Vegetation conditions in various plant communities and their performance in district Tharparkar, Sindh, Pakistan

Six villages were registered for the experimental purpose/plantation where more than 25,000 plants were planted to develop range forest. These plants were developed at Marvi nursery PARC-Arid Zone Research Institute, Umerkot and some were purchased from private nursery situated at Mirpurkhas. Results revealed that maximum plants mortality rate was found at village Ratnore and lowest mortality of plants was observed at Mithrio Charan. Plants damaged due to unknown reason (natural), termite attack and diseases. In various locations most of plants were affected by termites than others biotic and abiotic factors. The most influenced plant was Prosopis cinerera. Maximum plants survived numbers of grafted ber was found at village Ratnore, the biomass production of green and dry grasses was taken after harvesting. A highest green grass weight 21812.58 kg and dry 3439.83 kg were observed from elephant grass stock and lowest green weight 5001.92 kg from Gatten grass and dry weight 477.57 kg per acre were recorded from Rhode grass 1 (Sabri). Gatten grass and Rhode grass 1 (Sabri) were found lower weight. All these seven grasses showed excellent performance except Elephant grass and Gatten grass. These two grasses needed more water as compared to remaining five species. These grasses when fed by goats their milk production was increased and goats like to feed these grasses. The pictures of these grasses showed their appearance and health irrigated by underground brackish water with more than 2200 ppm. Keywords: grown, plants, performance, Tharparkar.

Effect of Presowing Treatments on Seed and Seedling Quality Attributes of an Endemic Agroforestry Tree Acacia nilotica subsp. cupressiformis (J.L. Stewart) Ali and Faruqi

Background: Acacia nilotica var. cupressiformis is an evergreen multipurpose leguminous tree species which is suitable to agroforestry purposes and mainly distributed in Western parts of Rajasthan in India particularly Pali and its adjoining areas. The species has many advantages, however the natural germination in wild is very limited due to its hard seed coat dormancy. Methods: The experiment was conducted to study the effect of presowing treatment on seed coat of A. nilotica var. cupressiformis seeds with ten treatments in Completely Randomized Block Design at ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Pali Marwar. The treatments were replicated thrice. Result: Among the treatments, maximum germination and higher values was obtained in sand paper scarification with water soaking for 12hrs (T2) followed by mechanical scarification with sand paper (T1), acid scarification (50% for 20 min) (T7) and acid scarification (98% for 10 min) (T5). Further, the present study aims to initiate the research areas for conservation and utilization of A. nilotica var. cupressiformis in Western parts of Rajasthan and other parts of India.

Short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) home range at Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station, NSW

Echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) are found Australia-wide and appear to be remarkably well-adapted to the arid zone, yet nearly all echidna research has been conducted in temperate, tropical and alpine zones. This study investigated the home range and movement of echidnas in western New South Wales. Radio telemetry tracking was used to locate the echidnas daily during the study period (March-May 2018, November 2018, March-May 2019 and August 2019); the observed home range was 1.47± 1.21km2. This is over twice the reported home range of temperate environments (<0.65km2), suggesting that echidnas exhibit larger home ranges in arid zones. The home range of individual echidnas ranged from 0.02km2 to 3.56km2. Echidnas exhibited a small degree of overlap (6.6%± 19.8%) but this varied considerably between individuals (between 0 to 84.2% overlap.) Four out of the thirteen echidnas died during this study, likely due to the severe drought that occurred during the study. This study provides insight into the movement and home range of echidnas in arid zones, revealing that desert echidnas have large home ranges, probably dependent on the availability of resources.

Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) Home Range at Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station, NSW

ABSTRACTEchidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) are found Australian-wide and appear to be remarkably well-adapted to arid zones, yet, nearly all echidna research has been conducted in temperate, tropical and alpine zones. This study investigated the home range and movement of echidnas in western New South Wales. Radio telemetry tracking was used to locate the echidnas daily during the study period (March-May 2019 and August 2019); the home range was 1.47± 1.21 km2. This is over twice the reported home range of temperate environments (>0.65 km2) suggesting that echidnas exhibit larger home ranges in arid zones. This study provides insight into the movement and home range of echidnas in arid zones, revealing that desert echidnas have large home ranges, dependent on the availability of resources.

Wheat Crop Cultivation's Profitability Studies in Sugar Crop Dominated Areas

The study was conducted at Arid Zone Research Centre (AZRC), Dera Ismail Khan (D.I.Khan) to evaluate cost and benefit of wheat cultivation in district Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Paktoon Khwa province of Pakistan during 2015. The basic underlying assumption of economic analysis of wheat production was to assess the farmers/growers financial impact of wheat cultivation. A sample of 200 respondents from 10 major wheat growing villages of the respective areas of the district was interviewed through pretested questionnaire. The study revealed that the cost of wheat production was Rs=35,680 per acres, whereas output comes 1650 Kg per acre (42 mounds) amounting Rs=63,600 per acre. Farmers' margin also rises by adding the value of family labour and owned land which is sufficient to sustain a normal family. Moreover, positive influence between return price and output of wheat was concluded from the study, whereas negative effect of cost was also observed. The output elasticity of Land Preparation (LP), Seed and Sowing (SS), Farm Inputs (FI), Irrigation (Irr), Pesticides (Pest) and Harvesting/Threshing (HT) are 0.124587, 0.31244, 0.5874, 0.55461, 0.08248 and 0.65743, respectively.

Rain Water Harvesting for Food and Livelihood Security: A case study from Pali, India

Arid zones are characterized by high evaporation, low and uneven rainfall, undulated topography, presence of salt layers at shallow depth in the soil and poor-quality ground water. Under these conditions an innovative farmer in the district of Pali in the state of Rajasthan, India explored options for farm diversification under hot-arid conditions at his farm. His motivation brought him to the ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) where he was trained in various basic aspects of rain water harvesting. KVK, Pali studied the methods and innovative ideas utilized by the farmers and the subsequent gain in yield and income by adoption of rainwater harvesting at his farm on a yearly basis. Initially he constructed a small rainwater harvesting structure by which he was able to store substantial quantities of water for longer duration. As a result of constant motivation, he constructed a concrete rainwater storage structure (40M x 40M x 3.5M) and explored further options to increase production at his farm. Also, development of goat farming, intercropping, raising fodder crops and grasses, and developing a fishery, all from the gains of water harvested from rains, gave him confidence and added to the prosperity of his farm. Presently, on farm productive activities, family labour mobilization and diversification provide him with a stable income. This experiential learning also led to new knowledge emerging from interactions among a hitherto powerful scientific hierarchy and served as role model for other farmers’ adoption of innovative techniques.

ANALISIS KEKERINGAN HIDROLOGI BERDASARKAN METODE MOISTURE ADEQUACY INDEX (MAI) DI DAERAH ALIRAN SUNGAI TEMON KABUPATEN WONOGIRI

<p>Wonogiri merupakan salah satu Kabupaten di Provinsi Jawa Tengah yang memiliki curah hujan rendah sehingga wilayah ini berpotensi terjadi bencana kekeringan karena ketersediaan air terus menurun, salah satu daerah aliran sungai yang terdampak yaitu DAS Temon. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui indeks kekeringan hidrologi dan ketersediaan air. Salah satu cara untuk mengatasi dampak bencana kekeringan yaitu dengan memperhitungkan indeks kekeringan hidrologi dari Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS) Temon. Indeks kekeringan hidrologi dihitung berdasarkan Metode <em>Moisture Adequacy Index</em> (MAI) yang merupakan perbandingan antara evapotranspirasi potensial dan aktual dengan klasifikasi menurut CAZRI (<em>Central Arid Zone Research Institute</em>), sedangkan perhitungan ketersediaan air menggunakan metode <em>FJ Mock</em> dengan output debit 15 harian. Dari hasil analisa perhitungan tersebut dibuat sebuah peta persebaran menggunakan <em>Software ArcGIS</em> selain itu dibuat grafik korelasi antara debit dan indeks. dari hasil analisis perhitungan indeks yang telah dilakukan nilai minimum indeks kekeringan yaitu 0,73 yang masuk dalam kriteria kering ringan sedangkan nilai maksimum indeks sebesar 0,97 dengan kriteria normal. <em>Trend </em>bencana kekeringan selanjutnya dapat diprediksi melalui grafik hubungan antara debit dan indeks dengan persamaan linier y = 0,7118x - 0,5256 dimana y adalah debit dan x adalah indeks.</p>

Determination of actual evapotranspiration for summer clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) using mini-lysimeters in hot arid zone of India

A field experiment was conducted for three consecutive years 2015-17 during the summer season at the experiment farm of ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur to determine the actual evapotranspiration of clusterbean [Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.] using mini-lysimeter by imposing different levels of irrigation based on cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) 50 mm irrigation at 100, 80, 60 and 40% of CPE. Three year averaged actual crop ET was observed 686, 554, 454 and 340 mm under 100, 80, 60 and 40 % irrigation levels, respectively. The highest crop ET was recorded under 100% followed by 80, 60 and 40 % irrigation levels. However, maximum water productivity (0.35 kg m-3) at 80% irrigation level, while the lowest (0.21 kg m-3) was observed at 40% irrigation level.The results also indicated that to achieve maximum water productivity, crop ET would need to be at least 554 mm and the crop can save 19.2% (132 mm) of water with a compromise in yield reduction by 10.4% (225 kg).

ANALISIS KEKERINGAN HIDROLOGI BERDASARKAN METODE MOISTURE ADEQUACY INDEX (MAI) DI DAERAH ALIRAN SUNGAI TEMON KABUPATEN WONOGIRI

<p>Wonogiri merupakan salah satu Kabupaten di Provinsi Jawa Tengah yang memiliki curah hujan rendah sehingga wilayah ini berpotensi terjadi bencana kekeringan karena ketersediaan air terus menurun, salah satu daerah aliran sungai yang terdampak yaitu DAS Temon. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui indeks kekeringan hidrologi dan ketersediaan air. Salah satu cara untuk mengatasi dampak bencana kekeringan yaitu dengan memperhitungkan indeks kekeringan hidrologi dari Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS) Temon. Indeks kekeringan hidrologi dihitung berdasarkan Metode <em>Moisture Adequacy Index</em> (MAI) yang merupakan perbandingan antara evapotranspirasi potensial dan aktual dengan klasifikasi menurut CAZRI (<em>Central Arid Zone Research Institute</em>), sedangkan perhitungan ketersediaan air menggunakan metode <em>FJ Mock</em> dengan output debit 15 harian. Dari hasil analisa perhitungan tersebut dibuat sebuah peta persebaran menggunakan <em>Software ArcGIS</em> selain itu dibuat grafik korelasi antara debit dan indeks. dari hasil analisis perhitungan indeks yang telah dilakukan nilai minimum indeks kekeringan yaitu 0,73 yang masuk dalam kriteria kering ringan sedangkan nilai maksimum indeks sebesar 0,97 dengan kriteria normal. <em>Trend </em>bencana kekeringan selanjutnya dapat diprediksi melalui grafik hubungan antara debit dan indeks dengan persamaan linier y = 0,7118x - 0,5256 dimana y adalah debit dan x adalah indeks.</p>

Rediscovery of the plains mouse (Pseudomys australis) (Rodentia : Muridae) in New South Wales

We report the rediscovery of the rare and endangered native rodent, the plains mouse (Pseudomys australis) in New South Wales (NSW). Two plains mice were trapped in the far west of the state at Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station and another in the NSW section of the Strzelecki Desert. Until these captures, the plains mouse was thought to have been extinct in NSW. Subfossil records indicate that these observations are within the pre-European settlement range of the species. It is uncertain whether these captures represent a range expansion from known populations in northern South Australia or reflect a local refuge population. Ensuring the conservation of P. australis in NSW requires further study to determine its distribution and the factors influencing its abundance.