The scarcity of water resources in arid and semi-arid areas is considered a threat to agricultural sustainability. Therefore, approaches are needed to rationalize use of irrigation water without reducing crop productivity or degrading soil properties. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different organic amendments (O₁ = control, O₂ = compost, and O₃ = vermicompost) combined with different rates of nano- zinc foliar spraying (Zn₁ = 0, Zn₂ = 1 and Zn₃ = 2 gm/L), under irrigation supplements (I₁ = 100%, I₂ = 85%, and I₃ = 65% of water requirements) on clay soil characteristics, on the production of Egyptian barley Giza 126. Over two successive winter growing seasons, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, field experiments were conducted as a split-split plot design with three replications. The results show that using vermicompost is an appropriate organic amendment to improve the physical and chemical properties of soils as compared with compost. Application of vermicompost led to a reduction in soil salinity (ECe), exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), and soil bulk density (BD), of −5.67%, −5.44%, and −2.21%, respectively; there was a significant increase in soil organic carbon (SOC), available nitrogen (A.N), and field capacity (F.C.), of 43.75%, 14.37%, and 18.65%, respectively, compared with unamended soil (O₁). The maximum values for grain yield were increased by 13.2% and 14.9% in both seasons, respectively, and the irrigation water productivity of barley was increased more than compost and control. Vermicompost increased the irrigation water productivity for grain (1.69 and 1.69 kg grain m⁻³) and straw (1.23 and 1.17 kg straw m⁻³) in the first and second season, respectively. Similar trends were also observed from treatments on the water applied, stored water, and water application efficiency. Application of vermicompost and nano-Zn foliar spraying could be exploited for the development of barley growth and yield, which are enhanced under water-saving irrigation strategies.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) thrives in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world; nevertheless, it suffers large grain yield losses due to drought stress. A panel of 426 lines of barley was evaluated in Egypt under deficit (DI) and full irrigation (FI) during the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons. Observations were recorded on the number of days to flowering (NDF), total chlorophyll content (CH), canopy temperature (CAN), grain filling duration (GFD), plant height (PH), and grain yield (Yield) under DI and FI. The lines were genotyped using the 9K Infinium iSelect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) genotyping platform, which resulted in 6913 high-quality SNPs. In conjunction with the SNP markers, the phenotypic data were subjected to a genome-wide association scan (GWAS) using Bayesian-information and Linkage-disequilibrium Iteratively Nested Keyway (BLINK). The GWAS results indicated that 36 SNPs were significantly associated with the studied traits under DI and FI. Furthermore, eight markers were significant and common across DI and FI water regimes, while 14 markers were uniquely associated with the studied traits under DI. Under DI and FI, three (11_10326, 11_20042, and 11_20170) and five (11_20099, 11_10326, 11_20840, 12_30298, and 11_20605) markers, respectively, had pleiotropic effect on at least two traits. Among the significant markers, 24 were annotated to known barley genes. Most of these genes were involved in plant responses to environmental stimuli such as drought. Overall, nine of the significant markers were previously reported, and 27 markers might be considered novel. Several markers identified in this study could enable the prediction of barley accessions with optimal agronomic performance under DI and FI.

A two-year field screening analysis was evaluated to study the analysis of variance, mean performances, principal components analysis (PCA) and similarity levels among 19 Egyptian barley cultivars for six parameters during two consecutive seasons 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 to identify their response to water stress conditions. The results exhibited significant differences among all cultivars for all studied characteristics, and highest mean values for all studied traits have been detected by Giza 2000, Giza 131 and Giza 126, which had positive and highest values of PCA. Also highest similarity levels were observed among these cultivars with more than 90%. So we could consider that these cultivars as tolerant to water stress. Molecular marker analysis was used as a new molecular marker called sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) to determine the genetic diversity and relationships among 19 Egyptian barley cultivars for water stress tolerance. Nine selected primer combinations were amplified and gave 71 total fragments, at which primer combination “me5+em1” gave the highest polymorphism (100%) and the highest polymorphic information content PIC was (0.97). The dendrogram of SRAP markers had clustered all the Egyptian cultivars into four groups; each group includes the most closed cultivars together according to their response to water stress. Results showed that the SRAP marker technique could be efficiently used to assess genetic variation among Egyptian barley genotypes and their ability for tolerance to water stress.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the most important food and feed crops in the world, which infested with several insect pests, the main economic pest is aphid which causes direct damage and indirect damage in barley production. The integrated pest management (IPM) programs are requirement to reduce aphids’ damages, by using chemical substances extracts obtained from plants as an alternative to synthetic chemical control for its satisfactory effectiveness in pest control. The insecticidal effect of the aqueous extract of hot pepper and quinoa’s saponin on aphids controlling were evaluated on ten Egyptian barley cultivars to determine their susptability and resistance to aphids’ infestation through studying their agro-phycological behavior for aphids’ infestation under Malawi station, during two growing seasons 2021/2022 and 2022/2023. The results showed that Egyptian barley cultivar Giza 137 was the lowest infested cultivars with aphids which had lowest No. of aphids (9.777insects/tiller) with lowest percentage infestation of aphids was 29.638%/plant, lowest cultivars in Chlorophyll content (ChLa &Chl b) with values (4.17 and 1.65 µg ml-1), with highest values for flavonoids and total phenolic with values were (2.37 and 79.82) and high grain yield was 19.17 ard fad1. However, the Egyptian barley cultivar Giza 136 was the highest cultivar that infested by high No. of aphids (33.167 insects/tiller) with highest percentage infestation with aphids which was 71.833%/plant, which displayed highest ChLa and ChL b with values (7.54 and 3.04 µg ml-1), and had lowest values for total flavonoids contents and total phenolic content with values (0.14 and 44.04 mg/g) and had grain yield was 18.47 ard fad1 . The low aphids’ infestation cultivars under Malawi station were Giza 123, Giza 133, Giza 134 and Giza 130 which were (35.027, 39.111, 39.388 and 40.834%/plant according their physiological behavior after infestation. The Pearson correlation coefficients showed that high aphid insect infestation had high positive and significantly correlated with cha and ChL b, while had had high negative and significantly correlated with T-phenol and flavonoids The results showed that the first and second principal components accounted 78.3% of the total changeability, which PCA2 clarified 15.3 % of the total variability influenced by T-phenol and flavonoids which placed in the left side (negative) of the horizontal axis according to its negative significant correlations with other characters. Treated barley plants by hot pepper and quinoa extract due to decreasing the aphid’s infestation percentage on all cultivars after spray, the results showed that Giza 136 which was recorded the highest infested percentage 71.87 % was reduce to 35% after treated and also had a significant increasing grain yield of the ten barley cultivars.

White-spotted stink bugs, were noticed as a first time in a few numbers of the Egyptian barley cultivar Giza 138 plants in mid of January of 2019/2020 season at soil improvement and conservation Research department at Sakha Agricultural Research station, farm, Kafr El-Sheikh Government, Egypt. Morphological identification and DNA barcoding of mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) were used identified the species of collected bugs. The results revealed a new record ofEysarcoris ventralis(Westwood 1837) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae). The results of pest insect survey of directly accounts on barley cultivar weekly during two growing winter 2019/2020 and 2019/2021 seasons displayed a significant effect of seasons on theE. ventralispopulation density. Positive significantly correlation was found between theE. ventralispopulation density and growth stages of barley under 2019/2020 and 2019/2021 seasons by (0.311 and 0.531) respectively. Regression coefficient, revealed that decrease of temperature by 1 °C increased population ofE. ventralisby 0.051 and 0.036 insects per 10 tillers in 2019/2020 and 2019/2021 seasons respectively, while increase of relative humidity by 1% decreased population ofE. ventralisby 0.047 and 0.31 insects per 10 tillers in 2019/2020 and 2019/2021 seasons. High population ofE. ventraliswas found in Anthesis stage of barley. Minor damage was found in immature grain at dough stage. Thus these results are so important to using feature integrated pest management (IPM) programs in barley to avoid the damage ofEysarcoris ventralis(Westwood 1837). Partial DNA sequence of collected sample using cytochromecoxidase I (COI) mitochondrial gene with clear alignment of 576 bp. The tested sequence more related toEysarcorissp. and far fromNezarasp.). For more accuracy, BLAST was used for tested sequence withEysarcorissp. and found it closely related toE. ventralis.DNA sequence ofCOIas type effectively precludes the finding of a new evidence to resolve taxonomic problems.