Agriculture

One of the most important natural resources that cover much of the earth's surface is soil. Most life on earth depends upon the soil as a direct or indirect source of food. Plants are rooted in the soil and obtain nutrients from it. Animals also get nutrients from eating the plants on the soil. Soil is home of many organisms such as seeds, spores, insects, and worms. The contents of soil change constantly and there are many different kinds of soil. It forms very slowly and is destroyed easily, so it must be conserved in order to continue to support life.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the agricultural performance in monocropping and in association of tomatoes affected by a few diseases in the city of Kisangani. The study was done following a non-randomized block device comprising two blocks of 6 plots each. Two types of crops were used namely tomato and spinach. The treatments consisted of tomatoes in pure culture and tomatoes in combination with spinach. Observations focused on the evolution of tomato diseases and the number of inflorescences, flowers, fruits, fruit weight, fruiting and yield per plant. The results obtained reveal that the combination of spinach with tomatoes reduces the spread of tomato diseases and increases tomato yield under the conditions of our study. information retrieval systems.

Nutrient status, availability, reachability are the basis of soil fertility studies in agricultural soils. The East Anglia experience evaluated soil nutrient dynamics from the following parameters: whole ecosystem and soil respiration, microbial carbon , soil total carbon, soil total nitrogen, soil C:N ratio, soil temperature and soil water filled pore spaces. The following land management practices were evaluated: grassland under permanent pasture on 5 y ley before stocking; grassland under permanent pasture sown with red clover a y before stocking; grassland under permanent pasture treated with N fertilizer a y before stocking; arable land under barley; with deciduous woodland as control. Each site was replicated four times and revisited at each time of sampling. Whole ecosystem respiration was measured once a day per month with portable environmental gas monitor. At the same time soil samples were collected for actual measurement of soil respiratory activity in the laboratory; together with soil water filled pore spaces. Significant differences were observed in whole ecosystem and soil respiration amongst land management practices with grassland under permanent pasture treated with N fertilizer a year before stocking giving the highest whole ecosystem and soil respiration, 67.8 and 33.9 mmol m-2 h-1 respectively. Respiratory activity was highest over the summer months and lowest over the winter months. Whole ecosystem and soil respiration were dependent on soil microbial C (R2 = 0.6 and 0.73 respectively). It pays to get it right when land management and nutrient dynamics are at stake.

In this study, the effect of paddy dehusking rate in rubber the roll sheller at four levels of 60, 70, 80 and 90% were investigated on some milling properties as head brown rice yield (HBY), head rice yield (HRY) and whiteness of three Iranian rice varieties namely Binam, Khazar and Sepidroud was examined. The results revealed that the HBY decreased from 92.58 to 89.72%, 90.83 to 86.61% and 84.83 to 78.18% for Binam, Khazar and Sepidroud varieties, respectively as the paddy dehusking rate increased from 60 to 90%. However, the highest HRY of 82.17% was observed for Binam variety at the dehusking rate of 80% and the lowest value of 65.97% was recorded for Sepidroud variety at the husking rate of 60%. There was an increasing trend for rice whiteness with decreasing in paddy dehusking rate. It was decreased from 36.1 to 30.8, 36.5 to 30.1 and 35.4 to 29.8 for the varieties of Binam, Khazar and Sepidroud varieties, respectively as the paddy dehusking rate increased from 60 to 90%.

The Study of heavy metal was carried out at mechanic village along Abeokuta-Ibadan Expressway for the presence of heavy metal and uptake efficiency of plant species as a means of phytoremediation. The concentrations of heavy metals determined from the soil of the mechanic village and compared to a control farmland located as Federal University of Agriculture. The soil sample collected at the base of different species of tree showed that the heavy metals were below permissible levels (FAO/WHO standard) and show no significant difference in the range of mean. Absorption of heavy metals by the bark of the trees in the mechanic village was evident when compared relatively to the presence and uptake of the heavy metals from the soil by tree in the average farmland. The mean concentrations of the heavy metals in the soil of the farmland are in this order of magnitude Cd>Cu>Pb, while the mean concentration of the heavy metals in the soil of the mechanic village are in the order of magnitude Pb>Cu>Cd. Lead has the least concentration in the farmland, while in the mechanic village, it is the predominant heavy metal detected which also shows greater significant different at p<0.05 with a value of 24.34 mg/kg which indicates area of high mechanic activity. While the concentration values of heavy metals in the barks in comparison to the FAO/WHO and EC/CODEX standard for these heavy metals shows that the concentration of the heavy metals in those vicinities is within the normal range for cadmium and copper, but the lead present is above the WHO/FAO standard at 0.299 mg/kg and close to the EC/CODEX standard. It can also be concluded that the uptake efficiency of heavy metal under study of the three species are in the order magnitude Mango>Cashew>Neem. We can also recommend that for better efficient cleanup especially where an area is polluted with copper, mango is best bet for the uptake of such metal while if an equal proportion all many heavy metals are evident then it will be better to use Neem as a phytoremediating plant.

The biological effectiveness of jute bags impregnated with Eucalyptus camaldulensis essential oils, Cymbopogon citratus, and vegetable oil of Azadirachta indica was evaluated on the adults of Callosobruchus maculatus of cowpea and the molds of the genus Aspergilus and Penicillium, in post-harvest conservation conditions. The results reveal that the jute bags tested have significant insecticidal and antimicrobial activity on Callosobruchus maculatus adults, when the dose and exposure time increase from 0 to 2% for 26 weeks.

The detoxifying effect of Vitamin C in the graded levels of Fumonisin B1 fed to bird was conducted with One hundred and five (105) point-of-lay Isa brown breed at 18 weeks and twenty-one (21) cocks at 25 weeks to access egg qualities and embryonic development of their eggs. The birds (layers) were assigned to Seven (7) dietary treatments of 15 birds each at three (3) birds per replicate. The treatments were classified according to inclusion level of Fumonisin B1 and Vitamin C. Treatment A served as the control, B (10 mg/kg of FB1), C (20 mg/kg of FB1), D (30 mg/kg of FB1), E (10 mg/kg of FB1 + Vitamin C), F (20 mg/kg of FB1 + Vitamin C), and G (30mg/kg of FB1 + Vitamin C). The birds were artificially fertilised with semen collected from intact cocks. All the eggs collected from day three (3) after artificial insemination for seven (7) days were incubated to assess the egg fertility and monitor the development of resulting embryos at 7 and 14 days. A significant difference was observed in shell weight (p?0.05) while other external qualities of eggs examined were not significantly (p?0.05) influenced by the level of fumonisin B1. Yolk height and yolk diameter had significance (p?0.05) while other internal qualities were not significantly (p?0.05) affected. No significant effect of FB1 was observed for the embryonic development just as there was no difference between the selected embryos of the treated group and the control. Meanwhile, the result shows that Vitamin C can effectively ameliorate the toxic effect of the FB1 on the egg qualities (external and internal) and embryonic development of eggs. 

Our work, which focused on the impact of substituting wheat flour with sweet potato starch on the organoleptic qualities in bread preparation, was carried out in the city of Kisangani, more specifically within the University of Kisangani. The hypothesis of this study was to verify whether substituting wheat flour with sweet potato starch flour could affect the organoleptic qualities of bread. The aim of this work was to observe the effect of substituting wheat flour with sweet potato starch flour on the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of bread, and thus determine the extent to which this substitution can be achieved while still resulting in bread of acceptable quality in terms of taste, color, aroma, and texture. The aim of this work is to encourage the population of Kisangani to consume local products, save foreign currency and improve the living conditions of the population. The research results showed that substituting sweet potato starch for wheat flour in proportions ranging from 10 to 12% resulted in no significant differences in color, taste, aroma, or texture in the resulting loaves. Therefore, sweet potato starch can be substituted for wheat flour up to 15% without significantly affecting the bread's qualities in terms of color, taste, aroma, and texture.

Combining ability and nature of gene interactions that contribute to grain yield and its attributing traits of wheat were investigated using 21 bread wheat hybrids developed by crossing 7 commercial varieties in a half diallel mating design. The estimates of variance due to specific combining ability (?2 SCA) were absolutely greater value over variance of general combining ability for yield and yield attributing traits. Thus the results revealed that non-additive genetic variances accomplished an important role in the expression of different characters. The GCA and SCA ratio was less than unity for all the traits. This indicated that non-additive components played relatively greater role in the inheritance of these traits. Thus, use of diallel mating with recurrent selection could provide the better conditions for recombination and accumulation of desirable genes.

The experiment was carried out in Kahramanmaras University Field Crops Department Experiment Area (37°35'38.2"N, 36°48'51.2"E) and Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) was used according to factorial arrangement with 3 replications. The application of mulch was done immediately after seeding and the treatment was completed after 7 months. As a result of wheat straw mulch application, the change in the levels of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) of the soil had a statistically insignificant effect on the grain yield. On the other hand straw mulch had a significant statistical effect on phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) levels in terms of grain yield. Depending on the increase in the mulch level, it was determined that the grain yield increased, the highest grain yield was obtained from 900 kg da-1 mulch application (700 kg da-1) and the lowest grain yield was obtained from the control application (510 kg da-1). Mulch application ensured the preservation of soil moisture; accordingly it had a positive effect on the yield by increasing the exchangeable phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). According to correlation coefficient analysis positive and important relationships were found between grain yield and K (r=0.969), grain yield and P (r=0.986), K and P (r=0.983), Ca and Mg (r=0.968), Cu and Fe (r=0.980)