Canker symptoms were observed on almond trees in the Fez-Meknes region, Morocco. Isolations were conducted from the infected branch and trunk showing internal and external brown lesions. Four representative fungal isolates were screened, and their identities were confirmed by cultural traits and sequence analysis of DNA using two genes, the ITS region (internal transcribed spacer) and calmodulin (cmdA). The identified fungi were Curvularia hawaiiensis, Fusarium ambrosium, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, and Chondrestereum purpureum. The pathogenicity test on almond twigs revealed that these species were pathogenic to their host with different degrees of virulence, with Lasiodiplodia theobromae as the most virulent causing the longest necrotic lesion (285.17 mm) and the death of twigs. Physiological traits analysis of the above-mentioned fungi showed that the optimum mycelium growth response at different temperatures varies from 10 to 35 °C, while the pH ranges between 3.0 and 8.0. This study confirms the presence of canker pathogens on almond trees, which will contribute valuable information to improve the understanding of the contemporary status of almond trees, thus helping the improvement of the management of almond orchards. To our knowledge, all these fungi represent new records in Morocco and some of them are confirmed on the almond trees for the first time in the world.

Rapeseed is one of the most important oilseed crops in the world and, in Morocco, it may contribute to the improvement of food security in edible oils through developing performant cultivars and optimizing the crops management including nitrogen fertilization. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of different Moroccan varieties to nitrogen application. Field trials were carried out at the experimental station of National School of Agriculture in Meknes, during two cropping seasons (2017–2018 and 2018–2019). Five varieties (“Narjisse”, “Moufida”, “Alia”, “Adila”, and “Lila”) were combined to different nitrogen rates (0, 30, 60, and 90 kg N ha⁻¹). The experimental design adopted is a split split-plot with three replications, where nitrogen treatment was affected to main plot, variety to subplot, and year to sub-subplot. Results showed that dry matter, harvest index, oil content, seed yield per plant and yield components were significantly affected by nitrogen rates, with an upward trend in seed yield as the nitrogen rates increased. On average, seed yield increased by 50.33% for application of 90 kg N ha⁻¹ compared to the control (without N fertilization). However, oil content declined from 41.08% to 37.81% with the increase of nitrogen level from 0 to 90 kg N ha⁻¹. Additionally, for the other traits studied, the highest mean values were observed for 90 kg N ha⁻¹, except harvest index which exhibited the greatest value for 60 kg N ha⁻¹. Variation among the varieties was significantly large for all traits studied with a superiority of the variety “Alia” for seed yield per plant (9.82 g plant⁻¹), number of pods per plant (151), and number of seeds per pod (24.05).

Rapeseed meal (RSM) is known for its high nutritional quality as animal feed. However, there has been little studies on the effect of nitrogen fertilization on RSM chemical composition, mainly neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), and ash content. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the effect of nitrogen application rate on chemical composition of RSM in interaction with different spring rapeseed varieties (Brassica napus L). A field experiment was conducted during 2018/19 cropping season at the experimental station of the Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture de Meknès” according to a split-plot design with three replications, using six nitrogen application rates, as main plot, and six rapeseed varieties, as subplot. After seeds harvest and oil extraction, meals derived from the different treatments were used in this study. Results showed that increasing nitrogen rate from 0 to 120 kg N ha⁻¹ led to a significant rise in meal yield up to 74.58%. A positive effect of nitrogen fertilization was observed on dry matter, protein content and ash content, recording the highest values at 120 kg N ha⁻¹ treatment. However, cellulose and lignin content were affected negatively by nitrogen fertilization. The nitrogen supply of 150 kg N ha⁻¹ resulted in a reduction of ADF and ADL contents by 23% and 28%, respectively, compared to the unfertilized control (N0). Variability within rapeseed varieties for all parameters except dry matter and ADL content was highlighted.