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The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of seed rate on the growth and yield attributes of the wheat crop (Triticum aestivum L.) variety Mazar-99 under the agro-climatic conditions of Takhar province, Afghanistan. The experiment was implemented at the research farm of Agriculture Faculty of Takhar University in winter seasons of 2018-2019 with the specific objective of finding out the effect of five seeding rates as the treatment on growth and yield parameters of Mazar-99 variety of wheat. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was selected as an experiment design with 4 replications and 5 seeding rates viz. 80, 100, 120, 140 and 160 kg/ha made up treatments. Data on growth and yield parameters were collected and analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The result obtained from the current study reveal that all growth and yield characters were remarkably affected by seeding rate and seed rate of 100 kg per hectare of wheat variety Mazar-99 performed better with respect to different growth and yield parameters such as spike length, number of tillers, number of spike at each plant, leaf area, a total of spikelets per spike and stem girth, grain number/spike, the weight of spike, the weight of grain per spike, grain crop yield, straw crop weight, 1000-grain weight, and biological yield. Whereas 80 and 120 kg/ha were the second-best seeding rates after the 100 kg/ha. However, 160 kg/ha seed rate showed only superiority in plant height, but 140 kg/ha did not show any special superiority in any growth and yield characteristic evaluated in Takhar agro-climatic condition. Thus, a seeding rate of 100 kg per hectare could be recommended to the farmers for better wheat production in Takhar agro-climatic situation in North-Eastern Afghanistan.

Background: The insistent range of coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and its permeation into least developed countries has escalated the bar of countries fragility and susceptibility. Afghanistan is amongst the most affected countries by the COVID-19 pandemic certainly due to its poor health infrastructure and conflict affected demography. Objective: This study intends to assess the health vulnerability profile and identifying the control mechanism of the north and northeast regions of Afghanistan using the IPCC framework. Method: A pre-evaluated online questionnaire (Google form) and mobile survey of 361 households distributed in 8 provinces across the both zones to collected the primary data. Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity covered the three main components of vulnerability index, weighing method of Iyenger and Sudershan is used to estimate the fabricate vulnerability index. Result: The province’s health vulnerability status was classified to the different groups based on beta distribution. Based on the vulnerability index, 62.5% of provinces were highly vulnerable, 25% moderately and 37.5% were least vulnerable. Conclusion: In north-east region people were highly vulnerable to COVID-19 in terms of sensitivity and exposure, with low copping capacity to cope with COVID-19 pandemic risks compare to the north zone. Recommendation: Enhancing health and hygiene facilities and a handful of lowcost methods such as strengthen informal safety nets and introducing small-scale regional infrastructure projects, could be most cost effective and viable options. Originality: The research work is original and has not been published in other publications. As well, no financial support has been received for the study.