National Agricultural Research Institute

Essential oils and plant extracts for sustainable crop protection

In recent years, environmental issues related to the extensive use of synthetic pesticides have attracted great attention to finding sustainable methods of plant protection. Plant-derived materials, particularly essential oils (EOs) and plant extracts, are considered to be potent...

Improving Selection Efficiency at the Head Rows Stage of Winter Wheat Breeding by Using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

Visual selection in early stage of wheat breeding is usually implemented method. This study was conducted to compare breeders’ visual selection with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) selection. Three different selection protocols were used at Head Rows (HR) stage: Bre...

Endogenous honeycomb stone arrangements reduce soil erosion, improve soil moisture, and sorghum productivity under fertilizer microdosing on steep lands of Boukombé in northwestern Benin

The biophysical field-based evaluation of the endogenous soil and water conservation (SWC) practices in the hilly region of sub-Saharan West Africa is lacking. To address this, the current study aims to evaluate the most commonly used erosion control practices in the hilly region...

Effects of Replacing Concentrate Feed with Carob (Ceratonia siliqua) Pods on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality, and Rumen Fermentation in Assaf Lambs

This study examined the effects of replacing 25% (P25) or 50% (P50) of concentrate dry matter (DM) with sun-dried carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) pods on growth performance, apparent nutrient digestibility, carcass traits, meat quality, serum biochemistry, and rumen microbiology in...

Livestock roles in agroecological transitions in mixed crop-livestock systems of Tunisia

CONTEXT Despite the well-recognized role of livestock in providing goods and ecosystem services, agronomy research over the past decades has predominantly focused on plots and crops, often underestimating the contribution of animals to economic diversification within mixed farmin...