Agriculture

The study assessed the level of gender involvement in household farming decisions and identified constraints to women involvement in household farming decisions in Lafia Local Government Area, North-central Nigeria. Data were collected through structured questionnaire administered on sixty (60) farming households randomly selected for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The results showed that men dominated (with involvement rate of 79% on grand average) all aspects of household farming decisions (such as selection of farm enterprise, procurement of farm inputs, allocation of farm inputs, selling and storage of excess farm produce) except for household decisions concerning processing and consumption of farm produce dominated (73.5% on grand average) by females members of farm households. Poor personal linkages to socio-economic institutions, land holding constraint, women farming skill, household violence, traditional and cultural belief were constraints to women involvement in household farming decisions. It is recommended that extension activities be expanded to include sensitizing male household heads on need to involve their women in the household farming decisions for greater productivity and to enhance household food security.

Wastewater irrigation can pose a variety of potential health risks and also excessive and often imbalanced addition of nutrients to the soil to affect crop production. Thus, its use in agriculture without adequate safeguards has been noted to have serious drawbacks for human health and the environment. This study assessed micro nutrient concentration in wastewater used for peri-urban vegetable crop production in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana. Aside Fe which was insignificant in both seasons all the others recorded a significant difference in the two seasons. Al, Fe, Mn and Zn on the average recorded higher concentration values in the wet season than the dry season whilst Cu recorded a higher concentration in the dry season than the wet season. Concentrations of most of the micro nutrients were lower than the WHO (2006) recommended standards except Mn which had concentration levels exceeding the recommended standard in the wet season only.

This study based on physical and microbial analyses of wastewater samples collected from Nullah Lai, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Total viable count was done on sterilized media by spread plate technique. In physical analyses of wastewater, it was found that pH was neutral while EC and turbidity of the wastewater samples were greater than the WHO standards for the irrigation purpose. The total viable counts for all the wastewater samples exceeded the standard limit of 1.0x 102 cfu/ml. Three bacterial and four fungal species were detected from the wastewater samples. Preliminary information about microbial diversity in wastewater was attained through this work that is useful in future for wastewater treatment in reference to bioremediation.

Low productivity of tef in Horro Guduru Wollega region is mainly attributed to lack of new technology and poor agronomic practices. Broad cast method of sowing has been pre dominantly used in the past and new agronomic practices should be placed to increase the productivity of the crop. An experiment was conducted at Shambu Agricultural Research Sites of Harato and Guduru animals’ production research center during 2015 main growing season to determine the appropriate intra row spacing and fertilizer rate on growth and yield of tef. The experiment was consisted of three intra row spacing (5cm, 10cm and 15cm) and four fertilizer rate (25kg, 50kg, and 75kg N/ha) and the field was laid out as randomized complete block design with replicated three time at each location. At both locations the growth and yield parameters of quincho variety was revealed significant difference. The wider plant spacing (15cm) and the higher application of nitrogen fertilizer (55kg N/ha) on the tef crop was produced highest number of tiller (10.25) and (13.31) at Harato and Guduru sites, respectively. But higher amount of tillers didn’t result more productivity. The highest grain yield of 17.9 quintal per hectares was obtained when 5cm intra row spacing and 45kg N/ha fertilizer used at Guduru and Harato research sites. Higher numbers of plants per hectares were given more yields. This study revealed that the optimum intra row spacing and fertilizer were found to be 5cm and 45kgN/ha for both locations.

Effect of Selenium (Se) concentration in the nutrient solution on quality and Nitrogen, Potassium concentration of Brussels sprout plants (Brassica oleracea, var Gemmifera) was evaluated. The Brussels sprout plants were treated with six concentration of Se as selenate sodium (Na2 SeO4., 0, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 mg L-1). Treatments were arranged in a completely randomize design with four replicates. The total soluble solid, vitamin C increased by increasing Se concentration from 0 to 8 mg L-1. Also, results showed the effect of Se application (0, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 mg/l Se as Na2SeO4) increased nitrogen and potassium content of young and old leaves plants as compared with the control treatments in floating system. However they were reduced in 16 and 32 mg L-1 Se concentration. It can be concluded that Se supplements (8 mg L-1) improve yield, quality and Se concentration in the bud.

In this study, the long-term impacts of poultry manure (PM) on vertical distribution of soil macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) have been determined. In addition, change in other soil fertility indicators such as organic matter (OM) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) levels were assessed. Soil samples from four depths (0-15, 15-30, 30-60, and 60-120 cm) from the sites were analyzed. Generally, the mean total soil nitrogen increased with depth in the cultivated poultry manure amended soils up to 60cm depth and decreased sharply at depth range 60-120 cm in both wet and dry seasons. At both the cultivated and uncultivated sites at Deduako, available P levels were highest at the top 15 cm depth of the soil and decreased rapidly with increasing depths for both seasons in both the cultivated and uncultivated sites. The exchangeable K content at Deduako during the wet and dry season was significantly higher at all sampling depths than the corresponding depths of uncultivated land. Generally, the exchangeable Ca levels were significantly higher in cultivated soils at the experimental sites than those of the uncultivated land. There were significantly higher exchangeable Ca levels in wet season than that of dry season at both sites. Significantly higher (p < 0.05) Mg levels recorded in wet season. The OM contents at all sampling depths of cultivated site were also higher than that of the uncultivated sites. At the Deduako vegetable site, during the wet season, the CEC in cultivated soils at the various sampling depth were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those of uncultivated soil. Increases in all selected soil properties were, generally, higher in the wet season than the dry season.

Maize is one of the cereals crop dominantly grown in tropic and mainly used as food for human being, feed for live stock and the by product also used for construction and fuel. Common bean crop is one of the pulse crop highly cultivated around the low land areas of tropics. Afield experiment was conducted in Guduru animal production research site, during 2015 cropping season to determine the effect of varieties and intra row spacing of common bean intercropped with maize on growth and yield component of the associated crops. Maize variety 540 at 100% (44,444 plants ha-1) was intercropped with four varieties of common bean (Ibbado, Omo, Nasire and Tibe) in a factorial combination with three intra row spacing (5cm, 10cm and 15cm) of the recommended sole common bean and maize. The field was laid out as randomized complete block design with three replications. Common bean varieties were significantly (p< 0.01) affected on ear length, dry biomass, and grain yield and harvest index of the associated maize. Intra row spacing was shown significant effect (p<0.05) on days to 50% tessling, leaf area, dry biomass, grain yield and harvest index of maize crop intercropped with common bean. The highest grain yield (2597.5kg/ha-1) was recorded when maize intercropped with common bean variety of Nasire at 5cm intra row spacing. While the interaction effect was significant effect on plant height, number of ear per plant, and thousand seed weight of maize crop. The main effect of common bean varieties had significant (p<0.01) effect on days to 50% flowering, Plant height, Number of branches, number of seed per pods, dry biomass, grain yield and harvest index when intercropped with maize. The intra row spacing of common bean was shown significant (p<0.05) differences on plant height, number of seed per pods, dry biomass, grain yield and harvest index of common bean intercropped with maize. Interaction effect was significant differences on days to 90% maturity, leaf area index, number of pods per plant, thousand seed weight of common bean intercropped with maize. The highest grain yield (2256kg/ha-1) was recorded when common bean varieties of Nasire intercropped with maize at intra row spacing of 5cm. The main effect of varieties and intra row spacing and interaction were significant (p<0.05) differences on total land equivalent ratio and total growth monetary value. The highest total LER (2.03) and (2.01) was observed when Omo variety of common bean intercropped with maize at intra row spacing of 5cm. The highest total GMV of (23102.1 ETB ha- 1) and (23471.9 ETB ha-1) were recorded when maize intercropped with bean variety of Nasire at intra row of 5cm. While the lowest total GMV (21,123.93kgha-1) was obtained when Tibe variety of common bean was intercropped with maize at 15cm intra row spacing. Therefore, maize (100%) intercropped with common bean variety of Nasire at 5cm intra row spacing was recommended for intercropping in the study area. However, the experiment has to be repeated across locations and over the growing seasons with consideration of farmer’s preference of the common bean varieties to reach at conclusive recommendation were significantly affected by the interaction.

Peri-urban cultivated areas of many cities in Pakistan are being irrigated from municipal and industrial wastewater since long. Similarly wastewater of Nullah Lai is also being used for irrigation in Rawalpindi. Wastewater and soil samples were collected from six locations of Rawalpindi districts for investigating fungal diversity. Eight fungal species were found in these soils. The most common fungal strains were Aspergillus sp., Acremonium sp., and Chaetomium sp. To isolate the fungi in different soil samples, sterilization technique, serial dilution and spread plate technique were used. Presence of fungi was detected in the different soil samples on the bases of morphological characteristics, percentage frequency, growth rate and colony forming units. The results obtained showed that most widely distributed fungi in soil samples were Aspergillus sp. Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus grew well in contaminated soil containing heavy metals. This ability of Aspergillus makes it attractive potential candidate for further investigation regarding its ability to remove metals from contaminated soil. The usage of untreated wastewater in agricultural land put harmful effects on soil physical, chemical properties and biodiversity. To recognize health risk due to wastewater usage for irrigation, treat the wastewater to the recommended level.

The combine performance characteristics are related to threshing ability, the minimum amount of loss and fuel consumption. Loss is the most important of these factors. Material threshing is one of processes which have more effect on combine performance. Threshing efficiency has been inversely associated with threshing loss. It is desired to maximize threshing efficiency in threshing mechanism, because it will decrease the load of separation and cleaning mechanisms, which lead to reduction of separation system losses. Stem height, feed rate, threshing clearance ratio and rotational speed of threshing cylinder are operation parameters, which are used in combine design and its performance evaluating. In order to evaluate effect of these parameters on threshing material, experiments were conducted in 4×3×3 factorial pattern with Randomize Blocks design. Material threshing was considered as a dependent variable. These experiments were done on 68’s Sahand combine harvester. Results were analyzed in Neurosolutions 5.0 software. Multilayer Perceptron with four inputs and one output, with a different number of neurons in hidden layer, was used to estimate the amount of material threshing. Results showed that a network with 21 neurons in hidden layer had minimum MSE with R2=0.9. Furthermore, results showed that the amount of material threshing had dependent on stem height, threshing clearance ratio, speed of threshing cylinder and feed rate, respectively. Material threshing was increased with reduction in stem height, feed rate, threshing clearance ratio and speed up of threshing cylinder.

The effect of compost and earthworm production on soil properties, growth and dry-matter yield of maize in crude oil degraded soil was studied. The treatment consisted of 250g crude oil degraded soil (DS) and 50g each of four different compost materials mixed differently with 250g of degraded soil, and the compost were cassava peels (CP), cassava peels + poultry manure (PC), cassava peels + pig manure (GC) and cassava peels + pig manure + poultry manure (PGC) and 10 pieces of sub-adult earthworms (Eudrilus eugenae) were inoculated to each of the experimental pot after 11 days. The five treatments were replicated four times, data generated were subjected to analysis of variance test and treatment means were separated using least significant difference (LSD=0.05). The results of the study indicated significant differences between the treatments in soil and agronomic parameters assessed. The application of compost and earthworm activities increased the plant height, leaf area, and number of leaves at 4 weeks after planting (WAP) and 6 WAP, and dry matter yield of maize. The shoot and root dry matter yield was observed to increase in the order PC>PGC>GC>CP>DS. Earthworm activities in the study measured by the number survived and biomass weight showed CP and GC as the best culture for earthworm production in oil degraded soil. The degraded soil (DS) did not record any earthworm survival at harvest. The result of the soil analysis indicated less change in the textural class of the soil, and all the chemical parameters tested were enhanced by the compost and earthworm activities. Based on the results of growth rate and yield components of maize as well as soil chemical properties, the PC and PGC cultures having performed competitively better than the other treatments can be considered useful and adequate with the help of earthworm in reclaiming an oil degraded soil for crop production in a tropical environment.