Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of using treated wastewater on soil physical and chemical properties using drip irrigation system in the demonstration farm of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan. The experimental work involved using magnetic technology and a comparison was made to comparing the effect of four types of water vis treated wastewater (WW), normal water (NW), magnetized wastewater (MWW) and magnetized normal water (MNW). The results indicated that irrigation with magnetized water decreases soil salinity. Using treated wastewater and magnetized treated wastewater improve soil porosity. Moreover, the soil physical and chemical properties were improved after being irrigated with treated wastewater and magnetized treated wastewater. There were increases of 38%, 21%, 89 %, and 39%, in N%, Ca+ Mg and K, respectively. There was an increase in the soil pH and a reduction in the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). Keywords: magnetized wastewater, drip irrigation system, sodium adsorption ratio, physical and chemical properties.

Abstract: Phosphine is a universal fumigant of store insect pests being used for more than 70 years worldwide. In Sudan it is the most known fumigant that is used for this purpose for the farmers and in commercial stores in particular. The use of this fumigant is generalized in the public sector in replacement of the methyl bromide which will phase out in 2015. An experiment of the susceptibility of the red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst) for this fumigant was done in the Food Research Center (FRC), Khartoum during 2013. The damaging stages of this insect (larva and adult) were tested. The results reflected that one tablet of Quickphos® ( 1 gram of phosphine, PH3) for a period of five days was unable to disinfest the flour from the beetles in two of the four tests done with corrected mortalities (98.98, 100, 100 and 98.98%, respectively). However, this dose succeeded in disinfesting the test flour from larvae and adults (100% corrected mortality) when used for a period of 6 and 7 days and a period of 5 days for the larval stage. Another experiment was conducted using 2 tablets Quickphos® for 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 days. The obtained results reflected 100% corrected mortality in all tests (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days). These results reflect some resistance of T. castaneum to this fumigant and may represent an early alert of the injudicious use of this insecticide. Moreover, testing the susceptibility of the other insect pests of store in Sudan is needed considering the strong resistance of some store product insects to phosphine in other countries such as the flat grain beetle [Cryptolestes ferrugneus (Stephens)] in Australia. However, these results may infer the dismerits of the reliance on one fumigant and may push forward to test for the introduction of other alternative available fumigants. Keywords: Fumigant, phosphine, Quickphos®, Sudan, susceptibility and T. castaneum.

Abstract: This study was carried out to test the effect of drying under sun and shade before frying on the nutritional and t% reported technological quality of extruded flour blend. Blend of wheat flour and corn starch was subjected to analysis of chemical composition before processing to detect the effect of processing (extrusion) and drying on the nutritional value. Extruded sample dried under sun reflected a moisture content of 9.46% and 11.57 for the sample dried under shade. Chemical composition of fried extruded sample dried under shade showed a significant increase compared with extruded sample dried under the sun. In addition the in vitro protein digestibility of extruded samples dried under shade gave a better result than the sample dried under the sun and both of them were better than the blend (extrusion effect). However, lysine (An essential amino acid) recorded 26.963 and 51.225 for samples dried under sun and shade, respectively. In general the extruded sample dried under shade had specific volume (expansion ratio) better than the sun dried sample. Sensory evaluation of the extruded sample dried under shade was found superior in taste, crispness and general acceptability. Keywords: extrusion – sun drying – shade drying.

Abstract: A study was performed in which petroleum ether, methanol and water extracts of Rosamarinus officinalis leaves in different concentrations (5, 12.5 and 25%) were evaluated for their possible antimicrobial activity against six standard pathogenic microorganisms, Staphylococcus aureus (gram-positive bacteria), Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (gram-negative bacteria) in addition to the fungi Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. The aqueous extract in different concentrations exhibited antimicrobial activity against all tested organisms (except Ps. aeruginosa at 5%) and that the activity is concentration –dependent. At all concentrations, the petroleum ether extract had no activity against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and C. albicans but the growth of E. coli and Proteus vulgaris was not inhibited by 12.5 and 25% concentrations and A. niger by 25%. Except for C. albicans which was inhibited by all methnol extract concentrations, other organisms grew at 5% concentration and inhibited by 12.5 and 25%. Findings were compared to those produced by Gentamicin and Nystatin (10 µg), reference antibiotic and antifungal respectively. Keywords: agar well diffusion method, antimicrobial activity, methanolpetroleum ether, water, Rosemarinus officinalis methanol.

Abstract: Field experiment on agro-economic relationship of component crops in a lentils wheat mixed cropping system was conducted during the winter season of 2012 at the Al-Shalalat village which located at the eastward longitude (43º.12”03.64) and northward latitude (36º.28”04.40), Mosul city, Nineveh province of Iraq. The objective of the study were to study the effects of mixed cropping system on the yield and yield components of wheat and lentils and to investigate the best combination and efficiency of resource utilization by determining land equivalent ratio (LER). Mixed cropping resulted in reduced yields and yield components of both wheat and lentils as compared to sole cropping. Further results showed that the highest Land equivalent ratio (LER) for total grain and straw yields were observed in the mixed cropping treatment of Wheat (100 kg ha-1) + Lentils (40 kg ha-1).The highest net income, which provides an appropriate economic assessment of mixed cropping in terms of increased value per unit land, was obtained from Wheat (100 kg ha-1) + Lentils (40 kg ha-1) Treatment. Keywords: wheat, lentils, mixed cropping, LER, monetary advantage.