Acacia nilotica is an important agroforestry specie, which is used in both compact and linear forms. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of compost on the growth performance and biomass production of A. nilotica. Completely randomized design (CRD) was used to analyze the variations among several growth morphological traits. Two parallel trials, pot trial (seedlings), field trial (saplings) were conducted simultaneously. Compost and litter mixture were applied in mentioned trials. Following treatments were used: T0 – control; T1 - 25% of compost and 75% of nursery soil; T2 - mixture of 50% nursery soil and 50% compost; T3 - mixture of 75% compost and 25% of nursery soil; T4 - where 100% compost was applied. Increase in plant growth was observed with the increases in the amount of compost mixture. In field trial maximum plant height, shoot length, root length, rootshoot ratio and biomass production was observed when 100% compost level was applied, while minimum was observed without any compost appli-cation. In pot trials, the maximum plant height, rootshoot ratio and biomass production was recorded when 75% compost level was applied. Overall, Acacia performed better with 100% of compost application in field trail and 75% of compost application in pot trial. The results of this study demonstrated the positive effects of compost on the growth of Acacia. The seedling development was improved considerably with different levels having greater percentage of organic fertilizer and it was concluded that compost improves soil fertility and it should be used as organic fertilizer in farming and forestry practices for improving crop growth and yield.

Oat (Avena stiva L.) is a fast growing and high yielding winter fodder crop. It is highly palatable, nutritious and energy rich fodder. Recently, the oat plantation at different locations of Multan was found to be suffered with a new type of leaf spot disease. Isolation from affected portions revealed consistent association of Alternaria alternata with this disease. In order to confirm the etiology of this disease, pathogenicity test was conducted on oat plants in greenhouse conditions with four different isolates of Alternaria alternata, which produced the similar symptoms, hence satisfied the Koch,s postulates. Survey results showed that the maximum disease incidence of 51.99% was recorded from Band Bosan, followed by 43.33, 31.33 and 27.66% incidences at Raza Abad, Basti No and Lutfa Abad, respectively. Maximum severity of disease was recorded at Band Bosan (31.99%), followed by Raza Abad (21.66%), Basti No (11.33%) and Lutfa Abad (7.33%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot of oat.

Sunflower is an important oil seed crop of Pakistan, comprising 20% proteins and 38-45% oil contents. Alternaria leaf blight (ALB) caused by Alternaria alternata, is one of the devastating diseases of sunflower. Six different fungicides viz., difenoconazole, hexaconazole, azoxystrobin, dimethomorph + mancozeb, myclobutanil and Sulphur were tested at different concentrations (10, 20, 30 ppm) in laboratory and in greenhouse. Fungicides performed best in the laboratory were also investigated in greenhouse against Alternaria leaf blight of sunflower. In in vitro study, Hexaconazole showed 100 % growth inhibition of A. alternata at 30 ppm followed by 70% at 20 ppm and 62% at 10 ppm. Difenoconazole proved as the 2nd best fungicide with 77% fungal inhibition at 30 ppm, 75.8% at 20 ppm and 71% at 10 ppm. Azoxystrobin was the least effective fungicide with 24%, 28%, 34% fungal inhibition at 10, 20 and 30 ppm, respectively. Twelve cultivars of sunflower were screened against blight disease in pot experiment to check the fungicides at different level of susceptibility in greenhouse. Screening result showed that FH 702 was the  highest susceptible variety with mean value 7.6. Greenhouse study of disease inhibition effect of fungicides also showed that hexaconazole fungicide produced the best results against A. alternata with 42% disease reduction in FH 702 cultivar and 25 % in FH 696 cultivar as compared to control (83%). The results showed that no fungicide provided full disease inhibition, so, further investigation is needed to find the new chemistry against blight disease of sunflower crop