Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is an important non-edible oilseed crop of Euphorbiaceae family. Castor has enormous significance in the country as it plays an important role in the agricultural economies because it enables them to earn substantial foreign exchange through export of castor beans and oils. It is believed that castor is indigenous to the southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Afr...

Kenyan farmers’ livelihoods are closely linked to climate conditions. Almost three-quarters of the labor force depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and almost all farmers depend on timely and adequate rainfall for crop production and husbandry, as only 2 percent of cultivated area is equipped for irrigation. Thus, climate variability and change will have an increasing impact on agricult...

100-150 words) Remote sensing methods for locating and monitoring temporary ponds over large areas in arid lands were tested on a study site in Northern Senegal. Three main results are presented, validated with field data and intended to highlight different spectral, spatial and temporal characteristics of the methods: 1) Among several water indices tested, two Middle InfraRed-based indices (MN...

Estimating actual crop water requirement and irrigation schedule are essential for designing of the irrigation systems, storage construction and water conveyance structures. Many models have developed for estimating crop water requirement. Although most of these methods need different climatic parameters, providing and forecasting all of these parameters always are not available. Most of the ti...

Plant can alter reproductive strategies for adaptation to different environments. However, alterations in flowering strategies and sexual allocation for the same species growing in different environments still remain unclear. We examined the sexual reproduction parameters of Caragana stenophylla across four climatic zones from semi-arid, arid, very arid, to intensively arid zones in the Inner M...

1. Definitions 1.1. Types of Aridity 1.2. Levels of Aridity 2. Paleoperspective 3. People and Land Use in Arid Lands 3.1. Foragers/Hunter–gatherers 3.2. Agriculturists 3.3. Pastoralists 4. Geomorphology of Arid and Semiarid Lands 5. Biological Diversity in Arid Lands 5.1. Arid and Semiarid Lands Plants and their Uses 5.2. The Future of the Conservation of Wild Plants in Arid Regions 6. Climatic...

The world’s arid lands are some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, and their paucity of vegetation often makes it possible to see landforms and structures with great clarity (Figure 1.1). In addition, they have many characteristics both in terms of landforms and geomorphological processes that render them different from other major environments (see, for example, Laity, 2008; Parsons an...

Article history: One difficulty with reconst Received 16 February 2008 Received in revised form 24 August 2008 Accepted 1 September 2008