Seed priming is an effective, eco-friendly method to promote seed germination and seedling vigor of okra to overcome the reduced and delayed germination in fresh or stored okra seeds caused by seed hardness. An experiment was carried to evaluate the effects of different priming on okra seeds germination and seedling vigor using Arka Anamika variety at Horticulture lab of Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. Investigation was carried out with 6 treatments (T₁: seed priming with tap water, T₂: seed priming with 200ppm NAA solution, T₃: seed priming with 10% PEG-200 solution, T₄: seed priming with 200ppm GA₃ solution, T₅: seed priming with 5% Trichoderma solution and T₆ no priming) with 4 replications in Complete Randomized Design (CRD). Seeds primed with T₁ to T₅ were soaked for 24 hours and shade dried for 6 hours before sowing. Priming with T₄ was found to be best in terms of maximum seed germination (60.12%), seed vigor index (5772.68 cm), mean germination rate (7.53 seeds per day). The highest shoot length (81.40 mm) was observed at T₁ whereas enhancement of root length occurred with the priming with T₃. All treatments had a significant positive effect on all the germination parameters in comparison to control. The study concluded that GA₃ priming enhanced germination as well as seed vigor in okra and hydro priming and tricho-priming can be used as an alternative to GA₃ priming among farmers in Nepal.

A study was conducted at AFU livestock farm, Rampur, Chitwan in 2017-18 to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of garlic and ginger in different combination on feed intake, growth performance and economics by using commercial Cobb 500 broilers. A total of two hundred, 11-day-old chicks were allocated randomly to five different treatments. The experiment was designed in a Completely Randomized Design, each treatment with four replication and each replication had 10 birds. They were fed isoproteinous and isocaloric Basal diet (BD) and BD supplemented with four different levels of garlic and ginger such as T1 (BD only), T2 (BD + 1% garlic); T3 (BD + 1.0% ginger); T4 (BD + 0.5% garlic and 0.5% ginger) and T5 (BD + 1% garlic and 1% ginger). Weekly average body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, and feed efficiency were recorded up to sixth week of age. All data were statistical analyzed using Completely Randomized Design. The results showed that overall feed consumption was significantly (P≤0.05) higher for broiler fed diet supplemented with 0.5% garlic and 0.5% ginger (T4) followed by T5 (basal diet with 1% garlic and 1% ginger). On the other hand significantly higher (P≤0.01) cumulative weekly live body weight and body weight gain (g/bird) was found for the treatment with supplemented 1% garlic powder (T2), followed by broiler fed diet supplemented with 0.5% garlic and 0.5% ginger powder (T4). Similarly, feed conversion ratio was significantly (P≤0.01) better in broiler fed basal diet with supplementation of 1% garlic (T2) followed by basal diet with supplementation of 0.5% garlic and 0.5% ginger (T4). The maximum benefit was obtained from the broiler fed basal diet with supplementation of 1% garlic (T2). The findings revealed that broiler fed basal diet with supplementation of 1% garlic powder had helped as a growth promoter contributing to the better growth performance, feed efficiency and higher benefit: cost ratio. Thus, addition of 1% garlic powder can be safely recommended as a growth promoter in broilers.

Ficus carica or commonly known as fig plant is a deciduous plant originated from southwest Asia and eastern Mediterranean. It has many benefits in medical field especially to treat diseases such as rheumatism and haemorrhoids due to its high laxative activity effect. The main objective of this study is to develop in vitro clonal propagation method for rapid production of Ficus carica variety BTM-6 plantlet using different plant growth regulators (PGRs) through shoot induction and multiplication, rootings and subsequent establishment in soil following acclimatization. Surface sterilisation of the explant was done using sodium hypochlorite as the disinfectant. Pre-treatment of the explants with carbendazim successfully reduced the occurrence of fungal contamination. To investigate the effect of plant growth regulators on shoot induction, explants were cultured in different concentrations of PGRs either singly or in combination. No shoot and root inductions were observed but calli were successfully induced on MS medium containing 2 mg/l BA only, 2 mg/l BA in combination with 0.5 mg/l NAA and MS media supplemented with 0.5 mg/l BA in combination with 0.5 mg/l NAA. A further in-depth study using other different types of plant growth regulators at various concentrations is required in order to establish a complete tissue culture protocol of this particular plant species.

This study was conducted in the Northern Region of Ghana to assess the growth performance of two different Hevea brasiliensis clones namely IRCA 41 and GT 1 in the Guinea Savanna soil. The fresh rubber stumps which were used for the experiment were collected from Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL) which is located in the Western Region. The research design employed the use of completely randomized design with thirty replicates each of the two Hevea brasiliensis species. Data was collected during the dry and rainy seasons. The results at the end of the project for the two Hevea brasiliensis clones showed an average germination rate of 86.66% and 73.30% during the rainy and dry seasons respectively. A mean height of 25.30cm, mean girth of 6.34mm and mean leaf number of 28 were recorded during the rainy season whiles a mean height of 22.56cm, mean girth of 3.41mm and mean leaf number of 42 were recorded in the dry season for the two Hevea brasiliensis clones. When T-test was performed on the two Hevea brasiliensis clones, it was revealed that, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in height, girth and number of leaves between the two different rubber clones during the rainy season and the dry season. Hevea brasiliensis therefore has a greater potential for cultivation in Guinea Savanna soil.