Inroduction The world faces one of the most critical challenges which it is the need to cover the food necessities of the melodramatically growing population. In last few years, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production did not met requirements of consumers and as a result of this the hunger and prices were increased worldwide. The need for wheat production is predictable to increase in 2050 by 60.0% based on the expected population, i.e. 9 billion of the world (Lucas, 2013). Wheat is considered one of the most vital cereal crops not only in Egypt, but also in the whole world, as it is used for food and fodder. It provides around

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Increasing irrigation intervals from 12 up to 17 and 22 days significantly decreased number and area of leaves and leaves, stem and total dry weight/plant, total chlorophyll, relative water content (RWC), plant height, length and diameter of ear, number and weight of grains/ear, 100 grain weight as well as grain, stover and biological yields/fed, protein and oil % and yields/ fed, but significantly increased proline content in leaves in both seasons. 2-S.C 168 G surpassed the other genotypes in area and dry weight of leaves/plant, grain yield/fed, crop and harvest indices as well as protein yield/fed. T.W.C 368 G was superior in stem and total dry weight/plant, plant height, ear diameter, no.of grains/ear,100-grain weight as well as stover and biological yields/fed. However, S.C 168 G and T.W.C 368 G recorded the best values of RWC, no.of ears/plant, grain weight/ear, protein% and oil yield/fed as compared with the other genotypes. The highest significant values of proline content and no.of leaves/ plant were obtained by T.W.C 352 G and T.W.C 360 G, respectively in both seasons. 3-Maize genotypes S.C 168 as well as T.W.C 360 and T.W.C 352 under I 2 and T.W.C 368 under either I 2 or I 3 had the lowest values of relative yield reduction and drought suS.Ceptibility index (< 1), indicating that those genotypes are relatively drought tolerant genotypes compared to other tested genotypes in our experiment condition.

A field experiment was carried out at El-Sirw Agriculture Research Farm at Damietta governorate, Egypt in 2018 and 2019 seasons. This investigation aimed to be study the effect of foliar application of three silicon sources at three rates for each, i.e. nano silica at 50, 100 and 150 ppm and potassium silicate as well as magnesium silicate at 500, 1000 and 1500 ppm for both of them on the productivity of rice plants grown in saline soil. Foliar application of Si at different tested sources and rates significantly increased each of physiological characters (chlorophyll content and stomatal conductance), morphological characters (plant height, number of tillers/ m 2 , leaf area index and dry matter production/ m 2), chemical composition in the leaf (K %, K / Na ratio and Si %), yield components (number of panicles/ m 2 , panicle weight and length, number of filled grains/ panicle and 1000-grain weight), yields/ ha (grain and straw), grain quality characters (hulling % , milling % , head rice %, protein and amylose %), while significantly decreased Na % in the leaf, number of unfilled grains/ panicle and chalkiness grains % as compared with untreated plants (control treatment) in both seasons. Spraying of nano silica at 150 ppm and potassium silicate at 1500 ppm were found to be more efficiency in increasing most abovementioned traits of rice plants grown in saline soil than the other tested silicon sources and rates.

E GYPT is currently experiencing water shortage, which causes a threat to crop productivity and efficiency of water use, especially in light of the current climatic changes. A field experiment was done to study effect of irrigation intervals (12, 16 and 20 days), soil amendments (compost, biochar, polyacrylamide "PAM" and hydrogel) beside control and their interaction on root, morpho-physiological, yield and quality traits of soybean.1-Prolonging irrigation intervals up to 20 days significantly decreased root characters (length and dry weight of root, number and dry weight of nodules/ plant and nitrogenase activity), morphological characters (plant height, leaves number/ plant, leaf area and total dry weight/ plant), physiological traits (relative water content and chlorophyll), yield (pods number/ plant, number and weight of seeds/ pod, 100-seed weight and seed yields/ plant and fed) and quality (protein% and oil and protein yields/fed).2-Application of soil amendments caused a significant and positive effect on root, morphophysiological characters as well as yield and seed quality compared to control. Hydrogel application produced the highest values of most abovementioned characters.3-The interaction revealed that highest values of most characters were obtained when plants were irrigated every 12 days and treated with hydrogel. Plants irrigated every 16 days produced the highest values of root length and oil yield when treated with PAM and hydrogel, respectively.4-Irrigation every 16 and 20 days can save water amounted to 18.62 and 27.82% compared to irrigation every 12 days, respectively. Irrigation every 16 days associated with hydrogel produced the highest values of water use efficiency (WUE) indicating that it was more effective for productivity and water consumption.

A field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt during 2019 and 2020 seasons to study the effect of plant distribution patterns i.e. D1 (sowing cotton in furrows 70 cm width in one ridge with 25 cm between hills and two plants/hill), D2 (sowing cotton in furrows 70 cm width in one ridge with 12.5 cm between hills and one plant/hill), D3 (sowing cotton in beds 140 cm width in two ridges with 25 cm between hills and two plants/hill), D4 (sowing cotton in beds 140 cm width in two ridges with 12.5 cm between hills and one plant/hill) and foliar application with plant growth regulators i.e. control, kinetin (15 ppm), naphthalene acetic acid (15 ppm), mepiquat chloride (100 ppm), mepiquat chloride + kinetin and mepiquat chloride + naphthalene acetic acid at 80 and 95 DAS and on light intensity, morphological traits, flowering and abscission, yield and its components and seed and fiber quality of Egyptian cotton (Giza 86 cv.). The results indicated that sowing cotton plants with D3 pattern surpassed the other plant distribution patterns in most studied characters, while D1 increased plant height but decreased fiber fineness. On the other hand, number of squares/plant, boll weight, 100-seed weight, fiber strength and uniformity index were not significantly affected by plant distribution patterns. Application of growth regulators either single or dual caused a positive effect. NAA or MC+NAA were the superior treatments in most characters studied. However, unsprayed cotton plants increased total abscission. It could be concluded that sowing plants in beds with plant distribution pattern (D3) and foliar application with 100 ppm MC at 80 DAS followed by 15 ppm NAA at 95 DAS was the best interaction treatment in comparison to other interaction treatments to obtain the highest values of light intensity, total dry weight/plant, number of open bolls / plant, seed cotton yield per plant and fed, oil yield /fed and protein yield /fed).