An investigation was carried out to study the effects of boron (0, 1, 2 and 3 kg/ha) and nitrogen (0, 50, 100 and 200 kg/ha) on the growth and yield of radish cv Pusa Rashmi. Various growth characters such as number, fresh weight and dry matter content of leaves, and length, girth, fresh weight and dry matter content of roots increased with increase in boron and nitrogen levels, the highest application of both nutrients giving the best results. Treatment combinations showed significant effects on fresh weight of leaves and roots, with the best results from 3 kg boron + 200 kg of nitrogen/ha.

Simultaneous deficiencies of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) which limit crop production in western Kenya can be overcome through a combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers. An experiment was conducted with maize (Zea mays) for two seasons to compare two methods of applying inorganic P fertilizer (broadcast versus spot) in a factorial combination with three N sources, i.e. farmyard manure (FYM), Tithonia diversifolia green manure (tithonia) and urea. Net financial benefits of the tested practices were computed using partial budgeting. Maize yield was not significantly affected by the P fertilizer application method in the first season, but the broadcast method was generally superior to spot application in the second season. The three N sources produced maize yields that were comparable in both seasons. FYM integrated with P fertilizer applied using the broadcast method, however, had the highest cumulative net benefit and was therefore the most economically attractive input combination.

A method is described of inducing many ‘eyes’ on yam tubers to sprout, and of using the sprout-bearing segments as propagules for establishing yam fields. The number of such propagules obtainable from a tuber depends on its size, but the method greatly increases the rate of propagation and holds special promise for both breeding and commercial production of yam.

The relationship of leaf weight ratio (LWR), leaf area ratio (LAR), stomatal frequency and dry matter (DM) production with yield and with photosynthetic efficiency, as reflected by 14CO2 fixation rate, was studied in fox-tail millet (Setaria italica) for three consecutive years. Several genotypes were identified which combined small leaf area and/or low stomatal numbers per plant with productivity under rain-fed conditions equal to that of genotypes with large stomatal numbers. 14CO2 studies in these genotypes showed that the rate of carbon fixation by the leaves was greater, at any canopy position, than in the corresponding large LA/large DM types. Genotypes with consistently small stomatal numbers per plant, associated with good dry matter accumulation and productivity, may also show small transpirational water loss under rain-fed or drought conditions. It is concluded that such genotypes are desirable for better productivity under these conditions.

Field trials were carried out using an aerial spray of Magniosan 55 (55 per cent magnesium nitrate) for the correction of severe magnesium deficiency in a Valencia orange orchard. Two treatments were applied, in autumn and spring respectively, each containing 50 l. Magniosan 55 solution in 200 l. water per hectare. The spray did not cause damage to fruit or leaves, penetrated satisfactorily into the lower and interior part of the canopy, and increased the Mg content of the leaves of treated trees from 0·095 to 0·190 per cent.

The efficiency of fertilizer N uptake by wheat, as affected by time and rate of application, was studied in the field using N15 labelled ammonium nitrate. Splitting the application was only beneficial at the maximum rate but two top dressings at tillering and boot stage were better for grain production than a basal dressing or single top dressing at stem extension stage, but uptake of fertilizer N was maximal from a single top dressing. The calculated effective rate of application (E.R.A.) was useful in evaluating the effect of time and rate of application and N availability to plants.

The effects of nematodes on root morphology and the association of root characteristics with resistance to nematodes of seven banana varieties were investigated in two experiments. Banana plants were grown in controlled conditions within polytunnels and harvested on three occasions for the measurement of root morphology and biomass. Varieties differed in their resistance to nematodes, from resistant (Yg Km5, FHIA 17, FHIA 03) and partly resistant (FHIA 01, FHIA 25) to not resistant ((FHIA 23, Williams). Nematodes reduced the root dry weight of FHIA 01, FHIA 17 and FHIA 23 at some harvests. Primary root number was on average 9.5% lower in nematode-infected plants than controls, with no differences among the varieties. Thus, there was no simple association between the resistance of these varieties and their tolerance to nematodes. Varieties differed in root morphology. Root dry weight was greatest for resistant varieties Yg Km5 and FHIA 03, and least for non-resistant varieties FHIA 23 and Williams. Thus, resistance to nematodes was associated with varieties with greater root mass and more and larger primary roots.

The effects of irrigation and spraying of transpiration suppressants on growth and nutrient uptake by spring sorghum (CSH 6) have been investigated. Crop growth, measured by plant-height, leaf area index and dry matter production, and uptake of N, P and K increased with more frequent irrigation and in response to the spraying of transpiration suppressants. Foliar applications of atrazine at 200 g ha−1 and CCC at 300 ml ha−1 proved to be the best in this NW Indian location.

A survey of barley and barley-based farming systems was carried out in Palestine during the 2000 growing season to assess traditional cultivation methods and to analyse developments in the production systems. Seventy-six farmers in the three barley growing agro-ecological zones in the West Bank were included in the study. The research area encompasses a range of agro-ecological conditions, from high to low potential environments, strongly related to precipitation. Estimated grain yields varied from below 1000 kg ha−1 in the driest part of the Eastern Slopes zone to above 4000 kg ha−1 in the more fertile areas in the Central Highlands and Semi-Coastal zones. Barley was found to be closely linked to the dominant crop-livestock farming systems. Thus 84% of the farmers interviewed grew barley as a feed for their own livestock during the dry season. In the more fertile agro-ecological zones, the traditional farming system is shifting towards more intensive production methods with increased mechanization, mainly for land preparation, sowing, harvesting and use of fertilizer. Here animal production is becoming more intensive and a larger proportion of the farm products, including barley, is now produced for the market. Despite the relatively high yields, in comparison to other barley growing areas in the region, local barley landraces, particularly 6-rowed types, persist well and were preferred by 86% of the farmers interviewed. However attempts to modernize agriculture may result in the replacement of traditional barley landraces, and even the barley-livestock cropping system in the more fertile agro-ecological zones. An effort should therefore be made to conserve this valuable genetic resource.

Use of substituted phenoxyacetic acids as yield stimulants for Hevea brasiliensis has been mainly limited to applications below the tapping cut rather than above. Although the above-cut application of these stimulants has exhibited some advantages with respect to yield, its use has been limited due to undesirable bark renewal characteristics. This paper describes studies with a method of above-cut application of stimulant which appears to eliminate the previous disadvantages. Reduced concentrations of growth regulator, applied at frequent intervals in combination with a disease preventive measure, resulted in favourable yield responses, bark renewal characteristics and application economics. Subsequent bark renewal was apparently directly proportional to the concentration of stimulant applied and it was thus possible to control the degree of bark regeneration. The above-cut method shows promise of being particularly effective with systems of reduced intensity tapping on certain clones.

Optimum transplanting age and relative growth rate in three groups of rice varieties differed with types and maturity periods. Transplanting 52 day old seedlings reduced the shoot number, and the magnitude of reduction was higher in early than in mid-early and medium varieties. Early transplanting reduced the number of days to flowering in all three groups compared with transplanting later. Senescence was much earlier in early types transplated as 52 day old seedlings. Grain production in early types was more sensitive to late transplanting than the mid-early and medium types. Medium varieties outyielded the early and mid-early ones when transplanted at 38 days after seeding.

The first number of the Empire Journal of Experimental Agriculture, of which this journal is the immediate successor, appeared in April 1933. It was part of a significant collaborative trend which included the Empire Marketing Board, the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, and the International Wheat Pool, and led in time to the Commonwealth Secretariat and, indirectly, to FAO. The new journal was intended to serve agricultural progress in all the countries of the world which were connected with Britain, including South Africa and the Sudan. In the subsequent half-century of great change many new general and specialist journals have arisen, particularly in the more developed countries, in the Commonwealth and elsewhere; and this journal has come to be concerned mainly with production-oriented agricultural research in tropical, sub-tropical and winter-rainfall environments.

This review gives a historical perspective of the development of Farming Systems Research (FSR) in India over the past 60 years, as India changed from a traditional, subsistence oriented agriculture to one based on science and technology. The first period relates to the years 1930–50, when the Government of India created the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and initiated research on dryland agriculture.

The second period relates to the development of coordinated agronomic trials and simple fertilizer experiments on farmers' fields during the years 1950–65. This development was a forerunner of networks of coordinated applied agronomic research relevant to farmers' cropping systems and adaptive research with farmers' participation. The development of a soil conservation research network in the same period strengthened research on the natural resource base countrywide. The third period started with the reorganization of ICAR, the establishment of State Agricultural Universities and the introduction of coordinated research programmes on high-yielding varieties (HYVs). At the same time the coordinated dryland agricultural research programmes, and subsequently the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), were established, leading to the development of a national system of FSR for rainfed agriculture.

The fourth period of FSR started with the establishment in 1972 of ICRISAT, an international agricultural research centre that accepted FSR as its mandate and developed the concept of integrating the management technologies for various components of climate, soil, water and crops with a farmers' perspective. ICRISAT's work was complementary to that of CRIDA and helped to bring about conceptual changes in Indian FSR through research aimed at understanding principles and processes of semi-arid tropical (SAT) farming systems. Following this, mechanisms for strengthening on-farm research were emphasized so as to provide stronger linkages between researchers, extension workers and farmers.

Today, FSR with a farmers' perspective occupies pride of place in India's agricultural research agenda. Yet it is a long way from bridging the gap between the generation of technology and its adoption by farmers, who have shown a preference for its components rather than for the full package of technology.

Increments of fibre, sucrose and reducing sugars per cane were estimated for 12 varieties of sugarcane for successive periods in plant and ratoon crops. Sucrose production increased only as that of fibre and reducing sugars fell. Dry matter production per unit fresh weight of leaf blade was negatively correlated with an estimate of gram days of leaf per gram fresh weight of cane. In a further study the net assimilation rate of one variety was found to remain fairly constant over a period of six months at 0·55g/dm2/week. It is suggested that breeding should seek to reduce leaf area ratio while maintaining sucrose percentage cane.

On unlimed Malaysian peat (pH 3.5), flue-cured tobacco produced negligible leaf yields and showed no response to urea. Liming up to pH 5.25 (32 t/ha lime) linearly increased leaf yield. Tobacco responded linearly without reduced leaf quality to 90 k/ha N at pH 4.01 (8 t/ha lime), but to 45 kg/ha N at pH 4.40–5.25 (16–32 t/ha lime), higher N rates at the respective liming levels producing leaves of lower quality. The optimum rates of P and K for flue-cured tobacco appeared to be 26 and 186 kg/ha respectively, with linear responses up to those rates.

Research institutes in Africa have had limited success in producing new technologies appropriate to the needs of small farmers because of an inadequate understanding of small farmers' goals and resource limitations and over-reliance on the transfer of technologies from other regions. Farming systems research (FSR) is an effective way of improving the focus of scientists on the problems farmers face. Vertically segmented thematic research programmes make institutionalization of FSR difficult within multi-commodity research centres, particularly the International Agricultural Research Centres. The Farming Systems Research Group has proved effective at overcoming such difficulties at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. Its organization, operation and effects on the performance of the research programmes are described.

Seeds of 50 sorghum genotypes were tested for emergence after imbibition in water for different times followed by up to 30 days of drying. The emergence of a large number of sorghum genotypes was then tested after 40 h imbibition in water followed by 10 h drying. Genotypes selected as resistant to 45 hours imbibition and 10 days drying regained turgor in the radicle and plumule when exposed to imbibition and drying injury. Genotypes showed significant difference both for emergence and seedling dry weight after exposure to this stress. The genotypes resistant to imbibition injury and drying had a specific protein of 33.0 KDa which was absent from those which were susceptible to such stress.

La adaptación del sorgo a la siembra seca

The results of a two year field study to determine the effect of iron on the yield of maize in the forest and savanna zones of Nigeria have indicated that new and old fields in the savanna, and old fields in the forest zone, require additional iron. The optimum iron requirement for maize in both zones is 3 kg ha−1.

On some estates in Malaya the incidence of Marasmius bunch rot reaches serious proportions through causes other than poor sanitation or pollination. In such areas fungicidal sprays may be of value in both therapy and prophylaxis. In laboratory tests, using the paper disc diffusion and liquid culture methods, 32 fungicides were tested for activity against Marasmius palmivorus to provide an indication of promising formulations for field trials. A number of compounds showed strong inhibition of fungal growth in both series of tests, and amongst these the organo-mercury preparations were outstanding, especially Antimucin WBR. Other promising fungicides included Fylomac 90, Seprisan, Hyamine, Izal, Thiram and PCNB. In field trials in which Antimucin WBR and Verdasan were used for treatment of partially-infected immature bunches, these fungicides checked disease development, with a significant reduction in losses through disease. The value of fungicidal sprays formerly recommended in estate practice, and their potential value in prophylaxis, are discussed.