College of Agriculture, University of Basrah discussed a Ph.D. thesis on the role of planting dates and levels of nitrogen fertilizer on the growth, yield and quality of Indian mustard in two locations by the postgraduate student, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed Abdul Razzaq.

The thesis aimed at identifying the optimal date for planting Indian mustard within the environmental conditions of Basrah Governorate and the two sites (Al-Hartha and Al-Zubayr).

The thesis demonstrated conducting a field experiment in Basra Governorate in two locations, the first location in Al-Hartha Agricultural Research Station and the second location in Al-Zubair district via planting three dates.

The thesis highlighted that adding of nitrogen fertilizer led to the improvement of the vegetative growth characteristics and this was positively reflected in the components of the crop, while it caused a decrease in the percentage of oil for both sites.

The thesis confirmed that the increase in nitrogen fertilizer levels led to a significant decrease in the proportion of saturated fatty acids (palmitic and stearic) and unsaturated (oleic, linoleic and linolenic) at Al-Hartha site, while a clear fluctuation appeared in the proportions of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids according to the different levels of nitrogen fertilizer at the site of Al-Zubair and the early planting date with the increase in nitrogen fertilizer levels achieved a significant superiority in most of the growth and yield characteristics.

The thesis recommended the cultivation of mustard crop in clay lands at the planting date, the possibility of planting mustard crop in desert areas, and future studies using earlier planting dates with the use of fertilizer levels for other elements or the use of unexploited sandy lands for cultivation and foliar feeding.