Reviewer Acknowledgements for Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. 14, No. 2

Reviewer acknowledgements for Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2022.

Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation, Spatial Spillover and Agricultural Green Development—Taking 30 Provinces in China as the Research Object

In the face of increasingly severe resource and environmental constraints, accelerating the transformation of agricultural green development through agricultural science and technology innovation is an effective measure to reduce agricultural pollution and improve agricultural production efficiency. From the perspective of multidimensional proximity, this paper expounds the mechanism of agricultural science and technology innovation on agricultural green development through spatial spillover from two perspectives: factor spillover path and product spillover path. Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019, using the gray correlation analysis method, the level of agricultural green development in China was measured, and its spatial–temporal evolution trend was analyzed. The spatial economic matrix was selected as the spatial weight matrix, and the spatial econometric model was used to analyze the spatial spillover effect of agricultural science and technology innovation on agricultural green development. The results showed the following: (1) Agricultural green development had distinct spatial characteristics. The development level of green agriculture in eastern and northwestern China showed a trend of fluctuation decline, while that in southwest China showed a trend of fluctuation increase. The overall spatial distribution of green agriculture was high in the east and low in the west. (2) The spatial distribution of agricultural science, technological innovation and the agricultural green development level showed a significant positive global spatial autocorrelation, and the local spatial pattern characteristics of a number of provinces showed high-value agglomeration (HH), low-value agglomeration (LL), low-value collapse (LH) and high-value bulge (HL) as the auxiliary local spatial distribution. (3) Under the economic matrix, the improvement of the agricultural science and technology innovation level not only had a significant promoting effect on agricultural green development within each province but also promoted agricultural green development in neighboring provinces through positive spillover effects. This study provides insights that can help make up for the lack of regional agricultural science and technology investment, formulate scientific regional agricultural science and technology innovation policies and promote agricultural green development.

Bioinoculants—Natural Biological Resources for Sustainable Plant Production

Agricultural sustainability is of foremost importance for maintaining high food production. Irresponsible resource use not only negatively affects agroecology, but also reduces the economic profitability of the production system. Among different resources, soil is one of the most vital resources of agriculture. Soil fertility is the key to achieve high crop productivity. Maintaining soil fertility and soil health requires conscious management effort to avoid excessive nutrient loss, sustain organic carbon content, and minimize soil contamination. Though the use of chemical fertilizers have successfully improved crop production, its integration with organic manures and other bioinoculants helps in improving nutrient use efficiency, improves soil health and to some extent ameliorates some of the constraints associated with excessive fertilizer application. In addition to nutrient supplementation, bioinoculants have other beneficial effects such as plant growth-promoting activity, nutrient mobilization and solubilization, soil decontamination and/or detoxification, etc. During the present time, high energy based chemical inputs also caused havoc to agriculture because of the ill effects of global warming and climate change. Under the consequences of climate change, the use of bioinputs may be considered as a suitable mitigation option. Bioinoculants, as a concept, is not something new to agricultural science, however; it is one of the areas where consistent innovations have been made. Understanding the role of bioinoculants, the scope of their use, and analysing their performance in various environments are key to the successful adaptation of this technology in agriculture.

FEED PRODUCTION IN AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES OF THE KIROV REGION

The state of the agro-industrial complex of the Kirov region, the factors hindering its development, key problems are analyzed, the main directions of intensification of the industry are proposed on the basis of the implementation of the achievements of modern agricultural science and practice, the use of innovative technologies in fodder production.

Level of Knowledge of Agricultural Science Graduate Students about Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Practices of Agriculture

Climate change (CC) is a global environmental problem and source of concern. Effective planning and implementation of CC mitigation and adaptation may arise from knowledge of its causes and effects. Therefore, dissemination of knowledge is highly important for ensuring that the knowledge grows and spreads amongst the various stakeholders and that it is turned into action. The students of today are the leaders and policy makers of tomorrow. They will effectively serve as change agents once their knowledge base has been well established. This study provides analysis of graduate students' level of knowledge of CC, its nature, causes, effects, mitigation, and adaptation. The study population was 57 agricultural science master's students in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences in Jarash University, Jordan, and the sample consisted of 50 of those students. The study used online test as the knowledge assessment and data collection tool. Frequency distribution analysis uncovered that the sample students possess high level of general knowledge of CC, moderate level of knowledge of mitigation of CC, and high level of knowledge of adaptation to CC. As to the three investigated facets of general knowledge of CC, these students have high levels of knowledge of the nature and the effects of CC and moderate level of knowledge of its causes. These findings contribute to understanding of students' knowledge achievements and gaps and of the need for curricular reform in terms of structure and content that can be shared by agricultural science faculties around the World with similar CC graduate programs.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. 14, No. 1

Reviewer acknowledgements for Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2022.

First report of powdery mildew on Astragalus sinicus (Chinese milk vetch) caused by Erysiphe trifoliorum in China

Astragalus sinicus L., (Chinese milk vetch) is a traditional leguminous green manure that plays a significant role in maintaining paddy soil fertility to enhance yield and the quality of rice in China. It is also found in gardens, roadsides, farms, fields, riverbanks, open wastelands, and is often used as livestock feed. From February 2019 to 2021, severe powdery mildew infections were observed on hundreds of A. sinicus grown in gardens and at roadsides of Fuzhou city, China. The disease incidence was up to 100% on leaves and stems of A. sinicus. White superficial fungal colonies (circular to irregular patches) were present on both sides of the leaves. Hyphae were flexuous to straight, branched, 4 to 8 µm in width, and septate. Hyphal appressoria were lobulate and solitary or in opposite pairs. Conidiophores were erect and straight, hyaline, and 60 to 120 × 8 to 10 µm (n=30). Foot cell was cylindrical, straight to slightly curved, 22 to 38 × 8 to 10 µm, followed by two to three shorter cells. Conidia were cylindrical-oval to doliiform, 30 to 48 × 13.5 to 24 μm with a length/width ratio of 1.6 to 2.4 (n = 30), formed singly, and without fibrosin bodies. Conidial germ tubes were produced subterminal position. No chasmothecia were found in the collected samples. The morphological characteristics of asexual structures were consistent with the descriptions of E. trifoliorum (Wallr.) U. Braun in Braun and Cook (2012). To verify the identification of the pathogen, the ITS and the part of large subunit (LSU) rDNA gene of the isolates were amplified using ITS1/ITS4 and LSU1/ LSU2 primers (Scholin et al. 1994 and White et al. 1990, respectively) and sequences were deposited in GenBank (ITS: MZ021332, MZ021333; LSU: MZ021334, MZ021335). In BLASTn searches, the ITS and LSU sequences were 99 to 100% identical with those of E. trifoliorum parasitic on Lathyrus magellanicus (LC010015), Medicago littoralis (LC270860), Melilotus officinalis (LC009924) and Trifolium spp., (MN216308, KY660821), as well as E. baeumleri (Bradshaw et al. 2021) on Vicia nigricans (LC010014). Pathogenicity test was performed by gently pressing a diseased leaf onto 10 young leaves of three healthy potted plants, while three non-inoculated plants were used as controls. All plants were maintained in a greenhouse at 20 to 25°C, without humidity control, and natural light. Symptoms developed 7 days after inoculation, whereas the control leaves remained symptomless. The morphology of the fungus on the inoculated leaves was identical to that observed on the originally diseased leaves. Powdery mildew on A. sinicus has been reported as E. pisi and E. polygoni from Korea and China (Shin, 2000; Tai 1979), respectively. Amano (1986) listed E. pisi and Microsphaera astragali (now E. astragali) on A. sinicus from China and Japan. To our knowledge, this is the first report of powdery mildew caused by E. trifoliorum on A. sinicus in China and in general. E. astragali is the most common and widespread powdery mildew species on Astragalus spp. (Braun and Cook 2012) and would be expected on A. sinicus, but this species is genetically clearly different from E. trifoliorum (Bradshaw et al. 2021). The E. trifoliorum complex (clade) is composed of several morphologically well-distinguishable species, besides E. trifoliorum also including E. baeumleri (on Vicia spp.), E. hyperici (on Hypericum spp.), and E. euonymi (on Euonymus spp.), but based on a combination of sequence plus host identity, the collection on A. sinicus can be assigned to E. trifoliorum (Bradshaw et al. 2021). The information in this study extended the host range of E. trifoliorum as well as future studies on A. sinicus in relation to powdery mildew outbreaks in China. References: Amano (Hirata), K. 1986. Host Range and Geographical Distribution of the Powdery Mildew Fungi. Japan Scientific Societies Press, Tokyo, 741 pp. Bradshaw, M., et al. 2021. Mycologia. (In press) Braun, U., Cook, R. T. A. 2012. Taxonomic Manual of the Erysiphales (Powdery Mildews), CBS Biodiversity Series No. 11. CBS, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Scholin, C. A., et al. 1994. J. Phycol. 30:999. Shin, H.D. 2000. Erysiphaceae of Korea. National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Suwon, Korea, 320 pp. Tai, F.L. 1979. Sylloge Fungorum Sinicorum. Sci. Press, Acad. Sin., Peking, 1527 pp. White, T. J., et al. 1990. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Effect of K and Zn Application on Biometric and Physiological Parameters of Different Maize Genotypes

Potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) are mineral nutrients required for adequate plant growth, enzyme activation, water retention and photosynthetic activities. However, Pakistani soils are alkaline and have serious problems regarding Zn deficiency. The current study aims at finding the nutrient–nutrient interaction of K and Zn to affect maize plants’ (i) physiological processes and (ii) productivity. For this purpose, a pot experiment was conducted at the research area of the Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan. Two maize genotypes, DK-6142 (hybrid) and Neelam (non-hybrid), were used with three K fertilizer doses, i.e., 0, 60 and 100 kg ha−1 in all possible combinations with three Zn fertilizer doses, i.e., 0, 16 and 24 kg ha−1. The treatments were replicated under a completely randomized block design. The results elucidated that the combined application of K and Zn with K60 + Zn16 treatment significantly increased agronomic, productive, and physiological attributes. It has improved fresh biomass (89%), dry biomass (94%), membrane stability index (142%), relative water content (200%) and chlorophyll contents (191%) as compared to the control. Moreover, the mineral uptake of K and Zn was significantly improved with their maximum fertilization rate in hybrid genotype compared to non-hybrid and CK.