Wilt disease of banana is an important destructive disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubens (Foc). It is one of the most important disease found in North Bihar. Bio control of the destructive disease by the use of antagonists as biocontrol agent (BCAs) against Foc, constitutes an effective role for the management of the disease. These effectiveness depends on range of biological, physio –chemical factors including the type and properties of bio chemical agent, the obstacles to the initial colonization of antagonist as well as the variation factors after initial colonization. Various strategies can be opted to minimize the bio control efficacy, such as the user of endophytes from banana plants as BCAs (favourable Bacillus sps), the development of water retaining agent, the application of proper carrier for BCA, the restoration of soil bio diversity and combined management of nematodes disease and Fusarium wilt. In this review, elements effecting the biocontrol efficacy of Fusarium wilt are analysed in detail and also to search for promoting the biocontrol effects.

Bio-fortification of crops is one of those cheaper options to managed micronutrient deficiencies (MND), compared to supplementation and food fortification. For major crops, bio-fortification relies on the natural sources of variation in the mineral contents of the available genotypes including the landraces. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to determine the mineral content variation amongst the landraces and commercial varieties of common bean from Zambian alongside the CIAT reference lines using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) method. We observed significant differences (p<0.05) among the different sup-populations of the landraces, commercial varieties and CIAT reference lines for copper, sodium, iron, zinc, manganese, potassium, calcium and magnesium. On average, a 2-fold higher concentration was observed for the landraces compared to the commercial varieties and the CIAT reference lines for some minerals. Strong positive correlations (p<0.05) were revealed amongst these minerals. The sup-populations of these landraces with particularly high mineral contents for iron and zinc were identified and these remain very useful in the Zambian common bean improvement programmes for food and nutritional security.

The study was carried out to assess the impact of soil conservation through Aforestation programmes. Ten villages in Bakura local government being the areas that participate in soil conservation through Aforestation programmes was selected. The stratified random sampling was employed to selected the number of household participated in afforestation. The mean age of the respondents were within 33-42 years of the respondents were within the age of 33-42 years accounting for 44%. Male formed the majority with 100% and female the minority with 0.%. Majority of the respondents (92%) in the study area reported that they were married, while (8%) were single. Result showed that, 76.0% of the respondents were having 1 – 5 trees in or within their household premises, 20.0% of the respondents had no any single tree in their household premises 4.0% of the respondents has 6 – 10 trees, while 11 – 15 and 16 and above none have that trees in the study area. Showed that 80.0% of the respondents planted trees in or within their household premises, while only 20.0% of the respondents did not plant any tree. From the general overview of the research, it is obvious that afforestation culture is very low in the area under study. This appear to be the end result of little of no government sponsored enlightenment programme on the importance of afforestation. The study have showed the consequence of treeless condition discovered from the interviewees responses that lack of afforestation has been responsible for the occasional wind disaster in the study area. The study also assesses the relevance of Agro – forestry services in afforestation and soil conservation. It also uncovers the terrible consequences of deforestation which resulted in global warming, as a result vegetation are not available to absorbed carbon sinks which is an essential process for the life of trees and humans. This highlighted the need for the provision of communal nursery beds; establish tree planting campaign organizations by the government.

A field study was carried out to evaluate the relationship between the infestation rate by Parlatoria oleae on the measurements of vegetative growth and nutritional status in seedy Balady mango leaves at Esna district, Luxor Governorate through the two consecutive seasons from the beginning of September, 2016 until mid-August, 2018. The two seasons data indicated that, the uninfested mango leaves had better vegetative growth measurements (shoot length, shoot thickness, number of leaves per shoot, leaf area and leaf index), physical properties (fresh weight, weight after one hour of drying in air, moisture and specific leaf area) and chemical properties (N, P, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu) and crude protein content in mango leaves than those of the light and heavily infested leaves. While, in contrast, the dry weight, dry matter, loss moisture content and specific leaf weight, in addition to K and Ca contents increased significantly in the infested leaves as compared to the uninfested leaves. The two latter elements (K and Ca) may play a role in the defense mechanism of mango leaves against sap-sucking pests infestation. Also, the heavily infested leaves were considered the greatest infestation by pest and exhibiting the highest reduction in all studied measurements, except exposing the highest increasing in (dry weight, dry matter, loss in moisture content, specific leaf weight and K and Ca elements) than the lower rates of infestation (free and light). Generally, it seems that the population density of P. oleae during autumn months was the highest causing the greatest loss in studied measurements in autumn growth cycle of mango trees during the two seasons as compared with other growth cycles. The loss in the measured parameters was a summation of many factors including the rate of infestation, time of infestation, element contents, essential nutrients and the plant variety.