Agriculture

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.

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of varying plant population of two sorghum cultivars on growth and yield at research area Gash Delta Eastern Sudan, during 2014/15 and 2016/17) seasons. The RCBD design used for split-split plot trail. The treatments include two cultivars (Tabat andAklamoi) and three planting densities (spacing within the row of 30, 45 and 60 cm between holes and the number of seeds per hole factor with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 seeds per hole).The obtained results revealed that, the two tested sorghum cultivars particularly in the second seasons showed highly significant differences in stem girth, leave area index, panicle/m2, seeds /panicle, 100-seed weight and grain yield/ha. Aklamoi was better than Tabat in panicle/m2, 100-seed weight while, Tabat exceeded Aklamoi in stem girth, leaf area and grain yield particularly at plant population 208333 plant/ha which was achieved from 30cm inter-row spacing with five plants/hole in the first Season. The obtained grand mean of grain yield of Sorghum and the observations across the two experimental seasons indicate the high adaptability, the highest growth and the highest grain yield of Sorghum under the conditions of the Gash Delta. Early maturity of sorghum cultivars is more important to cultivate under shortage flooding seasons.

The use of environmental models requires a mathematical turn of mind. Amongst the models that have been tested in various ecosystem and cropping system namely: CENTURY 4.0, RothC, CERES, NCSOIL, SUNDAIL and STICS; the CENTURY 4.0 have been extensively modified and configured especially for carbon and nitrogen cycling. This work presents the step by step process especially in amending the FERT.100 file, weather and management information, parametisation and events scheduling and running to equilibrium. It will be relevant to beginners who would like to test the model in their region.

Measuring of soil moisture level is important for many hydrological, biological and biogeochemical processes. Using of neutron meter equipment to measure soil moisture is limited close to the soil surface due to the escaping of neutrons which known as surface effect. In present work, the dimension of a cylindrical paraffin cylinder has been evaluated to correct the surface effect in order to use neutron moisture meter close to the soil surface by MCNPX code. The result show a cylindrical paraffin cylinder with 16 cm radius and 4.8, 5, 5.3, 5.6, 6 cm thickness can correct the surface effect well for 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, and 0.50 g/g soil moisture, respectively. As well as, the paraffin cylinder is a good shield to reduce the radiation dose.

Objective: The objective is to compare the sugarcane performance under contour -zonary cultivation techniques with the one under traditional cultivation techniques. Method: Sugarcanes of both Qiantang 4 and Qiantang 5 were planted with different techniques. When they reached technical maturity, the samples of their roots, leaves, stems, number of ratoon cane buds etc. were collected, measured and compared to find out the differences of the yield and quality of the sugarcanes cultivated with different techniques. Result: It is found that sugarcanes under the cultivation with contour -zonary techniques had following characters that were fresh root weight increasing by 92.81-117.57%, functional leaf number increasing by 10.11-14.68%, cane stem production increasing by 16.65-17.57%, cane sucrose contents increasing by 4.05-4.07% and ratoon number increasing by 62.81-65.10%. Conclusion: Sugarcanes cultivated with contour -zonary cultivation techniques perform better than the ones cultivated with traditional cultivation techniques in both their yield and their qualities.