Nickel (Ni) bioavailability in the soil can be alleviated by the integrated use of immobilizing agents. In the current study, it was observed that sole of combined use of biochar (BA), zeolite (ZT) and gravel sludge (GE) significantly influenced the Ni bioavailability in Ni stimulated soil compared to control. The bioavailable Ni contents were measured in DTPA, Ca(NO3)2 and extracts and soil water extract (SWE) with indicator plant red clover (Trifolium pratense L.). The impact of immobilizing agents and a bioavailable portion of Ni was assessed through physiology, growth and biochemical characters of red clover were recorded. Results showed that application of ZT significantly decreased the extractable Ni concentrations in all treatments, however, the combined use of BA and ZT significantly reduced the Ni and decreased the generation of (ROS) thus positively influence physiological, agronomic and biochemical attributes of red clover. Therefore, ZT and BA as sole or combination of both were selected the second experiment with the object to immobilize Ni in soil with both maize and sunflower as a test crop. Results revealed the treatment receiving ZT: BA with 1:3 significantly improved the growth, yield, chemical and biochemical attributes in both crops over control. Nickel-induced oxidative stress was significantly mitigated in this treatment compared to control. However, the highest decrease in uptake of Ni was observed where ZT: BA was 1:1 compared to control. Based on finds of the second study, the third study was designed with ZT: BA 1:1 selected from the previous study. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown and proline (PO) was exogenously applied according to the treatment plan. Proline acts as a stress alleviator and mitigates heavy metals stress. Proline was applied with ZT: BA 1:1 mixture to determine the efficiency of these amendments and PO to mitigate Ni stress and improvement in antioxidants activity in wheat. The finding suggested that the combined use of immobilizing agents with some stress alleviator could significantly reduce Ni bioavailability and increased the biomass, physiological and biochemical parameters. Ni induced oxidative stress was also ameliorated in wheat with ZT, BA, and PO, compared to control.
آبی وسائل کی اہمیت آب سے مراد پانی ہے اور پانی زندگی کے لیے انتہائی اہمیت کا حامل ہے۔ اگر اس کا وجود عنقا ء ہو جائے تو زیست و حیات بھی نہ رہے اور یہ زندگی کی نائو بحرِ ظلمات میں ہچکولے کھانا شروع کر دے۔ پانی عناصر اربعہ میں سے اہم جزوہے۔ قرآنِ پاک میں ارشاد ِباری تعالیٰ ہے کہ’’ ہم نے ہر زندہ چیز کو پانی سے پیدا فرمایا‘‘ پانی کی اہمیت اس سے مترشحّ ہورہی ہے۔ ہمارے ہاں آبی وسائل کی اہمیت بہت زیادہ ہے ہماری معیشت کا زیادہ سے زیادہ دارومدارآبی وسائل پر ہے۔ آبی وسائل میں سب سے اہم وسیلہ اور ذریعہ اللہ تعالیٰ کی رحمت ہے جو بارش کی صورت میں ہم پر نازل ہوتی ہے۔ اس کے بعد پھر گلیشیر بنتے ہیں، پھر وہاں سے دریا، بحر، بحیرے، ندی نالے ، نہریں اور سمندر وجود میں آتے ہیں ، تالاب، جھیلیں، ٹیوب ویل یہ سب آبی وسائل ہیں۔ پانی کی اہمیت مزید اس بات سے واضح ہورہی ہے کہ زمین پر تین حصے پانی ہے اور ایک حصہ مٹی ہے۔ ہمارا نہری نظام دنیا کا سب سے بڑا نہری نظام ہے، پانی کی اہمیت تسلیم کرنے میں صرف مسلمان ہی نہیں ہیں بلکہ دنیا کا ہر مذہب ، ہرمسلک، ہر قوم، ہر معاشرہ اور تمام ممالک اس بات کے معترف ہیں کہ پانی انسانی زندگی میں ریڑھ کی ہڈی کی حیثیت رکھتا ہے۔ پانی کا استعمال صرف پینے کی حد تک نہیں ہے بلکہ کم وبیش دنیا کی اکثر اشیاء کا وجود میں آنا ناممکن ہوجائے اور زندگی محال ہو جائے اگر پانی نہ ہو۔ آبی وسائل میں سب سے اہم ذریعہ نہروں کا ہے، چونکہ اللہ تعالیٰ کی طرف سے بارش کا نزول ہوتا ہے تو وہ گلیشیر کی صورت میں پانی کے قطرے جم جاتے ہیں اور...
Pakistan is behind many other countries in the Asia region in reducing poverty. Dedicated poverty reduction Programmes so far were mainly done by NGOs using livelihood and microfinance approaches and since 2008 through the Benazir Income Support Programme’s cash transfer scheme. Recently, the office of the Prime Minister established Ehsaas Strategy which combines the various poverty reduction and social protection approaches in the country under one Programme. This paper argues that a stronger focus on effective income generating poverty reduction Programmes would be needed to make poverty reduction more successful.
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period. Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes and effect in number of ways. Pakistan has long spells of drought which, experts believe, are a result of climate change. Citrus fruits are one of the largest fruit crops in the world. In Pakistan ample availability of natural resources provides the favorable regime for the development of citrus industry. Citrus problem faces several problems including biotic and abiotic stresses. Role of rootstocks in citrus is one of the most debatable and discussed issues and its selection is a major consideration under planning any citrus orchard. Present research was planned for genetic characterization and evaluation of modern rootstocks tolerant/resistant to selected abiotic stresses i.e., drought and high temperature. Experiments were conducted to screen out various modern citrus rootstocks including local commercial rootstocks (Rough lemon and Sour orange) against high temperature and water stress. Drought was induced based on field capacity of citrus rootstock relative to water requirement of citrus, high temperature stress was applied with relative to five years maximum temperature range. Four-month-old uniform seedlings were selected for the stress treatments. Gas exchange parameters were recorded at four different times. Horticultural parameters, plant water status and chlorophyll fluorescence at different wavelength was recorded of stresses. From overall results it was concluded that Brazilian sour orange and Keen sour orange showed tolerance against selected stresses and Savage citrange and Yuma citrange were susceptible against the stresses. For the confirmation of tolerance, expression of stress related genes was tested. Proper detailed bioinformatic analysis were performed for the selection of primer related to heat shock protein and major intrinsic proteins. One tolerant (Brazilian sour orange) and one susceptible (Savage citrange) was selected for the genetic expression analysis against the heat shock proteins (CsHsp70, CsHsp70.1 and CsHsp90) and major intrinsic proteins (CsPIP2, CsTIP2 and CsTIP1). Genetic expression of genes showed Brazilian sour orange with high expression level of Hsp70 and Hsp90 against the temperature stress. MIP such as P1P and T1P depicted high expression against the water stress and both Hsp and MIP expression under combined drought and temperature stress. It can be concluded from the study that Brazilian sour orange was tolerant against high temperature and water stress, but Savage orange was susceptible.