Two field experiments were carried out at the Farm of Rice Research and Training Center (RRTC), Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt during 2004 and 2005 season to study the effect of organic and inorganic fertilizers on growth, yield and its attribute, and grain quality characters of Giza 177 and Giza 178 rice varieties.Each experiment involved eight treatments which were the combination of straw, compost and urea with different rates. (Control, 164 kg N/ha, 6 tons compost/ha alone and with 82 and 123 kg N/ha, 6 tons rice straw/ha alone and with 82 and 123 kg N/ha). The results could be summarized as follows:Application of 164 kg N/ha or 6 tons compost/ha plus 124 kg N/ha gave the highest number of tillers, dry matter yield (g/hill), leaf area index, number of panicles/hill, number of grains per panicle, filled grains percentage, panicle weight, straw yield and grain yield compared to other treatments. Regarding grain quality hulling and milling rice percentage were not affected by organic and inorganic application, while the head rice percentage was affected by them. Also, the results indicated that the use of straw alone or combined with inorganic nitrogen had no significant effect on the studied traits.According to the previous results it could be concluded that application of compost plus inorganic fertilizers gave the best results compared with the other treatments. The use of compost either alone or combined with nitrogen was better than that of straw mainly due to the fast decomposition of compost. Recently, compost plays a major role in crop production, science it minimizes the use of chemical fertilizer and decreases environmental pollution.

Two field experiments were carried out at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, during 2001/02 and 2002/03 seasons to investigate the response of four barley cultivars (Giza 123, Giza 126, Giza 2000 and line 2) to moisture stress at different growth stages (one irrigation was applied at sowing; two irrigations were applied, the first at sowing and the second after 45 days from sowing and three irrigations were applied at sowing, after 45 days and 75 days from sowing) and three nitrogen levels (0, 18 and 35 kg N/fed.). The experimental design was a split-split plot, where the irrigation treatments were allocated to the main plots and nitrogen levels arranged to the sub plots, while the four cultivars occupied the sub-sub plots.The results showed that increasing number of irrigation significantly increased grain yield and its components and also the traits under this investigation. Increasing nitrogen level from 0 to 35 kg N/fed. led to significant increases in all studied traits except in case of grain ash percentage, grain moisture content and relative density of grain barley. The results also showed that Giza 123 had the highest values of grain yield, yield components and all grain quality traits under this studies. It could be concluded that cultivation of Giza 123 under 35 kg N/fed. combined with two or three irrigations gave the best agronomic and quality traits.

Two field experiments were carried out at Biyala region during 2004/05 and 2005/06 winter seasons to study the effect of two irrigation systems; i.e., improved and traditional mesqa, and, three sowing patterns, i.e., ridges, platforms and rows on yield and quality of sugar beet. The experimental design was a split-plot, with four replications, where the irrigation systems were allocated to the main plots and planting patterns were arranged in the sub-plots.The results indicated that the improved mesqa irrigation system gave the highest values of root length and diameter, root and top yields, root/top ratio, gross and white sugar percentage and yields, while traditional mesqa obtained the lowest value. Also, the maximum optimum irrigation efficiency (Iopt) was recorded under improved mesqa method compared with traditional mesqa method during the two seasons of study.Beet sowing in ridge or platform patterns produced the highest values of all studied traits, while the highest top yield was obtained by using row pattern.It might be seen from data obtained that improved mesqa irrigation system saved water by 14.77 and 17.98%, whereas the platform pattern saved water by 18.82 and 19.87% in the first and the second seasons, respectively.