Nutrient management: as a panacea to improve the caryopsis quality and yield potential of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) under the changing climatic conditions.

The increasing human population and the changing climate, which have given rise to frequent drought spells, pose a serious threat to global food security, while identification of high-yielding drought-tolerant genotypes coupled with nutrient management remains a proficient approach to cope with these challenges. An increase in seasonal temperature, recurring drought stress, and elevated atmospheric CO2 are alarmingly affecting durum wheat production, productivity, grain quality, and the human systems it supports. An increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide can improve wheat grain yield in a certain amount, but the right amount of nutrients, water, and other required conditions should be met to realize this benefit. Nutrients including nitrogen, silicon, and sulfur supply could alleviate the adverse effects of abiotic stress by enhancing antioxidant defense and improving nitrogen assimilation, although the effects on plant tolerance to drought stress varied with nitrogen ionic forms. The application of sewage sludge to durum wheat also positively impacts its drought stress tolerance by triggering high accumulation of osmoregulators, improving water retention capacity in the soil, and promoting root growth. These beneficial effect of nutrients contribute to durum wheat ability to withstand and recover from abiotic stress conditions, ultimately enhance its productivity and resilience. While these nutrients can provide benefits when applied in appropriate amounts, their excessive use can lead to adverse environmental consequences. Advanced technologies such as precision nutrient management, unmanned aerial vehicle-based spraying, and anaerobic digestion play significant roles in reducing the negative effects associated with nutrients like sewage sludge, zinc, nanoparticles and silicon fertilizers. Hence, nutrient management practices offer significant potential to enhance the caryopsis quality and yield potential of durum wheat. Through implementing tailored nutrient management strategies, farmers, breeders, and agronomists can contribute to sustainable durum wheat production, ensuring food security and maintaining the economic viability of the crop under the changing climatic conditions.

Sustainable management practices for durum wheat production: Analyzing specific agronomic interventions on productivity, grain micronutrient content, and quality.

As compared with single agronomic crop management practices during grain formation, knowledge about integrated agronomic management practices on grain mineral composition and grain technological properties in durum wheat is limited. This knowledge is important for determining management strategies aimed at increasing grain yield without affecting grain nutritional quality. Integrated agronomic practices such as foliar nutrient application × seeding rate × varieties combined with growing locations were investigated to evaluate the dynamics of yield and grain quality traits. Two durum wheat varieties, three-level of micronutrients (i.e. control, FeSO4, and ZnSO4), and four levels of seeding rate (i.e. 100, 125, 150, and 175 kg ha-1) were arranged in split-split plot design under two different growing locations (environments). The main plots were assigned to the varieties, subplots to micronutrients, and sub-sub plots to the seeding rate treatments. Zinc and iron were applied in a form of ZnSO4 and FeSO4 at the early flowering stage, both at a rate of 25 kg ha-1. Results showed a linear increment in biomass (21.5%) and grain yield (23.5%) under a high seeding rate, even though the 1000-grain weight, the number of grains spike-1, spike length, and the number of grains spike-1 were decreased. Higher varietal and environmental response of seeding rate was observed between varieties. The grain protein content, gluten, and zeleyn index decreased as the seeding rate increased. Grain micronutrient content was significantly influenced by seeding rate and varietal difference. The grain protein content was higher in a dryland environment than in a wet environment. A combined use of density-tolerant varieties, high seeding rate, and foliar-based iron application can improve the grain yield from 2.01 to 3.20 t ha-1 under a potential environment. Hence, all stakeholders should consider the genotype (G), environment (E), management (M), and their synergies, as far as grain yield and quality are considered simultaneously.

Indigenous agricultural knowledge: A neglected human based resource for sustainable crop protection and production.

Indigenous knowledge, developed over generations and owned by communities or individuals within a community, offers alternative strategies and perspectives on resource management and use. However, as emphasized in the contemporary agricultural history of Ethiopia, the most effective indigenous agricultural knowledge has not been well documented and some of them are replaced by modern techniques. This study was therefore conducted to assess and document community-based techniques to control pests and diseases and the practical implications of indigenous farming techniques. A focus group discussion, key informant interviews and semi-structured questionnaires were conducted with 150 farmers. The result showed that a substantial number (92%) of the farming community uses indigenous based plant protection measures. Indigenous farmers (92%) splash liquids made of cow urine to control the adverse effect of fungi. Farmers are also using different seed selection methods for next season planting. About 29% of the farmers do single head-based seed selection prior to mass harvesting, 34% are collected as "Qerm" and 45% select their seeds during threshing. Indigenous farming knowledge varies with the natural feature of the growing location and cropping system, including the rainfall pattern, soil fertility status, crop, and weed type. The observed positive effect of indigenous agricultural practices on crop production substantiates the need to include these essential approaches in the cultivation system along with the modern agronomic techniques. This might reduce the dependency on expensive and pollutant agricultural inputs. However, sociodemographic factors such as educational level, marital status and farming experience have been found as a determinant factor that influences utilization of indigenous farming knowledge. It can be therefore inferred that documenting indigenous knowledge and proving its applicability scientifically could contribute to organically oriented agricultural production and consequently reduce agriculture's contribution to environmental pollution.

Optimization of inter-row spacing as influenced by genotype by environment interaction (G×E): A dataset on frontiers of malt barley (Hordeum Distichum L.) productivity.

Ethiopia is one of the major producers of barley in Sub-Saharan Africa and has a growing malt beverage sector. Yet, despite a favourable bio-physical environment, malt barley productivity is much lower than the potential yield due to traditional land management systems, poor agro-technical crop management practices, and lack of high-quality seeds. Field experiments were therefore conducted to evaluate the improved malt barley varieties under a range of inter-row spacing in two different growing locations, for their yield and other associated traits. The treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design consisting of six malt barley varieties (i.e. Holker, HB1963, Sabine, Ibone174/03, EH1847, and Freygebse), and three levels of inter-row spacing (i.e. 20, 25, and 30 cm) in two divergence growing locations (i.e. Miligebsa and Kino). Agronomic practices such as weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, and threshing were uniformly applied for all experimental units. The data presented under this dataset article includes phenological traits (i.e. days to 50% heading, and days to 90% physiological maturity), seed yield and yield components (i.e. seeds spike-1, spike length, number of effective tillers, 1000-seed weight, total aboveground biomass, and straw yield). All the collected data were subjected to a statistical analysis software package using the general linear model (GLM) procedure of the SAS 9.2 version. This dataset article therefore provides information about how optimization of inter-row spacing varied variety to variety. Additionally, it provides how the environment diverges the efficiency of inter-row spacing for maximum potential yield. Hence, this information can allow other researchers to review the supplement data, methods, and make detailed analysis, which possibly giving rise to new lines of inquiry. This can also give rise to new collaborations and boost the reputation of the present research results within the scientific community. This dataset article is aimed to provide a dataset collected from an intensive malt barley field experiment for public use and to make it available to everyone around the subject matter to use as they wish.

A dataset of Agronomic Biofortification and Seeding rate - by - Location effects on Grain Mineral concentration, End-use quality and Agro-phenological traits of Durum wheat Genotypes.

Improving durum wheat end-use quality traits such as protein and gluten content becomes the principal research focus area, due to the increase in market demand and premium price paid for durum wheat producing farmers. The success is, however, limited because of crop genetic bottleneck, factors from growing environments and crop agronomic management practices. A study was conducted to i) identify an optimum seeding rate for durum wheat genotypes that can improve grain yield and grain quality and ii) to evaluate the effect of agronomic biofortification on grain protein, gluten contents, Zeleny index, and grain mineral content. Zinc and Iron containing fertilizers were applied foliarily in the form of ZnSO4.7H2O and FeSO4.7H2O. The data presented in this dataset article included yield and yield related traits, phenological and grain quality traits as well as grain Zn and Fe contents. The grain mineral content was measured by using atomic absorption photometer. A machine Minfra Smart T® wheat grain analyzer was used to measure grain protein content, gluten content, and Zeleny index values for each sample. The collected data were analyzed using GenStat (14th ed.) statistical software package. The aim of this dataset article is make the data publicly available to enable further extended analyses and as a guide for further research works to improve the productivity of smallholder durum wheat producing farmers.