Journal articles on the topic 'West Pakistan Agricultural University'

Business Management and Strategy (BMS) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether BMS publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue.Reviewers for Volume 12, Number 1Agha Usama Hasan, University of West London, United KingdomAnsar Abbas, Banking Officer, Muslim Commercial Bank Pakistan, PakistanChaminda Prasanna Karunarathne, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, Sri LankaDio Caisar Darma, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Samarinda, IndonesiaEddie John Paul Fisher, Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, United KingdomGamlath Mohottige Mudith Sujeewa, University of Kelaniya, Sri LankaHalimahton Borhan, Universiti Teknologi Mara, MalaysiaIzabella Manukyan, Russian-Armenian University, ArmeniaJawon Kim, Chung-Ang University, Korea, Republic ofNicholas Renaldo, Institut Bisnis dan Teknologi Pelita Indonesia, IndonesiaOusman Jallow, Gambia Participates, GambiaShalini Sahni, Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Professional Studies (Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi), IndiaSteliana Rodino, National Institute of R&D for Biological Sciences / Institute of Research for Agriculture Economy and Rural Development, Bucharest, Romania, RomaniaSulaiman Sheik Abdullah, Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar College, IndiaVenugopal Gubbi, RV Institute Of Management, IndiaJean LeeBusiness Management and StrategyMacrothink Institute*************************************Add: 5348 Vegas Dr.#825Las Vegas, Nevada 89108United StatesTel: 1-702-953-1852 ext.508Fax: 1-702-420-2900E-mail1: bms@macrothink.orgE-mail2: bms@macrothink.comWebsite: http://bms.macrothink.org

AbstractBlessed milkthistle is considered to be a noxious weed in irrigated and rainfed areas of Pakistan due to its strong allelopathic effects on food crops. For sustainable wheat production, it is necessary to know the critical time for weed removal (CTWR) for blessed milkthistle to allow wheat growers to get maximum benefit from control of this weed. A field study was conducted in 2014 and 2015 at the College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan, to investigate the CTWR of blessed milkthistle in wheat. The field experiments were designed with seven treatments; weed free (control); 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 wk after emergence (WAE); and weedy check. At 6 WAE, a significant reduction was noted in plant height (8% and 17%), number of productive tillers per square meter (16% and 16%), spike length (23% and 54%), grains per spike (13% and 34%), 1,000-grain weight (14% and 37%), grain yield (20% and 21%), and biological yield (24% and 50%) compared with control (weed-free plots) during 2014 and 2015, respectively. The logistic model supports the field study results and suggests that blessed milkthistle’s CTWR for wheat is 1 to 5 WAE based on acceptable yield losses of 5% to 15% during both years. The experimental results and logistic model indicate that blessed milkthistle should be controlled within 1 to 5 WAE to get better wheat crop harvests without compromising farmers’ profits. To our knowledge, this is the first study ever in Pakistan regarding the CTWR in terms of WAE of blessed milkthistle and could help other scientists create weed control strategies for other areas of the country.

The Thal is a desert in the west of Punjab province of Pakistan having an area of five million-acre. It had been a barren piece of land for centuries. West Pakistan Government not only provided canal water to almost 2.1 million acres of the region but also developed the area from 1949 to 1969. The agricultural development of the Thal region carried out by the Thal Development Authority is a historical event in the history of Pakistan. This study is historical research and data has been collected through primary and secondary sources. This paper will highlight the agricultural development of the region in detail and its socio-economic effects on the masses as well.

This work is the result of a survey done in 1969 prior to the breakup of united Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh. The author conducted the survey among groups he categorizes as ulama, East Pakistani professionals, and West Pakistani professionals. The questionnaire and the results are included in appendixes.

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/sar/editor/recruitment and e-mail the completed application form to sar@ccsenet.org.   Reviewers for Volume 8, Number 1 Anchal Dass, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India Bed Mani Dahal, Kathmandu University, Nepal Beye Amadou Moustapha, Rice Research Center, Cote d'Ivoire Cristina Bianca Pocol, Univ. of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj Napoca, Romania Dietrich Darr, Hochschule Rhein-Waal, Germany Entessar Mohammad Al JBawi, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Syria Giuseppina Migliore, University of Palermo, Italy Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University, India Junjie Xu, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States Kassim Adekunle Akanni, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria Kaveh Ostad Ali Askari, Islamic Azad University, Iran Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Mirela Kopjar, University of Osijek, Croatia Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Nasim Ahmad Yasin, University of the Punjab Lahore Pakistan, Pakistan Nehemie Tchinda Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Cameroon Nicusor-Flavius Sima, University of Agricultural Studies and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania Sait Engindeniz, Ege University Faculty of Agriculture, Turkey Tenaw Workayehu, Hawassa Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia

The North-West Frontier Province is essentially a mountainous region intermixed with fertile valleys of agricultural lands. The diversity of the region is well reflected through the agro-ecological regions map of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Councile where 6 out of the 10 regions indentified are .found in the NWFP. The total population of the NWFP stood at 11.1 million persons in 1981 with an annual growth rate higher than the national average (3.32 percent as against 3.1 percent for Pakistan). Moreover, the literacy rate is abysmally low, standing as it d~es at about 16.7 percent (which according to some is an optimistic estimate). The inflow of over 3.5 million Afghan refugees and the location of more than three-fourths of this number in the NWFP has compounded the problems with far reaching implications for the economy, environment and the level of off-farm employment. The influx of these refugees with their herds and beasts of burden have tended to encroach on forest lands and led to over-grazing of pastures resulting in environmental degradation. The rapidly mUltiplying demand for food has led to crops being grown on steep and unstable slopes.

Background. Developing countries, home to 80% of epilepsy patients, do not have comprehensive epilepsy surgery programs. Considering these needs we set up first epilepsy surgery center in Pakistan. Methods. Seventeen teleconferences focused on setting up an epilepsy center at the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, Pakistan were arranged with experts from the University of Alberta Hospital, Alberta, Canada and the University of West Virginia, USA over a two-year period. Subsequently, the experts visited the proposed center to provide hands on training. During this period several interactive teaching sessions, a nationwide workshop, and various public awareness events were organized. Results. Sixteen patients underwent surgery, functional hemispherectomy (HS) was done in six, anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) in six, and neuronavigation-guided selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH) using keyhole technique in four patients. Minimal morbidity was observed in ATL and, SAH groups. All patients in SAH group (100%) had Grade 1 control, while only 5 patients (83%) in ATL group, and 4 patients (66%) in HS group had Grade 1 control according to Engel’s classification, in average followups of 12 months, 24 months and 48 months for SAH, ATL, and HS, respectively. Conclusion. As we share our experience we hope to set a practical example for economically constrained countries that successful epilepsy surgery centers can be managed with limited resources.

A summary is given of work on flocks of West African Dwarf goats at Wageningen, the University of Ife (Nigeria) and a village in Nigeria. It was concluded that these goats are suitable for meat production under low and high levels of feeding and management. Under intensive management, daily gain averaged 80 g (0.3-0.4% of mature body weight), and the number of weaned kids produced per [female] per yr 2.56. Goats fed only roughage gained 43 g per day. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)

Most people in Pakistan look towards the West for models of economic development, and some even look to the Islamic past. But in recent decades, the more spectacular cases have been much closer to home, and towards the East. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are already in the ranks of the developed, while China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand are making good progress. Despite the recent setbacks, their progress over the last three decades has been enviable. On the other hand, the countries in South Asia have lagged behind. Four decades ago there was little to choose between most of these countries, but by the seventies, the paths of some had clearly diverged, while others were beginning to diverge. Today, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are amongst the poorest in the world, and on certain measures, they are the poorest! What happened in the last four decades? This is the issue that Omar Noman tackles in this book.

The title of Ali's book needs to be clarified. The work does not cover what is currently the entire Punjab, East and West. It is an economic history of the development of the canal colonies in the Punjab. These canal colonies fell entirely into Pakistan's area when the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947. So the work has special significance for the canal colony region of the Punjab, Pakistan. As such, Ali's book fills a great need for two reasons. First, in Pakistan the green revolution has been based in the canal colonies. The rate and comprehensiveness of adoption of the package has been greater in the canal colonies compared to the other regions. If the canal colonies provided such a suitable environment for the adoption of agrarian technical change in the 1960s, then there is a need to assess their emergence and economic impact in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The question is: Did the emergence of the canal colonies result in an agrarian revolution at that time? This forms Ali's main problematic. And his answer is that the political and economic objectives of British imperial interests in the Punjab overrode their development interests, with the result that the canal colonies did not fulm their growth potential. The second need that Ali's work fills is to raise the question of the political behaviour of the Punjab. This question needs to be raised for two time periods, namely in the state of Pakistan since 1947, and earlier, during the independence movement in the first half of this century.

Henry Smeathman (1742–1786), best known for his essay on the west African termites, travelled to Sierra Leone in 1771 to collect naturalia for a group of wealthy sponsors. One of these sponsors, Dru Drury (1724–1803), was keen on African insects. Drury later described and illustrated many of these in the third volume of his Illustrations of natural history (1782). Two years after Drury died, his collection was auctioned in London. A key purchaser at this sale was Alexander Macleay (1767–1848), later appointed Colonial Secretary to New South Wales. His insects travelled with him to Sydney and are now in the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney. A number of these insects, collected by Smeathman and despatched from Sierra Leone, appear to be extant in the Macleay Museum. Chief of our discoveries is the type specimen for Goliathus drurii originally figured by Drury in Illustrations of natural history, volume 3, plate XL (1782). By matching other extant insects to the text and illustrations in the same volume we believe we have found type specimens for Scarabaeus torquata Drury, 1782 , and Papilio antimachus Drury, 1782 .

An analysis of selected agricultural and food e-resources at UWI Mona Campus indicate only a small percentage of students and lecturers are utilizing these. These statistics are alarming for a number of reasons, namely: (a) the high cost of these e-resources; (b) the value in e-resources as posited by authors; (c) the reality that e-resources are a feature of the Web 2.0 age in which we currently reside; (d) and quality reviewers’ and accreditation board members’ expectations of universities to provide e-resources. If it is that e-resources are so valuable and are a feature of the Web 2.0 era and yet they are being underutilized, this has clear implications for research throughput in respect of such matters as: term papers, lectures and publications in agricultural and food sciences. Additionally, the low usage threatens the viability of continuing the provision of these e-resources at UWI. Using the UWI Mona Campus population this paper seeks to provide an understanding of the reasons for the current usage patterns; the implications for collection management as well as for research throughput; and the ways in which greater usage can be encouraged.

The design, implementation, and evaluation of energy policies in combating climate change are becoming increasingly evident to strengthen economic growth driven by the agricultural sector in most developing countries. The study analyzes the direct and indirect effects of renewable energy consumption (REC) on agriculture value-added (AgVA), CO2 emissions, and trade openness in the short- and long-run in the West African countries. The second-generation panel unit root tests, the panel cointegration methods, and Panel Vector Error Correction Model are used with World Bank data from 1990 to 2015. A panel Granger causality test was also used to determine the direction of causality between variables. Findings show a unidirectional relationship between AgVA, CO2 emissions, and REC; between REC, gross fixe capital formation (GFCF) and trade openness. Moreover, the bidirectional hypothesis is verified between agricultural development and trade openness. However, the null hypothesis is found between AgVA and GFCF, on the one hand, and GFCF and CO2 emissions, on the other hand. These results suggest that fostering renewable energy policy and revisiting trade policy toward reducing environmental pollution will enable agricultural development and boost the regional economy. AcknowledgmentThe author wants to thank Dr. Moukpè GNINIGUE for his technical supports and Prof. Jean Marcelin Bosson BROU from the University of Houphouet Boigny (Cote d’Ivoire), Dr. Odzadifo K. WONYRA and Dr. Hodabalo BATAKA from the University of Kara, Dr. Koffi Massesso ADJI from the West African Sciences Services Centre on Climate Change and Land Use (University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar) and Essotanam MAMBA from the University of Lomé for their constructive comments on the earlier version of this manuscripts. Finally, the author is grateful to the anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Economics, whose comments have improved this paper. However, the opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.

Many cities in the developing world aspire to imitate cities of the West in their built form, since for them this represents ‘modernism’ and the future. Pakistan is a young country and the contribution of a new generation of architects and planners has been inspired by the West, in the post-modern traditions, and not informed by the local cultural, social and physical aspects of the society. Karachi, within Pakistan, has recently seen the construction of a number of buildings and urban design projects that conform to the international concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation, and are a response to the desire of politicians to create a global image for the city.Using the Urdu word maqamiat in relation to the built form, this research assesses what it means for a city to be local in the context of Karachi, being specific, having particular variables impacting the built form, but dealing with similar issues of identity crises as other formally colonized nations. A combination of deductive and inductive research approach that arches over mixed methods is used, in order to reveal the nature and value of maqamiat of built form. Semi structured interviews, focus groups, urban morphological documentation, archive review and personal observation methods have been used for data collecting. Content, narrative and focus group analyses are used to interpret data.This research is part of a PhD that was undertaken at Oxford Brookes University from 2012- 2016. The research postulates lessons from its study of local processes of built form production, the value given to local places by indigenous communities and the impact of global forces through imageability, aesthetics and style.

Many cities in the developing world aspire to imitate cities of the West in their built form, since for them this represents ‘modernism’ and the future. Pakistan is a young country and the contribution of a new generation of architects and planners has been inspired by the West, in the post-modern traditions; and not informed by the local cultural, social, and physical aspects of the society. Karachi, within Pakistan, has recently seen the construction of a number of buildings and urban design projects that conform to the international concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation and are a response to the desire of politicians to create a global image for the city. Using the Urdu word maqamiat in relation to the built form, this research assesses what it means for a city to be local in the context of Karachi, being specific, having particular variables impacting the built form, but dealing with similar issues of identity crises as other formally colonized nations. A combination of deductive and inductive research approach that arches over mixed methods is used in order to reveal the nature and value of maqamiat in the built form. Semi structured interviews, focus groups, urban morphological documentation, archive review, and personal observation methods have been used for data collecting. Content, narrative, and focus group analyses are used to interpret data. This research is part of a PhD that was undertaken at Oxford Brookes University from 2012- 2016. The research postulates lessons from its study of local processes of built form production about the value given to local places by indigenous communities and the impact of global forces through image ability, aesthetics, and style.

Tasneem Ahmad Siddiqui is a former civil servant who has written a book that is in tune with the governance issues being faced by Pakistan on a variety of fronts. The author has had much experience of the grassroots level and provides the reader a view of the changes at that level for a dynamic societal change. There is clear evidence of the faith that he seems to have in the resourcefulness of the people of Pakistan. The hallmark of the book is its concise and easy reading with not just criticisms but workable solutions that are offered by the author. At the outset, the crisis being faced by Pakistan is highlighted. The author delves into the historical antecedents of this crisis, apportioning blame to the Harvard Advisory Group, as it was their flawed development strategy with a pro-industry bias that ignored agriculture. They believed in jump-start modernisation without giving serious consideration to the fact that Pakistan has a strong agricultural base. The stated wisdom of such a policy at that time was that surplus labour from agriculture would be shifted to industry and this would tackle poverty and income inequalities as espoused by the ‘trickle-down theory’. This thinking was not an exclusive one, as such a strategy was pursued by policy-makers of many newly independent states in the post-Second World War era. However, the ensuing importance granted to profits as opposed to wages in the ‘development decade’ resulted in greater inequalities of income, and a greater concentration of economic resources, whereby twenty-two families came to own 80 percent of the banks and 95 percent of the insurance companies. According to the author, what the policy-makers failed to realise, through the import of such a Western model, was that in the long run low wages would generate low profits.

This follow-up study was carried out to investigate association of wheat productivity with the nutritional status of farmers in an agricultural area of North West Pakistan. A total of 1200 small scale farmers were randomly recruited and screened for nutrition status. Total of 226 farmers were found malnourished. An equal number of well-nourished farmers were randomly selected; detailed data on wheat yield and relevant confounding factors were collected interviewing groups. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to identify factors in relation to wheat yield. Comparing to well-nourished, malnourished farmers were more likely to report less wheat yield. Agricultural predictors that independently and significantly explained variation in wheat production included crop rotation, sowing time, and per acre agricultural inputs. Farmers' nutritional status; and dietary patterns further increased variance in wheat yield. The study findings reaffirmed the importance of farmers' nutritional status in predicting wheat yield.

The purpose of present study is to investigate district and division wise annual rainfall variations over theprovince of Punjab, which is the largest in terms of population size as well important contributor in agricultural producein Pakistan. The results revealed that the rainfall trend has shifted from upper and lower Punjab towards the south,west, north and east respectively. The statistical analysis has inferred an overall increasing trend for the period 1990 to2000 and a decreasing trend during period 2001 to 2010 in Punjab province. The Z test value differences in the averagerainfall for each district level meteorological station have detected three increasing and two decreasing trends duringsummers of 1981-2015.The data revealed a significant changed seasonal trend observed in Murree and Sialkot(northern Punjab), Faisalabad and Lahore (central Punjab). Particularly, the changes have been observed in the southPunjab and over the central Punjab, while the same rainfall variations have shown a southward shift. The trend of therainfall had shifted in the Faisalabad division with the significant positive trend. In the Central Punjab, the positivetrend has also been found in all the districts. In the lower Punjab, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan districts has shown anincreasing trend of rainfall. The findings are significant in changing agro-climatic zones in the Punjab and consequentshifting patterns of agriculture therefore can have net impact on the food security situation in the Punjab-Pakistan.

The purpose of present study is to investigate district and division wise annual rainfall variations over theprovince of Punjab, which is the largest in terms of population size as well important contributor in agricultural producein Pakistan. The results revealed that the rainfall trend has shifted from upper and lower Punjab towards the south,west, north and east respectively. The statistical analysis has inferred an overall increasing trend for the period 1990 to2000 and a decreasing trend during period 2001 to 2010 in Punjab province. The Z test value differences in the averagerainfall for each district level meteorological station have detected three increasing and two decreasing trends duringsummers of 1981-2015.The data revealed a significant changed seasonal trend observed in Murree and Sialkot(northern Punjab), Faisalabad and Lahore (central Punjab). Particularly, the changes have been observed in the southPunjab and over the central Punjab, while the same rainfall variations have shown a southward shift. The trend of therainfall had shifted in the Faisalabad division with the significant positive trend. In the Central Punjab, the positivetrend has also been found in all the districts. In the lower Punjab, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan districts has shown anincreasing trend of rainfall. The findings are significant in changing agro-climatic zones in the Punjab and consequentshifting patterns of agriculture therefore can have net impact on the food security situation in the Punjab-Pakistan.

Abstract The West Texas Mesonet originated in 1999 as a project of Texas Tech University. The mesonet consists of 40 automated surface meteorological stations, two atmospheric profilers, and one upper-air sounding system. Each surface station measures up to 15 meteorological and 10 agricultural parameters over an observation period of 5 and 15 min, respectively. The mesonet uses a combination of radio, cell phone, landline phone, and serial server (Internet) communication systems to relay data back to the base station at Reese Technology Center (formerly Reese Air Force Base), Texas. Data are transmitted through the radio network every 5 min for most meteorological data and every 15 min for agricultural data. For stations located outside of the radio network, phone systems transmit data every 30–60 min. The archive includes data received through the various communication systems, as well as data downloaded in the field from each station during regularly scheduled maintenance visits. Quality assurance/control (QA/QC) tests effectively flag data for manual review from a decision maker. The QA/QC flags and review decisions are then added to the database. All data are available free of charge; real-time data are available on the West Texas Mesonet Web page, and an interface to access the data archive is currently being developed.

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: sar@ccsenet.org Reviewers for Volume 9, Number 4 Aaron Norris, University of Nevada Reno, USA Bed Mani Dahal, Kathmandu University, Nepal Daniel L Mutisya, Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization, Kenya Giuseppina Migliore, University of Palermo, Italy Gunnar Bengtsson, Sweden Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University(GADVASU), India Jiun-Yan Loh, UCSI University, Malaysia Kaveh Ostad Ali Askari, Islamic Azad University, Iran Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Mirela Kopjar, University of Osijek, Croatia Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Nehemie Tchinda Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Cameroon Ram Niwas, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, India Subhash Chand, Central Agricultural Research Institute CARI Port Blair, India

Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) is an important and highly valuable flower of the cut flower industry. The most critical step in its cultivation is to break dormancy in order to initiate the growth, especially in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. Therefore, the current research was conducted to break bulb dormancy and foster the growth of tulip in Potohar region with the help of different primers. The objective of this study was the selection of best primer at appropriate concentration level to enhance growth, yield and vase life of the flower. Tulip bulbs were treated with different primers: T0 (distilled water), T1 (chitosan @ 5 g/L), T2 (gibberellic acid @ 0.15 g/L), T3 (humic acid 160 g/L), T4 (imidacloprid 19 g/L) and T5 (salicylic acid 0.1 g/L) for 24 hours, respectively. The experiment was laid out using Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Statistical results revealed that characteristics including early germination, plant height, number of leaves, stalk length, fresh and dry weight of flower, weight of bulbs, diameter of bulbs and number of daughter bulbs were significantly increased in T2. Whereas, leaf area, diameter of stem and flower was maximum in T0. Plants under T3 showed an increase in chlorophyll content of leaves. While floral characteristics like early formation and opening of flower bud, more number of flowers and vase life were improved in T1. Thus, statistical results showed that priming can effectively help to improve morpho-physiological attributes of tulip.Key wordTulip, primers, dormancy, chitosan, gibberellic acid, humic acid, imidacloprid, salicylic acid.INTRODUCTIONTulip (Tulips gesneriana L.) is the most popular and lucrative spring blooming bulbous plant of Liliacae family. It is famous for its distinctive flower shape; size and vibrant color range that make it stand out aesthetically among other ornamental flowers. There are about 150 to 160 species of tulip that can be grown in gardens. In addition to this, they are also used as cut flowers. In cut flower industry, it is ranked as 3rd most desirable flower after rose and chrysanthemum (Singh, 2006; Ahmad et al., 2014). This flower holds a significant importance on societal events like Valentine’s Day, Easter, New Year and Mother’s Day. Along with ornamental uses, its bulb can be used for cooking purposes in place of onions and petals can be used to treat rough skin. As a result of its immense beauty and multiple uses, it is day by day becoming more eminent and favorite among people globally (Buschman, 2004; Jhon and Neelofar, 2006). The demand for cut flowers in Pakistan is also gaining popularity. In Pakistan, where floriculture industry is still struggling to make its way towards development, the annual production of cut flowers is estimated to be 10,000 to 12,000 tons per annum (Younis et al., 2009). Main cut flower crops produced includes: rose, carnation, gerbera, statice, tuberose, narcissus, gladiolus, freesia and lilies (Ahsan et al., 2012). Despite of tulip’s high demand, it is not among the few cut flowers that are produced at commercial level in Pakistan. However, some of the wild species of tulip (Tulipa stellate) are found in the country, as they wildly grow in West and North West Himalayan region of the world. (Nasir et al., 1987). This perennial plant needs several weeks of low temperature (temperature < 50C) to break its dormancy for producing beautiful flowers, as a result, its cultivation is restricted to temperate areas (Koksal et al., 2011). It is widely grown in areas with 5-100C night and 17-200C day temperature throughout the growing season (Singh, 2006). Although, it has high demand worldwide but there are only 15 tulips producing countries in the world. Among few tulip producing countries, Netherlands tops the list due to her favorable climatic conditions. The total production area of tulips in Netherlands is 10,800 hectares that contributes 60% of the world’s total production. The reason behind its limited production in the world is the inability of tulip bulbs to break dormancy under unfavorable climatic conditions. Dormancy is a state in which flower bulbs do not show any physical growth due to physical and physiological barriers. Therefore, dormancy breaking is the utmost important step while growing tulips anywhere in the world (De Klerk et al., 1992). Thus, aforementioned restrictions and sensitivity of crop towards its growth requirements has also affected its production in Pakistan. Its cultivation is restricted to Murree, Abottabad and Swat only. Some other parts of the country, including the Potohar region have great potential to grow tulip by putting in a little effort to cope with the challenge of dormancy breaking due to relatively high temperature. The winter period in Potohar region is from November to March. Moreover, December, January and February are the coldest months with a mean annual temperature between 100C to 150C. As a result, the time of planting is very critical for dormancy breaking and fast growth in such areas, as late planting would cause an abortion of flowers due to a raised field temperature at the time of flowering. In order to grow tulips in areas with mild winters different techniques are adopted that includes: pre- chilling, seed priming and protected cultivation method to achieve early growth and high yield of flowers before the temperature rises. Out of all additional efforts, seed priming can be an effective method for growing tulips in open fields because it promotes early growth and good yield (Anjum et al., 2010; Benschop et al., 2010; Kumar et al., 2013; Ramzan et al., 2014; Sarfaraz et al., 2014; Khan, 2019). Seed priming is a method of soaking seeds in solution with high osmotic potential which provides optimum level of hydration and aggravates the germination process, but don’t show the radical emergence by prolonging the lag phase. Lag phase makes the seed metabolically active and helps to convert the stored food reserves into the available form to be used during germination (Taylor et al., 1998; Reid et al., 2011; Nawaz et al., 2013). Application of different chemicals as primmer including salts (chitosan), growth regulator (gibberellic acid), plant hormone (salicylic acid), organic compounds (humic acid) and insecticides (imidacloprid) can result in a reduced forcing period, enhanced growth, early flowering and high flower yield. Therefore, careful selection of variety and use of priming as dormancy breaking technique is the essential step of Tulip cultivation in the Potohar area (Horii et al., 2007; Shakarami et al., 2013; Nakasha et al., 2014; Baldotto et al., 2016).OBJECTIVES Keeping in view that tulip is an excellent cut flower and its demand is increasing globally, present study was designed to analyze and study the effects of best concentration of different primers on early growth (vegetative and reproductive), yield and vase life of tulip in the Potohar region of Northern Punjab, Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODSExperimental site and planting material: The experiment on Tulipa gesneriana L. was conducted at the experimental area, Department of Horticulture, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi with longitude 73.070 E and latitude 33.60 N, during the year 2017-2018. Tulipa gesneriana L. was established through bulbs. Tulip bulbs were purchased from reliable sources and were planted by the end of November in pots after priming treatment in open field conditions.Maintenance practice: Regular watering and fortnightly fertilizer application of NPK (Grow more (17:17:17) @ 10g/m2 was done to maintain plant health.Priming treatments: Tulip bulbs were treated with different primers including: T0 (distilled water), T1 (chitosan @ 5 g/L), T2 (gibberellic acid @ 0.15 g/L), T3 (humic acid 160 g/L), T4 (Imidacloprid 19 g/L) and T5 (salicylic acid 0.1 g/L) for 24 hours, respectively.Parameters: Both vegetative and reproductive parameters were analyzed to determine the efficacy of primers including days to sprouting of bulbs (days), plant height (cm), leaf area (cm2), number of leaves, diameter of flower stem (mm), days to flower bud formation (days), days to flower opening stage (days), diameter of flower (mm), number of flowers per plant, stalk length (cm), fresh weight of flower (g), dry weight of flower (g), diameter of bulbs (mm), weight of bulbs (g), number of daughter bulbs per plant and vase life (days).Statistical analysis: Experiment was laid out randomly using Complete Randomized Design (CRD).The collected data was analyzed through appropriate statistical package i.e. MSTAT-C. Statistical significance was compared with LSD test at 5% level of significance (Steel et al., 1997).RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONEffect of priming on vegetative growth attributes: Results were exhibiting significant difference among vegetative growth attributes of the treated plants (table 1). The 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid treated plants showed early sprouting (25 days) and maximum increase in plant height (33cm), number of leaves (6), stalk length (29.05cm) and diameter of flower stem (9.66mm), followed by 5 g/L of chitosan, 160g/L of humic acid and 19 g/L of Imidacloprid, respectively. Minimum plant height (15.6cm), number of leaves (4), stalk length (12.33cm) diameter of flower stem (6.04mm) and delayed bulb sprouting (31 days) was observed in 0.1 g/L of salicylic acid. Improvement in vegetative characteristics shown by T2 plants revealed that gibberellic acid helped in dormancy breaking, cell division and elongation in actively growing plant parts (Kumar et al., 2013). As further result confirmed that the maximum leaf area (39.07cm2) was observed in control plants and treated plants didn’t show significant increase in leaf area, because of the use of energy in increasing plant height and number of leaves. Previous studies also showed that plants with more number of leaves had a less leaf area and color of the leaves was also lighter (Khangoli, 2001; Janowska and Jerzy, 2004). Moreover, the maximum amount of chlorophyll content (62) was observed in 160 g/L of humic acid followed by 5 g/L of chitosan, 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid and 19 g/L of Imidacloprid, respectively. Whereas, minimum amount of chlorophyll content was observed in 0.1 g/L of salicylic acid (58). Tulip bulbs treated with Humic acid effectively increased photosynthetic activity of the plant which in result increased the chlorophyll content of the leaves and produced more plant food. Leaf area of the humic acid treated plants was also increased as compared to other treatments that also caused an increase in the chlorophyll content of the leaves (Chanprasert et al., 2012; Salachna and Zawadzińska, 2014). Furthermore, bulb characteristics were also improved under the influence of priming. Maximum diameter (41mm) and weight of bulbs (26g) was observed in 0.15g/L of Gibberellic acid followed by 0.1g/L of salicylic acid, 5 g/L of chitosan, 19 g/L of Imidacloprid and 160 g/L of humic acid respectively. Whereas, minimum diameter (36mm) and weight (21g) of bulbs was observed in control treatment which proved the efficacy of primers in enhancing characteristics of tulip bulbs. Bulb diameter and weight was increased because of the presence of good amount of food in the bulb which helped in its growth (Arteca, 2013). Furthermore the number of daughter bulbs were maximum in 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid (4.22) and 5 g/L of Chitosan (4.22) followed by 0.1 g/L of salicylic acid and 160 g/L of Humic acid respectively. Minimum number of bulb-lets was observed in 19 g/l of Imidacloprid (3.11). Increased rate of cell division and multiplication, plus availability of good nutrition in bulbs helped to increase the number of daughter bulbs in the treated plants (Shakarami et al., 2013). Thus, results confirmed that 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid effectively improved both plant (figure 1) and bulb (figure 2) characteristics. Effect of priming on reproductive growth attributes: Results showed significant differences in plants for reproductive growth attributes in response to priming (table 2). Minimum days of bud formation (122 days) and flower opening stage (124 days) were showed by 5 g/L of chitosan followed by 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid, 160g/L of humic acid and 19 g/L of Imidacloprid, respectively. Whereas, 0.15 g/L of salicylic acid took maximum days in the formation (127 days) and opening (129 days) of flower buds. Chitosan helps plant in maintaining its vegetative and reproductive growth under stress conditions like drought and high temperature. As a result, the plant maintains its growth under stress conditions and give early flowers, because its reproductive growth attributes remain unaffected under any abiotic stress, as previously studied in orchid as well (Saniewska, 2001; Uthairatanakij et al., 2007). Moreover, the number of flowers per plant were maximum in 5 g/L of Chitosan (3.33) and 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid (3.33), followed by 160 g/L of humic acid. Whereas, 19 g/L of Imidacloprid (2.33) and 0.1 g/L of Salicylic acid (1.44) gave minimum flower yield. Along with enhancing the defense mechanism, chitosan also helped in increasing flower number in Freesia and other flowers, previously (Salachna and Zawadzińska, 2014). Furthermore, maximum fresh weight (33g) and dry weight of flower (2g) were observed in 0.15 g/L, of gibberellic acid followed by 5 g/L of chitosan, 160 g/L of humic acid and 19 g/L of imidacloprid, respectively. Minimum fresh weight of flower (12 g) and dry weight of flower (0.98 g) was observed in 0.1 g/L of salicylic acid. Gibberellic acid effectively increases plant height and diameter of stem that caused an increase in fresh and dry weight of flower due to presence of more plant nutrients and maintenance of turgidity. Diameter of the flower was maximum (40mm) in control plants, this showed priming of tulip bulbs didn’t have any effect on increasing flower size due to increase in flower number (Rashad et al., 2009; Hashemabadi, 2010). Thus, the aforementioned results confirmed that 5 g/L chitosan was most effective in improving floral attributes (figure 3) of tulip.Effect of priming on vase life: According to results (table 3), 5 g/L of Chitosan and 0.1 g/L of salicylic acid showed maximum vase life (8 days) followed by 19 g/L of imidacloprid, 0.15 g/L of gibberellic acid and 160 g/L of humic acid, respectively. Flowers under control treatment showed minimum vase life (6) as compared to treated plants. Chitosan improved the quality of flower by maintaining its size, color and freshness, but most importantly, it provided protection against many pathogenic fungi that can attack tulip and cause senescence of the flower. As a result of fungal protection and resistance against abiotic stresses, Tulip flower showed increased post-harvest quality and vase life (Saniewska, 2001). In Lilium flower it helped to decrease the production of ethylene and respiration rate and helped in increasing its vase life (Kim et al., 2004).CONCLUSIONPresent research proved that treatment of tulip bulbs with different primers at their best selected concentration levels was an effective method of enhancing early growth and yield in an area with relatively high temperature as compared to temperate region. The Tulip plants showed improvement in sprouting, plant height, number of leaves, chlorophyll content of leaf, leaf area, early flowering, flower size, number of flowers, stalk length, stem diameter, bulbs weight and diameter, number of bulb-lets and vase life. Thus, this method can be used in future for the production of Tulips under tropical and sub-tropical areas.CONFLICT OF INTERESTAuthors have no conflict of interest.REFERENCESAhmad, A., H. Rashid, R. Sajjad, S. Mubeen, B. Ajmal and M. Khan, 2014. Enhancing the vase life of tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) using various pulsing solutions of humic acid and npk. International journal of plant, animal environmental sciences, 4(2): 193-200.Ahsan, M., S. Rehman, A. Younis, A. Riaz, U. Tariq and R. Waqas, 2012. Different strategies to create earliness and enhance quality of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) cv. Single. Asian journal of pharmaceutical biological research, 2(1): 84-88.Anjum, S. A., L. Wang, J. Salhab, I. Khan and M. Saleem, 2010. An assessment of drought extent and impacts in agriculture sector in Pakistan. Journal of food, agriculture environment, 8(3/4 part 2): 1359-1363.Arteca, R. N., 2013. Plant growth substances: Principles and applications. Springer Science & Business Media.Baldotto, M. A., J. E. da Rocha, F. D. P. Andrade, M. P. Del Giúdice and L. E. B. Baldotto, 2016. The plant stimulant humic acid extracted from organic waste recycled by composting combined with liming and fertilization. Semina: Ciências Agrárias, 37(6): 3955-3963.Benschop, M., R. Kamenetsky, M. Le Nard, H. Okubo and A. De Hertogh, 2010. The global flower bulb industry: Production, utilization, research. Horticultural reviews, 36(1): 1-115.Buschman, J., 2004. Globalisation-flower-flower bulbs-bulb flowers. In: IX International Symposium on Flower Bulbs 673. pp: 27-33.Chanprasert, W., T. Myint, S. Srikul and O. Wongsri, 2012. Effect of thiamethoxam and imidacloprid treatment on germination and seedling vigour of dry-heated seed of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis jacq). African journal of agricultural research, 7(48): 6408-6412.De Klerk, G.-J., I. Delvallée and A. Paffen, 1992. Dormancy release of micropropagated bulblets of lilium speciosum after long culture in soil. HortScience, 27(2): 147-148.Hashemabadi, D., 2010. Yield and quality management of rose (Rosa hybrida cv. Poison) with plant growth regulators. Plant omics, 3(6): 167.Horii, A., P. McCue and K. Shetty, 2007. Enhancement of seed vigour following insecticide and phenolic elicitor treatment. Bioresource technology, 98(3): 623-632.Janowska, B. and M. Jerzy, 2004. Effect of gibberellic acid on the post-harvest flower longevity of Zantedeschia elliottiana (w. Wats) engl. Hortorum cultus, 3(1): 3-9.Jhon, A. and Neelofar, 2006. Tulip in: Bulbous ornamental and aquatic plants, advances in ornamental horticulture. Advances in ornamental horticulture, 3: 1-72.Khan, S., 2019. Climate classification of pakistan. International journal of economic environmental geology, 10(2): 60-71.Khangoli, S., 2001. Potential of growth regulators on control of size and flowering of ornamental plants. In: Proc. First applied Sciiences seminar on flowering and ornamental plants. Mahallat, Iran. pp: 75-76.Kim, J.-H., A.-K. Lee and J.-K. Suh, 2004. Effect of certain pre-treatment substances on vase life and physiological character in Lilium spp. In: IX international symposium on flower bulbs 673. pp: 307-314.Koksal, N., H. Gulen and A. Eris, 2011. Dormancy in tulip (tulipa gesneriana l.) bulbs and freesia (Freesia refracta Klatt.) corms: Changes in soluble proteins and apx activity. Journal of food, agriculture environment, 9(2): 535-539.Kumar, R., N. Ahmed, D. B. Singh, O. C. Sharma, S. Lal and M. M. Salmani, 2013. Enhancing blooming period and propagation coefficient of tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) using growth regulators. African journal of biotechnology, 12(2).Nakasha, J. J., U. R. Sinniah, A. Puteh and S. A. Hassan, 2014. Potential regulatory role of gibberellic and humic acids in sprouting of Chlorophytum borivilianum tubers. The scientific world journal, 1: 1-9.Nasir, E., Y. J. Nasir and R. Akhter, 1987. Wild flowers of rawalpindi-islamabd districts, national herbarium, PARC, garden graphics Ltd. Karachi, Pakistan.Nawaz, J., M. Hussain, A. Jabbar, G. A. Nadeem, M. Sajid, M. U. Subtain and I. Shabbir, 2013. International journal of agriculture crop sciences. 6(20): 1373.Ramzan, F., A. Younis, A. Riaz, S. Ali, M. I. Siddique and K.-B. Lim, 2014. Pre-planting exogenous application of gibberellic acid influences sprouting, vegetative growth, flowering, and subsequent bulb characteristics of ‘ad-rem’tulip. Horticulture, environment, biotechnology, 55(6): 479-488.Rashad, E.-S. M., M. S. A. Abd El-Wahed and A. A. Amin, 2009. Effect of-sitosterol and gibberellic acid on leaf angle, growth, flowering and biochemical constituents of marigold (Calendula officinalis L.). Medicinal aromatic plant science biotechnology, 3(1): 21-27.Reid, J. B., S. E. Davidson and J. J. Ross, 2011. Auxin acts independently of della proteins in regulating gibberellin levels. Plant signaling behavior, 6(3): 406-408.Salachna, P. and A. Zawadzińska, 2014. Effect of chitosan on plant growth, flowering and corms yield of potted freesia. Journal of ecological engineering, 15(3): 97-102.Saniewska, A., 2001. The effect of chitosan on limitation of growth and development of some pathogenic fungi for ornamental plants. Acta agrobotanica, 54(1): 17-29.Sarfaraz, S., M. H. Arsalan and H. Fatima, 2014. Regionalizing the climate of Pakistan using köppen classification system. Pakistan geographical review, 69: 111-132.Shakarami, K., R. Naderi, M. Babalar and Z. Hamzehei, 2013. The effect of different concentrations of gibberellic acid on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of three cultivars lacourtine, yokohama and red favourite tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.). Journal of ornamental plants, 3(4): 251-257.Singh, A., 2006. Flower crops: Cultivation and management. new India publishing.Steel, R. G., J. H. Torrie and D. A. Dickey, 1997. Principles and procedures of statistics: A biological approach. McGraw-Hill.Taylor, A., P. Allen, M. Bennett, K. Bradford, J. Burris and M. Misra, 1998. Seed enhancements. Seed science research, 8(2): 245-256.Uthairatanakij, A., J. Teixeira da Silva and K. Obsuwan, 2007. Chitosan for improving orchid production and quality. Orchid science biotechnology, 1(1): 1-5.Younis, A., A. Riaz, S. Saleem and M. Hameed, 2009. Potential use of wild flowers in urban landscape. In: II International Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture 881. pp: 229-233.

Economists agree that both monetary and fiscal policies can influence the pace of aggregate economic activity. However, their relative importance still remains a widely debated and complicated issue. Given the mushroom growth of different types of economic models, it seems almost impossible to decide their relative importance, at a purely theoretical level. So in this paper, we have tried to deal with this issue empirically in the context of Pakistan. In surveying the literature, we can find a number of empirical studies on this issue, but most of them are for the developed countries. Similar studies for the developing countries are rare. We have been able to find only two such studies for Pakistan, one by Hussain (1982) and the other by Masood and Ahmad (1980). The study by Hussain (1982) covers the period from 1949-50 to 1970-71, and the data used in this study pertain to united (East and West) Pakistan. So the results of his study can hardly be of much relevance to present Pakistan. Masood and Ahmad (1980) use data for present Pakistan from 1959-60 to 1976-77 in their study. They regress induced' expenditures on autonomous expenditures and money supply and assess the relative importance of the two exogeneous variables, on the basis of t-values and beta-coefficients. Their definition of induced and autonomous expenditures seems to be a little arbitrary. Agricultural income, an independent variable in their regressions, turns out to be a dominant variable in a number of equations. The negative sign of the autonomous expenditures in some regressions is difficult to justify. Their efforts, to determine the lag structure, have also been unsuccessful. Although their data are from many individual sources, they have not applied any formal tests to check the consistency of the data and the possible structural change that might have taken place due to the separation of East Pakistan.

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: sar@ccsenet.org &nbsp; Reviewers for Volume 10, Number 3 Giuseppina Migliore, University of Palermo, Italy Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University(GADVASU), India Katarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland Luciano Chi, Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute, Belize Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Maria L&uacute;cia Pato, CERNAS-IPV Research Centre, Portugal Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Nehemie Tchinda Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Cameroon Nicusor-Flavius Sima, University of Agricultural Studies and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania Ram Niwas, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, India Samuel Obae, University of Connecticut, United States Tenaw Workayehu, Hawassa Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: sar@ccsenet.org Reviewers for Volume 10, Number 2 Araya Ranok, Department of Applied Biology, Faculty Science and Liberal Arts, Thailand Cristina B. Pocol, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj Napoca, Romania Daniel L Mutisya, Kenya Agricultural &amp; Livestock Research Organization, Kenya Darwin Pangaribuan, Lampung University, Indonesia Gunnar Bengtsson, Sweden Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University (GADVASU), India Katarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland Khaled Sassi, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia, Tunisia Luciano Chi, Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute, Belize Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Ram Niwas, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, India Roberto Jos&eacute; Zoppolo, Instituto Nacional de Investigaci&oacute;n Agropecuaria (Uruguay), Uruguay Subhash Chand, Central Agricultural Research Institute CARI Port Blair, India

The history of Nezara viridula egg parasitoid introductions into Australia is critically reviewed. Using largely unpublished file material information is presented on the source of parasitoids, specific identification of parasitoids, numbers of parasitoids reared and released, and establishment and effects in the field. At least four species of egg parasitoids, in three genera, have been introduced and liberated into Australia since biological control efforts were first begun in 1933. There are records of 11 introductions involving Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) (Egypt 1933; West Indies 1952-53; South Africa 1980; Brazil 1980; U.S.A. 1979-8 l), Trissolcus mitsukurii (Ashmead) (Japan l962), Ooencyrtus submetallicus (Howard) (West Indies 1952-53), and Telenomus chloropus (Thomson) (Japan 1962; Japan via U.S.A. 1980). Doubt is cast on the specific status of introductions from Italy (1956) and Pakistan (1 961), which are recorded in the literature as T, basalis. Evidence is presented that there is currently not enough information available to determine the specific classifications of these importations. Three programs in which Australian field populations of Trissolcus were bred and released elsewhere in Australia are also recorded. Post-release evaluation of introduced N. viridula egg parasitoids in Australia is reviewed. It is proposed that there is only circumstantial evidence to support the claim that N. viridula is under 'good' biological control by T. basalis in Australia. Areas of investigation that are of the most significance to current workers in N. viridula biological control are highlighted in the discussion.

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/sar/editor/recruitment and e-mail the completed application form to sar@ccsenet.org. &nbsp; Reviewers for Volume 8, Number 3 Anchal Dass, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), India Baoubadi Atozou, Laval University, Canada Darwin Pangaribuan, Lampung University, Indonesia Entessar Mohammad Al JBawi, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Syria Kassim Adekunle Akanni, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria Katarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Maren Langhof, Julius K&uuml;hn-Institut, Germany Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Nehemie Tchinda Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Cameroon Stefano Marino, University of Molise, Italy Tenaw Workayehu, Hawassa Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia

Intercropping is considered as an improved system of multiple cropping systems which safeguards crop stand and improves crop production. The main goal of intercropping is to produce high yield from piece of a land by judicious use of available resources which otherwise may not be exploited by a single crop. A study was executed to investigate productivity and resource use in a maize–grain legume intercropping at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during 2017 and 2018. Experimental treatments included maize, mungbean, mash-bean, and cowpea monocultures (sole crops), and intercropping combinations of maize + mungbean, maize + mash-bean, and maize + cowpea. Highest maize grain yield was observed in maize sole cropping (6520 and 6813 kg ha-1) and maize + mungbean intercropping (6375 and 6542 kg ha-1) during 2017 and 2018 growing seasons, respectively. Maximum seed yield in grain legumes was observed in mung and mash bean sole cropping during both years. Land equivalent ratio (LER) was maximum in maize + cowpea (1.83 and 1.87) and maize + mungbean intercropping (1.77 and 1.80) during both years, respectively. Maximum net economic return (ER) of PKR 134158 ha-1 (≈900 USD) was obtained from maize + mash bean intercropping system with highest benefit cost ratio (2.03) during 2017 while PKR 149358 ha-1 (≈1003 USD) along with benefit cost ratio (2.15) during 2018. Overall, LER and ER results indicated that maize-grain legume intercropping systems were beneficial in terms of land resource utilization and economic returns. The maize-grain legume intercropping systems are more sustainable option for small land-holding farmers in Pakistan. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers

International Journal of Statistics and Probability wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal is greatly appreciated. Many authors, regardless of whether International Journal of Statistics and Probability publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Reviewers for Volume 8, Number 2 Abdullah A. Smadi, Yarmouk University, Jordan Afsin Sahin, Gazi University, Turkey Carla J. Thompson, University of West Florida, USA Chin-Shang Li, School of Nursing, USA Gabriel A. Okyere, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Hui Zhang, St. Jude Children&rsquo;s Research Hospital, USA Nahid Sanjari Farsipour, Alzahra University, Iran Philip Westgate, University of Kentucky, USA Sajid Ali, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan Shatrunjai Pratap Singh, John Hancock Financial Services, USA Wei Zhang, The George Washington University, USA Weizhong Tian, Eastern New Mexico University, USA Wojciech Gamrot, University of Economics, Poland Zaixing Li, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), China &nbsp; Wendy Smith On behalf of, The Editorial Board of International Journal of Statistics and Probability Canadian Center of Science and Education

The book under review is a comparative study of agricultural development in the Indian (East) and Pakistani (West) Punjab. Although the growth of agricultural output and productivity in the two Punjabs was about the same between 1950 and 1965, it became significantly higher in East Punjab than West Punjab in the period that followed, with the result that the Indian Punjab enjoyed productivity levels in 1985 which were double those of the Pakistani Punjab. As the two Punjabs offer a sort of laboratory to gauge the agro-ecological conditions as well as the language and cultural traditions, any differences in their development experience must be explained by reference to the divergent economic policies towards agriculture followed there. Sims thinks that development experiences of the two Punjabs can be attributed to a political dichotomy and the consequent role of the political leadership in the formulation of economic policies. In the case of Pakistan, the Muslim League lacked mass support in the rural areas. Its middle class forces and political institutions were weak, with a predominance of landed aristocracy and bureaucrats. As a consequence, there was hardly any zest for democratic rule. By contrast, the Congress Party, under the charismatic leadership of Nehru, enjoyed full support of the rural masses. At the national level, it was devoid oflanded interests and created a new administrative class to run government affairs.

At the time of the birth of India and Pakistan, the state of J&K with a population of four million people, most of it concentrated in the fertile valley of the Jhelum River of the Indus River system, was one of the least developed regions in the Indian sub-continent. The economy of the state was overwhelmingly rural and agricultural in character. Nearly 90 percent of people lived in villages and derived their livelihood from agricultural and related pursuits using traditional and low productivity techniques. The extreme backwardness of the state was reflected by the abysmal mass poverty, low literacy, high birth and death rate, low life expectancy, low population density etc. The size of population and its growth have a direct bearing on the economic development, social well being and political stability of a region. The history of population growth in the Jammu and Kashmir State is a record of constant impulses of immigration from the north-west, west-south and east directions. The main objective of the paper is to look the nature and trends of population change since the birth of Jammu and Kashmir and also examine thedemographic trends in view of historical perspectives of Jammu & Kashmir State. The State has great diversity in its terrain, climatic conditions and resource base which resulted uneven distribution of population.

Abstract A pot experiment was conducted in the Old Botanical Garden, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, to assess the effect of zinc uptake on morphological, physiological and yield attributes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Two varieties of wheat, i.e. W-141 and W-142, procured from Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), Faisalabad, Pakistan, were used during this study. The soil used during experiment was field soil from university fields having sandy loam texture. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) with five treatments and four replicates. Different treatments of zinc were applied on different intervals. After 25 and 35 days of germination, the plants were subjected to three levels of ZnSO4 (0, 400 mgL−1, 600 mgL−1). During the experiment, the harvests were taken after 10 days of intervals for morphological and physiological analysis. After the maturity of plants, final harvest was taken and yield attributes were recorded. Data of various morphological, physiological and yield attributes were statistically analyzed. The results showed that zinc toxicity had adverse effects on the wheat varieties. The variety W-141 was a little bit tolerant to zinc toxicity, as per shown by the results, as compared to W-142, which suffered by the toxicity of zinc. It was also revealed by the results that zinc affects the morphological, physiological and yield attributes of wheat when applied in toxic concentration.

SUMMARY Effect of different row directions on yield and yield components of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) was studied in a field experiment at National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan, during spring 1991 and 1992. Four row directions, i.e., north-south (NS), east-west (EW), north eastsouth west (NESW) and north west-south east (NWSE) had very little effect on seed yield and other agronomic characters of sunflower. The differences in the mean plant height, head diameter, seed yield, 100-achene weight and fatty acid profile were statistically non-significant. Trends were similar in both years. As an average of the two years, although statistically non-significant, the highest seed yield of 3065 kg/ha was obtained from north east-south west (NESW) row direction and the lowest yield of 2624 kg/ha from east-west (EW) row direction. The most pronounced effect of row direction was noted on seed moisture content. As an average of the two years, the maximum seed moisture content at harvest (21.4%) was obtained from east-west (EW) row direction and the minimum (14.6%) from north-south (NS) row direction. NESW row direction also gave significantly lower moisture content (15.1%) than EW (21.4%) and NWSE (18.1%) row directions. Therefore, using north-south and NESW row directions would help the crop to dry more quickly before harvest and reduce post harvest costs and losses. Seed production fields that require examination of sunflower heads to detect pollen production should be planted in NS rows for efficient roguing to maintain genetic purity. For research plots, EW rows with plot labels on the east end are often preferred, because it is easier to evaluate most plots when all heads face the viewer.

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/sar/editor/recruitment and e-mail the completed application form to sar@ccsenet.org. &nbsp; Reviewers for Volume 7, Number 4 Aftab Alam, Edenworks Inc. New York, United States Benedict Jonathan Kayombo, Botswana College of Agriculture, Botswana Beye Amadou Moustapha, Rice Research Center, Cote d&#39;Ivoire Daniel L Mutisya, Kenya Agricultural &amp; Livestock Research Organization, Kenya Dietrich Darr, Hochschule Rhein-Waal, Germany Entessar Mohammad Al JBawi, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Syria Esther Shekinah Durairaj, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, USA Giuseppina Migliore, University of Palermo, Italy Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University, India Katarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Mehmet Yagmur, Ahi Evran University, Turkey Mirela Kopjar, University of Osijek, Croatia Mirza Hasanuzzaman, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Bangladesh Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Nehemie Tchinda Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Cameroon Raghuveer Sripathi, Advanta US, Inc., USA Ram Niwas, District Institute of Rural Development, India Roberto Jos&eacute; Zoppolo, Instituto Nacional de Investigaci&oacute;n Agropecuaria, Uruguay Samuel Obae, University of Connecticut, United States Samuel Pare, University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Stefano Marino, University of Molise, Italy Tenaw Workayehu, Hawassa Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: sar@ccsenet.org Reviewers for Volume 9, Number 1 Ahmed Elamrani, Universit&eacute; Mohamed Premier, Morocco Anchal Dass, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), India Bed Mani Dahal, Kathmandu University, Nepal Dietrich Darr, Hochschule Rhein-Waal, Germany Gema Parra, Universidad de Ja&eacute;n, Spain Gunnar Bengtsson, Sweden Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University(GADVASU), India Kassim Adekunle Akanni, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria Katarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland Khaled Sassi, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia, Tunisia Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Marcelo Augusto Gon&ccedil;alves Bardi, Universidade Sao Francisco, Brazil Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Ram Niwas, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, India Ram Swaroop Jat, ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, India Subhash Chand, Central Agricultural Research Institute CARI Port Blair, India Tenaw Workayehu, Hawassa Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia Vishwambhar Prasad Sati, Government KRG Post Graduate College, India

International Journal of Statistics and Probability wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal is greatly appreciated. Many authors, regardless of whether International Journal of Statistics and Probability publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Reviewers for Volume 8, Number 6 &nbsp; Carla J. Thompson, University of West Florida, USA Felix Almendra-Arao, UPIITA del Instituto Polit&eacute;cnico Nacional , M&eacute;xico Gabriel A. Okyere, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Kassim S. Mwitondi, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Krishna K. Saha, Central Connecticut State University, USA Mohieddine Rahmouni, University of Tunis, Tunisia Nahid Sanjari Farsipour, Alzahra University, Iran Olusegun Michael Otunuga, Marshall University, USA Philip Westgate, University of Kentucky, USA Sajid Ali, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan Shatrunjai Pratap Singh, John Hancock Financial Services, USA Tom&aacute;s R. Cotos-Y&aacute;&ntilde;ez, University of Vigo, Spain Vyacheslav Abramov, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Wei Zhang, The George Washington University, USA Weizhong Tian, Eastern New Mexico University, USA Wojciech Gamrot, University of Economics, Poland &nbsp; Wendy Smith On behalf of, The Editorial Board of International Journal of Statistics and Probability Canadian Center of Science and Education

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please contact us for the application form at: sar@ccsenet.org &nbsp; Reviewers for Volume 9, Number 2 Adel Khashaveh, Islamic Azad University, Iran Darwin Pangaribuan, Lampung University, Indonesia Dietrich Darr, Hochschule Rhein-Waal, Germany Entessar Mohammad Al JBawi, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Syria Francesco Sunseri, Universit&agrave; Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Italy Gema Parra, Universidad de Ja&eacute;n, Spain Giuseppina Migliore, University of Palermo, Italy Gunnar Bengtsson, Sweden Inder Pal Singh, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University (GADVASU), India Isaac Danso, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Oil Palm Research Institute, Ghana Kassim Adekunle Akanni, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria Katarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland Manuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal Maren Langhof, Julius K&uuml;hn-Institut, Germany Murtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Pakistan Nehemie T. Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Cameroon Nicusor-Flavius Sima, University of Agricultural Studies and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania Sait Engindeniz, Ege University Faculty of Agriculture, Turkey Stefano Marino, University of Molise, Italy Subhash Chand, Central Agricultural Research Institute CARI Port Blair, India Suheb Mohammed, University of Virginia, United States Tenaw Workayehu, Hawassa Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia

This research was conducted on a farm of Payam-e-Noor University in Piranshahr, in West Azerbaijan province of Iran, during 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 crop sessions to investigate the wheat physiological traits response to standard and ecological agricultural systems. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot design with two factors and three replications. The first factor, which was considered the main plot, included high, low-input, and ecological agricultural systems. Subplots were seed pre-treatment, including control (without priming), hydro priming, and food priming with ascorbate. The results showed that the least photosynthesis rate and mesophilic conductance were related to low-input agricultural system; however, in the ecological system, the transpiration, substomatal carbon dioxide, and water use efficiency of photosynthesis were the lowest. Also, seed priming increased the photosynthesis rate, mesophilic conductivity, and water use efficiency of photosynthesis.

It is always a pleasure for me to participate in these annual meetings. The knowledge and the talent displayed are immense. The quality of discussion is high. I had never thought however that I would have the honor of delivering the Aalama Iqbal lecture. To prepare for this lecture I read extensively from Iqbal’s poetry. Of course I read in translation, but even so I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the ideas and the expression. My search for an apt couplet or set of lines for this paper was in vain. Iqbal was speaking to his people and although he was expansive in his view of society, it is still not meant for me to carry the word of Iqbal to you. Nevertheless I do display at the beginning of this paper three lines from Iqbal. He is clear on the importance of doing for oneself and for ones country. At least in the modern world ones efforts are so much more productive if government provides a favourable environment for individual effort. And he would embrace the brotherhood of mankind, leaving some potential for us to help each other. He was very clear that learning from the West was desirable, and he was very selective about that—science and technology in particular. My paper is about what government must do, and specifically the government of Pakistan must do, to create an environment in which not just a few gather dew but in which all people gather dew. As soon as ones concern encompasses the bulk of the population food security comes to the fore. My paper can be seen as addressing how all rural people can gather the dew. It has a prominent place for science and technology.

International Journal of Statistics and Probability wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal is greatly appreciated. Many authors, regardless of whether International Journal of Statistics and Probability publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Reviewers for Volume 8, Number 5 Abdullah A. Smadi, Yarmouk University, Jordan Carla J. Thompson, University of West Florida, USA Chin-Shang Li, School of Nursing, USA Encarnaci&oacute;n Alvarez-Verdejo, University of Granada, Spain Felix Almendra-Arao, UPIITA del Instituto Polit&eacute;cnico Nacional , M&eacute;xico Gabriel A. Okyere, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Gane Samb Lo, University Gaston Berger, SENEGAL Gennaro Punzo, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy Gerardo Febres, Universidad Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var, Venezuela Ivair R. Silva, Federal University of Ouro Preto &ndash; UFOP, Brazil Mingao Yuan, North Dakota State University, USA Philip Westgate, University of Kentucky, USA Qingyang Zhang, University of Arkansas, USA Sajid Ali, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan Sohair F. Higazi, University of Tanta, Egypt Subhradev Sen, Alliance University, India Vyacheslav Abramov, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Wei Zhang, The George Washington University, USA Yuvraj Sunecher, University of Technology Mauritius, Mauritius Zaixing Li, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), China &nbsp; Wendy Smith On behalf of, The Editorial Board of International Journal of Statistics and Probability Canadian Center of Science and Education

International Journal of Statistics and Probability wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal is greatly appreciated. Many authors, regardless of whether International Journal of Statistics and Probability publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Reviewers for Volume 8, Number 5 Abdullah A. Smadi, Yarmouk University, Jordan Carla J. Thompson, University of West Florida, USA Chin-Shang Li, School of Nursing, USA Encarnaci&oacute;n Alvarez-Verdejo, University of Granada, Spain Felix Almendra-Arao, UPIITA del Instituto Polit&eacute;cnico Nacional , M&eacute;xico Gabriel A. Okyere, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Gane Samb Lo, University Gaston Berger, SENEGAL Gennaro Punzo, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy Gerardo Febres, Universidad Sim&oacute;n Bol&iacute;var, Venezuela Ivair R. Silva, Federal University of Ouro Preto &ndash; UFOP, Brazil Mingao Yuan, North Dakota State University, USA Philip Westgate, University of Kentucky, USA Qingyang Zhang, University of Arkansas, USA Sajid Ali, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan Sohair F. Higazi, University of Tanta, Egypt Subhradev Sen, Alliance University, India Vyacheslav Abramov, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Wei Zhang, The George Washington University, USA Yuvraj Sunecher, University of Technology Mauritius, Mauritius Zaixing Li, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), China &nbsp; Wendy Smith On behalf of, The Editorial Board of International Journal of Statistics and Probability Canadian Center of Science and Education

During a survey in May 2011, tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) plants were observed exhibiting wilt symptoms on the vegetable farm of the University of the Punjab Lahore (31°32′59″ N, 74°20′37″ E), Pakistan. Plants were pale yellow and stunted. Diseased plants were scattered in the field either singly or in groups of two or three. Lower leaves turned yellow following necrosis and shedding from the plants. Roots of diseased plants were dark brown in comparison to the healthy ones. Vascular browning was observed when infected stems were split longitudinally and sectioned transversely. Necrotic vascular strands were also observed in infected stems. With a stereoscope, white hyphae were noticed in the vascular region of infected plants. Stained cross sections of stems of wilted plants showed fungal hypha. A diseased plant sample was taken to the First Fungal Culture Bank of Pakistan (FCBP) for identification of the pathogen. Conidia appeared on potato dextrose agar after incubation in diurnal light, and were unicellular, smooth, thin-walled, and oval in shape (3 to 6 × 1 to 3 μm), forming aggregations on the tip of conidiophores. With the help of diagnostic keys and available literature, the isolated fungus was identified as Acremonium strictum W. Gams. The fungus formed whitish flat colonies with deposition of gum granules on its surface. Hyphae and phialides were hyaline and non-pigmented. Phialides with expanded bottoms were elongated measuring 25 to 40 μm and solitary in position at right angles to the filament. To further confirm identification, amplification of the ITS1 and ITS2 regions was performed with universal primers ITS1 and ITS4 (4). The ITS sequence obtained was submitted to NCBI as accession JQ916901. The culture was deposited in FCBP (1099), Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab, Pakistan. A pathogenicity test of the isolated fungus was performed by inoculating 15 healthy tomato plants cv. Rio Grande in three replicates. The spore suspension (2 × 105 conidia/ml of sterile distilled water) was prepared from 12-day-old cultures of the fungus grown from a single spore on PDA in continuous light. Control plants were treated with sterile distilled water. Tomato plants inoculated with the fungus started showing wilting symptoms within 2 weeks, while the control remained healthy. A. strictum was re-isolated from inoculated wilted plants, thus satisfying Koch's postulates. Previously, A. strictum was a reported cause of wilt in many plants including Chrysanthemum maximum (2), watermelon (1), and Gladiolous grandiflorus (3). To our knowledge, wilt in tomatoes has been reported only from Fusarium oxysporum and Pseudomonas solanacearum from Pakistan. To our knowledge, this is the first record of Acremonium wilt in this economically important crop. References: (1) B. D. Bruton et al. Plant Dis. 79:754, 1995. (2) A. R. Chase. Calif. Agric. 32(10):21, 1978. (3) E. Gonzalez-Perez. J. Plant Pathol. 90:586, 2008. (4) T. J. White et al. Pages 315-322 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1990.

The residual effects of winter-sown forage mixtures grown in the northern rainfed parts of Punjab province and south-eastern North West Frontier Province in Pakistan were examined. Studies were carried out during 1994–97 primarily at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, which has an annual rainfall of around 1000 mm and, secondarily, at a much drier site at the Arid Zone Research Centre (AZRC) at Quetta. Common vetch (V), barley (B), and their mixtures at seed ratios of V75B25, V50B50, and V25B75 were sown and 3 harvest time treatments (pre-flowering, full flowering, and maturity) were imposed. Sorghum, and then wheat, were grown as succeeding crops to monitor the residual effects of the introduction and management of legume forage mixtures. Significant residual effects on the dry matter production and nitrogen (N) content of sorghum (P < 0·01) were observed at both NARC and AZRC following different vetch/barley seed ratio treatments. Sorghum dry matter yield after pure vetch and after the mixture ratio treatment of V75B25 was higher (4·5 t/ha) than after other mixtures and it was lowest after sole barley (2·5 t/ha). The N taken up by the sorghum after pure vetch amounted to 56 kg/ha and after pure barley was 25 kg/ha. Nitrogen yield from the sorghum decreased with increasing amount of barley in the mixture. There were no apparent effects of the previous harvest time treatments imposed on the forages. Differences in dry matter production and N content in wheat following sorghum at NARC were just detectable after different vetch/barley seed ratios. The greatest amount of dry matter (>4 t/ha) with an N content of 29 kg/ha was found following pure vetch and sorghum and the lowest dry matter (3·4 t/ha) and N (23 kg/ha) following pure barley and sorghum. At AZRC, the same trends in sorghum were observed as at NARC but with reduced yields due to the substantially lower and less well distributed rainfall and suboptimal temperatures, which restricted the productivity of the initial crops in the sequence.

Sustainable Agriculture Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated.Sustainable Agriculture Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/sar/editor/recruitment and e-mail the completed application form to sar@ccsenet.org. Reviewers for Volume 7, Number 3Entessar Mohammad Al JBawi, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, SyriaKatarzyna Panasiewicz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, PolandManuel Teles Oliveira, University Tras os Montes Alto Douro, PortugalMaren Langhof, Julius Kühn-Institut, GermanyMirela Kopjar, University of Osijek, CroatiaMurtazain Raza, Subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, PakistanNasim Ahmad Yasin, University of the Punjab Lahore Pakistan, PakistanNehemie Tchinda Donfagsiteli, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, CameroonRaghuveer Sripathi, Advanta US, Inc., USARam Swaroop Jat, ICAR-Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, IndiaS. Dharumarajan, Scientist, National Bureau of soil survey and land use planning, Bangalore, IndiaSalvatore Tinervia, University of Study of Palermo, Italy

On June 22, Cand. Agric. Jan &Aring;ge Riseth successfully defended his dissertation "Sami reindeer management under technological change 1960-1990: Implications for Common-Pool Resource Use Under Various Natural And Institutional Conditions. A comparative analysis of regional development paths in West Finnmark, North Tr&oslash;ndelag, and South Tr&oslash;ndelag/Hedmark, Norway." for the degree Dr. Scient, at the Agricultural University of Norway (AUN), Dept. of Economics and Social Sciences.