillage amplified seed cotton yields by 18.7% and 11.14% during 2010 and 2011, respectively. Bed sowing exhibited higher yield contributing traits such as number of opened bolls per plant and boll weight as compared to ridge and flat sowing. Deep tillage with bed sowing gave maximum net returns of USD 1407.88 with BCR of 1.81 during the year 2010, while during 2011 it was USD 783.50 with BCR 1.45. Bulk density of the soil was found lower in the upper layer of soil surface as compared to lower surface under deep tillage systems as compared to conventional tillage systems. It was concluded that deep tillage produced more number of plants which contributed towards highest seed cotton yield. Moreover deep tillage was more costly except in bed sowing of cotton crop. The interactive effect of tillage systems and sowing methods were found non significant during both years of study.

Boron fertilization improves quality and yield of maize (Zea mays L.)

Boron deficiency drastically affects the yield and quality of many crops especially maize. The low availability of boron in soils is one of the major causes of poor quality and low yield of maize in Pakistan. A wirehouse experiment was carried out at Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad to optimize the dose of boron to increase quality and yield of maize. Two recommended local maize hybrids Monsanto-919 and Monsanto-5219 were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with factorial arrangements. The Boron was applied as borax @ 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5 kg ha¯¹ at tasseling stage. Although both hybrids showed non-significant differences in yield attributes exogenous boron supply @ 0.6 kg boron ha¯¹ increased grain yield by 27% as compared to control treatment in both the hybrids. It increased grain oil, protein and starch contents by 10%, 12% and 16% respectively.