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Potassium deficiency and low rainfall are severely affecting the stiffness of stem in sugarcane and resistance against harsh weather conditions prevailing in southern Punjab. Application of potassium can be helpful in ameliorating these hazardous effects. To evaluate the influence of potassium a field study was conducted for two successive years at Fatima Sugar Research and Development Center (FSRDC) Fatima Sugar Mill, Muzaffar Garh, (30.07° N, 71.19° E and 122 m altitude) Punjab, Pakistan. For this purpose, sugarcane cultivar HSF-242 was sown during 2012-14. Treatments comprised of two sources of Potassium (i.e. SOP and MOP) and four levels of potassium application @ zero, 75, 125 and 175 kg ha-1. The agronomic traits were significantly affected by the application of two potassium (K) sources at different levels during both years of experimentation. The highest cane yield (131.55 and 138.74 t ha-1) was achieved with 175 kg K2O ha-1 while, lowest (45.48 and 52.93 t ha-1) in control treatments during both the years. The quality parameters were also significantly affected by K applications during both the years. Higher CCS percentage (13.81 and 13.01) was noted in treatments applied with 125 kg K2O ha-1. The least CCS percentage (10.88 and 10.36) was noted in control treatments during both the years. An increased CSR (12.99%) was noted in treatments applied with 125 kg K2O ha-1 while, the lowest (10.23%) in control treatments during both years. On the basis of two years study, it is recommended that Potassium fertilizer at the rate of 175 kg K2O ha-1 in the form of SOP are considered pleasant to achieve the higher yield and quality of sugarcane crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economical weed control in cotton is considered as a big task to get maximum benefits especially in developing countries. For economic weed control analysis, a set of three experiments was conducted with different weed management practices including chemical, mechanical, irrigational and allelopathic extracts alone and in combination with each other. In first experiment, water extracts of brassica and sorghum were applied in combination with herbicide (S-Metolachlor) and intercultural practices. In second experiment, combination of post and preemergence herbicides along with mechanical weeding were evaluated in crop grown under different irrigation systems. While in third experiment, three factors (water extracts, herbicides and irrigation systems) were collectively studied for sustainable weed management. In first experiment, maximum net benefits (Rs. 78798 & 184755) were obtained where S-Metolachlor (2 L ha-1) and both water extract (15 L ha-1) were applied in combination with interculturing. In second experiment, manual weeding under drip irrigation method gave the maximum net benefits (Rs. 28603 & 79175). In third experiment, chemical treatment of Pendimethalin (2.5 L ha-1) with drip irrigation method resulted in maximum net benefits (Rs. 153407 & 53493) during both years. Considering these findings, it can be concluded that integrated weed management strategies, either with chemical + water extracts, chemical + mechanical and chemical + improved irrigation system were found economical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing resource-use efficiency is of prime importance in sustainable agriculture. A field study was carried out to improve nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) and radiation-use efficiency (RUE) of three C4 summer cereals, i.e. maize, millet, and sorghum, under an irrigated arid environment. The results showed that among various cultivars of cereals, cultivars Pearl (maize), 18 BY (millet), and Jumbo (sorghum) produced the highest aboveground total dry matters and grain yields. The highest NUE and RUE were obtained by splitting the nitrogen dose 3 times, i.e. at sowing and at first and second irrigation. The NUE for maize, millet, and sorghum varied from 30.97 to 32.97, 21.34 to 23.32, and 17.39 to 20.22 kg kg-1, respectively. RUE ranged from 1.14 to 1.47, 0.85 to 1.08, and 0.91 to 1.13 g MJ-1 for maize, millet, and sorghum crops, respectively. Maximum resource-use efficiency was achieved by 3 splits, while the minimum was obtained in the control group. It is inferred from this study that those varieties of C4 summer cereals may be commercially grown that are more efficient in utilizing the available resources for harnessing greater NUE as well as RUE under an irrigated arid environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf area (LA) is an important parameter to evaluate many traits of plants like canopy, photosynthesis and evapotranspiration. Digital scanners and cameras, in combination with digital image processing software, have replaced older leaf area measuring techniques to determine LA. An experiment was conducted at research area of Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan during 2014-15 to find an easy and precise method of leaf area measurement of selected winter cereals i.e. wheat, barley and oat. Digital image analyzer techniques viz. Easy Leaf Area (ELA) and Image J (IJ) were compared with manual method. The results showed that there was a difference in values recorded by digital analyzer techniques and manual method. The coefficient of determination (R2) for leaf area measuring techniques viz., manual vs Easy Leaf Area, manual vs Image J, and Easy Leaf Area vs Image J ranged from 0.53 to 0.72, 0.90 to 0.93 and 0.66 to 0.73, respectively for different sowing dates for selected winter cereals. While, similar values for selected winter cereals cultivars were 0.25 to 0.98, 0.74 to 0.97 and 0.49 to 0.93, respectively. However, it is clear from the results that digital analyzer techniques were capable for estimating precisely. The data showed using Image J software was much accurate than Easy Leaf Area. Further, it was found that darkness in image, size of image and quality of image influenced the LA values of winter cereals. However, further application of these digital image analyzers (Easy Leaf Area and Image J) for leaf area measurements may be used in other field crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two year field study was carried out to know the impact of cultivars selection and nitrogen on growth and development of cotton (Gosssypium hirsutum) plant under semi arid conditions of Punjab, Pakistan. Nitrogen and cultivar selection plays an important role in determination of plant yield under various environmental circumstances. It is the basic constituent of plant green material and in nature. Various treatments of nitrogen were Zero, 60, 110 and 160 kg ha-1 applied in splits to the soil along with high yielding cotton cultivars (CIM-496, CIM-506, and CIM-534). The highest significant vegetative quality traits of cotton i.e. plants main stem height, nodes per plant were produced by the cultivar CIM-534 during 2007 and 2008. However, physiological parameters like leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR), reproductive parameters such as total dry biomass (TDM), cotton bolls count m-2 and seed cotton yield were produced significantly the maximum by CIM-496 cultivar. Vegetative, reproductive and physiological traits were directly proportional to the increasing N rates ha-1. For better yield and yield components, nitrogen given at the rate of 160 kg ha-1 proved to be the optimum under semi arid conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of foliar application of zinc on yield and radiation use efficiency of maize (Zea mays L.) under reduced irrigation conditions. at Agronomic Research Farm, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, (Pakistan) during spring, 2010. Methods: Treatments were four irrigation levels unstressed irrigation, water stress at eight leaf stage, blister stage and dough stage in the main plot. Different levels of zinc (Control, foliar application of 200 ppm and 300 ppm chelated zinc at six leaf stage) were studied in sub plots. Results: Foliar application of zinc along with unstressed irrigation (control) gave higher values in almost all the parameters under study. The maximum grain yield (5917 kg ha-1) was observed under unstressed irrigation (control). Similarly the maximum plant height (191.6 cm), number of grains per cob (419.8), 1000-grain weight (256.3 8 g), biological yield (17020 kg ha-1) and RUE with respect to grain yield (0.78 g MJ-1) were recorded in the plots which received normal irrigations. In case of zinc, foliar application of 300 ppm zinc gave the highest values of all these parameters. Conclusion: Foliar application of zinc at 300 ppm in optimum water availability increased grain yield as compared to the other treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]