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Sorghum is the most popular crop in arid and semi-arid areas, especially in Sub-Saharan African countries. Genotype effects, environmental and the interaction of genotype by environmental factors have an influence on phenotypic traits. The aim of the study is to identify the relationship between grain yield and other yield-related traits and select the genotypes which perform better in grain yield as well as to examine the association between the uncorrelated phenotypic traits and grain yield via mixed model. The data was generated using a lattice square design. Principal component analysis was used to generate uncorrelated variables for the mixed model. The study revealed that there was a difference in grain yield due to the treatment and there was a pairwise relationship among the phenotypic variables. 77.12% of the total variance of the original phenotypic variables was explained by the first three principal components and decided to use PCAs as input variables for the mixed model. All PCs had significant effects on grain yield as well as grain yield variability due to random effects associated with genotypes, genotype interaction by treatment, and replication within the treatment. The variability of grain yield due to genotype effect was explained about 45.73%, the variation of grain yield due to the interaction of genotype by the treatment was also explained about 39.06% and 1.55% of the variation of grain was explained by replication within treatment. The best performer genotypes recommended for mass production were G40 (Genotype 40), G186 (Genotype 186) and G196 (Genotype 196) without any constraint of environment. The genotypes recommended for mass production under irrigation conditions were G40 (Genotype 40), G62 (Genotype 62) and G192 (Genotype 192). G26 (Genotype 26), G55 (Genotype 55) and G49 (Genotype 49) were the genotypes recommended for mass production under stress conditions. Overall, the study recommends using a mixed model to fit the grain yield, and future work will focus on to evaluate the performance of genotypes under different environments and years of production.

Groundwater has recently been considered one of the primary sources of water supply in Sudan. However, groundwater quality is continuously degraded due to overexploitation and long-term agricultural operations. The fossilized Cretaceous Nubian sandstone is the principal aquifer in the study area. This research aims to determine the major factors influencing groundwater quality and detect the suitability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation purposes by integrating hydrochemical and multivariate statistical methods. Hydrochemical plots such as Piper, Chadha, and Durov diagrams were applied to detect the groundwater facies and hydrochemical processes controlling the groundwater quality. They indicated Ca–Mg–HCO3 water type as a dominant groundwater facies followed by Na–HCO3 and Na–Cl types. Gibbs plots suggested that the dissolution of the minerals is the main factor influencing the water quality. The results of the Gibbs plot were further interpreted using saturation indices (SI). The SI values indicated that aragonite, calcite, and dolomite precipitated respectively in 58.33%, 75%, and 75% of groundwater samples. Multivariate statistical analyses, including Pearson's correlation analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and principal component analyses (PCA), were jointly employed to identify the structure of water quality data and deduce the main factors controlling groundwater quality. The statistical analysis revealed the effect of the physical and human-induced activities as the main factors influencing groundwater chemistry. These factors are rock-water interaction, agricultural practice, and organic contamination from septic tanks. Further, the suitability of groundwater for irrigation is determined using sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and sodium percent (Na+%) indices. They carefully indicated that 75% of the groundwater samples in the study area are excellent for irrigation except for some sample location where the salinity hazard is stimulated by ion exchange. This integrated approach was effective in calibrating water quality assessment methodologies. The current research concluded that the implication of a groundwater quality monitoring scheme is crucial to ensure water supply sustainability in north Bahri city.

Wheat crop contributes to a major portion of the agriculture economy of Nepal. It is ranked as the third major cereal crop of the country even though, it faces terminal heat stress which speeds up the grain filling rate and shortens the filling period, causing reduction in grain weight, size, number and quality losses. We can minimize this loss through a genotypic selection of high-yielding lines by understanding the genotype-environment interaction. The objective of this research is to obtain a high yielding line with a stable performance across the environments. In order to do so, we conducted an experiment using eighteen elite wheat lines and two check varieties in alpha-lattice design with two replications in different environments viz. irrigated and terminal heat stress environment from November 2019 to April 2020. The analysis of variance revealed that genotype, environment and their interaction had a highly significant effect on the yield. Furthermore, the which-won–where model indicated specific adaptation of elite lines NL 1179, NL 1420, BL 4407, NL 1368 to the irrigated environment and Bhirkuti to the terminal heat-stressed environment. Similarly, the mean-versus-stability study indicated that elite lines BL 4407, NL 1368, BL 4919, NL 1350, and NL 1420 had above-average yield and higher stability whereas elite lines Gautam, NL 1412, NL 1376, NL 1387, NL 1404, and NL 1381 had below-average yield and lower stability. The ranking of elite lines biplot, PC1 explaining 73.6% and PC2 explaining 26.4% of the interaction effect, showed the rank of elite line, NL 1420 > NL 1368> NL 1350 > other lines, close to the ideal line. On the basis of the obtained results, we recommend NL 1420 with both the high yield and stability is suited across both the environments, while NL 1179 and Bhirkuti is adapted specifically for irrigated and terminal heat stress environment, respectively.

Sorghum is the most popular crop in arid and semi-arid areas, especially in Sub-Saharan African countries. Genotype effects, environmental and the interaction of genotype by environmental factors have an influence on phenotypic traits. The aim of the study is to identify the relationship between grain yield and other yield-related traits and select the genotypes which perform better in grain yield as well as to examine the association between the uncorrelated phenotypic traits and grain yield via mixed model. The data was generated using a lattice square design. Principal component analysis was used to generate uncorrelated variables for the mixed model. The study revealed that there was a difference in grain yield due to the treatment and there was a pairwise relationship among the phenotypic variables. 77.12% of the total variance of the original phenotypic variables was explained by the first three principal components and decided to use PCAs as input variables for the mixed model. All PCs had significant effects on grain yield as well as grain yield variability due to random effects associated with genotypes, genotype interaction by treatment, and replication within the treatment. The variability of grain yield due to genotype effect was explained about 45.73%, the variation of grain yield due to the interaction of genotype by the treatment was also explained about 39.06% and 1.55% of the variation of grain was explained by replication within treatment. The best performer genotypes recommended for mass production were G40 (Genotype 40), G186 (Genotype 186) and G196 (Genotype 196) without any constraint of environment. The genotypes recommended for mass production under irrigation conditions were G40 (Genotype 40), G62 (Genotype 62) and G192 (Genotype 192). G26 (Genotype 26), G55 (Genotype 55) and G49 (Genotype 49) were the genotypes recommended for mass production under stress conditions. Overall, the study recommends using a mixed model to fit the grain yield, and future work will focus on to evaluate the performance of genotypes under different environments and years of production., Competing Interests: We have no known competing financial interest or personal relationships., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Groundwater has recently been considered one of the primary sources of water supply in Sudan. However, groundwater quality is continuously degraded due to overexploitation and long-term agricultural operations. The fossilized Cretaceous Nubian sandstone is the principal aquifer in the study area. This research aims to determine the major factors influencing groundwater quality and detect the suitability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation purposes by integrating hydrochemical and multivariate statistical methods. Hydrochemical plots such as Piper, Chadha, and Durov diagrams were applied to detect the groundwater facies and hydrochemical processes controlling the groundwater quality. They indicated Ca-Mg-HCO 3 water type as a dominant groundwater facies followed by Na-HCO 3 and Na-Cl types. Gibbs plots suggested that the dissolution of the minerals is the main factor influencing the water quality. The results of the Gibbs plot were further interpreted using saturation indices (SI). The SI values indicated that aragonite, calcite, and dolomite precipitated respectively in 58.33%, 75%, and 75% of groundwater samples. Multivariate statistical analyses, including Pearson's correlation analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and principal component analyses (PCA), were jointly employed to identify the structure of water quality data and deduce the main factors controlling groundwater quality. The statistical analysis revealed the effect of the physical and human-induced activities as the main factors influencing groundwater chemistry. These factors are rock-water interaction, agricultural practice, and organic contamination from septic tanks. Further, the suitability of groundwater for irrigation is determined using sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and sodium percent (Na + %) indices. They carefully indicated that 75% of the groundwater samples in the study area are excellent for irrigation except for some sample location where the salinity hazard is stimulated by ion exchange. This integrated approach was effective in calibrating water quality assessment methodologies. The current research concluded that the implication of a groundwater quality monitoring scheme is crucial to ensure water supply sustainability in north Bahri city., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Wheat crop contributes to a major portion of the agriculture economy of Nepal. It is ranked as the third major cereal crop of the country even though, it faces terminal heat stress which speeds up the grain filling rate and shortens the filling period, causing reduction in grain weight, size, number and quality losses. We can minimize this loss through a genotypic selection of high-yielding lines by understanding the genotype-environment interaction. The objective of this research is to obtain a high yielding line with a stable performance across the environments. In order to do so, we conducted an experiment using eighteen elite wheat lines and two check varieties in alpha-lattice design with two replications in different environments viz. irrigated and terminal heat stress environment from November 2019 to April 2020. The analysis of variance revealed that genotype, environment and their interaction had a highly significant effect on the yield. Furthermore, the which-won-where model indicated specific adaptation of elite lines NL 1179, NL 1420, BL 4407, NL 1368 to the irrigated environment and Bhirkuti to the terminal heat-stressed environment. Similarly, the mean-versus-stability study indicated that elite lines BL 4407, NL 1368, BL 4919, NL 1350, and NL 1420 had above-average yield and higher stability whereas elite lines Gautam, NL 1412, NL 1376, NL 1387, NL 1404, and NL 1381 had below-average yield and lower stability. The ranking of elite lines biplot, PC1 explaining 73.6% and PC2 explaining 26.4% of the interaction effect, showed the rank of elite line, NL 1420 > NL 1368> NL 1350 > other lines, close to the ideal line. On the basis of the obtained results, we recommend NL 1420 with both the high yield and stability is suited across both the environments, while NL 1179 and Bhirkuti is adapted specifically for irrigated and terminal heat stress environment, respectively., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2021 The Author(s).)