Biochar, a carbon rich organic amendment, derived from organic biomass by pyrolysis under high-temperature and zero oxygen condition, is a soil amendment to enrich soil with essential nutrients. Biochar is multidimensional in its benefits, including increase in soil carbon sequestration, reduction in green house emission, improved soil fertility, and prolonged soil moisture retention capability to overcome drought. Biochar can be produced from a wide array of biological residues, contributed by plants as well as animals. Date palm a common plant in Gulf region, leave enormous quantity of residues, which are disposed or burnt as waste in farms, that acts as a source of pollution in date-producing nations. The residual biomass from dates is utilized in cattle feed production in some countries. Disposing these residues without harming the environment is a challenge and the perfect solution is biochar. Based on the unique abatement potential of biochar and its functions to improve soil health and soil carbon sequestration, biochar can be considered as long-term agriculture adaptation strategy. This comprehensive review highlights the production of biochar from date palm biomass, the influence of different date palm parts in biochar production, and their potential benefits to the community. It is realized that the knowledge of biochar from date palm residues is still in its infancy which requires concerted efforts to educate the date palm farming community to utilize the valuable biomass from date palm for transformation to a nutritious and eco-friendly product, biochar.

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Biochar as a soil amendment is increasingly popular in agricultural sector in the past few years. The production and application of biochar is increasing in a constant rate to meet farm requirements. Biochar is similar to charcoal and activated charcoal, which are pyrogenic carbonaceous matter derived from organic carbon rich matter through pyrolysis. The primary products generated by pyrolysis are biochar, syngas and bio-oils depending on biomass and pyrolysis conditions. The quality of biochar is according to primary biomass source, pyrolysis temperature and time which ultimately effects on variations in physicochemical properties such as porosity, carboncontent, elemental composition, surface area, retention capacity and overall applications. While biochar has been receiving attention as a restorative soil amendment, innovative dimensions for this ultra-porous material are cropping up all over the industrial landscape. In recent times, biochar has been gaining attention in agricultural productivity not as a soil fertility agent, but as an animal feed and animal husbandry applications. Biochar a carbonized biomass similar to charcoal is utilized for treating animals for centuries. An enhanced utility of biochar as cattle feed globally, to improve animal health, increased nutrient intake efficiency and thus productivity. Since biochar is enriched with nitrogen rich organic compounds during the digestion process, the excreted biochar manure acts as a valuable organic fertilizer causing lower nutrient losses and green house gas emissions during storage and soil application. The use of biochar as feed additive has the ability for general body fitness of animals, increased feed efficiency, minimize nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emission, increase the soil organic matter content and thus soil fertility as applied to soil. It can maintain blood cell contents, increase egg, milk and meat productivity and able to resist pathogens in gastrointestinal tract and reduce methane emission from animals. Moreover, the high sorption capacity of biochar removes the pollutants and toxins from the gastrointestinal tract of animals. However, current awareness on effectiveness of biochar in animal production is less, which should be explored more. The challenges such as safety, dosages, contaminations, cost and awareness among farmers need to be addressed. The review highlights the potential benefits of biochar as animal feed in all possible dimensions

A survey was carried out to diagnose the rates of mortality of lambs in the sheep farms of Kuwait. The survey results helped determine that the cause of high mortality rate in Kuwait of newborn lambs (≈35%) during the first three weeks of age is the certain infectious diseases affecting the sheep. Following the survey, a field experiment was carried out using a modified vaccination protocol (vaccination during pregnancy) to improve the immune status of the secreted colostrum. This new protocol has improved the immunity of newborn lambs after suckling the hyperimmune colostrum, and reduced mortality rate significantly, compared to the conventional protocol (vaccination before pregnancy). The results have proved the efficiency of the modified vaccination protocol. The experiment concluded that the vaccination during pregnancy has shown great promise to reduce the mortality rate of newborn lambs in sheep farms of Kuwait. Upscaling the tested vaccination protocol may set the scene for the betterment of sheep industry of Kuwait.

Plants display an assorted collection of reproductive tactics that eventually play a crucial role in perpetuation of species. Plant reproductive ecology is principally concerned with the adaptive implications of the plant in their vicinity, disparity in qualities allied with pollination, seed dispersal, and seedling establishment. The success in reproduction in most flowering plants depends on ecological interactions with pollinators and seed dispersal agents. Modern tactics in reproductive ecology can integrate proper surveys, advanced pollination studies, interaction between flower and pollinators and clear assessments of population genetic structure, which can provide new opportunities for plant reproductive biology. Alfalfa is an important forage legume and known as “Queen of forages” due to its worldwide adaptability, high yield potential and quality. Alfalfa produces seeds which are primarily used for forage production. It is a gift to livestock industry including dairy, beef, horses, and sheep for grazing, silage, hay etc. Alfalfa is also a medicinal herb with antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and cardioprotective properties, utilized for treatment of arthritis, kidney problems. The seeds are exploited in alfalfa sprout industry. The current chapter highlights the reproductive biology of alfalfa from flower development to seed production and its advances.