Problem statement: Mixed cereal-legume cropping can supply valuable forage in dry areas, as well as improving soil characteristics to approach sustainable farming systems in these regions. Approach: In order to comprise quality and quantity of produced forage and to determine the best planting ratio in a hairy vetch and barley mix cropping, a two year study was conducted during 2008 and 2009 in Zanjan Center for Research of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, Zanjan, Iran, using these two forage crops in a completely randomized block design with five treatments and four replications. Hairy vetch and barley were single- or mix cropped at 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100 ratios. Results: Analysis of variance of two years data showed hay yield, absorbed N, P and K amounts and crude protein content varied among years and different planting ratio, significantly, with higher amounts in the second year. The highest dry matter yield, absorbed N, P and K and crude protein content were obtained in 50:50 planting ratio. The land equivalent ratio was more than one for all mix cropping treatments, with the highest value in 50:50 planting ratio, which also led to the highest LER in respect to crude protein. Conclusion: A 50:50 mixture of barley-hairy vetch can produce the highest dry forage yield, with a higher LER and the highest forage quality than sole cropping

Two field experiments were carried out during 2018–2019 at the Hamedan and Qom sites, which are different ecological locations of Iran. Hamedan was selected as a temperate climate and Qom as semi-arid to study some of the morphological and physiological traits of fodder beet in various climatic conditions. The experimental map was designed as a split–split-plot in the form of a randomized complete block with three replications. The main plots were assigned three levels of methanol (i.e., control, 15, and 30% by volume). The sub-plots were restricted to two glycine betaine (GB) concentrations (i.e., control and four grams per liter of methanol consumed, and the sub-sub-plots consisted of six different genotypes of fodder beet). The results showed that root length, root and foliage yield/ha, as well as sugar content increased with the incremental level of methanol and/or GB concentration. Foliar application of methanol and GB also significantly changed the qualitative parameters including sodium content, catalase value, crude protein percentage, and dry matter digestibility. It should be noted that two sites differed in most of the investigated traits, so that Hamedan treatment had a more active role on fodder beet growth, yield, and quality compared with Qom. Meanwhile, there was a significant difference between fodder beet genotypes. Generally, spraying fodder beet with 15%by volume methanol or GB with concentration of four grams per liter of methanol is the recommended treatment for raising forage yield under the ecological circumstances of this research.

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This study investigates the effect of drought stress on the yield and the yield components of four cotton genotypes in a field experiment, at the Garmsar region. The experimental design was conducted by randomized block with three replications using factorial concepts. Three levels of drought stress comprising (FC 90%, FC 50%, and FC 20%) were employed as the main factor. Four cotton genotypes including Khordad, Varamin, NO200, KC8801 were selected as sub-factors. The results showed that the effect of stress on all traits were significant and the stress reduced the weight of boll. The biggest bolls were produced by the genotype KC8801. While the genotype NO200 produced the lightest weight of the bolls. The maximum and the minimum values of the cotton yield were observed in the genotypes KC8801 (FC 90%) and NO200 (FC 20%) with the rates of 3322kg/ha and 2160 kg/ha, respectively.

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