Rachid Aboutayeb

• PhD
• Researcher at Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique

Fertilization plays a crucial role in enhancing pomegranate production; however, studies on the nutrient dynamics in pomegranate leaves and the influence of genotype-specific factors remain limited. This study investigated the nutrient content of leaves from a Moroccan ex-situ collection of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cultivars, focusing on bo...

Climate Impact Mitigation Through Intelligent Biowaste Composting investigates composting as an innovative and sustainable technique for combating climate change. Biowaste, which includes agricultural residues, food waste, and organic matter, is a valuable resource for lowering greenhouse gas emissions through smart management and composting. This...

Fig seeds (Ficus carica L.), a previously overlooked component of the fig fruit, have recently garnered attention as a valuable source of atypical vegetable oil and food-based ingredient. This study evaluated the oil content, fatty acid composition, and molecular FTIR-based signatures of 21 Ficus carica L. genotypes growing in an ex-situ collection...

This study investigates the global issue of organic waste, driven by expanding agricultural activities, focusing on managing sheep manure through composting. The experimental monitoring took place over seven months near Casablanca, Morocco. A specialized company produced the compost, using windrow composting with sporadic mechanical rotation. Tempe...

Faba beanplays a pivotal role in global nutrition and sustainable agriculture. We evaluated 20 elite lines and five varieties grown during the 2021-2022 dry season. Our investigation encompassed protein contentandmineral compositionas well asFTIR fingerprints.The evaluated genotypes exhibitedsignificant differences in both protein and mineral conte...

This review provides an overview of the application of machine learning (ML) for Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) and Soil Organic Matter (SOM) mapping in African countries, highlighting its significance for agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability. It aims to guide future research, foster collaboration, and optimize ML applications in S...

Monitoring the nutrient status of citrus orchards is fundamental to ensure optimum fruit yield and quality. In the present study, soil and leaf samples of 20 Valencia Late orange orchards were collected in the Gharb plain of Morocco, the second-largest citrus area in the country. The objective was to assess the status of essential macronutrients (N...

The current study focuses on the co-composting of olive mill pomace (OMP) with poultry and sheep manure as a sustainable strategy for managing agricultural biowaste and improving compost quality. The research aims to evaluate how different manure types influence the nutrient composition and physicochemical properties of OMP-based composts. Experim...

Intensification of poultry and livestock activities around the globe leads to the production of a huge amount of organic waste, primarily poultry manure. These biowastes, largely composed of organic materials, can be either a valuable resource or an environmental pollutant threatening precious natural resources. The valorization of these biowastes...

Abstract This study investigates the influence of poultry and sheep manure on the mineral composition and cation exchange capacity (CEC) of olive mill pomace (OMP) compost. Composting was performed in heaps with two replicates of each formulation: OMP with poultry manure and OMP with sheep manure. The study monitored key parameters including CEC, c...

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri (Foc) is the causal agent of fusarium wilt in chickpea (Cicer arietinum). One of the main objectives of waste composting and management is to make available products that could contribute to soil health by fertilization and by suppressing plant pathogens. In this work, the suppressive effects of six different compos...

This study investigates the influence of poultry and sheep manure on the mineral composition and cation exchange capacity (CEC) of olive mill pomace (OMP) compost. Composting was performed in heaps with two replicates of each formulation: OMP with poultry manure and OMP with sheep manure. The study monitored key parameters including CEC, calcium (C...

The development of nutrient-dense chickpea cultivars is a promising way to cope with nutrient deficiency. No-tillage is a sustainable agricultural practice that can help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on crop productivity. Developing biofortified chickpea cultivars under no-tillage system could optimize the benefits of this agricult...

The North African region, comprising Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Sudan, faces multifaceted challenges including high population growth, youth unemployment, and increasing food needs, exacerbated by climate change and fragile natural resources. Despite being the origin of cereals, the region struggles to produce enough to meet its p...

This research focuses on understanding the spatial variation of Soil Organic Matter (SOM) and pH levels in the North of Morocco. The study employs a comprehensive approach to enhance predictive modelling, incorporating the Boruta algorithm for effective environmental covariates selection and optimizing model parameters through hyperparameter optimi...

No-tillage (NT) practice as a principal component of conservation agriculture (CA) aims to improve soil quality and crop productivity. The potential advantages of crop legumes under NT system could be enhanced even further by using performant genotypes that act positively on soil nutrient availability. According to that, the current study aims to a...

Carbon sequestration strategies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance soil fertility, improve water dynamics, and increase soil biodiversity. This chapter investigates such nexuses through the analysis of impacts and benefits mainly from three major strategies: conservation agriculture, agroforestry and organic farming including soil amendme...

Introduction Ficus carica L. seeds are a substantial source of minor oil with high unsaturation levels and potent antioxidant properties. The study aims to evaluate the mineral composition, lipodomic profile, and vibrational fingerprints of 22 fig genotypes utilizing FTIR-ATR techniques and chemometrics. Methods FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and chemometr...

Biofortification is a promising and sustainable way to improve lentil nutritional value. No-till is an eco-friendly agricultural practice for sustainable agricultural production under climate change conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic variation of lentil grain quality traits under no-till and conventional tillage sys...

The environmental issues related to olive oil by-products and turkey manure are continuously increasing. This ecological hazard could be mitigated by the composting process. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the initial carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) and aeration rate (turning frequency (TF)) on mineral contents (P, K, Ca, and Na) and t...

3-phase olive pomace (OP) and turkey manure (TM) composts may contain microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards that can be transmitted to consumers of agricultural commodities from soil amended with this compost via the food chain. This work aims to carry out an analysis of the physical, chemical, and microbiological risks associated with th...

Rootstocks play a crucial role in the mineral nutrition of citrus crops and can have a strong influence on their uptake of iron. Iron deficiency is, indeed, a serious concern for citrus production in Mediterranean countries, including Morocco, where soil alkalinity and calcareousness reduce the bioavailability of iron to crop uptake. In this study,...

Prediction of soil properties by SCORPAN approach requires geo-statistical methods or machine learning methods as well as training data composed of target soil proprieties and auxiliary data named environmental covariates. The aim of this work is to investigate Random Forest performances and output maps, resulting from different time series covaria...

Soil and leaf analysis are widely recommended as efficient tools to diagnose nutrient limitations in citrus orchards. In this study, we conducted a field survey to assess the nutritional status of selected Valencia orange orchards located in the Gharb region. This region is the second largest citrus growing area in Morocco, with Valencia orange var...

The agar extraction process of the red algae Gelidium sesquipedale generates a solid residue as the main by-product. However, this residue remains non-valorized, despite its potential as a fertilizer. This study aims to determine the value of G. sesquipedale residue as organic fertilizer and for soil amendments. An incubation test of G. sesquipedal...

In Morocco, the potential of agricultural waste is estimated at 34.7 MT/year. Compost‑ ing is an efective way for waste management. If badly monitored, it can afect the environment. Initial C/N ratio (C/Ni) and aeration appear to be major factors impacting the composting process. This work studied the efect of C/Ni and turning frequency (TF) on...

This research investigates whether pollination and pollen sources separately and simultaneously influence fig seed set and quality, as being thus far the less studied part of the fig trees. This is the first research that tries to answer and verify the above hypothesis through a combined approach of vibrational spectroscopy along with lipo-biochemi...

Olive oil and turkey livestock activities in Morocco generate huge quantities of olive pomace and turkey manure, which cause soil, water, and environmental pollution. Composting is a suitable solution for these bio-wastes. This work aimed to study co-composting parameters evolution of three-phase olive pomace (OP) and turkey manure (TM) and evaluat...

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the reuse of purified wastewater from the wastewater treatment plant in the city of Settat on the physicochemical quality of agricultural soils compared to the agricultural soils irrigated by rainwater in the region of Chaouia in Morocco. The results obtained showed that despite the great fertili...

Poster à distance. Une bonne gestion de la fertilité des sols constitue une étape clé dans la production durable des vergers agrumicoles. Malheureusement, peu d'attention est accordée à la fertilité oligo-minérale bien que des symptômes de carence, et parfois de toxicité, aient été souvent signalés. Dans la présente étude nous procédons à une évalu...

This study aimed to investigate the co-composting time effectiveness as well as the effect of the initial Carbon/Nitrogen ratio (C/N)i variation on the hygienization of olive pomace and turkey manure. Six different heaps, at 3 levels of (C/N)i ratios: 20, 22 and 28, were installed and monitored during 6 months and assessed at three steps: At the be...

Soil aggregate stability (SAS) is a critical parameter of soil quality and its mapping can help determine erosion hotspots. Despite this importance, SAS is less documented in available literature due to limited number of analyzes besides being a time consuming. For this reason, many researchers have turned to alternative methods that often use read...

Simple Summary: Primary and secondary metabolites are among the markers for addressing fig chemotypic variability. These compounds are mainly driven by the cultivar factor besides chromatic coordinates color as they are highly correlated to these biomarkers. Combined use of chemical analytical procedures and vibrational spectroscopy is of great imp...

Simple Summary Primary and secondary metabolites are among the markers for addressing fig chemotypic variability. These compounds are mainly driven by the cultivar factor besides chromatic coordinates color as they are highly correlated to these biomarkers. Combined use of chemical analytical procedures and vibrational spectroscopy is of great impo...

Figs are a traditional pantry staple for healthy eating in Middle Eastern and North African countries as fig trees grow abundantly in such hot and dry climates. Despite the importance of this species, chemotypic diversity has gone unheeded and therefore its valorization pathways remain poorly documented. For this reason, high-pressure liquid chroma...

Salt stress is one of the major environmental factors limiting cereal productivity in worldwide agriculture. Evaluating and selecting salt tolerant genotypes are an effective approach to overcome yield losses. This study aimed to characterize and compare phenotypic variability among doubled haploid (DH) barley lines and their parent under different...

Conservation agriculture (CA) relies on low soil disturbance, mulching, and crop rotation, and these characteristics present CA as a good candidate to control soil degradation and preserve soil fertility. Therefore, agricultural scientists promote it as an efficient technique to sustain agricultural production. Conventional tillage (CT) dominates m...

The purpose of this book, divided into two parts, is to present the fundamentals of composting techniques and to highlight the importance of poultry manure compost in preserving the quality and fertility of agricultural soils. The first part is devoted to the presentation of the principles of composting where are treated the types of composting and...

Generally, olive pomace is not associated with microbiological hazards, while poultry manure may present a health risk when applied as an organic amendment without prior treatment. The objective of this work is to study the effect of aerobic co-composting of olive pomace and turkey manure on the microbiological properties of the final compost.

Poultry livestock and olive oil manufacturies produce huge quantities of organic wastes, such as turkey manure and olive pomace respectively. The objective is to study the effect of heap co-composting of olive pomace and turkey manure on the physicochemical properties of the mixture.

In arid and semi-arid areas, the process of soil irrigation leads to an excess accumulation of salt, which limits the growth and the productivity of several plants especially cereal crops. Use of haplodiploidization methods has the advantage to shorten considerably the cycle of classic selection and to obtain in one year, salinity-resistant genotyp...

Lentil contributes to sustainable farming through its ability to fix nitrogen in soils, reducing the need for chemical fertilizer use and enhancing the productivity of cereal-based cropping systems. Furthermore, lentil seeds are consumed as staple food. Thus, the crop constitutes an important source of proteins and some micronutrients like iron and...

Faba bean (Vicia fabaL.) yields in Morocco are low due to biotic and abiotic stresses that include Orobanche crenata. Use of low concentration of Glyphosate sprays are recommended to control parasitic weeds in faba bean but with little adoption. The lack of adoption raised awareness for alternative methods that are eco-friendly and easily to farmer...

L’objectif de ce livre, scindé en deux parties, est de présenter au lecteur les fondements des techniques de compostage ainsi que de mettre en évidence l’importance du compost de fumiers avicoles dans la préservation de la qualité et de la fertilité des sols agricoles. La première partie est consacrée à la présentation des principes de compostage o...

L’intensification de l’élevage avicole dans la région Chaouia Ouardigha au Maroc implique une forte production de fumiers. Ces déjections doivent être assujetties à des stratégies de gestion capables d’optimiser leur utilisation et de tenir compte des enjeux environnementaux. L’objectif de ce travail s’articule autour de 2 axes principaux : L’étude...

The intensification of poultry production, mainly poultry meat (chicken and turkey) in the region of Chaouia Ouardigha, involves high production of manure. These droppings, considered as organic amendments, should be subject to management strategies that could optimize their use and take into account environmental issues. The objective of this wor...

The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the short-term effect of chicken manure on soil properties of cultivated horizon (0-20 cm) under silage maize. The field experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design. In total, twelve plots were arranged; it consisted of four treatments and three repetitions. Applied treatments...

In this study, we investigated the short -term effect of composted chicken and turkey manures compost on soil properties of cultivated horizon (0 -20 cm) under Mentha Spicata L.; the field experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design. In total, 27 plots were arranged; it consisted of 9 treatments and 3 repetitions. Applied trea...

Mots clés : fumier, compostage, poulet de chair. L'utilisation des fumiers de poulet de chair en l'état, sur les sols agricoles présentent des risques environnementaux [1][2], sur le sol et les ressources hydriques, et sanitaires à cause de leur charge élevée en microorganismes pathogènes [3]. L'objectif de cette étude est de mettre en relief l'imp...

Etude de l'effet du compostage sur les propriétés physicochimiques et microbiolgiques du fumier de dinde de chair.

The Region Chaouia-ouardigha produces approximately 200.000 tons of chicken litter each year. These wastes present environmental and health risks because of their high content of nitrogen and high density of pathogens. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of composting to stabilise and sanitise the chicken litter. After five months...

The region Chaouia-Ouardigha is the first producer of turkey in Morocco, which implies a high production of manure. The spreading of manure presents environmental risks (on agricultural soils and water resources) as well as health risks because of their high density of pathogens. The aerobic composting of turkey litter (a mixture of turkey manure,...

The region Chaouia-Ouardigha is the first producer of turkey in Morocco, which implies a high production of manure. The spreading of manure presents environmental risks (on agricultural soils and water resources) as well as health risks because of their high density of pathogens. The aerobic composting of turkey litter (a mixture of turkey manure,...

Poultry farming in the region Chaouia Ouardigha in Morocco is increasingly growing in recent years. In 2011, the number of poultry units reached 1086 units focusing on five types of activities namely: Broiler chicken, turkey chiken, laying hens, breeder hens and units hatching. The aim of this study is to treat a database on poultry in the region...

The purpose of this work is to compare two methods utilized to vitamin A quantification in fortified vegetable oils, a spectrophotometric method and a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), on fortified vegetable oils. The experimental protocol consists of determining the effect of 3 factors on the vitamin A content: Two methods of analysis...