September 2012
Irrigation water and microbiological safety of fresh produce; South Africa as a case study: A review
Irrigation water is perhaps the leading pre-harvest source of contamination of fresh produce in the world. In this review, the impact of contaminated surface irrigation water on bacterial contamination of fresh produce was examined. Some practical solutions to prevent or reduce this challenge were also considered. In South Africa, fruit and vegetables are produced on a large scale by commercial farmers who depend...
September 2012
Optimizing herbicide use in wheat (Triticum aestivum) under rain-fed conditions
Widespread prevalence of weeds poses a severe threat to rain-fed wheat production in Pakistan and other places. Weed control efficacy of different herbicides and their dose rates in wheat crop was investigated under rain-fed conditions during the period of 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007. Wheat variety GA-2002 was planted as a test crop. The experiment was carried out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD)...
September 2012
How important are climate characteristics to the estimation of rice production function?
Considerable attention has been given to the impact of climate variability on farm production, and most of the researches have been provided by agronomists to identify the bio-physical relationship between climatic factors and crop production. Relatively, little attention has been given to this relationship from the standpoint of agricultural economists. This study aims to fill this void by assessing the potential cost...
September 2012
Assessment on the constraints of cattle supply chain management in Namibia: Case study of Omaheke communal farmers
This study examined the efficiency and constraints in the management of the cattle supply chain from farmer to processor, as well as access to market information by communal farmers in the Omaheke region of Namibia. Questionnaires were developed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 100 farmers who were registered as cattle producers with the Meat Board of Namibia, as well as six farmers’...
September 2012
Climate change and agricultural productivity
Agriculture is the economic sector that is most vulnerable to climate change. According to the latest estimates, farmers’ adaptation of farm production to climate change is inevitable. The climate attributes that are expected to have the most direct impacts on agricultural productivity are the rise in temperature, the change in the frequency and intensity of precipitation and of extreme weather phenomena, and the...
September 2012
Input-output and economic analysis of soybean production in the main cultivation areas in Iran
Vegetable oil consumption in Iran is about 1.4 million tons per year of which more than 90% is obtained from imports. Therefore, development of oilseed crops especially soybean cultivation is particularly important to reach food security. Since the technical and economic justification are the first requirements in introducing new crops, the aim of this study was to evaluate different inputs, energy use...
September 2012
The study of the quantity and quality of progressive canola varieties under saline conditions in Dalgan Region
An experiment was performed by using 16 varieties and progressive line of canola during 2009 to 2010 on a farm near the city of Dalgan in Sistan and Balouchestan Provinces of Iran. The experiment was laid out in random complete block design (RCBD) in 4-replication and irrigated with saline water (EC=7.5 ds/m). The spring varieties used in this study includes Hyola60, Hyola308, Hyola330, Hyola401,...
September 2012
Effect of different levels of nitrogen and severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of Phalsa (Grevia subinaequalis L.)
The experiments were conducted to study the effect of different levels of nitrogen and severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of Phalsa (Grevia subinaequalis L.). The pruning level at 90 cm (P4) had significantly maximum number of canes (13.66), number of sprouted shoots/cane (29.29), number of fruiting/nodes/shoot (29.29), number of fruits/node (9.18) and number of fruits/bush (4327.28), respectively...
September 2012
Evaluation of different kinds of organic acids and their antibacterial activity in Japanese Apricot fruits
The fruit of Japanese apricot is rich in organic acids, which have strong antibacterial activities. The types and contents of organic acids in six different cultivars of Japanese apricot fruit were evaluated by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus suis was also determined. The results...
September 2012
Multivariate analysis for yield and some agronomic traits in F2:3 population of cotton hybrid under three different locations
The cotton plant has the most complex structure among major field crops, and its yield may be affected by multidirectional interactions of different components. Study of the true relationship between cotton seed yield and related traits will help to reveal their importance in cotton breeding and production. This study was carried out to elucidate the relationships of some agronomic traits on cotton seed yield. The...
September 2012
Expression of the genes encoding rubisco and rubisco activase in cucumber leaves
Diurnal changes in the gene expressions and activities of Rubisco and Rubisco activase (RCA) in different position of leaves of cucumber were investigated. The results showed the diurnal variations of the mRNA abundance of rbcL, activities of Rubisco and RCA in 4th apical leaf which gave a single-peak curve, which was similar to the Pn curve on a sunny day. However, the mRNA...
September 2012
Variability for drought tolerance in cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) for growth and productivity traits using selection index
The presence of genetically based difference in drought stress tolerance is a key for breeding cultivars with enhanced tolerance to water stress by selection and breeding. In order to achieve such evidence inGossypium hirsutum, 90 genotypes were evaluated for growth and productivity traits in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The genotypes were evaluated under well watered (W1) and...
September 2012
Protein content variation in cowpea genotypes (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) grown in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa as affected by mineralised goat manure
Nutrients availability of cultivated soils in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa is generally low, and recognizing that manure application has been one of the most effective methods to improve soil fertility and crop yield in tropical African countries, we assessed the effect of manure application on the leaf crude protein content of six cowpea genotypes (Vegetable cowpea, Ivory grey, Okhalweni, Fahari, Fahari...
September 2012
Influence of flushing and season of kidding on reproductive characteristics of Small East African goats (does) and growth performance of their kids in a semi arid area of Tanzania
A study was carried out to assess the effects of nutritional supplementation (flushing) and season of kidding on reproductive performance of Small East African (SEA) does and growth performance of their crossbred (Norwegian x SEA). Seasons of kidding were defined as season 1 (June- August) and 2 (September to November) which represented the early and late dry months of the year, respectively. A total of 90 grazing does...
September 2012
Comparative irrigation performance assessment in community-managed schemes in Ethiopia
In this paper the performance of two community-managed irrigation schemes in Ethiopia were evaluated with comparative (external) indicators. Three groups of comparative performance indicators, that is, water supply, agricultural output and physical indicators were used to assess Golgota Scheme (command area = 600 ha) and Wedecha Scheme with two sub-systems with command areas of 300 ha (Godino) and 60 ha (Gohaworki). The...
September 2012
China’s forest resource dynamics based on allometric scaling relationship between forest area and total stocking volume
Forest management may play a critical role in optimizing forest resource structure and increasing harvest yield. Analyzing forest resource growth dynamics is a basis for correctly determining forest management procedures. Thus, allometric scaling equations were developed to estimate forest growth trends based on seven regional forest systems and the overall national forest system in China. Historical trends in...
September 2012
Chemical and elemental characterization of wheat germ oil (Triticum spp. L.) cultivated in Turkey
The cultivation of wheat (Triticum spp. L.) has been on for thousands of years and is commonly used in animal feed and human food in many regions of Turkey. Therefore, wheat is considered to be one of the most important grain cereals in Turkey. Wheat germ is another important by-product of the wheat milling industry constituting relatively small amount of the whole wheat grain by volume. However, the wheat germ is...
September 2012
Adoption of post harvest technologies used by small-holder farmers in Swaziland
Post-harvest technology forms an important component of any agricultural system. It is vital in all circumstances, whether there is surplus or deficit. A lot has been done on the dissemination of post-harvest loss reduction technologies in Swaziland, but very little has been done to evaluate the adoption of such technologies. This study evaluated the adoption of post-harvest technologies by small-holder farmers. The...
September 2012
Zinc and cadmium availability as affected by zinc fertilization and saline water irrigation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown on cadmium polluted soil
Two-year’s study was carried out to evaluate the effect of zinc fertilization and salinity created by NaCl and NaNO3 on the fate of zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) in soil and their contents in wheat grain grown in a cadmium polluted soil. Increasing NaCl rates increased total cadmium (Cd), Cd2+, CdCl+, CdHCO3+, and CdCl2O concentrations in soil solution, whereas no such effects were found for the...
September 2012
Hot pepper growth promotion and inhibition of fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum) with different crop stalks
This paper studied hot pepper growth promotion and inhibition of fusarium wilt with rice stalks, corn stalks, soybean stalks and hot pepper stalks (control). The results of this study showed that extracts of corn stalks, soybean and hot pepper stalks (CK) had a positive effect at a concentration of 0.01 g L-1 but had an inhibition at a concentration of 0.04 g L-1. Different from 0.01 g L-1, all extracts...
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