1. Adoption and Diffusion of Grass Silage in Trabzon Province of Turkey

   İsmet BOZ*, Çağatay YILDIRIM, Hatice TÜRKTEN

   Abstract: Developments in agricultural sector largely depend on the application of advanced agricultural technologies. These technologies sometimes consist of very complex issues but sometimes include very simple practices. Use of these technologies especially in disadvantaged regions enables farmers to increase their income and welfare level, as well as, makes contributions to a reduction of developmental gaps among regions. Depending in the area where they are being used, the new technologies have one of the effects of decreasing production costs, increasing productivity, easing the work being done, and reducing labor requirement. Grass silage for small holder cattle owners is considered as one of these technologies for Trabzon Province of Turkey since it has not been commonly used in the region.
   The main objectives of this research were to determine socioeconomic characteristics and communication behavior of small holder cattle owners, to determine what practices are being applied by the farmers in the present farming system, to determine problems encountered by farmers, and to determine the awareness level of grass silage in the region and possible contributions that grass silage will make to the farmers in the region. It is aimed also to develop recommendations for the region to accelerate the adoption and diffusion process of this technology. Descriptive statistics were used for data analyses. Research findings showed that small holder cattle farmers are mostly older people and operate in conventional ways. They face serious problems with drying their grass and lack information about grass silage. In order to adopt grass silage, farmers must be aware of its benefits, and extension work is needed for this purpose.

   Keywords: grass silage, diffusion of innovations, adoption of innovations, Trabzon, Turkey.

   Pages: 1 – 13 | Full PDF Paper

2. Anthropogenic and Climate Change Contributions to Uncertainties in Hydrological Modeling of Small Rivers Watershed Runoff

   Roman M. Corobov, Gennadii N. Syrodoev, Ilya D. Trombitsky

   Abstract: The movement and storage of water on watershed scales is a complex system affected by climatic, geologic, soil, land use, anthropogenic and other factors. The nature of processes inherent in surface and subsurface hydrology is best investigated by hydrologic models simulating these processes over different spatio-temporal scales and physiographical conditions. In 2014-2015 the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model was used as a basis for the follow-up investigations of Moldova small rivers’ potential streamflow in current and likely future climate. Actuality of this research was caused by the observed and expected deficit of water resources, necessary for the sustainable functioning of the country’s economy. The study showed that SWAT, being useful for design purposes, is less powerful in modeling the flow of small anthropogenically altered streams when the simulated runoff, which eventually enter to the river stream, does not reflect water losses resulted from human activities in their watersheds. In particular, the observed three-year streamflow of a pilot river was only between 10 and 20 percents of the corresponding modeled runoff. The likely alterations of rivers streamflow in the conditions of climate change were estimated according to the latest high resolution climate change projections based on new approaches to accounting for the greenhouse gas concentrations – the so-called Representative Concentration Pathways, which assume different radiative forcings in the current century. The SWAT modeling of the future runoff from three small rivers’ watersheds, as a function of the projected values of local air temperature and precipitation, has demonstrated a possible reduction in the water yields that could reach in Moldova, depending on a time horizon and radiative forcing, from about 2% to 21%, causing additional uncertainties in water supply planning.

   Keywords: climate change, hydrological modeling, Moldova, SWAT, uncertainties.

   Pages: 14 – 34 | Full PDF Paper

3. Development of Molecular Markers for Purity Testing in Thai Jasmine Rice

   Varapong Chamarerk, Payorm Cobelli, Jirapong Jairin, Poonsak Mekwattanakarn, Pikul Leelakud, Jittima Wongnongwa

   Abstract: Purity testing in paddy rice is sometime difficult by using phenotypic characters alone. Molecular markers can be more accurate technique for purity testing. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers are widely spread throughout the rice genome and are used for purity testing in rice. DNA banding patterns from an automated DNA sequencer showed more allelic variability than those from a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique. An average allelic pattern detected by using an automated DNA sequencer is 9.38 alleles per locus. The marker RM20B showed the highest allelic variation of 20 alleles, while the marker RM165 and Glu-23 showed the least allelic variation of 3 alleles. Those markers that can differentiate the rice varieties KDML105, Pathumthani 1 and Chainat 1 are RM21, RM20A, RM20B, RM209, RM3, GT11, RM232 and RM235. When using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique, there was less allelic variation than detected by an automated DNA sequencer. An average allelic pattern detected by using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is 4.53 alleles per locus. The marker RM20A showed the highest allelic variation of 9 alleles, while the marker RM165, B03 and Glu-23 showed the least allelic variation of 2 alleles. Those markers that can differentiate the rice varieties KDML105, Pathumthani 1 and Chainat 1 are RM21, RM20A, RM20B, RM209, RM3, RM248, GT11, RM204 and RM3627. Those markers used for purity testing can be classified into 3 groups; 1) those used for identifying soft and hard cooked rice, 2) those used for identifying glutinous and non-glutinous type and 3) those used for identifying aromatic and non-aromatic variety.

   Keywords: molecular markers, rice purity testing, allele standard, SSR markers.

   Pages: 35 – 44 | Full PDF Paper