Selenium and agricultural crops
August 2017
Higher plants have different capacities to accumulate and tolerate selenium, referred to as accumulative and non-accumulative plants. Selenium-accumulators plants may contain hundreds of times more selenium than non-accumulators even when grown in the same soil, or can also grow in soils with low and medium selenium reserves; while selenium non-accumulator plants present low accumulation and tolerance to high selenium...
A gender and decent work analysis of cassava production and on-farm processing, in Kuria west sub-county, Kenya
August 2017
In Kenya, cassava (Manihot esculenta) is one of the strategic crops with the ability to withstand adverse climatic conditions. It thrives well in areas with little rainfall such as Kuria west sub-county. It is an important food security crop for resource poor households and has a high potential for value addition. With limited range of crop and livestock farm enterprises that can be raised, cassava production engages...
Implications of tillage practices, management of soil surface and fertilizer application on sustainable dryland agriculture: A case study of Eastern Rwanda
August 2017
Conservation agriculture (CA) is becoming popular in sub-Saharan Africa as potential solution to soil degradation. However, most findings are based on large scale, mechanized agricultural production systems which are not easy to apply within the smallholder farmer’s context. This study assessed the implications of tillage practices, management of soil surface and fertilizer application on sustainable dryland...
Silicon supplements affect yield and fruit quality of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) grown in net houses
August 2017
Silicon (Si) plays an important role in plant growth and development, but the uptake, accumulation in tissue, and beneficial effects of Si differ greatly between plant species. Net house experiments were conducted with Cucumis sativus L. ‘Shabah F1’ in 2013 and repeated in 2014 to determine the effects of Si supplementation on yield, fruit quality, and chemical composition. Diatomite (86-89% SiO2) was...
Synergy and trade-offs between economic efficiency and environmental effects of alternative land use practices using farm level static bio-economic modelling in Bale Eco-Region
August 2017
In Bale Eco-Region (EBR), production and productivity mainly suffers from fertility deterioration, skyrocketing prices of fertilizer, and unsustainable interactions among different land uses systems. This study was initiated to determine synergy and trade-offs between economic efficiency and environmental effects of alternative land use practices using farm level static bio-economic modelling EBR. Data were collected...
Effect of heat treatment on forage quality of bio-fortified orange fleshed Ipomea batatas crop residues and roots
August 2017
Post-harvest management of sweet potatoes (SP) crop residues preserves nutrients, deactivates inhibitor compounds and improves rumen degradation. The aim of the study was to determine effects of drying crop residues and heating roots on forage value of a bio-fortified orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) variety in South Africa. The crop was harvested at maturity and roots separated from crop residues. Roots were washed,...
Symptomless banana suckers sourced from Xanthomonas wilt infected fields are a viable alternative for seed within infected banana-based landscapes lacking access to clean planting materials.
August 2017
Xanthomonas wilt (XW) caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm) is an important constraint to banana production in East and Central Africa. The use of clean planting materials (CPM) for establishing new fields/ re-planting rouged fields/mats is recommended. However, banana is mainly produced by resource-poor small-holder households with no/limited access to CPM. We assessed XW incidence in fields planted...
Balance of elements and tolerance of the Terminalia catappa L. to seawater salinity
August 2017
The Terminalia catappa L., popularly referred to as Indian almond, adapts to different soil and climatic conditions. It is a fast growing tree and has been widely used for ornamental and medicinal purposes. This plant might also be used as a carbon sequester in areas subject to soil and water salinity problems. This paper aims at studying the balance of salts among parts of the Indian almond tree under different...
Improving geotechnical properties of a sand-clay soil by cement stabilization for base course in forest roads
July 2017
The study evaluated the chemical stabilization of soils with cement toward application in improving forest roads, as constructive alternative of low cost. The study was carried out with fine soils from the region of Niquelândia-GO, where the sand-clay-silt particle proportion was predominant, and Portland cement CP-II-Z-32 used as a stabilizing agent at 2% under dry soil weight. Geotechnical tests were conducted...
Growth of Jatropha curcas L. plants under salt and nutrition stress
July 2017
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of nutrition and salt stress on the growth and accumulation of mineral elements in Jatropha curcas plants. The work was conducted in greenhouse with 100% solar radiation interception, at Goiás State University, Ipameri Campus, Goiás, Brazil. The experiment was set up in five-liter containers following the completely randomized design in 4 x 2...
Assessment of factors influencing smallholder farmers’ adoption of mushroom for livelihood diversification in Western Kenya
July 2017
Poverty is a critical issue in developing countries. It has become almost impossible to carry out any profitable agricultural production as a means of livelihood diversification in areas with small land acreage. Therefore, there is need to identify enterprises that can be incorporated into small holder farmers’ production processes. This study assessed the factors that influence small holder farmers’...
Evaluation of suitability of tube well water for irrigation in Maiduguri Metropolitan, Borno State, Nigeria
July 2017
Groundwater contamination is gaining more concerns due to its direct and/or indirect impact on public health. Groundwaters from various sources are commonly used to irrigate vegetables in Maiduguri, Borno State. In this study, the physicochemical qualities of groundwater collected from 20 randomly selected tube wells in Maiduguri were evaluated for their suitability or otherwise for irrigation purposes. Selected wells...
Repeatability analysis on morphological descriptors in the early stages of development
July 2017
The insufficiency of morphological descriptors reveals the importance of studies related to this topic for the genetic improvement of soybean, with attention to the possible descriptors measured in early stages of plant development which allows obtaining fast results. The aim of this work was to estimate the coefficient of repeatability of some morphological descriptors in the early stages of development of...
Assessing the impact of different tillage systems and land uses on CO2-C emissions in Eastern Amazonia
July 2017
The production and emission of CO2 in native, pasture and cultivated areas is a result of microbiological activity and mineralization of organic matter, and depends on favorable environmental factors, such as temperature, availability of water and of land use. The results of this work show that the no tillage system (NT) has the potential to mitigate 37.7% of C-CO2 efflux from cultivation of soy compared to conventional...
Dry matter production, chemical composition and nutrient accumulation in winter crops
July 2017
Some winter crops sown in no-tillage system can represent an important alternative to nutrient cycling. The objective of this work was to evaluate the production of dry matter (DM) and accumulation of nutrients for winter cultivation in the West of Paraná. The experimental design was a randomized block, with four treatments and six replications. The treatments were represented by four different winter crops (oat...
Medium-term effects of conservation agriculture on soil quality
July 2017
Inefficient management practices lead to soil organic matter depletion, structure breakdown and increased erosion. This has resulted into low crop yields of sub-Saharan Africa. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being considered as a potential system having the capability of improving soil quality and providing stable yields. A study was therefore conducted, at Chitedze Research Station-Malawi, to evaluate medium term...
Financial profitability and resource use efficiency of boro rice cultivation in some selected area of Bangladesh
July 2017
The paper analysed the profitability and resource use efficiency of boro rice cultivation in Bogra district of Bangladesh using farm level survey data of April-May, 2016. In total 103 farmers were selected randomly from the study area. Result based on Farm Budgeting model showed that per hectare variable cost and total cost of production was BDT (Bangladeshi Taka) 57,583 and BDT 71,208 respectively. Average yield was...
Response of Eleusine indica to herbicides and N fertilizer in dry seeded rice
July 2017
Weed has become one of the most serious problems in dry seeded rice (DSR). To increase the competitiveness with weeds and achieve the optimum growth of rice, weed management in DSR needs an integration of herbicides and optimum nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates. In this study, the bioassay species were treated with a series of pre-emergence (pretilachlor and pendimethalin) and early post-emergence (propanil+thiobencarb)...
Variability evaluation of castor seeds (Ricinus communis) by multivariate analysis of local accessions from Mexico
July 2017
Castor oil is an important raw material used in a diverse range of chemical products with high added value. From a collection of Mexican grown seeds from the castor plant (Ricinus communis), 18 accessions with a high potential for oil production and panicle indehiscent were selected and cultivated. The variability was studied from three aspects: seed yield, seed composition and the oil quality, through 22 descriptors...
Application of sequence specific amplified polymorphism (SSAP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for variability and molecular assisted selection (MAS) studies of the Mexican guava
July 2017
Molecular markers have proven to be powerful tools in research related with diversity, variability, and improvement of economically important tropical crops. This study analyzed eight physiological and morphological fruit characters of economic interest in the cultivated Mexican guava (Psidium guajava L.), and assessed the suitability of two sequence specific amplified polymorphism (SSAP) and simple sequence repeat...
Levels of the amino-acid lysine in rations for broilers
July 2017
Synthetic amino acid supplementation has provided facilities in the adjustment of feed formula, making it possible to obtain the required levels of essential amino acids. Lysine is pronounced the second greatest restrictive amino acid in broiler nutrition. The synthetic amino acid lysine is used as the orientation amino acid in poultry for the reason that it is mainly consumed for protein synthesis. In order to...
Diversity of predatory arthropod communities in tobacco-garlic eco-system
July 2017
Predatory arthropods, especially spiders, play a vital role in the control of insect pests in agro-ecosystems. Accordingly, two year field study was conducted at the Longyan Substation of Fujian Institute of Tobacco Agricultural Sciences in China to determine the effects of garlic and tobacco intercropping system on spiders and predatory arthropods. A total of 545 and 860 (in 2011 and 2012, respectively) individuals of...
Carcass yield, cuts and body components in lambs fed a pineapple by-product silage diet
July 2017
The effect of pineapple by-product silage as a substitute for elephant grass on carcass yield, commercial cuts and non-carcass components was evaluated in 25 castrated male Santa Inês feedlot finishing lambs. The lambs had an initial body weight of 18.0±3.4 kg, and they were fed four pineapple by-product silage concentrations (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) distributed in a completely randomized design with five...
Nutritional valorization of ginger lily fiber (Hedychium gardnerianum, Sheppard ex Ker-Gawl) for animal feeding
July 2017
Animal production in the Azores is conditioned by the cycles of grass production. In a situation when lack of fiber for animal feed occurs, low quality fibrous foods become relevant. For these reasons, Hedychium gardnerianum (ginger lily), a well-known and traditional source of fiber used by Azorean farmers have been studied. The plant material was subjected to treatments with 5% dry matter (DM) with urea, 3% DM with...
White clover tolerance to herbicides applied at different rates and phenological stages
July 2017
Glyphosate, 2,4-D, imazethapyr and paraquat + diuron were studied in greenhouse experiments at four application rates in order to evaluate their effects on white clover (Trifolium repens L.) growth and aerial shoot injury at three different phenological stages. Herbicide-induced foliar injury on white clover ranged from no symptoms to early chlorosis, leaf necrosis, stunted growth and death depending on herbicide...
Irrigation water planning for crops in the central highlands of Ethiopia, aided by FAO CROP WAT MODEL
July 2017
Information on crop water requirement of crops is vital for irrigation water planning. In the central parts of Ethiopia, agriculture has solely been dependent on rain-fed until recent time that irrigation for vegetable production is becoming one activity for crop production. However, irrigation practice in terms of the amount of water to be used and frequency of application has lacked proper knowledge. The purpose of...
Expediency of water and soil nutrients in irrigated and extreme drought conditions
July 2017
Climate change has become global issue for crops due to increase in temperature and less rainfall resulting in shortage of water and decrease in yield. The experiment consisted of five guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.) genotypes viz. S-5744, S-5824, S-5785, BR-90, BR-99 were cultivated under irrigated and drought stress (only soaking dose) conditions using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 3 replications. The...
Impacts of the exchange rate and world income on Brazilian agricultural exports
July 2017
The main objective of this paper was to analyse to what extent the Brazilian agricultural exports responds to changes in the real exchange rate and in the world income for the 2000 to 2014 period (monthly). The results showed that the coefficient of the value of agricultural exports in relation to the exchange rate was inelastic in the long run (0.2540). However, the adjustment coefficient of the exported value in...
Effect of temperature on sweet potato virus disease symptom expression
July 2017
The incidence and severity of sweetpotato virus disease (SPVD) was reported to be highly variable under different agroecological zones in Uganda, a situation that could be partly attributable to differences in temperature. This raised a need for understanding the effect of temperature on the biology of SPVD causative agents which ultimately influences disease development and symptom expression that undermines...
Growth patterns and Fulton’s condition factor of the silver catfish Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Actinopterygii: Siluriformes: Claroteidae) from a sand-dragged man-made lake of Benin
July 2017
Notwithstanding the nutritional, economic and fisheries importance of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus, and its relatively high abundance and propagation in Lake Ahozon (South Benin), nothing is known about the well-being of the species in this water body. Thus, this study investigated length and weight frequency distributions, length-weight relationships and condition factors of C. nigrodigitatus. A total of 1020...
Chlorophyll relative index for diagnosing nitrogen status in corn hybrids
July 2017
The aim of the current study was to determine the chlorophyll relative index (CRI) in different leaves and phenological stages of the crop in order to diagnose the status of nitrogen (N) in corn (Zea mays L.) hybrids as a function of N rates applied in bands correlating them with N content in the leaves and crop productivity. The field experiment consisted of two corn hybrids (P30R50 and AG8025) and 6 N rates applied in...
Effects of plant density on the performance of selected African upland rice varieties
June 2017
The effects of plant density on yield and yield components in upland rice cultivation were examined by conducting a series of field experiments in Central Uganda, using three African and one Japanese improved upland rice varieties. The estimation of plant-density response functions with respect to yield components and yield revealed that an increase in plant density significantly decreased the number of panicles per...
Determinant of Sheno butter (cows’ butter) market chain: The case of Kimbibit District in North Shewa Zone of Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia
June 2017
This study was carried out to assess the determinants of Sheno butter market participation decision and level of participation in Kimbibit District. The study took a random sample of 126 butter producer households by using multi-stage sampling procedure and employing a probability proportional to sample size sampling technique. The Heckman two-stage econometric estimation procedure is employed to identify factors that...
Yield and yield components of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) as influenced by planting density and rate of nitrogen application at Holeta, West Oromia region of Ethiopia
June 2017
Four different nitrogen levels and four plant spacing were studied in 4×4 factorial arrangements in randomized complete block design with three replications. The highest yield, number of tuber, number of tuber and dry weight of tuber were obtained with application of jointly 100 and150 kg/ha nitrogen. Increasing plant density resulted in higher tuber yield, dry weight of tuber and total dry matter yield....
Phenotypic, socio-economic and growth features of Guinea fowls raised under different village systems in West Africa
June 2017
In Benin, family poultry farming has become an important activity in economic and social aspects that contribute to food security, poverty reduction and well-being. However, current information about poultry production and consumption is still limited. This information would be useful to improve the sustainable exploitation of agricultural and commercial genetic resources. We aimed to identify and assess the...
Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology applied in millet feature extraction and variety identification
June 2017
Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology is widely used on agricultural products for quality detection, classification and variety identification due to its rapid speed and high-efficiency. NIRS experiments were conducted to identify varieties of DUN millet, JIN 21 millet and 5 other types of millet. The NIRS characteristic curves and data of millet samples were collected. The spectroscopic data on different types...
Organic carbon dynamics and changes in some physical properties of soil and their effect on grain yield of maize under conservative tillage practices in Abakaliki, Nigeria
June 2017
In Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan Countries of Africa, erosion is pervasive and major source for loss of soil and productivity. This has necessitated continued search for appropriate soil management technologies to ensure sustained and profitable crop production. An experiment was carried out using maize (Zea mays L.) to evaluate organic carbon dynamics and changes in some physical properties of soil and grain yield of...
Irregular migration and smallholder farmers’ crop production: A case of Kasulu District, Tanzania
June 2017
Despite the fact that irregular migrants (IRMs) have often been facing a lot of challenges in sustaining their livelihood in Kasulu District, in recent years, there has been an increase of IRMs from within and outside Kasulu District in search of casual labour in the local communities. The study therefore was undertaken in four villages in Kasulu, Kitanga, Kagera-Nkanda, Mvugwe and Nyachenda to determine the...
Optimizing degraded steep upland paddy field under no tillage practice using leaf mulching and earth-worms
June 2017
A field experiment project was conducted in Karawang District, Indonesia from April to October, 2016 in the search of efforts to optimize degraded steep upland paddy field and paddy yield. The experinment was designed under no tillage practices and statistical randomized block were applied with two factors, that is, banana leaf mulch, and worms where each factor is varied into four levels of treatments with three...
Resistance to Phytophthora infestans in tomato wild relatives
June 2017
Late blight of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) caused by the heterothallic oomycete Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, is one of the most destructive and serious diseases of tomato in cool and wet environments. Tomato breeders have developed late blight-resistant tomato lines and cultivars based on Ph resistance genes derived from S. pimpinellifolium, but resistance can be short-lived because P. infestans is...
Adapting Nyando smallholder farming systems to climate change and variability through modeling
June 2017
This study was done in Nyando, Kenya to model maize production under different climate scenarios and project the yields up to 2030 and 2050 using Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) under rain fed conditions. Three maize varieties were used; Katumani Comp B as early maturing variety, Hybrid 511 as a medium maturing variety and Hybrid 614 as a late maturing variety. Global coupled model Hadley...
Morpho-agronomic characteristics of cowpea under different environments and planting densities
June 2017
The aim of this study was to evaluate the growth and production components of cowpea ‘BRS Nova Era’ under different planting densities in two growing conditions. The experiment followed an experimental design of randomised blocks, which comprised two environments (Pesqueira and Lajedos cities, Brazil) and five planting densities (6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 plants m-1). In Pesqueira, all production components were...
Phosphorus fractionation and P sorption capacities of Fincha Sugar Estate soils, Western Ethiopia
June 2017
Soil chemical forms of Phosphorus and P sorption capacities of Fincha Sugar Estate soils were studied using samples collected from luvisols, vertisols and fluvisols of the farm. P forms were sequentially extracted following standard P fractionation procedure. In sorption study, 3 g of soil sample was equilibrated with 30 ml of 0.01 M CaCl2 containing various amounts of KH2PO4. Data were fitted into Langmuir and...
Environmental and genetic concerns on genetic gains via selection in Pequi mother tree for seeds emergence
June 2017
Genetic (populations and progenies) and environmental (planting date, germination stimulator, insecticide and fungicide) effects were evaluated on Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense Camb.) seeds emergence. Two Completely Randomized Block Design (E1 and E2, on 2005 and 2009 years, respectively) experiments were set up on field. Seeds for E2 were harvested in mother trees whose seeds showed higher germination rate in E1. The...
Comparison of spatial interpolators for variability analysis of soil chemical properties in Cuamba (Mozambique)
June 2017
The knowledge of spatial distribution of soil attributes, particularly chemical ones, which is very relevant for agricultural planning. Several studies have focused on spatial interpolation of soil properties, but only a few of them have been undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to analyse the spatial variability of hydrogen potential (pH) and electric conductivity (EC) within an agricultural region in...
Effect of plant density on oil yield of safflower
June 2017
The definition of the ideal plant population is important for good safflower agricultural management in Brazil, as they are gaining importance as oleaginous plant. Two experiments were conducted in an Rhodic Acrudox in 2014 in Cascavel, PR, Brazil, to evaluate the effect of plant density on growth, yield components and grain yield in safflower oil during autumn and winter seasons. The experimental design was a...
Diversity of cultural practices used in banana plantations and possibilities for fine-tuning: Case of North Kivu and Ituri provinces, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
June 2017
Diverse cultural practices have been communicated to and/or applied by resource-poor households over the past two decades to improve the overall farm health and crop tolerance to biotic/abiotic factors. This study assessed the current diversity and use of cultural practices on banana fields in Ituri and North Kivu provinces, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Interview schedules coupled with farm diagnosis...
Structuring potential of some cover crops and crambe in Haplortox under no-tillage system
June 2017
An experiment was conducted at the Agronomic Institute of Paraná – IAPAR, at the Experimental Station of the municipality of Santa Tereza do Oeste – PR, in Hapludox of clayey soil. Studies with the use of plants cover crops with vigorous root system in different systems of soil management systems are needed, in order to have a diversity of species capable of producing different amounts of crop...
Agro-morphological diversity in yam genotypes from Recôncavo of Bahia, Brazil
June 2017
The aim of this study was to evaluate the diversity of yam genotypes concerning their agro-morphological traits based on the Ward-modified location model (Ward-MLM) procedure. 209 genotypes from the commercial production area of the Recôncavo region in the state of Bahia, Brazil were used. Three agronomic traits (length, width and weight of the rhizophore) and two morphological traits (rhizophore shape and skin...
Diversity and infestation indices of fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in guava (Psidium guajava L.)
June 2017
The fruit flies are considered major pests in the world fruit production due to the direct damage they cause to fruits and the ability to adapt to areas where they are introduced. The objective of this research was to study the fruit fly diversity, the infestation indices in fruits and to characterize the tephritids community in a guava (Psidium guajava L.) cultivar "Paluma", in a commercial orchard located in...
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