Natural fibers are gaining the interest of scientists and engineers in packaging, low cost housing and other general applications. In the present study, biodegradable property and swelling properties of different volume fraction of randomly distributed areca fibre and maize powder reinforced urea formaldehyde composites has been investigated. Areca fibres were chemically treated with dilute NaOH solution; composites were prepared by hydraulic hot press at 1400C and 2 MPa of pressure. Composites are cured under ambient conditions for 5 hours. The tests were conducted according to ASTM standards. The degradation involves bond scission reactions in the backbone of polymers, when the original form disappears. The composite absorbs some amount of moisture present in the compost in the early stages and there is an increase in the rate of the reaction between the enzymes secreted by the organism and the polymer chains or additives, which make up the compound. It is a very slow process since the areca fibers and maize powder do not decompose at a faster rate. It has been observed that at the initial stages the specimens shows increase in the weights for nearly one month and then starts loosing its weight showing the biodegradability. In swelling, it absorbs about 30-40 % of its thickness. Compared to conventional woodbased particle board it is very small where water absorption for wood-based particle board is more than 40%. Therefore this experiment shows that the composite made of areca fibers and maize powder have significantly less water absorption.

A series of new triorganotin compounds were synthesized and tested first time for their insecticidal and pesticidal activity against Periplanata americana, Musca domestica and Spodoptera litura and Tetranichus urticae of a pest crop mite and were found highly active against Spodoptera litura. It was found that these insects and pest highly damage the Indian crops and ultimately economy also.

The study was conducted in the farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Demo, Fayoum, Egypt. The soil was of loamy- sand type. During 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 season, using a split plot arrangement in randomized complete block design with three replicates, the work was done to determine the effect of adding biofertilizers (Azotobacter + Azospirillum, free nitrogen fixers and Trichoderma a phosphate solubilizing fungi) in combinations with mineral N fertilizer with either recommended dose (N1) or half of this dose (N2) on yield quantity and quality of two canola lines (L6 and H2). The results revealed that the two canola lines were significantly different in plant height, number of branches, number of pods and seed yield /plant. L6 surpassed H2 line for previous traits, in addition to insignificantly higher values of the other traits; T10, T11 and T12 showed superiority and high productivity with saving half of the mineral N recommended dose. For interaction; H2T10, was the best in all traits except for plant height, protein and oil percentages. H2T4, L6T6 and L6T8, for all traits except for seed index and oil percentage. The highest productivity recoded by H2T10 (N2+Trichoderma +Azotobacter), H2T11 (N2 + Azotobacter+ Azospirllum) and L6T8 (N2+ Azotobacter) which outyielded their corresponding control by 39.3, 31.8 and 23.0% a result of using only 50% of the recommended dose of N-fertilizer (N2). The latter combination was also superior in protein content (26.5%). These three combinations could be recommended as alternative method for canola fertilization, where they had economic and safely advantages.