Air Pollution and Crops

An experiment was carried out to examine the effectiveness of four different composts formulated from poultry (PM) and cowdung (CD) manures as primary constituents and two bulking agents namely sawdust (SD) and sorted refuse (SR) on some yield components of maize for two cropping seasons. All compost mixtures were fortified with rock phosphate and urea. The compost treatments (PM/SD, PM/SR, CD/SD and CD/SR at ratio 3:1) were applied at 2.5 tonnes/ha, replicated three times with NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer applied at 300 kg/ha as reference treatment and a control (no compost, no fertilizer), all arranged in a randomized complete design. The results showed that the composts significantly increased (P<0.05) all the maize yield components measured for the two cropping seasons. The PM/SD and PM/SR produced a higher grain yield of 3326 and 3218 kg/ha, respectively, for the first cropping season and 1603 and 2423 kg/ha, respectively, for the second season compared to the cowdung-based com...

An experiment was carried out to examine the effectiveness of four different composts formulated from poultry (PM) and cowdung (CD) manures as primary constituents and two bulking agents namely sawdust (SD) and sorted refuse (SR) on some yield components of maize for two cropping seasons.
All compost mixtures were fortified with rock phosphate and urea. The compost treatments (PM/SD, PM/SR, CD/SD and CD/SR at ratio 3:1) were applied at 2.5 tonnes/ha, replicated three times with NPK (15:15:15) fertilizer applied at 300 kg/ha as reference treatment and a control (no compost, no
fertilizer), all arranged in a randomized complete design. The results showed that the composts significantly increased (P<0.05) all the maize yield components measured for the two cropping seasons.  The PM/SD and PM/SR produced a higher grain yield of 3326 and 3218 kg/ha, respectively, for the
first cropping season and 1603 and 2423 kg/ha, respectively, for the second season compared to the cowdung-based composts, i.e. CD/SD and CD/SR with a range of 3073 and 3044 kg/ha and 1440 and 2051 kg/ha grain yield for the first and second seasons respectively. The sawdust-bulking agent
performed better in the first cropping season producing a mean grain yield of 3200 kg/ha compared to
sorted refuse with 3131 kg/ha. The study showed that types of bulking agent and animal manure used determined plant refuse to fortified composts.

L’utilisation de techniques avancées de synthèse et d’optimisation de systèmes chimiques et industriels basées sur les Principles de la Thermodynamique est indispensable pour la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, la consommation de combustibles fossiles et la conception de équipements plus efficaces et ansi plus économiques

Los problemas como el trabajo infantil (TI) requieren asumir una visión de mediano y largo plazo, que conlleve a la formulación de estrategias consensuadas entre diversos actores y donde la institucionalidad públicoprivada acompañe los procesos. El objetivo del artículo es exponer los desafíos para prevenir y erradicar el TI de manera articulada a partir de las acciones actuales de: el sector privado (cultivos agremiados a Asocolflores), el gobierno local y la escuela en tres departamentos (21 municipios) de Colombia. La metodología tuvo un abordaje mixto que incluyó revisión documental (planes de desarrollo local), aplicación de encuestas y entrevistas a jefes de talento humano de cultivos, y entrevistas a funcionarios del gobierno local y colegios públicos del área de influencia. Se encontró que las empresas se concentran en el cumplimiento normativo y no involucran su cadena productiva en las acciones contra el TI, lo que genera riesgos que pueden afectar la reputación del colect...

The critical stages during the growth of crops are the uniform seed germination, early seedling growth, and uniform plant stand. Low crop yield is attributed to uneven seed germination and seedling growth. Therefore, the quality of seed can be improved through priming in addition to the field management techniques for better seed germination. Priming is a physiological technique of seed hydration and drying to enhance the pregerminative metabolic process for rapid germination, seedling growth, and final yield under normal as well as stressed conditions. The primed seeds show faster and uniform seed germination due to different enzyme activation, metabolic activities, biochemical process of cell repair, protein synthesis, and improvement of the antioxidant defense system as compared to unprimed seeds. There are many techniques of seed priming which are broadly divided into conventional methods (hydro-priming, osmo-priming, nutrient priming, chemical priming, bio-priming, and priming ...

Background: After food and water, clean air is essential for continuity of life on the planet. Complex trans-boundary air pollution problem is often linked to sustenance and eutrophication. Air pollution problem has no universal conventions like Montreal and Kyoto protocols in case of refrigerants, except regional cooperative solutions. Polluter-pays principle is typically restricted to the source country. Under article 16, International Environment Law mentions the polluter-pay principle without any legitimate power to mitigate the transboundary air pollution risks. Mongolia, Bot-swana, and Pakistan are ranked as the most polluted countries, although their accumulative emissions are lesser than any of the coal power producing countries. Results: China, South Africa, and India produce 68-79% of their electricity using coal-fired power plants, emitting harmful pollutants into the common air. Regional winds drive upwind smog into their adjacent downwind countries like Pakistan. This paper compares the published transboundary air pollutant flows data of the most polluted countries (Mongolia, Botswana, Pakistan) with the cleanest ones (Estonia, Mauritius, Australia). Conclusions: Air pollution externality problem can only be solved either by regional cooperation or global environment law which yet does not exist. Drawing an analogy from water contamination laws, this work proposes an extension of the polluter-pays principle to transboundary air pollutants to compensate the public losses. We should collectively go for the international environmental law as we cannot divide air like land. Industrialization near the border may be banned to avoid air pollutant migrations to neighbors.

The critical stages during the growth of crops are the uniform seed germination, early seedling growth, and uniform plant stand. Low crop yield is attributed to uneven seed germination and seedling growth. Therefore, the quality of seed can be improved through priming in addition to the field management techniques for better seed germination. Priming is a physiological technique of seed hydration and drying to enhance the pregerminative metabolic process for rapid germination, seedling growth, and final yield under normal as well as stressed conditions. The primed seeds show faster and uniform seed germination due to different enzyme activation, metabolic activities, biochemical process of cell repair, protein synthesis, and improvement of the antioxidant defense system as compared to unprimed seeds. There are many techniques of seed priming which are broadly divided into conventional methods (hydro-priming, osmo-priming, nutrient priming, chemical priming, bio-priming, and priming with plant growth regulators) and advanced methods (nano-priming and priming with physical agents). However, priming is strongly affected by various factors such as temperature, aeration, light, priming duration, and seed characteristics. This chapter highlights the priming mechanism and the available technologies as a tool for superficial seed germination and crop stand. An experiment with reference to the importance of priming toward vigor seed germination and seedling growth was conducted, and its results have been added in this chapter.

Los problemas como el trabajo infantil (TI) requieren asumir una visión de mediano y largo plazo, que conlleve a la formulación de estrategias consensuadas entre diversos actores y donde la institucionalidad públicoprivada acompañe los procesos. El objetivo del artículo es exponer los desafíos para prevenir y erradicar el TI de manera articulada a partir de las acciones actuales de: el sector privado (cultivos agremiados a Asocolflores), el gobierno local y la escuela en tres departamentos (21 municipios) de Colombia. La metodología
tuvo un abordaje mixto que incluyó revisión documental (planes de desarrollo local), aplicación de encuestas y entrevistas a jefes de talento humano de cultivos, y entrevistas a funcionarios del gobierno local y colegios públicos del área de influencia. Se encontró que las empresas se concentran en el cumplimiento normativo y no involucran su cadena productiva en las acciones contra el TI, lo que genera riesgos que pueden afectar la reputación del colectivo; los colegios y el gobierno local interpretan y actúan según la normativa nacional, pero existe desarticulación entre las acciones de estos tres actores y las familias.