African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6832

Table of Content: 23 January 2014; 9(4)

January 2014

Determination of method to evaluate parasitism and cover area for studies on Cotesia flavipes in sugarcane

The continual rearing of Cotesia flavipes (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in laboratories (for approximately 30 years) may have led to loss of genetic variability due to drift, selection, and crossing among siblings. This in turn may have compromised the biological characteristics of the insect, notably with respect to its activity level, thereby altering its parasitic and dispersal capacities. This study...

Author(s): Haroldo Xavier Linhares Volpe, José Carlos Barbosa, Silvio Rogério Viel, Roberto Marchi Goulart, Alessandra Marieli Vacari, Claudio Salas, Ana Carolina Pires Veiga and Sergio Antonio De Bortoli

January 2014

Saved barley (Hordeum vulgare) seed quality in mid-altitudes and high-lands of Southern Ethiopia

Samples of saved barley (Hordeum vulgare) seed were collected at sowing and threshing time from mid-altitudes and highlands of southern Ethiopia in 2009, and were examined in the laboratory and field condition to determine the status of seed quality. The seed samples included farmers’ cultivar ‘Horsiso’ (two-rowed), ‘Nuro’ and ‘Melo’ (six-rowed). This study revealed that saved...

Author(s): Amare Kebede, Mashilla Dejene, V. Alex Albert and Firew Mekbib

January 2014

Yield, nutrient uptake and potassium use efficiency in rice fertilized with crushed rocks

The increasing world population has led into big food and raw material demand, with high pressure on agriculture. In Brazil, potassium fertilizers are mostly imported rising interest on rocks and mining rejects as alternative sources. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of crushed rocks over mineral nutrition, yield and efficiency of potash fertilization in rice. The experiment was carried out under...

Author(s): Douglas Ramos Guelfi Silva, Carlos Roberto Spehar, Giuliano Marchi, Danilo de Araújo Soares, Eduardo Lopes Cancellier and Éder de Souza Martins

January 2014

The physical and chemical characteristics of vineyard soils and its heavy metal content in semi-arid environments

Turkey is one of the most important seedless raisin producers in the world market. Approximately, 82% of the seedless raisin has been produced in Aegean Region of Turkey and 25% of it has been produced in the Plain of Alasehir, located in Aegean Region. Therefore, the Plain of Alasehir was selected to study the physical and chemical characteristics, and the heavy metal contents of the vineyard soils. Hence, the soil...

Author(s): Bulent Yagmur, Senay Aydın, Harun Coban and Halis Simsek

January 2014

Evaluation of the laser leveled land leveling technology on crop yield and water use productivity in Western Uttar Pradesh

A study has been conducted for 3 year on impacts of the laser land leveling versus traditional land leveling on water use productivity and crop yields. The major concerns were effectiveness of laser land leveling as a water saving tool in the new context of land use and ownership, affordability of laser land leveling for farmers and the economic viability of this technology. These research questions were studied in a...

Author(s): R. K. Naresh, S. P. Singh, A. K. Misra, S. S. Tomar, Pardeep Kumar, Vineet Kumar and  Sanjeev Kumar

January 2014

Bambara groundnut/maize intercropping: Effects of planting densities in Southern guinea savanna of Nigeria

A field experiment was conducted in 2010 and 2011 at the Teaching and Research Farm, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. The aim was to determine the suitability of some landraces of bambara groundnut for intercropping at varying planting densities with maize. The experiment was a 2×3×3 split-split plot laid in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Intercropping...

Author(s): Godwin Adu Alhassan and Moses Onyilo Egbe

January 2014

Policy interventions and public expenditure reform for pro-poor agricultural development in Nigeria

In Nigeria, agriculture and poverty are closely interlinked because poverty is higher in rural areas where agriculture is most practiced. As a result, changes in public policy and expenditure to agriculture can make a significant contribution to achieving poverty reduction and broader Millennium Development Goals. This requires a set of public actions and investments to foster broad-based growth in agriculture and other...

Author(s): Olatomide Waheed Olowa and Omowumi A. Olowa

January 2014

Semen characteristics of pubertal West Africa dwarf rams fed pineapple waste silage as replacement for dried cassava peel

In the tropics, ruminants are raised on natural pastures which decline rapidly in quality and quantity during the dry season. This study assessed the reproductive performance of rams fed with cassava–peel–silage (CPS) blended with pineapple-waste (PW) on: scrotal circumference, testicular size and semen volume. Randomized complete block design with four treatments of PW at 0, 20, 40 and 60% w/w in Diets 1,...

Author(s): T. O. Ososanya, M. K. Adewumi, M. O. Oyeyemi and A. O. Adeosun

January 2014

Genetic divergence study in improved bread wheat varieties (Triticum aestivum)

The genetic divergence study was conducted to estimate the nature and magnitude of diversity in improved varieties of bread wheat during four Winter season, 2008 to 2012. The divergence analysis including Tocher’s, canonical (vector) and Euclidian methods indicated the presence of appreciable amount of genetic diversity in the experimental materials. The thirteen wheat genotypes were grouped into four clusters by...

Author(s): Praveen Singh, A. K. Singh, M. Sharma and S. K. Salgotra

January 2014

Agronomical management influence on the spatiotemporal progress of strawberry dry wilt in Michoacan, Mexico

The spatiotemporal distribution of strawberry wilt, caused by Fusarium oxysporum, Phytophthora sp., Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizoctonia fragariae, was studied with the aim to establish the effect of some technological components of the strawberry crop cv. Camarosa (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) and sustain their use in an integral management of the disease. Epidemics were characterized in two cropping seasons at three...

Author(s): Luis Fernando Ceja-Torres, Gustavo Mora-Aguilera and Antonio Mora-Aguilera

January 2014

Influence of leaf extract of Jatropha curcas on initial growth of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis)

This paper aimed at evaluating the initial growth of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. Botrytis) subjected to various levels of aqueous extract of leaves of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas) according to the following parameters: stem diameter, stem length, root length, leaf length and leaf area, root dry mass, leaf dry mass, root fresh mass, and leaves fresh mass. The experimental design was randomly blocks with six...

Author(s): Willian Cézar Nadaletti, Reinaldo Aparecido Bariccatti, Reginaldo Ferreira Santos, Samuel Nelson Melegari de Souza, Jhonatas Antonelli, Paulo André Cremonez, Eduardo de Rossi and Fabíola Tomassoni