H. ABDELHAFIDH¹

K. ENNADA MHIMDI¹

M. BOUZAZI²

¹ Higher School of Agriculture of Mograne, University of Carthage, Tunisia

² Livestock and Pasture Office of Jendouba

Abstract – The goal of this paper is to evaluate the production efficiency of dairy farms in the North West region of Tunisia and to determine which factors significantly affect the farming performance. The Data Envelopment Analysis approach was used in a first step to measures farms efficiency scores of 32 farms located in the province of Jendouba. Secondly, computed efficiency scores are subsequently regressed on explanatory variables using a Tobit analysis, The results obtained reveal that dairy farms have a potential of 38% to operate efficiently through a more efficient use of their production inputs. And the overall technical inefficiency is mainly related to scale inefficiency. Tobit analysis also shows that mastitis may be the major factors of farms’ inefficiency. Empirical results indicated too, that efficient farms use more concentrated feed, since the government should support farmers to provide this feed in order to improve their performance.

Keywords: Dairy production, Tunisia, Technical efficiency, DEA

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Etude de différents régimes de succion de l’eau du sol sur les paramètres de croissance et du rendement chez deux variétés du blé dur au Nord de la Tunisie

A. BOUGHDIRI ¹

G. TIBAOUI²

M. M.H. SELLAMI³

M. HAMMAMI⁴

B. BEN NOUNA⁵

H. BAHROUNI⁶

S. SLIM⁷

^{1 2 7} School of Higher Education in Agriculture of Mateur, University of Carthage. Tunisia

^{3 4} School of Higher Education of Engineers in Rural Equipment of Medjez El Bab, University of Jandouba

^{5 6} National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water and Forestry, Ariana, Tunisia

Abstract – The present work aims at the study of the effect of four water suction treatments on some agro-physiological parameters: height of the plant, rate of dry matter, number of leaves per plant, leaf area and the parameters of yield : number of tillers per plant, number of ears per plant, number of spikelets per ear, number of grains per ear, weight of one thousand grains in two varieties of durum wheat, Karim and Maali.. The trial was carried out in the experimental plots of the Mateur School of Agriculture during the 2015/2016 year. Four water regimes (treatments) corresponding to four levels of water pressure in the soil were tested, R1: -300, R2: -500, R3: -700 and R4: -1000 mbars. Physiological and agronomic parameters were measured. The results showed a significant effect of irrigation on all of these parameters. Indeed, the maintenance of a ground pressure of -300 and -500 allowed an increase of the height of the plants from 11 to 20% compared to the witness. For the R4 and R3 diets a very significant reduction in the number of fertile tillers compared to R1 was observed, 66.6% and 75% respectively. A decrease in the number of spikelet per ear was recorded for R1 and R4 treatments, a decrease of more than 65%. The thousand grain weight in both varieties varied inversely with the level of stress. The highest value was 61 g for R3, the lowest was 47 g under R1.

Keywords: Karim, Maali, treatment, suction, thousand grain weight, stress, agro-physiological parameters.

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Biodiversité des rongeurs dans les agrosystèmes du sud est Tunisien : cas des Oliveraies et des champs d’Orge

K. ETTISS ^1,2

M. CHAMMEM ¹

T. KHORCHANI ¹

¹ Laboratory of Livestock and Wildlife, Institute of Arid Regions of Medenine, Medenine 4119 – Tunisia

² National Agricultural Institute of Tunis - University of Carthage, 43 Avenue Charles Nicolle, Tunis 1082- Tunisia.

Abstract – Our study presents an inventory of rodents in southeastern Tunisia. The species were caught in two agro-systems: The olive groves and the barley fields. Sampling period coincides with fructification phases which are marqued by the importane of rodents impact. The random trapping method was performed using 20 snap traps installed in the selected sites. Six species were captured and they belong to one family: it is the family of Muridea. Two species of Murinae were caught in olive groves (Meriones libycus and Psammomys obesus) and six species were found in barley fields: two Murinae (Meriones libycus, Psammomys obesus) and four Gerbillinae (Gerbillus henleyi, Gerbillus nanus, Gerbillus pyramidium and Gerbillus tarabuli).

Keywords : Rodents, trapping, olive groves, barley fields, Tunisia

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J. DRIDI^{1, 2}

M. FENDRI²

M. AYADI³

F. JENDOUBI^{1, 2}

M. MSALLEM²

A. LARBI²

¹ National Institute of Agronomy of Tunis, University of Carthage, 43, Avenue Charles Nicolle, 1082 Tunis, Tunisia

² Olive Tree Institute, 286, El Mahrajene City, 1082 Tunis, Tunisia

³ Olive Tree Institute, 1087, 3000 Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract – Thirteen olive progenies coming from controlled crosses on Tunisian olive cultivars (Meski and Chetoui) with autochthones and foreign cultivars were selected among 200 olive genotypes on the basis of their agronomic characteristics in a breeding program initiated in 1994. In this study, weight and flesh to seed ratio, oil content, specific absorption at ultraviolet light, free acid content, chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, total phenols and fatty acid composition of these progenies were determined and compared to their parents. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all traits (p<0.01) except for UV extinction coefficients (K232 and K270). Some progenies showed superior features compared to their genitors.

Keywords: Fruit, oil characteristics, olive progenies, cross breeding

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