Herbaceous Alfalfa plant as a multipurpose crop and predominant forage specie in Pakistan

Abstract

Fodder crops play an important role in agriculture as they deliver food for animals, which is eventually converted to food for humans. All over the world, Alfalfa has had utmost importance for a few decades, not only as a fodder crop due to having high nutritional value for dairy farming but also being positively involved in many health-related and environmental affairs. Medicinally, it helps in controlling diseases such as arthritis, cholesterol, anemia, and cardio-related illnesses. Furthermore, like other cereal crops (wheat, rice, corn, etc.), it could also be a great source of several healthy nutrients for humans when the proper quantity is added to daily meals. However, unlike other nations of the world such as America, China, and India, Pakistan does not utilize it directly in human meals. This crop also has eco-friendly behavior since it controls soil erosion by binding the soil particles together and makes atmospheric nitrogen available to the plants by fixing it in the soil. Other uses include its role in water purification, improved pollination, and most importantly, its tolerance against water, salt, and temperature stress, making its position even stronger in arid and semi-arid areas. This review will draw researchers' attention to its multiple uses other than fodder crop and most importantly, its nutritional availability at a very low cost, which could prove nothing short of a miracle for the economy if properly mediated.

Wear behavior and CO2 emissions analysis of drum mower blades during Alfalfa harvest

“…Blades wear led to a doubled increase in fuel consumption, as shown in Figure (5). The increase in fuel consumption for the Alfalfa harvesting operation leads to a rise in the costs of conducting agricultural operations.…”

“…The experiment that was carried out in the eld to study the daily wear of the rotary drum mower blades used in harvesting the Alfalfa crop showed accelerated wear of the blades by decreasing the blades' weight daily after harvesting. Figures (5) shows the decrease in the blade weight in three clusters. The rst group was from the working time of the mower 1.25 to 12.5 hours; the average weight of the blades decreased from 103.82 to 102.30 g with a mean of 103.08 g as shown in Figure (5), which shows the statical analysis of cluster groups.…”

“…Figures (5) shows the decrease in the blade weight in three clusters. The rst group was from the working time of the mower 1.25 to 12.5 hours; the average weight of the blades decreased from 103.82 to 102.30 g with a mean of 103.08 g as shown in Figure (5), which shows the statical analysis of cluster groups. The mean of the second and third groups were 101.22 and 99.30 g, respectively.…”

“…Therefore, more than 30 million hectares are cultivated worldwide [4]. There were around 450 Tg of alfalfa produced in the world for 2021 [5]. The cultivated area with the alfalfa crop in Egypt throughout the year 652467 hectares with a total production of 11.587387 Tg [6].…”

Assessing the growth dynamics of alfalfa varieties (Medicago sativa cv. Bilensoy 80 and Nimet) response to varied carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations

“…Alfalfa, known for its resilience and versatility [ 20 , 21 ], plays a significant role in mitigating the effects of climate change for several reasons [ 22 ]. It is a perennial legume crop that has the ability to sequester CO 2 [ 23 ] from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.…”