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Wheat is an important crop, used as staple food in numerous countries around the world. However, wheat productivity is low in the developing world due to several biotic and abiotic stresses, particularly drought stress. Non-availability of drought-tolerant wheat genotypes at different growth stages is the major constraint in improving wheat productivity in the developing world. Therefore, screening/developing drought-tolerant genotypes at different growth stages could improve the productivity of wheat. This study assessed seed germination and seedling growth of eight wheat genotypes under polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced stress. Two PEG-induced osmotic potentials (i.e., -0.6 and -1.2 MPa) were included in the study along with control (0 MPa). Wheat genotypes included in the study were ‘KLR-16’, ‘B6’, ‘J10’, ‘716’, ‘A12’, ‘Seher’, ‘KTDH-16’, and ‘J4’. Data relating to seed germination percentage, root and shoot length, fresh and dry weight of roots and shoot, root/shoot length ratio and chlorophyll content were recorded. The studied parameters were significantly altered by individual and interactive effects of genotypes and PEG-induced osmotic potentials. Seed germination and growth parameters were reduced by osmotic potentials; however, huge differences were noted among genotypes. A reduction of 32.83 to 53.50% was recorded in seed germination, 24.611 to 47.75% in root length, 37.83 to 53.72% in shoot length, and 53.35 to 65.16% in root fresh weight. The genotypes, ‘J4’, ‘KLR-16’ and ‘KTDH-16’, particularly ‘J4’ better tolerated increasing osmotic potentials compared to the rest of the genotypes included in the study. Principal component analysis segregated these genotypes from the rest of the genotypes included in the study indicated that these can be used in the future studies to improve the drought tolerance of wheat crop. The genotype ‘J4’ can be used as a breeding material to develop drought resistant wheat genotypes.

Salinity in soil and water is one of the environmental factors that severely hinder the crop growth and production particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of salinity levels (1.5 dS m-1, 3.5 dS m-1, 7.5 dS m-1 and 11.5 dS m-1) on emergence, growth and biochemical traits of moringa landraces under completely randomized design having three replications. Four landraces of Moringa oleifera (Faisalabad black seeded moringa [MFB], Patoki black seeded moringa [MPB], Faisalabad white seeded moringa [MFW] and Rahim Yar Khan black seeded moringa [MRB]) were selected for experimentation. All the salinity levels significantly affected the emergence parameters (time to emergence start, time to 50% emergence, mean emergence time, emergence index and final emergence percentage) of moringa landraces. However, 1.5 dS m-1 and 3.5 dS m-1 were found more favorable. Higher salinity levels (7.5 dS m-1 and 11.5 dS m-1) significantly minimized the root surface area, root projected area, root volume and root density as compared to 1.5 dS m-1, 3.5 dS m-1. Number of branches, leaves, leaflets and leaf length were also adversely affected by 7.5 dS m-1 and 11.5 dS m-1. Maximum seedling fresh and dry weights, and seedling length were recorded at 1.5 dS m-1 followed by 3.5 dS m-1. Chlorophyll a and b contents, carotenoids and membrane stability index were also observed highest at salinity level of 1.5 dS m-1. In case of moringa landraces, MRB performed better regarding emergence attributes, growth parameters, and biochemical analysis followed by MFW as compared to MFB and MPB. Moringa landraces i.e. MRB and MFW were found more tolerant to salinity stress as compared to MFB and MPB.

Cotton-wheat (CW) is an important cropping system in Pakistan; however, delayed cultivation of cotton after wheat significantly deceases system productivity. Late-sown cotton crop suffers from heat stress, high fruit shedding and infestation of various pests and cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV). Therefore, early sowing of cotton is preferred to overcome these challenges. However, cotton planting is overlapped with the harvesting of wheat crop in CW cropping system. Since fallow land is unavailable, relay intercropping of cotton in wheat crop seems a viable option for early planting. This three-year field study evaluated the role of relay cropping of cotton in improving the productivity of CW cropping system and lowering CLCV infestation. Wheat was planted in 22.5 cm rows with no row skipped (W1), one row skipped after every three (W2), and six rows (W3) for planting cotton in 0.75 and 1.50 m apart rows. Early cotton was planted in fallow land (C1) and standing wheat in 0.75 (C2) and 1.50 m (C3) apart rows and conventional planting after wheat harvesting (C4). Yield losses of wheat crop ranged from 8.16 to 19.81% in W3 and W2, respectively compared W1. However, C2 and C3 treatments improved cotton yield by 86.07% and 64.89% suppressed CLCV infestation by 68.14% and 65.86%, respectively compared to C4. Moreover, net benefits from relay cropping (W2C2) were 2190.1 $ ha-1 in 2013–14, 1954.4 $ ha-1 in 2014–15 and 2559.5 $ ha-1 in 2015–16 in comparison with C1 (1543.5, 1311.7 and 1892.3 $ ha-1 during 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16, respectively). The W2 resulted in higher cotton yield compared to W3 which is mainly attributed to double number of cotton rows in W2 than W3. It is concluded that cotton relay cropping (W2C2) resulted in the highest economic returns with minimum CLCV infestation. Therefore, W2C2 is recommended for improving the system productivity of CW cropping system.

Poor postharvest handling, microbial infestation, and high respiration rate are some the factors are responsible for poor storage life of perishable commodities. Therefore, effective preservation of these commodities is needed to lower the damages and extend shelf life. Preservation is regarded as the action taken to maintain desired properties of a perishable commodity as long as possible. Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is perishable fruit with high nutritive value; however, has very short shelf-life. Therefore, effective preservation and drying is needed to extend its storage life. Drying temperature and preservatives significantly influence the quality of perishable vegetables and fruits during drying. The current study investigated the effect of different temperatures and preservatives on drying kinetics and organoleptic quality attributes of persimmon. Persimmon fruits were treated with preservatives (25% honey, 25% aloe vera, 2% sodium benzoate, 1% potassium metabisulfite, and 2% citric acid solutions) under different drying temperatures (40, 45, and 50°C). All observed parameters were significantly affected by individual effects of temperatures and preservatives, except ash contents. Similarly, interactive effects were significant for all parameters except total soluble sugars, ash contents, and vitamin C. Generally, fruits treated with citric acid and dried under 50°C had 8.2% moisture loss hour-1, 14.9 drying hours, 0.030 g H2O g-1 hr-1, 1.23° Brix of total soluble solids, 6.71 pH, 1.35% acidity, and 6.3 mg vitamin C. These values were better than the rest of the preservatives and drying temperatures used in the study. Therefore, treating fruits with citric acid and drying at 50°C was found a promising technique to extend storage life of persimmon fruits. It is recommended that persimmon fruits dried at 50°C and preserved in citric acid can be used for longer storage period.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinumL.) is of prime importance because of vital source of protein as major food legume. Globally, it is cultivated on large area to meet dietary requirements of humans. Climatic extremes (erratic rainfall, extreme high and low temperature) are key restrains for its production. Optimum sowing time is considered as an important factor to address climatic variations and to attain maximum yield. Foliar application of potassium (K) has also been reported to increase resistance against abiotic stresses. Similarly, exogenous application of plant based growth substances (bio-stimulants) like moringa leaf extract (MLE) are extensively used to enhance productivity of field crops. Therefore, current study was planned to evaluate the impact of foliar applied K and MLE on growth, physiology and productivity of kabuli chickpea grown under varying sowing dates. There were two sowing dates (normal sown; November 15 and late sown; December 15, 2020). Experiment was comprised of treatments i.e. control, water spray, foliar application of K at 1%, foliar application of MLE at 3% and combined application of K and MLE. Foliar applied K and MLE significantly improved physiological, biochemical and yield attributes of kabuli chickpea cultivated under normal and late sown conditions. Increase in growth and yield attributes like plant height, number of nodules per plant, nodules dry weight, branches and pods per plant, 100- grain weight, biological and grain yield were recorded in case of combined foliar application of K and MLE in normal and late sown chickpea. Maximum improvement in gas exchange attributes (stomatal conductance and transpiration rate), chlorophyll contents, antioxidants (catalase, superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase) and osmolytes (proline) were recorded with combined application of K and MLE in both sowing dates. Thus, combined applied K and MLE can be used to enhance productivity of kabuli chickpea.

The present study assessed nutritional status, antioxidant activity, and total phenolic content in fruits, i.e., mango (Mangifera indica), apple (Malus domestica), and vegetable, i.e., bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) peels. The antioxidant activity and total phenolic content (TPC) were evaluated by using methanol extracts along with 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), Folin–Ciocalteu (FC) assay, respectively having Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and Gallic acid (GA) as standard. The TPC and antioxidant activity in the peels ranged from 20 mg GAE/g to 525 mg GAE/g and 15.02% to 75.95%, respectively, which revealed that investigated fruit and vegetable peels are rich source of phytochemical constituents. Bottle gourd peels exhibited the highest value of DPPH compared to the rest of the peels included in the study. Likewise, mango peels had the highest TPC as compared to the rest of the fruit peels. This research showed that the utilization of agricultural wastes should be promoted at commercial level to achieve the nutritional benefit at zero cost and minimize the generation of biological waste.

The sucrose synthase (SS) is an important enzyme family which play a vital role in sugar metabolism to improve the fruit quality of the plants. In many plant species, the members of SS family have been investigated but the detailed information is not available in legumes particularly and Glycine max specifically. In the present study, we found thirteen SS members (GmSS1-GmSS13) in G. max genome. High conserved regions were present in the GmSS sequences that may due to the selection pressure during evolutionary events. The segmental duplication was the major factor to increase the number of GmSS family members. The identified thirteen GmSS genes were divided into Class I, Class II and Class III with variable numbers of genes in each class. The protein interaction of GmSS gave the co-expression of sucrose synthase with glucose-1-phosphate adenylyltransferase while SLAC and REL test found number of positive sites in the coding sequences of SS family members. All the GmSS family members except GmSS7 and few of class III members, were highly expressed in all the soybean tissues. The expression of the class I members decreased during seed development, whireas, the class II members expression increased during the seed developing, may involve in sugar metabolism during seed development. Solexa sequencing libraries of acidic condition (pH 4.2) stress samples showed that the expression of class I GmSS genes increased 1- to 2-folds in treated samples than control. The differential expression pattern was observed between the members of a paralogous. This study provides detailed genome-wide analysis of GmSS family in soybean that will provide new insights for future evolutionary and soybean breeding to improve the plant growth and development.