Agriculture

Sugarcane fertilization in Kenyan plantations is largely concentrated on Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Use of Potassium, secondary nutrients and micronutrients is altogether missing. Recent soil analysis results indicate that soils in the Mumias Sugar zone of western Kenya that accounts for 50-60 % of national production are K- deficient. In examining the quality factor in sugarcane payment systems as envisaged in recent legislation, adoption of balanced nutrition by inclusion of K would help improve sugar cane productivity and enhance sugar recovery. This paper reports the effect of K, N and their interaction on sugarcane yield and juice quality on acrisols. Four experiments were established in several locations from 2009-2011. The treatments included a factorial combination of four rates of K at 0, 60, 120 and 180 kg/ha K2O and four rates of N at 0, 46, 92 and 138 kg/ha N. Recommended basal phosphate was included in every plot at 92 kg/ha P2O5. Each experiment was harvested after 18 months of growth. Results showed significant responses to K and N. Agronomic efficiency was higher in plots supplied with K along with N. Nitrogen and K2O application rates that produced optimum cane yields were: N = 46kg/ha and K2O = 60 kg/ha; however, economically profitable rates were N = 46-92 kg/ha and K2O at 60 kg/ha. Productivity gains did not offset costs when rates were higher than 120 kg/ha of K2O and 138 kg/ha of N. The results imply that the inclusion of K in the sugar cane fertilization regime at Mumias will be beneficial. An initial rate of 60kg/ha K2O (2 bags of 50 kg muriate of potash is recommended on soils with K-deficiency. There were strong indications that with K fertilization the current N recommendation of 120 – 150 kg N/ha could be reduced to only 78-92 kg/ha due to better N utilization from the interaction with K.

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations, It occurs because dry land ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to over exploitation and inappropriate use. Land degradation is a major obstacle militating sustainable use of land resources for agriculture. The relative role of climate, drought and human impact was discussed. This menace which manifested in the forms of soil erosion, desertification, salting of river and ponds, acidification and Stalinization, loss of soil fauna and flora e.t.c. is seriously militating productive parts of the soil, Poverty, political instability, deforestation over grazing and bad irrigation practices also undermine the land's fertility, thus, resulted in a negative effect on the socio-economic status of the inhabitants. These consequences can be properly addressed through the establishment of shelterbelts and woodlots, improvement of agricultural productivity, creation of awareness of the drought-hazard through provision of necessary resources for meteorological services in the area as well as legislation against indiscriminate felling of trees.

Ground nut seed beetle is a serious pest of ground nut in stored condition. Thirteen ground nut cultivars were selected to study their resistance and susceptibility to Caryedon serratus in the laboratory at 70% RH and 28 ? 1°C. The physical characters of ground nut pod like length and breadth of pod, pod colour, pod size, pod weight, pod texture, shell thickness were directly influencing intensity of the attack of ground nut beetle. Pod circumference of g.nut were varied from 3.44 to 4.38 cm. Variety having thicker shell are resistant to the pest.

This work highlights the interactions between fungus-growing termites (Isoptera, Termitidae), and mound building components. As major eco-engineers in tropical ecosystems, termites create biogenic structures with galleries, sheeting’s, fungus-comb chambers where the exosymbiotic interaction between termites and the fungus is well documented. Odontotermes spp. a fungus cultivator build mounds of different dimension that strongly influence the physical and chemical properties of soils there by clay mineralogy and SOM gets altered. In dry land ecosystems, termite mounds are often hotspots of primary production.

This study was designed to ascertain the status of shea butter processing, acceptability and utilization as an edible fat/oil in Kainji lake area of Nigeria. 300 questionnaires were distributed and 282 retrieved. The generated data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis in form of frequencies, percentages and totals. Processing and selling of sheanuts are flourishing businesses among the indigenes. Traditional manual method of processing shea butter vary from place to place, gives low yield and unpleasant aroma product with low acceptance as an edible fat/oil. Forty percent of the respondents, mainly indigenes, accepted shea butter as edible fat while 60% did not. Stew, soup, jollof rice and beans, moinmoin, indomie, akara and masa are some foods prepared using shea butter in the area.

In the present investigation attempts have been made to isolate sorghum starch (Sorghum bicolor L. moench) using genotype CSH-25, PMS 8AXKR196, PMS 71AXKR354 at optimum conditions. The genotypes CSH-25, PMS 8AXKR196 and PMS 71AXKR354 are sorghum hybrids and could be exploited for preparation of sorghum starch and among these three CSH-25 was found to be highest starch yielding hybrid. The yield of starch obtained from all these hybrids is to be satisfactory and these hybrids can be extensively used for commercial production of starch .This starch can be used for various purposes such as stabilization, thickening, syrup preparation, extraction of bioethanol which can be used as fuel with gasoline etc.

In this study a non–parametric method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied to analyze the energy efficiency and its optimization for garlic producers of Guilan province, Iran. The initial data were collected from 60 farmers using face-to-face questionnaire method in the villages of the Langroud city in the mentioned province. For garlic production processing, there was seven input energy (including human labor, machinery, diesel fuel, chemical fertilizers, seed, biocides and farmyard manure) and one output energy (including garlic yield). For applying DEA method, we use of two methods covering CCR and BCC models. The results of these models indicated that 18 and 43 units was efficient as technical and pure technical efficiency, respectively. Also, the scale efficiency score of 18 units was one in the studied area. The average of technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores was computed as 0.847, 0.940 and 0.896, respectively. Moreover, the total energy use can be reduced about 6552 MJ ha?1 comparing present condition (with 17.81% difference). The highest difference between optimum and present condition was found in diesel fuel and seed with 19.88% for both of them. The chemical fertilizers (with 46.83%) and diesel fuel (with 17.98%) had the highest share of total energy saving in garlic production by DEA approach, respectively.

Salinity is one of the increasing problems in the world including a wide area of our country. In response to salinity, multiple morphological, physiological and biochemical changes can be created in plants. In this study, Seedlings of Dracocephalum moldavica were subjected to 0, 20, 50, 70 and 100 mM NaCl. Changes in morphological traits, proline content, total phenol and activity of antioxidant enzymes such as peroxidase (POX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) in shoot were evaluated. As a result, POX and PPO activities in shoot significantly increased while shoot dry weight decreased progressively. The total amount of the phenolic and free proline also increased after the NaCl treatment. The increase was dose-dependent. The highest amount of free proline achived at 100 mM NaCl which was about 3-fold higher than control in shoot, respectively. higher than control. Our results support the idea that the activities of POX and PPO and accumulation of total phenol and proline is associated with salt tolerance as oxidative responses.

The purposes of this study is analyzing energy consumption and investigational the influences of energy inputs and forms on yield of greenhouse cucumber production in Lorestan and Markazi provinces. Data used in this study were obtained from 64 greenhouses randomly during one period of plant cultivation season in 2011-2012. The total energy input of 1070966.3 MJ ha^-1 was required for cucumber production. The portion of fuel by 78.4 % of the total input energy was the highest energy input. The energy use efficiency, specific energy, energy productivity and net energy gain were found as 0.14, 5.67 MJ kg^-1, 0.176 kg/MJ and -919867.9 MJ ha^-1, respectively, that indicated inefficient use of energy. The economic model estimation revealed that the impact of, human labor, fertilizer and chemical energy inputs that significantly showed a positive effect on yield that mean increase in quality of these inputs causes yield increases significantly. The results of sensitivity analysis of the energy inputs showed that the highest the MPP value of human labour. Econometric analysis indication of the benefit–cost ratio was estimated as 1.86

Drought is one of the natural disasters which annually cause to millions of dollars damage to agricultural communities around the world. In recent decades among the natural disasters, frequency of drought in terms of drought intensity, duration, total affected area, life and economic losses and social impacts on community, had more effect on human populations than other natural disasters. The most important effect and consequences of drought is water shortages for various purposes like agriculture. Qanats (aqueducts) construction and use of them is an ancient method for supplying water in Iran. In this way, without spending energy and only through the force of gravity, a part of required water of agriculture, drinking water and residential area has been supplied since long time ago. Using this method of water supply after development of equipments for drilling of semi-deep and deep wells is reduced, and in some parts of the country construction of new Qanats has stopped. Uncontrolled withdrawal of groundwater by excessive exploitation of wells with increasing of wells number and lack of natural recharge, for various reasons like changing of land use and climate changes, cause to decreasing of Qanats water yield or even dried them. So, the purpose of this study is analyzing the effects of watershed management operations like artificial recharge to increase the discharge of Qanats using flood control. In this study, the quantitative and qualitative data of Qanats water evaluated where artificial recharge of aquifers has done using trend analysis of hydrological behavior changes in selected Qanats and results of changes in water yield of Gambleh and Noh Abad Qanats, before and after of artificial recharge, including construction of recharge pools and flood spreading, during 1995 to 2010 showed that discharge of Qanats from 5.6 and 5.8 liters per second in 1995 (before artificial recharge), increased to 12.5 and 8.3 liters per second in 2010 respectively which had an effective role in reducing of drought effects in study area.