Agriculture

The field experiment was conducted during two consecutive kharif seasons of 2012-13 and 2013-14 at the research farm of College of Agriculture, Lembucherra, Tripura to find out the potentiality of pigeonpea intercropping for mid hills of northeastern region. The treatment comprised 9 intercropping systems apart from sole of intercrops. Intercropping system of single row main crop (pigeonpea) with two rows for cowpea, blackgram, greengram and sesame, where 1:1 system have blackgram, greengram, sesame and groundnut at 30cm apart respectively. The investigational results exhibited that pigeonpea + black gram (1:1) intercropping performed better than other combinations followed by pigeonpea + green gram (1:1) with reference to PEY (pigeonpea equivalent yield) and net return. Growing of pigeonpea under intercropping system with blackgram found to be highly remunerative with proper utilization of land under rainfed mid hills of northeastern region.

The occurrence of drought leads to reduction in reservoir and tank levels and depletion of soil moisture and groundwater. There is a need to develop suitable criteria for planning supplemental irrigation to crops for increasing and stabilizing crop yields during non-drought conditions, and minimizing crop damages during drought. The present study is aimed to study metrological drought and agriculture aspects of drought in Mirzapur districts the recurrence of drought in these parts of the country in recent years have caused unprecedented economic losses and great suffering to the affected areas. The study is based on the analysis of rainfall and critical dry spell (CDS). In this study, crop water requirement and irrigation requirement for the crop during the drought situation is also analyzed and introducing the supplemental irrigation under drought condition. In Mirzapur district the deficiency of annual rainfall is observed up to 16%. In the district approximately one out of every four to five year is drought year. The year 2007 and 2009 was most severely affected as most of the area of the district was under drought and major area of the district is found as drought prone. In the district on an average three critical dry spells (CDS) have been observed during the monsoon season.

The present study aimed to map irrigable lands in Bugesera Agro Ecological Zone (AEZ) in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, using spatial information’s. The related Concerns were to determine the suitable area for irrigation that can include all different parameters which influence irrigation. The methodological approach consisted of processing Aster Landsat and DEM; gathered by Radar Satellite acquired at CGIS/NUR, using appropriate packages-software ILWIS 3.3, Erdas8.7 and ArcGIS 9.2. Satellite image was used to determine land use and land cover classification of the study area and the DEM to determine slope classification. The results showed maps that are describing different type of layers classified according to purpose of irrigation, slope, water proximity, percentage of clay and sand and type of land use. Those maps helped to produce a model design that conducts us to determine the most suitable area for irrigation. The model designed would be used as a planning tool to optimize agriculture in the Eastern Region of Rwanda.

Pot culture experiment was conducted using 35S tracer to quantify plant available sulphur to main and residual crop in terms of ‘A’ values. Farmyard manure, poultry manure, vermi compost and sewage sludge were compared with the single superphosphate, all at 75 kg S ha-1. These with control were replicated four times in CRD. Activity of 35S sulphur in groundnut and soil were analyzed. Poultry manure increased sulphur availability and uptake by groundnut. Sdfs and Sdff was high in Poultry manure and Single superphosphate respectively. ‘A’ values were highest in poultry manure.

An important social impact assessment of an intervention is the extent to which the project/intervention has impacted positively on the welfare of the beneficiaries. To this end, a comparative assessment of the impact of National Fadama Development Project (NFDP) - 11 on the beneficiaries and non – beneficiaries was conducted. Two local governments (one each from benefiting and non – benefiting) state was selected into the study. Internationally acceptable measures (age for weight, age for height of children (girls) of 0 - 3 years) were collected from the benefiting and non – benefiting farmers. Questionnaires were administered on 100 purposively selected fadama famers from each of the local government to elicit information on their NFDP – II benefits and fadama practices. Average weights and heights of the sampled children and their respective standard deviations were: 13.56 ± 3.45(kg); 78.9 ± 0.99(cm) and 9.93 ± 2.54(kg); 61.6 ± 1.31(cm) for the benefiting and non - benefiting farmers. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that there are significant differences in the heights and the weights of the children of benefiting and non – benefiting farmers. When sampled data were compared with the modeled data from FAO, 2006, the results indicated that there is no significant difference in the weights and heights of all the children. The increased income and improved standard of living of the benefiting fadama farmers could be attributed NFDP - 11 interventions. While the findings of this study should be applied with caution, it has however provided the scientific basis for the continuation of the programme in the benefiting areas and the initiation of the programme in the non – benefiting areas.

The purpose of contour farming is to reduce runoff and soil erosion on mild slopes. This practice can also increase crop yield through the soil moisture retention in arid and semi-arid regions. Results showed contour cultivation reduced the annual runoff as 10% in compared with cultivation perpendicular to the slope. Also cultivation and planting along contour lines in comparison with cultivation and planting downwards the slop reduced soil losses and water losses as 49.5 and 32%, respectively. Although contour farming reduces runoff and soil erosion largely, but when it's combined with other conservation tillage such as no-tillage or minimum tillage can be more effective. Contour farming on permanent raised beds combined with residue retained on the soil surface is suggested according the results of previous studies as the best practice on mild slopes.

The study on the effect of different weed management techniques on some chemical properties of soil was carried out on the university teaching and research farm in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa State. This project was aimed at determining whether there will be a difference between soil chemical properties in areas treated with herbicide and those without herbicide treatment in the study area. The soil was examined in the field during the survey period after which eight profile pits were dug. Four of the pits were treated with herbicide, while four was not treated with herbicide. The soil samples were taken to the laboratory for analysis. The pH of the soil was found to range from moderately acidic to moderate alkaline with a mean pH values of 6.52 and 6.64 in herbicide and non herbicide use respectively. The electrical conductivity was found to be very low with mean values of herbicide and non-herbicides use of 0.02 and 0.25 respectively. Organic carbon of the soil was found to be moderate. And only organic compound was found to correlation with a significant difference. The exchangeable cations were generally found to be low and the total nitrogen was also found to be low. Generally, soils with chemical weed management practices were found to differ from those managed without chemicals. The major limitation of this project is that, other factor which may cause changes in the soul chemical properties were not considered in this study. I will recommend that further research be done to eliminate all other factors that can cause a change in soil chemical properties in other to determine more accurately the effect of herbicide on soils.

Organochlorine pesticides have been used on cocoa. These pesticides have been banned in Ghana, however due to their persistent nature and slow degradation rate, organochlorine pesticides can remain in the environment long after application and in organism long after exposure. The main objective of this study was to determine the levels of organochlorine pesticide residues in fermented dried cocoa beans produced in Ghana, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Fermented dried cocoa beans were sampled at random in the two main cocoa storage warehouses located in Tema and Takoradi. The extraction method used consists of addition of distilled water to the pulverized cocoa beans samples, and allowed to stand for 15 minutes followed by maceration with acetonitrile. Extract clean-up then follows by solvent partitioning with aqueous phosphate buffer solution followed by two solid phase extractions; bond Elut C18 and Envi-carp superclean cartridges clean-up respectively. The investigated pesticides were beta-HCH, lindane, delta-HCH, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, gamma-chlordane, alpha-endosulfan, beta-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDD, p,p’-DDE and methoxychlor. The percentage recoveries ranged from 70-110 percent, with instrumental detection limits of 0.15µg/kg. The widest range of organochlorine pesticides detected was from endosulfan (1.0 – 103.0 µg/kg), which was previously registered for cotton production in Ghana.

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of irrigation methods and operating pressure in water use efficiency and maize yield in the field of the collage of Agriculture / University of Baghdad in 2013. The experiment carried out by using split plot design under randomized complete block design with three replications. Three levels of operational pressures included: 30 , 50 and 70 kpa which represented main plot and Two levels of irrigation method included: subsurface and surface drip irrigation which represented sub plot using T-tape type were used in this study .Bulk density , plant height , plant yield and water use efficiency were studies. A locally made combine implement was used in this experiment for tillage and Subsurface Irrigation Tubes Instillation. The results showed that the pressure 30 kpa and surface drip irrigation was superior in getting less bulk density of soil 1.45?g . m-³, while using 70 kpa pressure and subsurface irrigation got the highest plant height 180.32 cm and highest plant yield 9.25 ton / ha and efficient use of water 1.45 kg / m ³. Accordingly using 70k pa pressure and subsurface irrigation which gave the best field indication are recommended.

The aims of this study were to investigate the performance characteristics of a farm tractor during ploughing (chisel plough) using variable weights from (0 to 500 kg) on the rear tractor wheels, and different traveling speeds from (3.58 to 5.68 km/h). The ploughing depths were (15-20 cm), and the average moisture content was (20.15 %). The soil texture was found to be a (Silty clay). The rear tier sizes of the tractor and inflation pressure were 16.9/14-38 and 150 kPa, respectively. The study was concentrated on the rate of fuel consumption, specific energy, drawbar pull, tractor wheel slippage, tractive efficiency and field efficiency. The obtained results, for the range of tests, showed that the use of 500 kg weight on the tractor rear wheel at 3.1 km/h traveling speed produced the highest value (74.4 %) of tractive efficiency, and (in the meantime) the wheel slippage, filed efficiency, fuel consumption, required power, specific energy were 7.46 %, 80.22%, 15.11 l/h, 46.58 kW, and 43.13 kW.h/fed, respectively. In general, the traveling speed and the weight on the rear tractor wheels were the most important factors that affecting the drawbar pull and the specific energy.