African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6902

Table of Content: 14 August, 2012; 7(31)

August 2012

The concept of sustainable sugarcane production: Global, African and South African perceptions

This paper provides the general information on sugarcane production in relation to its sustainability. The paper starts by discussing sugarcane production at global, continental and national level. Challenges in the sugarcane production arena in South Africa are discussed; these bounce on the poor standard of farming by local commercial farmers and the competitiveness of the industry at the global perspective. Then, it...

Author(s): Mandla S. Mnisi and Cliff S. Dlamini      

August 2012

Land reform as a strategy of breaking the circles of poverty in former colonized states of developing countries: A review

The main long standing objectives of the land reform programme have being to address the imbalances in land access. At the same time, extending and improving the base for productive agriculture in the smallholder farming sector, including bringing idle or under-utilized land into full production. This constitutes the key dimensions of land reform programme. Uncertainties regarding the distributed land have been...

Author(s): L.  Musemwa and A. Mushunje        

August 2012

A review of Nigerian Bryophytes: Past, present and future

This paper reviews the “state of art” in bryological research activities conducted in Nigeria. It briefly introduces bryophyte distributions, descriptions, and usages. Others are habitat types, nutrition, phytochemistry, and reproductive ecology. The significance of bryology to agriculture was reviewed.  From the trend of discussion, the potential effects of agricultural activities on bryophytes were...

Author(s): Olubukunola Oluwole Oyesiku    

August 2012

Agri-tourism: Potential opportunities for farmers and local communities in Malaysia

This article reviewed literature on potential benefits of agri-tourism for farmers and local communities in general. It also provided a review of agri-tourism development, particularly in Malaysia. Reviewing literature indicated that agri-tourism as an economic development instrument has great potential to contribute to rural development. Malaysia is one of the tourist countries with great potential to...

Author(s): Neda Tiraieyari and Azimi Hamzah        

August 2012

The nutrient status of organic soil amendments from selected wards of Chivi district, Zimbabwe

The potential of animal manure, leaf litter, anthill soil, ash, and compost to supply nutrients was investigated in samples collected from 16 villages from four wards in Chivi district, Zimbabwe. The objective of the study was to generate a biophysical knowledge base on the nutrient status of soil amendments. A total of 134 samples of amendments were collected from homesteads and analyzed for nitrogen (N), phosphorus...

Author(s): S. Mavengahama and F. Mapanda       

August 2012

Optimal number of observation, treatment and replication in field experiments Key words: Elementary plot, number of observation, replication, treatment, recognostic field trial, standard error, data accuracy.

Experimental recognostic trial was carried out in spring barley agrophytocenoses, evaluating data standard error (SE) and mean accuracy (MA%) depending on arranged elementary trial plots, treatment and replication number, their model size. The received experimental data are applicable carrying out all agronomical and biological field trials. Trial field was divided into 222 elementary plots of 13.44 m2. The trial...

Author(s): Vytautas Pilipavičius and Petras Lazauskas      

August 2012

Center of genetic diversity and dissemination pathway in adzuki bean deduced from seed protein electrophoresis

Genetic diversity center plays important roles in collection of germplasm resources. To better understand the genetic diversity of adzuki bean (Vigna angularis L.), seed protein of 198 local strains collected  throughout China and Japan were analyzed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Four protein types were identified and the frequency of each protein type strain showed a clear geographical cline. The...

Author(s): Yingkao Hu, Jiapeng Hu, Shumin Wang and Xuxiao Zong      

August 2012

Supply response of beef farmers in Botswana: A Nerlovian partial adjustment model approach

In this study, an attempt has been made to examine the supply response of beef farmers in Botswana by using the Nerlovian partial adjustment model. The short run price elasticity was 1.511 while the long run elasticity was 1.057. This is a clear sign that price policies in Botswana are effective in obtaining the desired level of output for beef. Moreover, in the future, price increase need to be adopted as a strategy...

Author(s): D. S. Gosalamang, A. Belete, J. J. Hlongwane and M. Masuku      

August 2012

A general equilibrium analysis of trade liberalization impacts on agriculture and environment

Iran is required to reduce import tariffs in order to be accepted as a member of the World Trade Organization. This study aims at investigating economic and environmental impacts of tariffs removal especially on agricultural sector applying a computable general equilibrium framework based on the Iranian social accounting matrix and decomposing total emission of the selected pollutants into energy use, production process...

Author(s): Zakariya Farajzadeh, Mohammad Bakhshoodeh and Mansoor Zibaei      

August 2012

Assessment of factors to receiving food aid in the Caprivi region of Namibia: A factor analysis approach

Now than ever before, rural communities in the Caprivi region of Namibia are relying more on food aid. This shows that something has gone wrong with their sources of livelihood. This paper seeks to reveal the factors that predispose one to receive food aid. A sample size of 253 respondents was randomly selected fromKabbe, Katima Rural and Linyanti Constituencies. The three constituencies...

Author(s): J. M. Nyambe and A. Belete      

August 2012

Effects of nitrogen and light intensity on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) production under soil water control

Light, water and nitrogen supply are important factors affecting crops production and growth. To evaluate the effect of different light intensities and nitrogen supply levels with different soil water content on the production of tomatoes, a pot experiment was conducted on the Zijingang campus of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, during the tomato-growing season in 2009. Results showed that the higher the light...

Author(s): Wang Feijuan and Zhu Cheng      

August 2012

The economic impact of infield spatial variability in a uniformly managed small-scale corn (Zea mays L.) field

The objective of the study was to assess spatial variability of soil nutrients in field, and their impact on grain yield and gross net returns in a uniformly managed 7 ha small-scale corn field. The study was conducted at Syferkuil agricultural experimental farm (23°50’ S; 29°40’ E) of the University of Limpopo, in the northern semi-arid region of South Africa. Prior to corn planting, a land...

Author(s): Thabang S. M, Moshia M. E., Shaker P. and Fouché P. S.    

August 2012

Sowing date effect on growth and yield attributes of corn (Zea mays everta sturt) grown under different densities

Author(s): Babak Peykarestan and Mohammadreza Seify        

August 2012

Effects of different concentrations of Humi-Fert Ultra organic matter on mini-tuber production of potato cultivars under in vivo condition

This study was conducted to evaluate the Humi-Fert Ultra organic matter effects on mini-tuber production of potato cultivars during 2010 and 2011. Seedlings of Agria, Savalan, Marfona and Sprit cultivars were raised using single node cuttings under optimum light intensity and temperature for two months. Then, seedlings were propagated by single node cuttings. Experiment design was factorial based on...

Author(s): Davoud Hassanpanah and Jafar Azimi        

August 2012

Comparison of a gas fired hot-air dryer with an electrically heated hot-air dryer in terms of drying process, energy consumption and quality of dried onion slices

Onion slices were dried in either a gas-fired hot air dryer or an electrically heated hot air dryer at air temperatures of 50, 60 or 70°C, and at air flow velocities of 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 m/s. Records of the drying rates and energy consumption were kept by using electronic weighing balances and an electric metering device. The results showed that the drying rate and final product quality in the two dryer were not...

Author(s): Hany S. EL-Mesery and Gikuru Mwithiga      

August 2012

Acute toxicity and histological changes in gills, liver and kidney of catfish, Heterobranchus bidorsalis exposed to cypermethrin concentration

Fingerlings of Heterobranchus bidorsalis (mean weight 11.88 g) were exposed to various sub-lethal concentrations of cypermethrin (0.032, 0.034, 0.036, 0.038 and 0.040 ml/L), a toxicant, and the histological effects were recorded. The 96 h bioassays were also conducted to determine the lethal concentration (LC50) of cypermethrin on the test fish. The 96 h LC50 of H. bidorsalis exposed to...

Author(s): Olufayo, M. O. and Alade, O. H.      

August 2012

Condition factors of seven Cyprinid fish species from Çamligöze dam lake on central Anatolia, Turkey

In this study, condition factors were determined for seven Cyprinid fish species from Çamligöze dam lake located at central Anatolian region of Turkey. The obtained results were compared with other studies from different habitats in Turkey. Fish samples were collected seasonally with nets of various mesh sizes from April 2010 to January 2011. Cyprinus carpio (1.6362 ±...

Author(s): Seher Dirican and Süleyman Çilek    

August 2012

Effect of managing methods of the community forests on the expression of forest products extracted from them in Lalitpur and Dhadhing districts from Nepal

This study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of community forest to livestock rearing and the income from livestock products for different wealth class households. ANOVA was used to compare the means of quantity of forest products collected from community forest (CF) among different wealth class households. The analysis of the quantity of forest products extracted from community forest for livestock rearing showed that...

Author(s): Rasaily Rabina G. and Zuo Ting