Samer Kiwan^*(1) Nadim Khalil⁽²⁾ and Bayan Muzher⁽³⁾

(1). Sweida Agriculture Research Center, General Commission for Agriculture Scientific Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.
(2). Soil Sciences Department, Faculty of Agriulture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syria.
                                                            (*Corresponding author: samer.kiwan@yahoo.com).

Received: 16/12/2017                             Accepted: 06/07/2018

Abstract

The study was carried out in apple orchard and at the laboratories of Agricultural Scientific Research Center, and Pome and Grapevine Division in Sweida (GCSAR), Syria, during the growing seasons of 2015 and 2016 to study the effect of organic residues, and boron and zinc addition on some soil characters, fruit set ratio and some fruits qualitative traits in Starking delicious apple cultivar in Sweida. The results revealed a significant decrease in soil-pH. And an increase in organic matter content compared with other treatments. A significant increase was observed in boron and zinc contents with the addition of organic residues and foliar spray application of boron and zinc (0.95 and 1.805 mg/kg, respectively), compared to control (0.505 and 0.926 mg/kg, respectively). The results revealed a significant increase in the rate of fruitlets in organic residues and foliar spray of boron and zinc together (38.18 %) compared with control (13.93%), while a significant increase was noticed in fruit weight in foliar spray of boron and foliar spray of zinc (236.8 g and 220.6 g, respectively), compared with control (187.9 g). The results revealed a significant increase in fruit firmness in organic manure and foliar spray of boron and zinc (8.087 kg/cm 2), and total soluble solids (15.22%) compared with other treatments. On the other hand, organic residues with foliar spray application of boron and organic residues with foliar spray of boron and zinc significantly achieved the highest value in total sugars (13.17% and 13.93 %, respectively) compared to the control (11.03%), while the results showed a significant increase in titratable acidity in the control (0.30%) compared to the other treatments. Consequently, the result showed that the addition of these fertilizers improves some soil characteristic, rate of fruitlets and some of the quantitative and qualitative traits of apple fruits.
Keywords: Apple, Foliar spray, Fruit set, Organic manure, Boron, Zinc.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Zuheir Shater^*(1) Bassima Al Chikh⁽¹⁾ and Dimah Najjar⁽¹⁾

(1). Department of Forestry and Ecology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Dr. Zuheir Shater. E-Mail: zuheirshater@yahoo.com).

Received: 18/02/2018                     Accepted: 12/05/2018

Abstract

The aim of this study was to study the plant species diversity at Al-Kahaf protected area in A-Sheikh Badr region, Tartous governorate, in terms of functional characteristics of the recorded plant species, its uses. The results can contribute in understanding, and determining the role of those plant species for ecosystem function and local community and help in the management of this protected area. Plant species diversity was studied on three versants; using the intercepted line method; and in the watercourses surrounding Al Kahaf castle. Additional surveys have also been conducted over the whole site. Life forms, dispersal types, and the uses of these species were recorded. The recorded species belong to 53 plant family. Fabaceae was the most represented family (17 species), followed by Asteraceae (12 species), and Lamiaceae (11 species). The number of families represented by one species was 29 species. The dominance life form on different slopes of the studied site was herbs (H) of 52%, followed by trees (T) 18%, shrub (S) and bulbs (B) of 11% for each, and liants (L) of 7%. The zoochores were the most present dispersal type on the studied versants of (57%), followed by barochores (22%), then anemochores (21%). On the other hand, the study recorded 56 medicinal species, 33 were ornamental species, 30 were grazing species, and 27 were edible species, while the number of poisonous species was 7 species, representing 37, 21, 20, 18 and 4% of the total number of species respectively. The results of this study can be incorporated into the management plan of the protected area.
Key Words: Al Kahaf reserve, Life form, Dispersal type, Slope effect, Plant biodiversity, Syria.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Haitham Abdul Sattar AL Mamarry^*(1) Wathek Abdul Majeed⁽¹⁾ Aziz Hameid Majeed⁽¹⁾ Saleh Kalel Saleh⁽¹⁾ and Raed Jasem Mahammed⁽¹⁾

(1). Agriculture Science Directorate, Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Haitham Abdul Sattar AL Mamarry.
                                                                                                   E-Mail: abd.hethem@yahoo.com).

Received: 26/03/2018                     Accepted: 06/09/2018

Abstract

Six inbred lines of maize namely; A (1), B (2), C (3), D (4), E (5) and F (6) were used in half diallel cross. The seeds of inbred lines and its single cross hybrids were cultivated in an experiment using randomized completely block design (RCBD) with three replicates, at Twaitha Research Station, Plant Breeding Improvement Center, Iraq, during autumn season (2016). The parents and F1 were significantly differed at 5% for number of days to tasseling and silking, plant height (cm), ear diameter (cm) and yield per plant. Some hybrids showed a significant desirable heterosis for studied traits such as days to tasseling and silking. While plant height and yield per plant for all hybrids showed a significant desirable heterosis (deviation of F1 from mid parents). The mean squares of general and specific combining ability were highly significant for all traits. The additive and dominance variances were differed from zero for all studied traits. The broad sense heritability values ​​were high for all studied traits. Narrow sense heritability was moderate for number of days to tasseling, plant height and ear diameter, but it was low for number of days to silking and yield per plant. The average degree of dominance was higher than one for all traits.
Key words: Heterosis, Combining ability, Gene action, Genetic parameters, Zea mays.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Manar Mohammad Alreyahi⁽¹⁾ and Majd Mohammad Darwish^*(1)

(1). Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syria.

(* Corresponding author: Dr. Majd Darwish. E-mail: majds26@yahoo.com).

Received: 05/06/2018                     Accepted: 05/08/2018

Abstract

The research was carried out at Al Qardaha and Banias regions in the Syrian coast, according to the randomized complete block design RCBD, with three replicates, during the season (2016/2017). The effect of site on plant growth, development and productivity traits of faba bean hybrid (Super Simonia) have been studied by measuring some of phenological traits (days from planting to germination, and days from planting to flowering), vegetative growth and productivity parameters (number of branches pods/plant, number of seed/pod and 100 seeds weight) and seed total protein content (%). The results showed a significant difference in the response of Super Simonia hybrid in growth and development traits under two sites (Al Qardaha and Banias) conditions, and the plants in Banias site were significantly superior in most of the studied parameters. The research concluded to greater compatibility when Italian faba bean hybrid (Super Simonia) was cultivated under Banias site conditions as compared to Al Qardaha site, according to that the faba hybrid could be planted in Banias region and other areas which have similar environmental conditions.
Keywords: Vicia faba L., Syrian coast, Productivity, Total protein.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Mohamed Abd Elaziz⁽¹⁾ and Mohamed Nael Khattab^*(2)

(1). Crops Field Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syia.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Mohamed Nael Khattab. E-Mail: aboalabd876@gmail.com).

Received: 08/06/2017                          Accepted: 19/09/2017

Abstract

Nine Syrian cotton genotypes i.e. Aleppo 33/1, Aleppo 118, Aleppo 90, Aleppo 40, Aleppo 124 Rakka5, Deir Al-Zour 22, Line 106 and Rusafa, were used for statistical and genetic analysis for productivity and some chemical indicators of seeds: Lint percentage%, cotton weight per plant/g, percent of oil in seeds and pulp, percent of protein in seeds and pulp, percent of humidity in seeds and pulp, to explore the potentiality of the genotypes in the studied region, and to establish a program for the production of cotton and seeds, also to determine the selective indecies to be used to improve cotton productivity and seed components, using randomized complete block design with three replications. The experiment was conducted in Salhab village, Al-Ghab region, Hama governorate, Syria, during 2015 season. Analysis of variance indicated that the genotypes differ significantly at 5% for all studied characters, except for percentages of protein and moisture of cotton seeds core. This revealed large differences between genotypes in all traits. The genotypes i.e. Aleppo 40, Raqqa 5 and Aleppo 118 surpassed significantly the other genotype in all studied traits, and had high heritability values. Allepo40 gave the highest percentage of protein in seeds (28.37%), and moisture in seeds (8.57%), while Rakka5 resulted the highest oil and core protein percentages in seeds (21.67%, and 35,6%), respectively, but, Allepo118 had the highest oil percentage of seeds core (40.53%), pulp moisture (9.31%) and plant productivity (128.13 g). The heritability values for all studied characters ranged from 0.5 to 0.75. An increase in the percentage of oil and protein in the pulp compared to the seeds was noticed. The increment percentage in oil was 64.46% in Raqqa5 to 99.38% in Aleppo90, but the increase percentage in protein was 21.50% in Aleppo40 to 43.12% in Allepo124, this indicates the genetic variability between genotypes in the studied traits. The oil percentage was higher than protein in the seeds and pulp, also the percentage of increase for both. The average increase in oil and protein in the pulp and seed were (84.3% 30.97%, respectively). Some selection indices were detected depending on the positive significant correlation of some traits, especially lint percentage with cotton productivity (r²=0.437*). The cluster analysis showed a significant genetic diversity between the studied genotypes, this led to a fruitful hybridization in order to obtain high hybrid vigor.
Keywords: Cotton, Heritability, Genetic advance, Correlation coefficient.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Mohamed Abd Elaziz ^*(1)

(1). Field Crops Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia. Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Mohammad Abd-Al Azzi. E-Mail: mabdelaziz74@hotmail.com).

Received: 10/11/2017                    Accepted: 18/03/2018

Abstract

The research was carried out during 2015 and 2016 seasons at Arab El-Mulk village, Banias district, in Tartous Governorate, to study the effect of planting peanut seeds size (mixture, small, medium and large), and spraying plants with bread yeast (Saccaromyces serevisiae) concentration of (4%) in three treatments (control, once and twice), on biological yield (BY), Economic yield (EY) and some physiological indicators; yield index (YI), Harvest index (HI), crop index (CI) and seed index (SI). The experiment design was set as split plot in a randomized complete block with four replications. The seeds size considered the main factor, while spraying yeast allocated the sub plots. The results showed that seed size caused significant increases in all of the studied indicators. The large seeds gave better values of (BY) 210 g, (HI) 30.56%, (CI) 44.12%, (SI) 74.85 g, except (EY) compared with mix, small and med seeds. Also the results showed that there were no significant increase between mixture and medium seed size in (YE) and (HI), but there was a significant increase in (BY) and (SI), on the other hand the treatments; spray yeast for once and twice had significant increases compared to the control, and the twice yeast spraying gave better values (215.22 g ,63.98 g, 29.64%, 42.37 % and 73.45g ) of (BY , EY ,HI, CI and SI) respectively, compared to the control. The interaction between seeds size and bread yeast spraying caused a significant increase which achieved 15.78 % in (BY), 23.99 % in (EY), 9.74 in (HI), 13.68% in (CY) and 7.87g in (SI) compared to the interaction between untreated treatment and small seeds size.
Key words: Peanut plant, Seeds size, Bread yeast, Biological yield, Harvest yield.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Jamila Dirbas^*(1) 

(1). Cotton Research Administration, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural    Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Jamila Dirbas. Email: jamila.dirbas@gmail.com).
       

Received: 05/08/2017                            Accepted: 14/12/2017

Abstract

The research was carried out at Tal Hedya Research Center in Aleppo, General Commission for Agriculture Scientific Research (GCSAR), Syria, during 2011 and 2012 seasons. Seven genotypes of cotton were used, and complete diallel hybridization was made to study general and specific combining ability of some productivity traits (sympodial branch number, actual boll number and seed cotton yield). General combining ability (GCA) indicated that the parental genotype Cherpan432 had a high significant GCA for sympodial branch number and actual boll number, but the parents Aleppo118 and Deir El-Zour22 had the high GCA for seed cotton yield. This is a clear indication that these parental genotypes had the largest number of additive genes action, which plays important role in the inheritance of the above-mentioned traits. The estimation of SCA values showed favorite and high significant values in many hybrids resulted from parents, which had highly significant GCA, which means that the gene action type is (additive x additive), and this refers that these hybrids possessing the largest number of additive genes. High heritability broad sense refers to importance of genetic variance in the inheritance of all characters, but heritability in narrow sense values were low in general, indicating the importance of dominance and epistasis genes in the inheritance. According to this result it is recommended to  follow  the cross method for improvement of the studied traits.                     Key words: Cotton, Productivity traits, Combining ability, Heritability.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Eyad Ahmad Elkhaled^*(1) Omar Hasson⁽²⁾ Basel Waked⁽²⁾ Jalal Ghazaleh⁽³⁾ Ali Ismail⁽¹⁾ Ghadir Hmeidan⁽¹⁾

(1). General Organization of Remote Sensing (GOSR), Damascus, Syria.
(2). Directorate of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Sweida, Syria.
(3). Directorate of Planning and International Corporation, Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MAAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Eyad Al Khaled. E-Mail: dr.eyadalkhaled@gmail.com).

Received: 05/08/2017                      Accepted: 14/12/2017

Abstract

Remote sensing is one of most important technology that provides information on large areas in a short time. The study was carried out in Sweida governorate with the aim of calculating the area of strategic crops and its distribution for the agricultural season 2014/2015 by classifying satellite images-type (BKA). The images were received by the station at General Organization for Remote Sensing in Damascus, Syria. The spatial resolution of the satellite BELARUSIAN SPACECRAFT is 10.2 meters. The results showed that the spread of the three crops (wheat, barley and chickpea) was generally on the four sides of the governorate, especially barley crop. Chickpeas and wheat concentrated in the west and center but in scattered areas. The area of wheat crop according to image classification was 30494 ha which accounted 8.97% of the studied area (Sweida governorate without Badia). The degree of approach to the proportion of the Ministry of Agriculture was 95.19%. The area of barley crop resulting from the classification process was 16705 ha, which accounted 4.92% of the study area. While the area of barley according to the statistics of Ministry of Agriculture was about 15933 ha. The area of chickpea crop resulting from the classification process was 26063 ha which represented 7.67% of the studied area. The results showed that the accuracy of the total classification was 82.4%, which allows satellite image to be used in calculating the area of strategic crops and determine its locations and distribution.
Key words: Crop area estimation, Supervised classification, Wheat, Barley, Chickpeas.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Moammar Dayoub^*(1) and Rdah Fatom⁽¹⁾

(1). Agricultural Research Center of Salamieh, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Moammar Dayoub. E-Mail: m-dayoub@hotmail.com).

Received: 01/02/2017                    Accepted: 13/07/2017

Abstract

Legumes crops have a vital role in nutrition and in crop rotation. This study was conducted to assess the productivity and economic efficiency of some legumes crops (feed-fodder) in Salamieh district, Hama governorate, during 2011/2012 season. A random sample of 110 farmers were selected according to an application prepared for the purpose of the research. The results showed a high cost of the seed up to 19.76% of the total costs, while the cost of harvesting achieved up to 36% of the total costs, due to manual harvesting. The lentils and grass pea were profitable for the farmers at Salamieh district, where the average of overall rate of profit was (7.67, 21.92%) and the rate of the changing asset was (1.32 and 1.53) S.P. respectively. This is a proof of the investment efficiency of the available resources and production increase. While the profitability of chickpeas and vetch did not exceed 4%, and the rates of the changing asset were (1.21،1.26) S.P. respectively. Also, the results showed that the economic efficiency of all crops was greater than one. Grass peas had the highest economic efficiency (1.22), which indicates the efficiency of farmers in the use of fixed and variable capital. and thus, the feasibility of cultivation legumes crops in Salamieh. This study concluded to expand grass pea cultivation, as long as marketing market is available, also, improved varieties for automated harvesting, and high-productivity, to improve the farmers income and productivity.
Key words: Economic evaluation, Legumes crops, Costs, Profitability.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Maya Youssef Al-Abdala^(1)* Dr. Safwan Mutha Abou -Assaf⁽¹⁾ Remal Slman Saab⁽¹⁾ and Samar Hossam Aldeen Al-Ashaoush⁽¹⁾

(1). Economic and Social Studies Directorate, Sewida Research Center. General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Eng. Maya Youssef Al-Abdala. E-Mail: mayaabdala6@gmail.com).

Received: 10/04/2017                            Accepted: 04/05/2017

Abstract

The aim of this research was to analyze the current structure of Syrian apple exports, and highlighting the relative advantage of this crop and its competitive position on the markets of the key importing countries of Syrian apples. The analysis was based on secondary data published by FAO during 2000-2013. Descriptive statistical analyses were used, in addition to estimates of time trend equations to identify the evolution in quantity, value and price of both Syrian apple exports and imports, and to determine certain indicators of export competitiveness, besides to applicate the linear programming model for optimal distribution of Syrian apple exports. The most important result was that Egypt ranked first as the most important export market for Syrian apples, accounting an average of 51.49 % in terms of volume, and 55.7 % in terms of value of Syrian apple exports. Syria has a clear relative advantage of apples, the value of this index fluctuated around the general average, which was 5.14. The index of value stability of the exports reached the best level, which achieved in average 2.41 %, followed by price and volume of exports. Syrian apple export has a relative advantage in Italy, United States, Chile, France, Holland, New Zealand, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and Austria, where the ratios of the price of Syrian exports to the price of exports of each country during the period of the study were on average of approximately 77 %, 71 %, 99 %, 71 %, 73 %, 76 %, 85 %, 98 %, 83 %, and 85 %, respectively. Assuming an increase of 20 % in export availability, the results of the linear programming model showed that the total revenue was 8 457 893 000 $, which is 21 % higher than the actual revenue. The results also showed that the additional quantities of the exported as a percentage of the increase in availability would be 87.27 % for the UAE and 12.73 % for Egypt, without losing any of the other markets. The study recommended the necessity of being an integrated policy to encourage agricultural exports, especially for crops and products which Syria has a relative advantage, and competitiveness, also the availability of database to provide an information to serve the production and export sectors.
Key words: Apple crop, Clear relative advantage, Instability coefficient, Price competitiveness, Linear programming.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF