Sher Muhammad

The main aim of present study was to evaluate the possibilities of composting different organic substrates i.e. crop residues, leaves of trees, vegetables and fruit wastes. Decomposed organic matter was used in rice-wheat crop production in normal soil (Organic C = 0.33%, Available P = 5.72 µg g-1, K = 5.7 cmolc L-1, pHs = 8.19, ECe = 2.35 dS m-1 and SAR = 7.20). Compost (12 and 24 t ha-1) was applied without and with chemical fertilizer (Rice: 100-70-70 and wheat: 140-110-70 NPK kg ha-1) to investigate the probable effects of compost on crop yields. The grain yield and yield components (plant height, number of fertile tillers and 1000 grain weight) of rice and wheat increased significantly with the application of organic material in the form of compost at both the levels. The combination of compost with chemical fertilizer further enhanced the biomass and grain yield of both crops. This treatment proved economical over others. On the basis of experimental results, a recommendation for the farmers was formulated that they should compost the crop residues to apply in their soils for the increased sustainable crop production. In this way, the soil fertility can be improved with a net improvement in land productivity.

Background:  Maize is one of most important cereal crop in world after wheat and rice. It is grown in Pakistan as a major cash crop cultivation in the area of 1083 thousand hectares producing 3990 thousand tones. Maize is dual propose crop it is used as feed for livestock and food for human. It is also used as a raw material in textile, food and medicine industries. The present study was conducted to evaluate parents and F 1  hybrids of maize for seedling traits including heritability, heterosis and heterobelteiosis. Methodology:  The genetic material was comprises of twelve parents and including their 36 F 1  hybrids. The parents and F 1  hybrids were sown in the iron treys filled with sand in three replications following completely randomized design. The data was recorded for fresh root length, fresh shoot length, fresh root-to-shoot length ratio, fresh root weight, fresh shoot weight and fresh root-to-shoot weight ratio. The data was subjected for analysis genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variance. The genetic advance was calculated by using Falconer (1989) formula. Results:  The average batter performance was given by B-336, EV-347, EV-1097Q and B-327. The F 1  hybrids, EV-1097Q × EV-347, EV-1097Q × EV-340, Raka-poshi × EV-347, B-327 × B-316 and Sh-139 × EV-347 showed higher values of heterosis and heterobeltiosis for respected studied traits of maize seedlings. Conclusion:  In this study, it is concluded that the F 1  hybrids, EV-1097Q x EV-347, EV-1097Q x EV-340, Raka-poshi x EV-347, B-327 x B-316 and Sh-139 x EV-347 may be used as higher yield maize hybrids and parents EV-347, EV-1097Q, B-327 and B-316 may be used to develop higher yield maize hybrids following heterosis breeding scheme.