To investigate the effect of nano-zinc fertilizer on growth, yield and mineral status of cotton plants grown under salt stress, a pot experiment was set up in the greenhouse of the National Research Centre. The treatments were as follows: (I) diluted seawater: 10% (S1), 20% (S2) and tap water as a control (S0), (II) 100 ppm (NZn1), 200 ppm (NZn2) nano-zinc and distilled water as a control (NZn0). Irrigation with 10 and 20% seawater decreased dry weight (DW) of leaves by 11.53 and 43.22%, while decreases in bolls were 15.50 and 71.65%, respectively. Except for root DW and top/root ratio, the measured growth parameters were increased as nano-zinc concentration increased. As for the interaction between treatments, the highest DW of stem, leaves and bolls resulted from the addition of NZn2 under normal condition, followed by NZn2 x S1 and the next was NZn2 x S2. The foliar application of 200 ppm nano-Zn led to mitigating the adverse effect of salinity and confirmed that diluted seawater could be used in the irrigation of cotton plant. However, phosphorus fertilizer should be added with nano-Zn application to avoid P/Zn imbalance. Some elements’ status and their ratios were recorded.

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Recently, efforts have been devoted to find ways in utilizing biomass as feedstocks for the production of organic chemicals. This is because of its abundance, renewability and worldwide distribution. Lignocellulosic agricultural waste materials are regarded as abundant, inexpensive, and readily available natural resources for both chemical and paper industries. Hydrogels are polymeric materials that vary in their origin and composition and can absorb large amount of water without dissolving. In our study, cellulose-based acrylic acid hydrogel was synthesized starting from rice straw as a source for the lignocellulosic material, where cellulose was first isolated after alkaline-acid pulping treatment followed by bleaching step with sodium hypochlorite resulting of 90.8% holocellulose. The cellulose-based acrylic acid hydrogel was synthesized applying heterogeneous reaction and shows a swelling ratio more than 3000%. The resulting hydrogel was further characterized with FT-IR and SEM. On the other hand, comparison between the rice straw-based hydrogel and the commercially available acrylamide hydrogel was studied for improving maize production in salt affected soil as well as in the growth promoters of maize under water stress. The experimental results demonstrated that the yield parameters were increased with increasing irrigation rates. Both types of hydrogels introduce positive and significant effect compared to the one without adding hydrogels. Also, acrylamide hydrogel was effective for improving almost yield parameters more than applying rice straw-based hydrogel. Generally, the addition of hydrogel increases the nutrient concentration, uptake, and both of water and nutrients use efficiency.

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NAEROBIC digestion is a useful way to treat organic waste matter, resulting in biogas and residue. Two field experiments were carried out for a sandy loam soil under drip irrigation system using faba bean (Vicia faba L.) during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons at Ismailia Governorate to evaluate the effect of biogas residue (BR) and inorganic fertilizer as ammonium nitrate (AN) individually or in combination with different rates of each other fertilizers and irrigation levels on faba bean production, nutrients uptake and soil fertility after two season of cultivation. The experiment includes two factors; 1 st one was N-application with 6 treatments as follows: (1) 100% of N rate as BR, (2) 100% as AN, (3) 75% BR+25% AN, (4) 50% BR + 50 % AN, (5) 25% BR + 75% AN and (6) non-treated (control). The second factor was irrigation levels as follows: 100% from water requirement (WR) and 75% of WR. Main effects of fertilization showed that, the highest plant dry weight, 100-seed weight, seed yield were obtained with 100% of BR followed by 25% AN + 75% BR and lowest plant dry weight was found with unfertilized treatment in both seasons. Similar trend occurred with available N, P and K remaining in soil at harvest. Significant positive correlation was found between soil available N, P and K contents and seed N, P and K. Application of biogas residues is of great benefit to plant and increases soil fertility.

Aims: The response of “Murcott” mandarin trees budded on Volkamer Lemon rootstock grown in salt-affected soil to different alleviating salinity stress additions was studied. Study Design: This research was designed to fit The complete randomize block design (CRBD). Place and Duration of Study: The present study was carried out in a private “Murcott” mandarin orchard located in “El-Adlia Association”, El-Sharqia Governorate, Egypt, during two successive seasons 2014/2015 and 2016/2017. Methodology: Eight different treatments were used as follow: 1) Control, 2) Magnetite at 138 kg/ha (Mag, knowing that ha = 10000 m2), 3) Effective microorganisms at the rate of 12 L/ha. (EM), 4) Biotic at the rate of 12 L/ha. (B), 5) Mag+B, 6) Mag+EM, 7) B+EM and 8) Mag+B+EM. Results: These different treatments mitigated salinity stress, reduced leaves osmotic pressure, thus increased fruit set, fruit yield, fruit quality, root distribution, photosynthetic pigments and mineral concentrations in leaves of Murcott trees compared with the control. Proline accumulations in fresh leaves, as well as soil pH and EC at the end of the two seasons also were recorded. Conclusion: The combination between B and EM in the presence or absence of Mag enhanced the ability of mandarin to alleviate salt stress and produced the highest yield and fruit quality.