Agriculture

Agriculture is the major economic activity in Kenya contributing up to 24 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (GoK, 2014). According to Odhiambo et al. (2004), agriculture is the most important sector in the Kenyan economy. This is because it provides employment opportunities, source of foreign exchange earner, and food provision besides offering linkages with the other sectors of the economy. Moreover, agriculture is among the six key sectors identified to deliver a 10 percent economic growth per annum as envisaged under the economic pillar of the Kenya Vision 2030. The country aims at promoting an innovative, commercially oriented, and modern agricultural sector (Kenya Vision 2030). Animal genetic resources are used to accommodate both short and long term benefits for improved livelihoods. Structured breeding programmes provide a key to increase production levels and product quality, increase productivity and cost efficiency, maintain genetic diversity and support the conservation and sustainable utilization of specific breeds. For sustainable breeding strategies to take place there is a need for long term planning and commitment. For conservation or improvement of a breed or population for a given purpose the choice of breeding strategy is determined by a number of factors and is giving the framework for design of more detailed breeding programmes for specific populations.

African oil bean (Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth) is one of the numerous tree plants in the tropics found abundantly in the Eastern part of Nigeria where the seed called ugba – a non timber forests product is not only consumed as a delicacy but highly revered and recognized as one of the cultural menu recipes for traditional ceremonies. The study was all about the profitability of marketing the seed within Ibadan metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was employed using structured questionnaires to interview the traders. The result revealed among many others that the business was female gender – driven, dominated by Igbo traders (78.12%) and quite profitable. The average profit per 98.6kg bag was ?23675. Profitability (?0.29) tells that for every one Naira investment, 29kobo is realized as profit and the profitability ratio (0.22) with regard to sales reveal also that for every one Naira sales or returns 22kobo comes in as net income. Notwithstanding the profit margin, the business was however not without some constraints against which some recommendations were made.

This work examined the influence of school farm on the learning of Agricultural Science in senior secondary schools in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. The study utilized a descriptive survey research design with random sampling techniques. Six public senior secondary schools were randomly selected from the twelve schools in Ikwuano and then one hundred and twenty (120) agricultural science students were randomly selected from the six schools sampled. (20 agricultural science students from each school sampled). Two research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. Instrument for data collection was a 10-item structured questions. The method for data analysis were descriptive statistics (mean, pool mean and standard deviation) for answering the two research questions. z-test was used to analyze the formulated null hypothesis. The findings of the study are that school farm has a positive influence on the learning of Agricultural science in senior secondary schools in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that government and even the school management should always ensure the establishment of a functional school farm in schools and both the agricultural science teachers and the students on their own should always ensure proper management and utilization of the school farm. More so, prices and awards should always be given to the best agricultural science students yearly in order to encourage and motivate others.

Agriculture provides a variety of societal functions. Intensive and expanded using of farming land in recent decades has negative effects on ecological factions and stability of their production. Mechanization is one of the main factors of modern agriculture and directly and indirectly is related to sustainable agriculture. In this study, the relationship between mechanization and sustainability of dry farming wheat and dry chickpea farms in the Kuhdasht county of Iran were investigated. Indicators in two categories: direct (energy consumption, soil compaction and air pollution) and indirect (risk of contamination with chemicals) were evaluated. The impact of mechanization indicators on social- economic (employment, job damage and economic performance) were investigated. Although these indicators do not show a complete overview of sustainability farm, for comparison, farm stability and improvement farm sustainability are effective. The results show strong communication between mechanization and the sustainability in dry farming of wheat and chickpea and although mechanization has the positive effects on sustainability but it has negative effects as well. With determining of type and scale of local mechanization, sustainability of production will increase.

This study was performed to examine the effect of nitrogen commercial bio fertilizer on yield and yield components of two cultivars of rapeseed bio as factorial experiment in Firoozabad city, Fars Provience, Iran. Firs factor included cultivars (Julius and Jerry) and secod factor was fertilizer (control, Bio-farm nitrogen, Nittrokara bio-fertilizer and Nitroxin bio-fertilizer). Measured traits included the number of pods per plant, seeds per pod, seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index. According to the results, it was founded that there is a significant difference between two varieties, Julius cultivar showed highest seed yield (923 gr/m2) and 827 gr/m2 was obtained by Jerry. In relation to fertilizer treatments, it was founded that Nitroxin had higest effect on studied characteristic and this treatment showed 1044 gr/m2 seed yield, hence, the using of this fertilizer is recommended to weather conditions of firouzabad city.

The aim of this study was to determine the amount of input-output energy used in broiler production and to make an economic analysis for broiler production in different sizes of farms in Iran. Data were collected from 70 producers, using face to face questionnaire method in Ardabil province. The surveyed farms were classified into three groups of small (less than 15000bird), medium (15000 to 30000 bird) and large farms (more than 30000 bird). The results indicated the total average energy input and output of 154and 27 GJ (1000bird)-1, respectively. The highest share in energy consumption belonged to fuel (61%) followed by feed (35%) and electricity (3%). Also, the results showed that large farms use the least amount of total energy per 1000bird; while, the highest energy output was obtained from medium farms. The share of direct, indirect, renewable and non-renewable energies was 64.62%, 35.38%, 35.28% and 64.72% respectively. The average energy use ef?ciency and productivity were calculated 0.18 and 0.02 kg MJ-1, respectively. Cost analysis showed that total average cost of production was 3349 $ (1000bird)-1. The bene?t-cost ratio and productivity were 1.09 and 0.77 kg $-1, respectively. Mainly, the large farms had the highest energy ratio (0.21) and benefit to cost ratio (1.11); indicating a better management of energy and input consumptions in these farms.

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses in arid and semi-arid land of agriculture worldwide. This study was performed to evaluation of Drought stress on vegetative and reproductive characteristics of Zinnia elegans . Experimental design was CRD with 3 replication, At elongation stage, the plants were provided different degrees of drought stress: (1) mild drought with 65–70 % of the soil water capacity; (2) moderate drought with 45–65 % of the soil water content; (3) severe drought with 20–30 % of soil water capacity and; (4) control with 70 % of soil water capacity. Studied traits included: height, number of branches, stem diameter, leaf number, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight, proline, total chlorophyll. Totally, our results showed that drought stress reduced all studied traits except proline, and by increasing of stress, reduction was increased but this trend was different for proline. Severe stress showed 54, 40, 40, 46, 48, 64, 34, 66 and 53% reduction for height, number of branches, stem diameter, leaf number, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight and total chlorophyll in compare to control, respectively.

farm households’ access and constraints to portable and irrigation water supply in Ebonyi State, Nigeria was studied. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select a total of 180 farm households. Primary data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire and interview schedule; the data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The result of the study shows that the farmers lacked access to sanitation, potable and irrigation water. Farm household access to potable and irrigation water were 46% and 0% with average potable and irrigation water insecurity level at 77%. Most of the household water collection was supplied by the children and this affected class attendance and school enrolment. The result of X2 and regression shows that there is a strong relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers and their access to water. The respondents identified poor government attitude towards potable and irrigation water provision, lack of money to pay for the users cost, and seasonality of natural water sources as the constraints to access water. The respondents further identified Government and Non Governmental Organization full involvement in the provision of potable and irrigation water, education or public awareness campaign for proper water management and utilization as ways of mitigating water scarcity. It was recommended that government should articulate and integrate rural water provision into the mainstream policy framework among others.

The study was carried out for two winter seasons of 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 at the Demonstration farm of Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources ,University of Kassala ,Halfa aljadidah. The objective of this to study the effect of sowing date and faba bean cultivar on the icidence of the leaf miner in faba bean. The Four cultivars were Hudeiba93, SML, Bassaber, Elddamer while three sowing dates were 5 November, 20 November and 5 December. Data were recorded for leaf miner infestation and grain yield components (number of pods, weight of 100 seed and seed weight kg /ha ).The results indicated that mean number of mines of L.trifolii in the third sowing date higher than those of first and second sowing dates, respectively. Also ,the highest number of pods per plant (6.27) was recorded in Hudeiba 93 which was significantly higher than SML cultivar. Moreover, the highest seed yield (871kg /ha) was recorded from Eddamer followed by Hudeiba 93(792kg /ha) and Bassaber (755 kg/ha) while lowest seed yield of (571 kg/ha) was recorded from SML. In conclusion, the highest seed yield of 1017kg /ha was recorded in Eddamer at second sowing date.

Rice is an important crop that plays a vital role in diets and economy of farmers in Katsina-Ala in northcentral Nigeria. In this study, Fuzzy set theory, parametric and limitation models were applied to determine the suitability of Katsina-Ala flood plains for rice production. Soils of two pedons were analyzed and the characteristics used as inputs in the model application. The result showed variability of suitability of the land qualities. Climate, soil depth and flood duration were highly suitable (S1= 95). Texture was moderate (S2). Soil pH and available P ratings showed currently not suitable (N1=20) for both pedons. Soil organic carbon was moderately suitable (S2) but most critical in the normalized pairwise comparison matrix. Salinity (EC) and CEC suitability was moderately suitable (S2). Parametric and non-parametric aggregate suitability showed moderate suitability (S2=63.8) for current index with fertility limitations (S2f). The potential index was high suitability (S2) for both pedons. Fuzzy regression between land index and observed rice yield was high (R2 = 0.90). The use of the three models could serve as spatially based decision-making parameters in agricultural land use planning but fuzzy method was recommended based on its relative advantage to other predictors.