The article describes the efforts of a coalition of agricultural research centres, Seeds of Hope (SOH) in the rebuilding, of Rwanda, after the genocide and war of 1994. Research involvement in emergency relief and rehabilitation was unusual at the time and SOH had to forge its unique complementary role. Focusing on crop and variety development and conservation it: provided technical advice to r...

Rice–wheat cropping system is very common in India. It contributes to over 70% of total food grain production in the country with an area of 12 M ha under this cropping system. However, it is estimated that under rice and wheat crops separately the area is 42.31 and 22.98 M ha respectively. Looking to the above facts a study at farmer’s field of Ambedkar Nagar district was under taken to evalua...

Effective population size (N(e)) is the key parameter for predicting genetic drift associated with germplasm regeneration. A major factor reducing N(e) below the census population size (N(c)) is variation in seed production among plants in a given population. The objectives of this study were to estimate N(e)/N(c) associated with variation in seed production in three model wind pollinated, pere...

Many large-seeded Neotropical trees depend on a limited guild of animals for seed dispersal. Fragmented landscapes reduce animal abundance and movement, limiting seed dispersal between distant forest remnants. In 2006, experimental plantings were established in pasture to determine whether plantings enhance seed dispersal and, ultimately, seedling recruitment. We examined patterns of naturally ...

The Image Foresting Transform (IFT) is a framework for image partitioning, commonly used for interactive segmentation. Given an image where a subset of the image elements (seed-points) have been assigned user-defined labels, the IFT completes the labeling by computing minimal cost paths from all image elements to the seed-points. Each image element is then given the same label as the closest se...

Soybean seed is usually not carried-over to the next planting season because it deteriorates rapidly in storage, resulting in poor growth when planted. This rapid deterioration is a serious problem in seed production. The short shelf life of soybean seed is the result of its high lipid content and high levels of polyunsaturated linolenic and linoleic acids. The soybean production practice of pl...

Seed masting and production of empty seeds have often been considered independently as different strategies to reduce seed predation by animals. Here, we integrate both phenomena within the whole assemblage of seed predators (both pre and post-dispersal) and in two contrasting microsites (open vs. sheltered) to improve our understanding of the factors controlling seed predation in a wind-disper...

The high cost of treated water makes most people in the rural communities to resort to readily available water sources which are normally of low quality exposing them to waterborne diseases. The present study was carried out to confirm the effectiveness of seed powder extracted from mature-dried Moringa oleifera seeds which are commonly available in most rural communities. The main objective of...

Till now, herbicide seems to be a cost effective tool from an agronomic view point to control weeds. But long term efficacy and sustainability issues are the driving forces behind the reconsideration of herbicide dependent weed management strategy in rice. This demands reappearance of physical and cultural management options combined with judicious herbicide application in a more comprehensive ...