Rainfed Agriculture and Food Security in Dry Areas
The world’s ability to produce enough food to feed the growing population is further constrained by water scarcity, particularly in dry areas. Water is an increasingly scarce resource and the FAO estimates that nearly 1.8 billion people will be...
Evaluation of desho grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum) hay as a basal diet for growing local sheep in Ethiopia
The study was conducted to determine feed intake, digestibility, and body weight (BW) change of Washera sheep fed on desho grass and natural pasture hay as a basal diet and supplemented with concentrate mixtures. Twenty-five intact male sheeps...
Genetic diversity of Enterolobium cyclocarpum in Colombian seasonally dry tropical forest: implications for conservation and restoration
Enterolobium cyclocarpum is a characteristic legume tree species of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs) of Mesoamerica and northern South America typically used in silvopastoral and agroforestry systems. Remaining populations of E...
Soil organic carbon changes after seven years of conservation agriculture in a rice–wheat system of the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains
Sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important strategy to improve soil quality and to mitigate climate change. To investigate changes in SOC under conservation agriculture (CA), we measured SOC concentrations after seven years of...
Feed supplementation improves estrus response and increases fertility of sheep induced to breed out of season
To test the efficacy on reproductive performance of nutritional supplementation in an out-of-season mating system, 66 adult prolific Barbarine ewes were selected and induced to breed using “ram effect”. The ewes were allocated to two homogeneous...
Temperature sensitivity of food legumes: a physiological insight
Of the various environmental stresses that a plant can experience, temperature has the widest and most far-reaching effects on legumes. Temperature extremes, both high (heat stress) and low (cold stress), are injurious to plants at all stages of...