The main aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of growing basil under three soilless systems (aeroponic, hydroponic and peatmoss slab systems). A model was developed to predict the nutrients consumption by basil plants. Shoot and root height, fresh and dry mass of whole plant, nutrients uptake, and oil content were studied during the growth period (after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting). The results indicated that the shoot lengths of basil plants were 71.67 ± 2.89, 65.67 ± 1.15 and 62.33 ± 2.31 cm at the end of growth period for aeroponic, hydroponic and peatmoss slabs, respectively. The highest value of root height of basil plants was 37.67 ± 6.66 cm for aeroponic system. The dry mass of shoot of basil plants ranged from 28.48 ± 0.91 to 44.77 ± 0.97 and 72.98 ± 0.83 to 117.93 ± 1.40 g plant−1 after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting, respectively. The highest values of the N, P, K, Ca and Mg uptakes were 753.99 ± 5.65, 224.88 ± 3.05, 449.75 ± 4.59, 529.12 ± 6.63 and 112.44 ± 1.67 mg plant−1 at the end of experimental period, respectively. The basil oil content ranged from 1.129 (1.11%) to 2.520 (1.80%) and 2.664 (1.42%) to 6.318 (1.44%) g plant−1 after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting, respectively at the same pervious order. The production costs of basil plant were 2.93, 5.27 and 6.24 EGP kg−1 of plant. The model results were in a reasonable agreement with the experimental ones.

No abstract

limate's change is one of the most important threats facing the world. That is because it causes a high ambient temperature. (UNEP, 2010). According to the report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, 2015), the period 2011-2015 recorded the highest temperatures and was affected by Climate's change. Agriculture sector is strongly influenced by climatic conditions. A majority of works in agriculture are still performed outdoors under several weather conditions. High temperature, intensive insolation and elevated air humidity providing a dangerous work conditions. These weather conditions can lead to overheating (heat stress) and dehydration of the agricultural field workers. An index assessing heat stress in human beings, namely: Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) was used in this study. This study presents the effect of heat stress from the point of view of agricultural field worker occupational health safety. Comparison of the three agricultural working conditions reveals significantly more severe heat stress in wheat threshing, rice transplanting and cotton harvesting, in terms of both the frequency of heat-stress episodes and the number of hours associated with heat stress. The WBGT maximum values during the time from 11 am up to 4 pm for wheat threshing, rice transplanting and cotton harvesting operations were 34.2 o C at 2 pm, 31.6 o C at 1 pm and 30.8 o C at 1:30 pm respectively. While the WBGT minimum values were 31.7 o C at 4 pm, 28.4 o C at 11 am, and 28.5 o C at 4 pm respectively. The three presented work conditions are affirmed that a dangerous situation for agriculture field workers is stand. The values of the environmental parameters and its relation with heat stress during the day work hours under the previous field operations cleared that the heat stress has direct proportion with humidex and reversible proportion with air velocity and relative humidity. The agriculture field workers have exposure to hazard levels of heat stress resulting in high levels of body temperature. It is recommended to establish a sunshade for wheat thresher to provide a shade working area.

The presented study aims to investigate the effect of using two effective irrigation techniques; the pulse-deficit drip irrigation and the deficit irrigation powered by solar energy in a greenhouse. This work studied impact of these factors a tomato soilless productivity, water productivity and of these techniques solar energy productivity. The experimental study was carried out at Tractors and Farm Machinery Research and Test Station, Alexandria Governorate. The results showed that, the pulsed-full drip irrigation at 100% of ETc (FP100) gave the highest yield of 35.8 ton/fed., but the continuous-deficit drip irrigation at 50% of ETc (DC50) gave the lowest yield of 20.4 ton/feddan. The highest water productivity (WP) was 37.1 kg/m 3 when using the treatment of (DP50), on the other hand the Continuous-Full drip irrigation at 100% of ETc (FC100) (control treatment) represents the lowest WP of 27.9 kg/m 3 . Application of pulse-deficit irrigation (DP50) saved 50% of the water irrigation requirements and decreased the total tomato yield per feddan by 34%, but the water productivity increased by 33% compared with continuous-full irrigation (FC100) as control. Treatment of pulse-deficit irrigation (DP50) saved 50% of solar energy consumption and increase energy productivity (908 kg/kWh) by 33% compared to continuous-full irrigation (FC100) as control. The results showed that pulse-deficit drip irrigation technique, decrease tomato yield but increase WP in all treatments. This study recommend apply, pulse-deficit irrigation (DP75) technique results in reducing tomato yield by 3% and increasing water and energy productivity by 29.3 and 29.4% respectively.