Agriculture

Potculture experiment was conducted to study the effect of different sources of phosphorus on soil phosphorus availability, uptake, yield and quality of groundnut. Four organic sources (farmyard manure, poultry manure, vermicompost and sewage sludge) were evaluated in comparison with single super phosphate, all applied on equal P basis @ 34 kg P2O5 ha-1. The six treatments, including a no-P as control were replicated four times in a completely randomized design.The results revealed that the addition of phosphorus markedly increased the phosphorus uptake and there by increased the pod yield. Among the sources poultry manure recorded the highest yield 0.4 g pot-1 and was followed by farmyard manure 37.1 g pot-1. Phosphorus sources significantly increased the oil content but no significant impact among sources. Phosphorus application significantly increased the crude protein percentage. Among sources, crude protein content was higher in poultry manure treatment (12.83). Highest available phosphorus content was recorded in poultry manure treated soil (28.5 kg ha-1) and Farmyard manure was the second best source of available phosphorus.

The present paper describes the effect of a single and an iterated use of organophosphorous insecticide chlorpyrifos on three species nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria. Treatment levels of 0.5 µg/ml-4.0 µg/ml were applied once or twice with two weeks interval. Graded concentrations higher than 2.5 µg/ml showed affect on the growth of cyanobacteria. Maximum yellowing was seen to be at 4 µg/ml in all three species. The reduction in bili protein started at 2.5 µg/ml concentration of the insecticide. Three algal species showed varying degrees of sensitivity to the insecticide. Calculated no observed effect concentration (NOEC) values after treatments were 0.021, 0.024 and 0.075mg/ml for first application and 0.17 and 0.19 and 0.064mg/ml after second application for Anabaena sp, Nostoc sp and Oscillatoria sp respectively. Normal agricultural use of chlorpyrifos (250gm/1000lit/hectare) in rice fields will likely to be toxic to these ubiquitous nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria. Low dose application 2.5 µg/ml enables growth of more tolerant cyanobacteria as biofertilizer.

This study analyse efficiency and productivity changes in ECOWAS agriculture using the Hicks-Moorsteen TFP index developed by O’Donnell (2008, 2009, 2010c). This approach has an advantage over the popular Malmquist productivity index in that it is free from any assumptions associated with firm optimising behaviour, the structure of markets, or return to scale. ECOWAS agriculture is inefficient over the entire period as the most of the measures of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency over the entire period considered (1961-2009) have their efficiency estimates that were less than unity. The inefficiency of the measures of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency over the entire period (1961 - 2009) may be due to weak human assets, a high degree of economic vulnerability, increasing trend towards urbanization, limitation of exports to few commodities, low export earnings, low capital formation, food insecurity and poor rural development as well as ineffective implementation of both regional and national policies due to poor knowledge of the determinants of agricultural productivity and their degrees. The declining behaviour of technical changes (?Tech) over the entire period (1961-2009) reveals that agriculture sector in all ECOWAS member states are not operating on the same point on the production possibilities set as well as changes in the economic, political and social environment of ECOWAS member states as it tends to capture the effects of technological change and the long term effects of inefficiency of both regional and national policies (with the inclusion of agricultural policies over the entire years) among the ECOWAS member states.

The energy-agriculture relationship is becoming very important in view of an increasing demand for food production to meet the pressure from an ever-increasing population. For these reasons, energy use pattern, energy efficiency, and energy inputs-output relationship were determined for Sesame in north central Nigeria. Data were collected from 120 farmers by using face to-face questionnaire method. The results indicated that total input energy use in sesame production was 2632.4 MJ, which was dominated by human labour energy (24.2%) and organic manure energy (21.1%). The output energy for sesame production was 13750.0MJ and the energy use efficiency ratio was 5.2. The proportion of renewable energy used (56.2%) in the surveyed Sesame farms was slightly higher than the non-renewable energy forms (44.8%), and sesame production in the study area is mainly depended on indirect energy forms. Organic manure was observed to be the most important energy input that influences the yield of Sesame in the study area.

For thirty years the cultivation of cotton has become very widespread in Benin. This has led to a sprawl of agricultural land and a significant increase in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and by extension, the pollution of the water resource in many parts of the country. In the north, high levels of nitrogen components are measured in the waters of the basin of Sota. Indeed the average value of 181mg / L measured for nitrate levels exceeding that permitted by the standards of quality of drinking water in the Republic of Benin. This study contributes to the knowledge of the impacts of agricultural activities on water resource in the basin of Sota in Benin.

A field experiment on sugarcane was conducted at Anbil Dharma lingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tiruchirapalli with the view to identify sodic tolerant variety and suitable amendment for sodic soil. Four sugarcane varieties viz., Co Si (Sc) 6, Co C (Sc) 86032, Co C (Sc) 23 and Co G (Sc) 5 and three amendments viz., pressmud @ 12.5 t ha -1, gypsum @ 4.8 t ha -1 and bottom slag @ 15 t ha-1 were studied along with the unamended control in the experiment were studied. The results revealed that sugarcane varieties Co G (Sc) 5 and Co C (Sc) 23 gave higher K+: Na+ as compared to the Co Si (Sc) 6 and Co C (Sc) 86032 under sodic soil. The sugarcane varieties namely Co G (Sc) 5 and Co C (Sc) 23 were found to be superior for accumulating more K than the Na+, hence these might be considered suitable for growing under sodic soil.

The effect of dried grain final moisture content on breaking force and milling properties of paddy and brown rice were studied. Results revealed that the breaking force decreased significantly (P<0.01) from 146.66 to 113.51 N, 150.49 to 101.93 N and 150.31 to 113.86 N for Hashemi, Kadous and Khazar, respectively, as the moisture content increased from 6 to 12 %(w.b.). In case of brown rice, the similar trend were observed such that at the same moisture range, the breaking force decreased from 93.18 to 79.32 N, 93.4 to 82.06 N and 104.4 to 83.64 N for Hashemi, Kadous and Khazar, respectively. The maximum and minimum head rice yield (HRY) of 80.13 and 73.76 % were obtained at moisture content of 6 and 12 % respectively. There was an incremental trend in the values of head brown rice yield (HBRY) and milling recovery with decreasing dried final moisture content.

Soil fertility depletion is a single most important constraint to food security in West Africa due to continuous cropping and increasing population pressure. Rising costs of commercial fertilizers and increasing emphasis on sound manure management to protect water quality, renewed interest has been focused on maximizing the fertility returns of organic manure. The study determined the effect of dynamic kraaling on soil nutrient status of soils of the middle voltain formation (sandstone, shale and siltstone) in Savelugu/Nanton District in the Northern Region of Ghana. Six (6) soil samples each were collected at two depths (0-40 cm and 40-80 cm) from an active kraal (AK), an old kraal (OK) and non-kraal (NK) farmlands. Laboratory soil analysis indicated that N levels were higher at 0-40 cm depth compared to the depth of 40-80 cm for the AK and the OK but indifferent for the NK farmlands at the two depths. High level difference in the concentration of Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) was observed between the two depths for AK and OK. The concentration of P and K was noted to have increased from the 0-40 cm depth to 40-80 cm depth. The results indicate that NPK was high in active kraals, old kraals and non-kraaled farmlands in decreasing order. Varying levels of organic matter (OM), organic carbon (OC), soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC) were also observed for the different kraaling systems but these were observed to be much higher for the active kraals. The effect of dynamic kraaling in the improvement of soil nutrient levels was high.

This study utilizes a data envelopment analysis approach to survey the technical and scale efficiencies of peach fridges with respect to energy consumption conservation of products in Mazandaran province of Iran. The study also helps to recognize the wasteful uses of energy by incompetent units and to establish the optimum level of energy from different inputs. Data used in this study were collected from 18 peach fridges in Mazandaran province, Iran. The results showed that, the total energy of 3363344 MJ/1000kg capacity was consumed for peach fridges and about 23% of peach fridges were found to be technically efficient and the technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores of units were found to be 0.78, 0.86 and 0.90, respectively. The results also expressed that on average, a potential 645762 MJ/1000kg capacity (about 19.2%) reduction in total energy input could be acceded provided all units operated efficiently, assuming no other constraints on this adjustment.

The N2- fixing cyanobacteria are important agents in crop fields contributing to the primary productivity and nitrogen economy of the soil. In the present study, diversity and abundance of N2- fixing cyanobacterial population were investigated in the rice ecosystems of the Brahmaputra floodplain in response to the soil physico chemical properties in four different seasons. Altogether 51 species of N2- fixing cyanobacteria belonging to 15 genera under 7 families were recorded in two common rice cropping systems - double rice cultivation (RR) and rice rotated with mustard (RMR). Among the isolated genera, 10 were heterocystous and 6 were non heterocystous. The genera Anabaena (25%) and Nostoc (19%) comprised of the highest number of species followed by Calothrix (8%) and Phormidium (8%). Results of relative abundance also revealed the dominance of Anabaena and Nostoc in the rice ecosystems of the valley. Pearson’s correlation analysis showed significant correlation between population number of N2- fixing cyanobacteria and soil physico-chemical properties. Canonical component analysis (CCA) justified the seasonal pattern of population abundance along with the concomitant change of soil parameters like temperature, moisture, pH and available phosphate in the rice field soil of the valley.