Biochemical assessment of the aboveground biomass of 8 winter vetch (Vicia villosa) varieties was performed in two stages of plant development - beginning of flowering and technical maturity of seeds. Field trial was carried out in the Institute of Forage Crops, Pleven, Bulgaria (2014-2016). The variability in crude protein (CP) content (5.55 - 6.12%), calcium (8.17 - 9.87) and phosphorus (5.34 - 6.74%) in both phenological stages was weak. The variation of crude fiber (CF) content (6.02 - 11.08%) and crude ash (CA) (7.42 - 10.88%) was found stronger. At the beginning of flowering with a higher crude protein content Asko 1 (21.78%) and BGE001076 (21.53%), phosphorus content BGE001076 (0.48%), BGE004222 and BGE000643 (0.47%) were distinguished. In the technical maturity stage with a high crude protein content BGE004222 (20.51%) and BGE001847 (20.07%) are characterized and with phosphorus BGE004222 (0.38%). Positive statistically significant relationship was found between the grain yield and crude protein content (r = 0.58).

The drones called as mainly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been commonly used recently in agricultural production in all part of the world because of reducing costs of hardware and the software technology as well as tremendous progresses. Moreover, UAV’s gave opportunities such as reaching much faster and efficient in emergency situations, allowing access to places which humans can’t reach etc. Therefore, UAVs are used in many part of our life not only for agriculture both also traffic surveillance, military operations, disaster management, border-patrolling, aerial image georeferencing, courier services, firefighting as well as monitoring of wildlife, nature, sky life etc. In the agriculture, the UAV’s are used mostly for monitoring the crop production using spectral imaging on each period of time in order to identify the problems on the field such as water shortage and diseases, tracking animals using cameras and herding them with creating sounds produced by the UAV’s, spraying to the field with pesticide, fungicide and water by equipping spraying kit on a UAV, generating the strong winds by the propellers of the UAV increasing pollination in the hybrid plant production as well as separating the small harmful bugs from the plants etc. The UAV’s contribute a lot more to the agricultural sector, if the right implementations and researches are done. However, using new implemented lightweight materials to increase the endurance of the UAV, developing new type of lenses and sensors which can identify other diseases on plants or animals which can’t be seen by the current equipment and equipping a granule spreader on a UAV so that it can distribute the seeds on the field much faster than a tractor.

A gas chromatographic (GC-FID) study to determine the volatile composition of wine distillates with the addition of 50% and 70% ethanol extracts of thyme (Thymus callieri) was conducted. The incorporation of 70% ethanol extracts led to higher final levels of total volatile compounds compared to 50%. The total content of higher alcohols was also higher when 70% ethanol extracts of the plant source were added to the distillates. The main identified representatives of this fraction were 3-methyl-1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 1-propanol, 2-butanol. Acetaldehyde has been identified at a lower concentration level compared to the control. Its quantities were in the range in which it positively affected the distillates aroma. The thyme extracts not produced the effect on increasing of the total ester content in the distillates. The basic ester was ethyl acetate. Its amount in the experimental samples was lower than the control but balanced for its positive effect on the aromatic profile. The incorporation of 50% and 70% ethanol extracts of thyme in the distillates led to a significant increase in their total terpene content. This may be an effect that increased the biological value of the distillates. Decreased methyl alcohol concentrations have been found with the used extracts in the experimental distillates. This improved their methanolic purity. The application of thyme (Thymus callieri) extracts to distillates is a prospect of obtaining new alcoholic beverages with improved and balanced volatile composition, aromatic quality and biological value.

In this study, IPARD (Instrument for Precession on Agricultural and Rural Development) promoted businesses are examined in Van province based on investments on agricultural businesses to restructure and upgrade to community standards. The aim of this study is to determine not only whether IPARD programme has led the businesses modernization or improved the number of the enterprises but also defining the problems by examining the business managers’ socioeconomically statuses and therefore suggesting solutions, in Van Province, holds an important place in honey production throughout Turkey. The study was conducted on full count method of 94 businesses through filled questionnaires based on 2016’s production data. The mean age of the business managers is 36,4 and men/women percentage is 79% to 21 % respectively. 43% of the managers are found to live on by just beekeeping, while 57% has off-farm income. Examined businesses owners’ questionnaires showed 71% are pleased to do beekeeping and the rest not. Government supported businesses percentage is 19, while 89% is not supported by the government. When the educational level is examined 69% of the businesses had had some education about beekeeping, while 31% had not had any. 

Hatay Cheese is a kind of cheese produced in and around Hatay with its own shapes and sizes. In this study, the use of microbial transglutaminase enzyme was tried to improve the textural structure of Hatay cheese which is in fresh cheese class. Enzymatic modification of milk proteins by microbial transglutaminase enzyme has been applied in the production of half-fat Hatay cheese with different pre-ripening time applications and some sensory properties of the cheeses have been investigated such as external appearance, internal appearance, texture, odor and taste during 60 days of storage. In this study, four different Hatay cheese were produced as control sample (A), 30 minutes pre-ripening with enzyme (B), 45 minutes pre-ripening with enzyme (C) and 60 minutes pre-ripening with enzyme (D).

When the sensory properties of the cheeses were examined, it was observed that the application of different pre-ripening time significantly affected the external appearance, internal appearance, texture and taste scores on the 60th day of storage (p<0.05), and storage time caused significant differences on the appearance scores of A, B and C cheeses (p<0.05). Storage time caused significant differences on the internal appearance scores of all cheeses except cheese A (p<0.05). The effects of storage time on texture scores were not significant (p>0.05). The effects of different pre-ripening periods and storage time on the odor scores of the cheeses were not significant (p>0.05). Taste scores of cheese D were significantly affected by storage time (p<0.05). As a result of all sensory analyzes, it was found that the cheeses supplemented with MTG enzyme were more liked and the scores given to the cheeses increased as the pre-ripening period increased. As a result, the most admired cheese was D cheese.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of different doses of imazamox, an imidazolinone (IMI) group herbicide commonly used in sunflower agriculture, on the stem anatomical structure of sunflower cultivars. In this study, four different sunflower cultivars were used as SN:8 which is unresisting to IMI and resistant groups to IMI which are SN:9, SN:10 and SN:14. Seedlings coming to 4-6 leaf stage were applied with 3 different doses of herbicides (1 dose (3.125 ml/l), 2 doses (6.25 ml/l) and 3 doses (9.375 ml/l). When the cross sections of stem samples taken 7 days after the herbicide application were examined under light microscope, decreases in epiderma cell sizes due to dose increase, increases and decreases in collenchymavlayer thicknesses and cell lines, decreases in cortex parenchyma layer thicknesses, sclerenchymal layer thicknesses and significant increases and decreases were observed between the groups and doses in trachea cells. According to these data, it can be concluded that both the effects of herbicide dose changes and anatomical changes in stem sections can be used to determine resistant cultivars.

The study was conducted in the experimental field of the Institute of Forage Crops – Pleven, Bulgaria for a three-year period. Ten vetch specimens (varieties and populations) different originated were examined – Bulgarian population (Vicia sativa); Bulgarian population (Vicia pannonica ssp. striata; Detenicka Panonska (Vicia pannonica) and Asko 1; Kowatschite, K- 25 331, K- 29 800, K- 30 553, K- 30 574, K- 30 671 from Vicia villosa. The main quantitative characteristics were analyzed: plant height (cm), height of the first pod (cm), number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds per pod, weight of seeds per plant (g) and indicators: beginning of flowering stage (days) and duration of the growing season (days). Two-way ANOVA and variance analysis were used for statistical data processing. High values ​​of variation coefficient were found for seed weight (107.87%), number of seeds per plant (88.80%), height of first pod (30.78%), number of pods per plant (37.97%) and number of seeds per pod (27.45), and average variation for plant height (15.97%), respectively. The varieties of Vicia pannonica can be characterized as early ripening with a growing season duration of 244-246 days, the population of Vicia sativa as medium ripening (242-252 days), and from Vicia villosa (except K-29 800, Kowatschite and Asko 1) as late maturing (242-256 days). The varieties of the species Vicia villosa K-30 671, Asko and 1 K-25 331, which are well leafed and form long stems (142-151 cm), are suitable as parental components in the combinational selection in the direction for forage. The Bulgarian population of Vicia sativa was found to form the largest number of both, pods (87) and seeds (351). For other the numbers, the seeds per plant trait was between 116 (K-30 574) and 133 (K-30 553). In the direction of seed production the Bulgarian population of Vicia sativa can be emitted.

The widespread use of pesticides has negative impacts on human health and the environment. This situation increases the severity day by day. Especially spray drift is one of the factors that should be controlled. In addition, pesticide costs have led to new solutions. Conventional spraying nozzles and anti-drift spraying nozzles are discussed in this study. The study carried out in viticulture areas. Pesticide residual amounts were determined by sampling surfaces placed in different parts of the plant. The sampling surfaces were placed on the top and bottom surfaces of the leaves. Pesticide residue rates were determined in different regions of the plant. The average pesticide residual amounts on the leaves with the anti-drift spray nozzles AITX 8002 VK and ITR 8002 were found to 63.5% and 49.9% higher than the conventional TX VK12 spray nozzle, respectively, also 44.2% and 32.2% higher than the other conventional spray nozzle TR 8002, respectively. The lowest value of top to bottom pesticide residue ratio for leaves was 2.22 at anti-drift ITR 8002 spray nozzle and the highest value of top to bottom pesticide residue ratio for leaves was 2.95 with the conventional spray nozzle TR 8002. All the type of spray nozzles except anti-drift AITX 8002, produced less residue in the inner parts compared to outer parts. The highest penetration rate was 90% with the AITX 8002 VK spray nozzle and the lowest penetration was 55% with the conventional TX VK12 spray nozzle type.

The broomrapes are root, obligate parasites without chlorophyll. They parasitize mostly the dicotyledonous plants. Phelipanche ramosa (L.) Pomel attacks a wider range of hosts among which is the winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.). The broomrape can reduce the yields and aggravate the quality of production. There are few effective measures to control this parasite. One of the most promising approaches is the cultivation of Clearfield® oilseed rape and the treatment of imazamox-containing herbicide products. For this purpose during the growing seasons of 2016 - 2017 and 2017 - 2018 a field pot experiment with the Clearfield® oilseed rape hybrid РТ 228 CL was conducted. The soil of the field pots was artificially infested with Ph. ramosa seeds. The herbicide application was performed in two stages of the crop in the spring - BBCH 31–33 (1-3 internodes visible) and BBCH 51 („green button“). Variants of the trial were: 1. Untreated control; 2. Cleranda® (375 g/l metazachlor + 17,5 g/l imazamox) – 2,00 l/ha (BBCH 31–33); 3. Cleravo® (250 g/l quinmerac + 35 g/l imazamox) – 1,00 l/ha (BBCH 31–33); 4. Pulsar® Plus (25 g/l imazamox) – 1,00 l/ha (BBCH 31–33); 5. Pulsar® Plus – 2,00 l/ha (BBCH 31–33); 6. Pulsar® Plus – 0,50 l/ha (BBCH 51); 7. Pulsar® Plus – 1,00 l/ha (BBCH 51); 8. Pulsar® Plus – 2,00 l/ha (BBCH 51). Average for both years of the study, the highest efficacy against the parasite after the application of Pulsar® Plus – 2,00 l/ha (BBCH 51) – 92,9% followed by Cleranda® – 2,00 l/ha (BBCH 31–33) - 91,2% was reported.

The effect of Storm (fertilizer with 3% growth regulators from Sargassum and A. nodosum algae and 6% organic N) on germination parameters and seedling vigor in rice was examined in seed from San Andrea cultivar produced in 2017 and 2018, treated with three concentrations: 0.1%, 0.5% and 2.5% against a control (no fertilizer added). Germination energy, total germination, germination speed, seedling (root, shoot and total) length and dry weight and vigor indexes (I and II) were examined. The results were statistically evaluated by two-way ANOVA and LSD test. The total germination (94.38% to 96.75%) was not affected by the treatments, while the germination energy and the germination speed were significantly negatively affected by the 2.5% treatment- 83.00% and 21.53 accordingly against 90.63% and 23.94 in the control). All Storm treatments significantly increased the seedling length. With the increase in concentration, the root length decreased while the shoot length increased. Even thought all of the Storm treatments significantly increased the Vigor index I (1587.44 to 1644.75) and Vigor index II (35265.38 to 37753.75) compared to the control (1362.07 and 29984.50 respectively), they affected the seedling development differently. The 2.5% treatment negatively affected the development of the seedling, as promoted increased development of the seedling shoot, but inhibited the development of the root. Best results were obtained with 0.1% concentration, as it significantly promoted  both the root and shoot   development and resulted in significantly higher index I, index II, shoot, root and total seedling length compared to the control.  With this treatment were obtained the longest root (7.98 cm), the highest root dry weight (3.89 mg) and the highest root volume (50 μL) in the trial.

The Albanian flora includes 31 taxa in the genus Galium and one taxon in Sisyrinchium, the non-native S. angustifolium Mill. Here we present two new species for the Albanian flora, found at Krasta Park, Elbasan, May 2019.

Galium setaceum Lam. was found on the southwestern side of Krasta Hill, in dry disturbed clearings of Pinus halepensis Mill. forest, on calcareous rocky substrate. Populations were small (<1m2) with a variable number of individuals.

Sisyrinchium rosulatum E. P. Bicknell, which is native to southeastern North America, is the second new taxon for the Albanian flora. Two populations of were found in moist open disturbed grassy areas in P. halepensis forest. The first population detected was located in the northeastern side of Krasta Hill, while the second was located at the top of the Hill.

For both taxa, specimens were collected and identified using multiple keys in the literature and specimens at the Albanian National Herbarium. Voucher specimens were deposited in the Albanian National Herbarium. In this paper we also present data on the distribution, ecology and habitat of these species, which enlarge the Albanian flora and the species’ distribution range, and illustrate the floristic diversity of Krasta Park.