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The trend analysis approach is used to estimate changing climate and its impact on the environment, agriculture and water resources. Innovative polygonal trend analyses are qualitative methods applied to detect changes in the environment. In this study, the Innovative Trend Pivot Analysis Method (ITPAM) and Trend Polygon Star Concept Method were applied for temperature trend detection in Soan River Basin (SRB), Potohar region, Pakistan. The average monthly temperature data (1995–2020) for 11 stations were used to create polygon graphics. Trend length and slope were calculated separately for arithmetic mean and standard deviation. The innovative methods produced useful scientific information, with the identification of monthly shifts and trend behaviors of temperature data at different stations. Some stations showed an increasing trend and others showed decreasing behavior. This increasing and decreasing variability is the result of climate change. The winter season temperature is increasing, and the months of December to February are getting warmer. Summer is expanding and pushing autumn towards winter, swallowing the early period of the cold season. The monthly polygonal trends with risk graphs depicted a clear picture of climate change in the Potohar region of Pakistan. The phenomena of observed average temperature changes, indicated by both qualitative methods, are interesting and have the potential to aid water managers’ understanding of the cropping system of the Potohar region.

The trend analysis approach is adopted for the prediction of future climatological behavior and climate change impact on agriculture, the environment, and water resources. In this study, the innovative trend pivot analysis method (ITPAM) and trend polygon star concept method were applied for precipitation trend detection at 11 stations located in the Soan River basin (SRB), Potohar region, Pakistan. Polygon graphics of total monthly precipitation data were created and trends length and slope were calculated separately for arithmetic mean and standard deviation. As a result, the innovative methods produced useful scientific information and helped in identifying, interpreting, and calculating monthly shifts under different trend behaviors, that is, increase in some stations and decrease in others of precipitation data. This increasing and decreasing variability emerges from climate change. The risk graphs of the total monthly precipitation and monthly polygonal trends appear to show changes in the trend of meteorological data in the Potohar region of Pakistan. The monsoonal rainfall of all stations shows a complex nature of behavior, and monthly distribution is uneven. There is a decreasing trend of rainfall in high land stations of SRB with a significant change between the first dataset and the second dataset in July and August. It was examined that monsoon rainfall is increasing in lowland stations indicating a shifting pattern of monsoonal rainfall from highland to lowland areas of SRB. The increasing and decreasing trends in different periods with evidence of seasonal variations may cause irregular behavior in the water resources and agricultural sectors. Significance Statement The monthly polygonal trends with risk graphs of total monthly precipitation data depicted a clear picture of climate change effects in the Potohar region of Pakistan. The monsoonal rainfall showed a significant decreasing trend in highland stations and an increasing trend in lowland stations, indicating a shifting pattern of monsoonal rainfall from highland to lowland areas.

Water content plays a significant role in seed development, especially during the seed sowing level, which ensures the germination of a good seed. A water seed drill (WSD) was tested in the farmer’s field Koont, Rawalpindi, for the last five wheat seasons (2015-16 to 2019-20). WSD provides the optimum amount of water needed in the same furrow for the soil right after seed placement. In this study, a WSD conserves soil moisture for better plant germination and wheat growth in rainfed areas. The data recorded showed that the application of WSD enhanced soil moisture 50 to 67% in the existing soil available water. The Germination rate and counted tillers of wheat plants were improved up to 38% and 45%, respectively, compared to conventional wheat sowing. WSD had a significant effect on wheat yield with a maximum of 41% increment in output than conventional sowing. The WSD operational and output cost were 2.57 and 2.15 times more than Conventional seed drill sowing, respectively. The WSD helped advance wheat sowing, ensuring the crop’s timely sowing in the absence of rainfall, especially in rainfed regions, and promoted drill sowing.

Deforestation remains a major ecological problem in most developing countries especially Pakistan which has a very high deforestation rate. Fuel-wood consumption is a determining socioeconomic factor for deforestation and degradation. Agroforest biomass utilization for energy production is an extreme value socioeconomic incentive towards the reduction in deforestation and degradation in Pakistan. This study was conducted at Basho forest valley Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, in 2019. In this study, dried and milled forest waste (FW) including tree leaves and branches were briquetted (biofuel) to be used as an alternate of wood fuel and determined its physical properties regarding quality of the briquette. The screw extruder briquetting technology was employed. Dried (

Anaerobic co-digestion (AD) of different organic wastes is a promising technique to enhance clean energy (bioenergy) and manure (slurry) production, reducing stress on the environment. This is an experimental study aimed to investigate 2-stage co-digestion of pretreated organic wastes mixed with fresh animal manure (BD) and digester’s operation conditions (digester temperature and pH) to enhance biomethane production. To increase lignocellulose digestibility and biomethane (BM) production, fruit + vegetable waste (FVW) and corn stalks + wheat straw (CR) in ratio (1:1), respectively, were pretreated with inoculum taken from an anaerobic digester of poultry manure at 35 °C. This AD experiment was performed in a fixed dome biodigester with volumetric capacity of 2.3 m3. Biomethane potential (BMP) tests were conducted for biomass treatments and inoculum used (T1, T2, Ti) at 35 °C. In this study, the temperature of biodigester material was measured in mesophilic (30–40°C) and thermophilic (40–50°C) ranges and pH of fresh feed and slurry feed digesters was in optimum methane production range (7.01–7.52). The total daily methane productions from T1 and T2 were 125.13 ml/g VS and 104.89 ml/g VS in mesophilic range (30–40°C) while these values were 148.41 ml/g VS and 132.74 ml/g VS in mesophilic range (40–50°C), respectively. The 2nd stage digestion of slurry from fresh feed digester added 39–45% and 35–38% more methane production in T1 and T2 respectively. On calibration with BMP tests, experimental data have shown the synergetic effect on methane production and its thermal characteristics promoted by co-digestion of pretreated organic waste and BD. The economic and feasibility analysis proved the biomass co-digestion project viable and adoptable with positive (5.39 $) net return value (NRV), 2.92 years payback time (PBT), and 1.34 benefit cost ratio (BCR).

Deforestation remains a major ecological problem in most developing countries especially, Pakistan has a very high deforestation rate. Various socioeconomic factors determine deforestation and degradation. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the causes of deforestation in Basho forest, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. This study collected data on factors of deforestations and degradation resulting in environmental problems such as air pollution, soil erosion, temperature rise and to recommend practices for sustainable forests. A questionnaire survey of 220 respondents was conducted including; educated locals of different age group and forest officials (forest engineers, civil servants and workers) in Forestry service division. Descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model were applied on the collected data and Likert scale method to determine the mean score of socio-economic factors encouraging deforestation. More than 70% respondents were below 30 years old, while 14.6% and 12.6% respondents from 31–40 to 41–50 age groups, respectively. 65.9% and 34.1% of the respondents were male and female respectively. Only 26.8% of the respondents were university graduates, while below 50% (48.6%) of respondents were primary school graduates. According to the analysis, the respondents were completely dependent on the forest for their livelihood needs. The socioeconomic factors such as rapid population growth, livelihood activities, lack of education, Poor forest management, Fuel wood consumption and Period of residence were found to be the prominent factors for deforestation. Results of the logit regression established reward socioeconomic factors were statistically significant variable at (p

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important food and cash crop in Pakistan, although less soil fertility (organic matter) and suboptimal application of fertilizers cause nutrient depletion and yield decline. Extensive use of inorganic fertilizers without soil physiochemical analysis is problematic in terms of soil fertility and crop productivity. The application of compost combined with or without chemical fertilizer is considered as a sustainable agricultural production system because it enhances crop productivity and soil fertility. Therefore, this research was conducted to evaluate the effects of bio-fertilizer (organic compost) (Bio-F), chemical fertilizer (RDF), and controlled (CK) farming treatments on some soil physical properties and crop yield. The seven different farming treatments based on N equivalency (compost nutritional analysis) including sole compost levels (20 and 30 t ha−1), sole chemical fertilizer (NPK, 30 kg ha−1), integrated fertilizer treatments (compost + RDF), and a controlled treatment were laid in a complete randomized design (CRD) with three replications under the same experimental field conditions from 2017 to 2020 cropping seasons. Before sesame production, soil samples at a depth of (0–15 cm, 15–30 cm) were analyzed to determine the effect of different farming treatments on soil physical properties. A significantly higher grain yield of sesame (805.1 kg ha−1) was obtained from Bio-F3 integrated fertilizer application (30 t ha−1 + ½ RDF). The treatments with higher doses of bio-fertilizer (compost) have a significant reduction in soil weight (bulk density), while the increase has been observed in the porosity values. Compared with sole RDF and Bio-F, integrated farming treatments have significantly improved the soil field capacity, available moisture to plants and wilting point. Therefore, the integrated farming system (chemical fertilizer + compost) is recommended for sustainable agroecology and crop production.

The combine harvesters compete only with the crops, leaving large stubbles and machine-thrown straw on the ground. Removing wheat residues from the field can be very costly and laborious, farmers generally burn this left-over straw for cultivation operation of subsequent crop. Wheat straw chopper is an agricultural resource conservation environment friendly technology to collect stubbles from combine-harvested wheat fields. Currently, this technology is being used but, not evaluated in fields intensively. Therefore, the main the purpose of this study was to assess the wheat straw chopper output at Rana Agric after combine-harvested wheat, Jatoi estate, Punjab and the economies of this machine. Four different wheat varieties Sehar-2006, Lasani, Faisalabad-2008 and Punjab-2011 were in the test fields. Wheat straw chopper was operated with 75 hp tractor at two selected forward speeds 1.5 and 3.5km h-1. Results showed that the average effective field range of the chopper was 0.3 to 0.7 ha h-1 and 65 percent field efficiency. For the chaff the approximate volume recovered was 2234 kg ha-1. The running cost for the Chopper setup was $41.24 ha-1. The total value of the chaff and grain recovered was $216 ha-1 (@$0.1 kg-1) and $17.13 ha-1 (@$0.25 kg-1) respectively. The net savings for the wheat straw chopper were 192$ha-1. Wheat straw chopper has proven to be an effective technology which is gaining popularity in combined harvested wheat fields to save chaff and increase farmers ‘ income.

Biogas is one of the renewable energy resources produced from the anaerobic fermentation of biomass. About 60% of Pakistan population live in rural areas that demand energy source for domestic and commercial use. Therefore, biogas plants can be used as one of the renewable energy sources in Pakistan. This paper described the development and performance evaluation of small size household portable biogas plant. The lightweight double-ply polypropylene material is used to fabricate the biogas plant, which is durable and easily portable. The volume of the digester was 2.15 m3, and the gasholder volume was 0.84 m3. The performance of the developed plant and biogas production is verified by three different treatments of feeding materials, i.e., buffalo dung (BD), buffalo dung plus sheep waste (BD + SW), and buffalo dung plus chicken droppings (BD + CD). The maximum biogas productions for treatments BD, BD + CD and BD + SW were recorded 0.59 m3/kg-VS, 0.61 m3/kg-VS, and 0.79 m3/kg-VS, respectively. The AMPTS was also conducted to compare total methane production. The nutrient analysis performed for both substrate and slurry showed improved nutrient quantity in the slurry. The cost estimation cleared that fixed biogas plants have 1.27 times more costly than that of portable biogas plants. The developed biogas plant is favorable for its light in weight and low cost, and it can produce enough methane gas to fulfill the domestic requirements.

Tillage is a critical soil management option that affect many soil physical, chemical and biological properties, which in turn may alter the soil environment and consequently impact on root growth and distribution, and crop yield. This study was carried out to evaluate the long-term effects of different soil tillage systems on some soil physical properties under both irrigated and rainfed wheat productions for nine consecutive wheat seasons (2011-12 and 2019-20) at Koont research farm, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. Four soil tillage systems were performed i.e. conventional tillage system (S1), reduced tillage system-1 (S2), reduced tillage system-2 (S3) and no tillage system (S4). The results showed that soil moisture content measured at both soil depths (0-15 and 15-30 cm) was the maximum in direct sowing (S4) and lowest in conventional soil tillage system (S1). Bulk density and porosity were changes with tillage depth. Among studied tillage systems, bulk density and penetration resistance values were the maximum and porosity was lowest in direct wheat sowing system. Soil particle size distribution was affected by operations and agricultural machinery used in soil tillage systems. The aggregate size smaller than 1 mm showed higher fragmentation (42.25%) in S3. This study showed that soil physical properties were influenced by tillage systems in wheat production under irrigation and rainfed environment. Although the climate of the study area is semi-arid and direct sowing system provide maximum moisture but reduced tillage method can be used for better soil physical properties and highest crop yield.

This paper describes the method of preparing strong hydrophobic polypyrrole (PPy) on wind turbine blades. The water contact angle of strong hydrophobic PPy coatings was 127.2°. The strong hydrophobic PPy coatings exhibited excellent anti-icing properties. The maximum icing weight of strong hydrophobic PPy coating blade was almost 0.10 g while the maximum icing weight of no coating blade was found to be 26.13 g. The maximum icing thickness of a strong hydrophobic PPy coating blade was only 1.08 mm. The current research will provide a better technique to create anti-icing coatings on wind turbine blades and other outdoor equipment.

Pakistan faces water scarcity and high operational costs for traditional irrigation systems, hindering agricultural productivity. Solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) can potentially provide a sustainable and affordable solution, but face technical, financial and policy barriers to adoption. A comprehensive study is needed to examine feasibility and identify barriers. Therefore, a comprehensive review study is conducted to identify the potential for solar irrigation, key issues and challenges related to its implementation in Pakistan. The analysis is based on published studies, technical reports and a survey of solar-powered drip irrigation systems. The use of SPIS in Pakistan is becoming a cost-effective and sustainable option for irrigation, particularly in remote and off-grid areas. However, these systems also have their challenges, such as high initial costs, maintenance and repairs, limited access to spare parts, lack of government policies and regulations, lack of technical expertise, lack of financing options and social acceptance. The most pressing issue is the risk of groundwater exploitation by using SPIS. Based on the analysis of the energy and water situation in Pakistan, it is important to sustainably use both solar energy and groundwater resources, through the implementation of effective management strategies and policies. With the right policies and investment in research and development of SPIS and groundwater, farmers can benefit by increasing crop yields, conserving water resources, reducing the cost of energy, increasing productivity and improving the standard of living and access to electricity in remote and off-grid areas. It is recommended that the adoption of solar energy be promoted to run high efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS) with urgent capacity improvement among farmers, advisors and system installers to sustainably manage water resources in SPIS. This would not only help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and associated environmental impacts, but also increase farmers’ income and reduce their operational costs. Moreover, the use of SPIS can improve crop yields, leading to food security and poverty reduction. Thus, the government and policymakers should consider implementing policies and incentives to encourage the large-scale adoption of solar energy in the agricultural sector.

The conservation of forest in the northern areas of Pakistan is the major priority of the national environmental policy to fight against global warming. Despite the policy for the protection of forest, rural residents&rsquo, behavior toward economic incentives for deforestation may undermine their conservation goals. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the factors that affect the illegal behaviors related to deforestation in the northern areas of Pakistan. The present study applied the socio-psychological theory of planned behavior to predict the behavioral intention of rural residents toward economic incentives for deforestation. Correlations were explored between background factors toward motivations for deforestation based on positive and negative views through open-ended questions. Attitude and descriptive norm were found good predictors to perceive the behaviors. The findings of the study suggest that rural communities&rsquo, support for compliance with policies is vital for the long-term efficacy and protection of the forest in the region. Further, change in the behaviors of inhabitants toward the ecosystem through training can be improved to manage the forest.

The density of herbaceous crops creates a suitable environment to produce pathogens in the soil that intensify the attack of pathogens traditionally controlled by disinfectant, which are mostly prohibited and unlisted because of their toxicity. Grafting is an alternative technique to enhance abiotic stress tolerance and reduce root diseases due to soil-borne pathogens, thus enhancing crop production. This research study was conducted during the crop season of 2017 and 2018 in order to investigate the interactive effect of different grafting techniques of hybrid scion onto local rootstocks on plants survival, plant phenological growth, fruit yield and fruit quality under a controlled environment. The hybrid cucumber was also planted self-rooted. The cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cv. Kalaam F1, Syngenta was grafted onto four local cucurbitaceous rootstocks, ridge gourd (Luffa operculate Cogn.), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.) using splice grafting, tongue approach, single cotyledon and hole insertion grafting techniques and self-rooted hybrid cucumber under greenhouse conditions. The experimental results indicated that all local cucurbitaceous rootstocks showed a high compatibility with hybrid cucumber scion in the splice grafting method compared to other grafting and non-grafted methods. Lagenaria siceraria rootstocks were found highly compatible with cucumber cv Kalaam scion which gave significantly maximum plant survival rates (95%) due to high sap contents, high SPAD value, better vegetative growth and maximum fruit yield when compared with other rootstocks by employing the splice grafting method followed by tongue approach, single cotyledon and hole insertion grafting while the fruit quality of all rootstocks was observed to be similar. The non-grafted cucumber cv. Kalaam F1 showed significant results of plant vegetative growth, fruit development and fruit quality and encountered grafting methods while the lowest result were associated with the hole insertion grafting method in all scion/rootstock combinations. The grafted plants have no significant effect on cucumber fruit dry matter and fruit quality while the fruit mineral compositions (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) were higher among grafted and non-grafted plant fruits. The results indicate that grafting hybrid cucumber onto four local cucurbitaceous rootstocks influenced growth, yield and fruit quality. Grafting can be alternative and control measure for soil-borne disease and to enhance cucumber production.

The winter season in Nanjing is from December to February, with extremely low temperature and high humidity due to seasonal snowfall. During these extreme cold climatic conditions, plants have to survive severe heat stress conditions, even if they are being kept in greenhouses. The objective of this study was to investigate a heating system that can provide heat directly to the root zone instead of heating the entire greenhouse, which is a viable option to reduce energy consumption. Root zone heating could be an effective alternative for the sustainable development of plants during the winter. A novel type of root zone heating system was applied to evaluate the energy consumption during different greenhouse ambient temperature conditions, the effects of root zone heating systems on pepper plant morphology, and heat transfer rates to plant canopy in the greenhouse. The temperature treatments in root zone heating system were T-15, T-20, T-25, T-30, and a control treatment (TC) at 15 &deg, C, 20 &deg, C, 25 &deg, C, and 30 &deg, C, respectively, while TC received no heat. A simulation study was carried out to validate the root zone temperature. The results of the current investigation revealed that energy consumption has an inverse relationship to the ambient temperature of the greenhouse, while temperature gradients to the plant canopy observed from the lower to the upper part of the plant and the upper canopy experienced less temperature fluctuation as compared to the lower part of the plant. The results also showed that treatment T-20 had the maximum in terms of the leaf dry weight, stem diameter, and the number of leaves, while T-25 showed the maximum root dry weight and stem dry weight, T-30 and T-15 had minimum dry weights of plant segments among all treatments. Control treatment (TC) showed a minimum dry mass of plant. The root zone heating with optimal root zone temperature was found to be a viable and adaptable option as this leads to improved energy consumption patterns for the sustainable growth and development of plants in greenhouses during extremely low temperatures.

Previous studies showed that excellent anaerobic digestion performance could be achieved using acid pretreatment, whereas the development of acid pretreatment was limited by high cost of acid consumption and severe operation. The aim of this study consisted in expanding the possibilities of low-cost acid pretreatment method for anaerobic digestion. For this, the feasibility of substituting conventional acid pretreatment with furfural wastewater was verified, and the whole slurry anaerobic digestion was performed to improve the production of methane. The furfural wastewater was used to pretreat crop stalk at different ambient temperatures (20, 35, 50 °C) for different time periods (0, 3, 6, 9 days). Subsequently, all treated and untreated crop stalk were digested at 35 °C for 25 days. According to experimental data showed that the dissimilar degradability of compositions for crop stalk was due to furfural wastewater pretreatment, and the reducing sugar content, volatile fatty acid content, pH during pretreatment phase, and their initial maximum & minimum values in anaerobic digestion phase were changed, which made a significant difference in methane production. The highest total methane production of anaerobic digestion (196.68 mL/g VS) was achieved by the treatment at 35 °C for 6 days, which was 59.28% higher than untreated crop stalk (123.48 mL/g VS). On the whole, the results showed that furfural wastewater pretreatment followed by the whole slurry anaerobic co-digestion was feasible and could contribute to application value for anaerobic digestion industry while providing an effective way for the treatment of furfural wastewater.

Chemical application of nutrients and pesticides is one of the most important processes in agricultural production, but also one of the most dangerous agricultural operations. To improve the chemical efficacy, reduce chemical and labor costs, minimize labor hazards, and reduce the harmful environmental damage. Variable-rate spray applications that use intelligent control systems can significantly reduce pesticide use and off-target environmental pollution. Real-time variable-rate spraying technology offers effective and efficient use of pesticides. The variable-rate spray allows the farmers to apply pesticides only on the target, using only the correct amount based on the canopy size, season, and growth phase of the plants. In the past few decades, target detection systems have been developed using advanced methods such as laser and vision scanning systems or, more simply, ultrasound, infrared, and spectrum systems. Real-time target detection spray Systems used for the detection of the geometric properties of tree plants are reviewed in detail. Among these methods, machine vision and laser scanners systems are possibly the most capable and complementary means of obtaining three-dimensional images and maps of plants and canopies. This paper discusses a review of various sensing technologies available for the determination of canopy structural parameters and discusses how they are used for precision spraying. Some of the challenges and considerations of the use of these sensors and technologies are also discussed.

In this study, corn stalk (CS) was pretreated with furfural wastewater (FWW) for whole slurry anaerobic digestion (AD), which increased the degradability of CS components, changed the parameters in pretreatment slurry and improved the biochemical methane potential (BMP). The ultimate goal was to optimize the time and temperature for FWW pretreatment and evaluate whether FWW pretreatment is feasible from BMP and energy conversion. The results of path analysis suggested that lignocellulosic degradability (LD) was the main factor affecting methane production with the comprehensive decision of 0.7006. The highest BMP (166.34 mL/g VS) was achieved by the pretreatment at 35 °C for 6 days, which was 70.36% higher than that of control check (CK) (97.64 mL/g VS) and the optimal pretreatment condition was predicted at 40.69 °C for 6.49 days by response surface methodology (RSM). The net residual value (NRV) for the pretreatment of 35 °C and 6 days was the highest (0.6201), which was the most appropriate condition for AD in real application.

Water content plays a crucial role in seed development, particularly at the seed sowing stage, and it ensures good seed germination. A water seed drill was designed and developed to provide an optimum quantity of water that is required for the soil in the same furrow, right after seed placement. This soil moistening method not only improves the moisture level in the field, but it also saves a large amount of water by applying the needed water quantity in the line of sowing after seed placement. The water seed drill consisted of a wheat seed drill, a water application system, and a tank with 400 L capacity. The water seed drill yielded a 48% higher germination count than when wheat is planted through a conventional method. The data recorded also showed that the water seed drill raised the soil moisture to 24% from the existing 13% soil moisture content. The total operational cost of the water seed drill was 2.57-fold greater than the conventional seed drill, but the output cost of the water seed drill was 2.15 times (49,000 Rs/ha) more than that of the conventional seed drill.