Agriculture

The effect of Indomie Noodle Waste Meal (IWM) based diet of the haematology and serum biochemistry of Broiler Finisher was investigated. One hundred and fifty unsexed Hypecco strain of Broilers were randomly allotted into five Isocaloric and Isonitrogenous dietary groups with graded levels of IWM to replace maize on weight basis in a Completely Randomised Design(CRD).Treatment 1 (T1),T2,T3,T4 and T5 contained IW at 0%,25%,50%,75% and 100% respectively. The experiment lasted for five weeks (5th -10th week). Dietary treatment started at 5th week of age and blood collection started at the onset of the dietary treatment and weekly thereafter. Haematological parameters investigated were Haemoglobin (Hb) concentration, Packed Cell Volume (PCV), White Blood Cells (WBC), Red Blood Cells (RBC) while the erythrocyte indices were calculated. Serum metabolites analysed for were Total Protein (TP), Albumin, Globulin, Uric acid, Calcium, Glucose, Creatinine, Bilirubin and Cholesterol. Hb, PCV and the erythrocyte indices were significantly (p<0.05) lowered by the IWM inclusion but not adversely while serum TP, Albumin, Globulin, Calcium and Cholesterol were significantly (p<0.05) elevated with the level of IWM inclusion.IWM can be used to replace maize in the diet of Broiler finisher chickens the level of which must not exceed 50% to avoid higher serum cholesterol level.

Chickpea grain damage in various forms, in which splitting is more important than other aspects, because of quantitative losses. This paper investigates the mechanical strength of chickpea kernels in relation to splitting. In this relation, three varieties (Bivanij, ILC482 and Philip 93-93) of chickpea at three levels of moisture content (15.5, 20.8 and 25.6 % wet bases) and three loading orientations (Length, Width and Thickness of kernel) were tested under quasi-static uni-axial compression. Measured and calculated parameters were including rupture force, maximum strain and deformation, rupture energy, maximum normal contact stress and apparent modulus of elasticity. Moisture content had a considerable effect on all mechanical parameters. In addition, the results showed that values of chickpea strength properties were lowest when loaded in the length direction. The minimum values of modulus of elasticity and rupture energy were equal to 6.75 MPa and 43.28 mJ, respectively, at 26%(w.b.). According to statistical results, Philip 93-93 variety had the highest resistance to damage and splitting in comparison to two other varieties. Several linear and nonlinear models were developed for prediction of chickpea strength parameters that presented in the article.

Poor soil fertility is among the major production problems responsible for poor growth and low yield of sesame in Nigeria. A field experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria to determine the effect of application of organic and mineral fertilizers on growth and yield of sesame plants and rates of Nitrogen fertilizer application on the performance of sesame var E8. There were 12 factorial treatment combinations of three types of fertilizers namely; tithonia compost, maize compost, and urea and four rates of Nitrogen; 0, 60, 80, and 100 kg N/ha. Progressive increment in growth and seed yield parameters was observed as fertilizer rates increased up to 80 kg N/ha and decreased at 100 kg N/ha. Application of 80 kg N/ha produced the highest growth and yield of sesame. Application of 60, 80, and 100kg N/ha fertilizer resulted in 140, 350 and 170 % over the control. Tithonia compost produced the highest yield of sesame compared with maize compost and urea fertilizer. Generally, inorganic fertilizer (urea) resulted in lower yields compared to organic fertilizer (tithonia compost) in the production of sesame. Soil nutrient status was also enhanced as residual N increased slightly in all the treatment. However, phosphorus accumulation was highest with the application of tithonia compost at 80kg /ha. From the results of these experiments, it is indicative that application of tithonia compost at the rate of 80 kg N/ha is most suitable for the production of sesame and have the potential of improving the soils in the southern Guinea Savanna of Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of using treated wastewater on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of festuca in greenhouse conditions in Sa'dabad of the Dashtestan, Iran. Experiment was performed in a randomized complete block design with 5 treatments and 4 replicates. Treatments included: fresh water, fresh water + 25% treated wastewater, fresh water + 50% treated wastewater, fresh water + 75% treated wastewater, and 100% treated wastewater. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the impact of wastewater had significant effect on growth and physiological characteristics. Root weight (5.7 g), leaf weight (2.3 g), leaf area (7/54), root length (29 cm) and plant height (9.9 cm) showed a significant increase in compared to the control. In relation to the characteristics of protein, phosphorus and ash, the same trend was observed.

Present study revealed that thermophile fungal species richness on different substrate in different temperature gradients like room, 35,45,55,650C.Total 23 fungal species were found from six different organic substrate. Among six substrates, vermiompost (57) and Farm Yard Manure (FYM) (52) were recorded highest species richness and % incidence while less in ash (14). Among isolated thermophilic fungi, Aspergillus species found abundant in all the substrate and temperature ranges while poor incidence in case of Trichoderma harzianum, Rhizoctonia, Geotrichum, Alternaria species, Aspergillus tamari and Peniillium cinnamon. Among the thermophiles Aspergillus niger and A. flavus were found on all the substrates itself act as thermotolerent. Every temperature gradient showed the growth incidence in all substrate but room temp and 350C showed richness of fungal incidence. Even some species showed the growth on some substrate at higher temp (65^•C) in some extent.

In this study the energy consumption of orange orchards was surveyed and various Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) developed to estimate the farmer’s production in the Sari region as a case study. The data were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire method from 86 farmers in the Sari region. The results indicated that the total amount of energy input and output were 54284.8 and 59223.4 MJ ha-1, respectively. Among all inputs involved, diesel fuel had the highest energy values per hectare. Also, energy efficiency, energy productivity and net energy were calculated as 1.09, 0.57 kg MJ-1 and 4938.5 MJ ha-1, respectively. Performance of developed ANN models were evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE). The resulting tests showed that best performance was achieved by a momentum training algorithm resulting in R2=0.84, and MAE= 0.32 and RMSE=0.38 with 8-4-1 topology. Additionally, sensitivity analysis revealed that fertilizer and electricity energy had the highest and the lowest sensitivity on output, respectively.

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of organic fertilizer application in the production of organic onion. The study was conducted in a fully converted organic field at CLSU RM-CARES using the following treatment; treatment 1 was the control or no fertilizer, treatment 2 was the organic fertilizer at 8 t/ha applied before transplanting, treatment 3 was the vermicast at 8 t/ha applied before transplanting, treatment 4 was combined organic fertilizer and vermicast at the same rate of 4 t/ha applied before transplanting, and the treatment 5 was combine organic fertilizer at 4 t/ha and vermicast at 4 t/ha, half of each fertilizer material was applied before transplanting and another half was applied 30 days after transplanting. Results revealed that combined organic fertilizer vermicast application as biofertilizer had no influence on the diameter size and weight of individual bulb after harvest. However, application of combined organic fertilizer and vermicast at the rate of 4 t/ha of each fertilizer materials applied before transplanting significantly increased the production of marketable bulb, yield per plot and computed yield per hectare. On the other hand, nitrogen and phosphorus uptake of onion was observed a comparable results to all fertilizers applied. Moreover, plants fertilized with combined organic fertilizer and vermicast at the same rate of 4 t/ha each of fertilizer materials applied before transplanting significantly obtained the highest potassium uptake with 2.36 t/ha . Follow up studies on the effect on growth and yield of combined fertilizer material should be conducted to confirm and further explain our findings.

The experiment was carried out during the period from 2011,2012 and 2013 to compare the morphology of five gladiolus flowers genotypes with respect to plant height, length and breadth of leaf, number of leaves per plant, length of flowers, breadth of flower, weight of flower, weight of single stick, length of spike, length of rachis, flowers per plant, days to reach 50% spike initiation, number of corm and cormel per plant, breadth of corm and weight of cormel per plant. The results indicated the significant variation amongst the gladiolus genotypes with respect to studied morphological characteristics as well as with yield, yield attributes and plant height. The plant height was higher (70.15cm) and lower (55.52cm) in (SKG14) yellow and(SKG18) orange /(SKG24)red respectively due to genotype. The lengths of leaves were almost same but higher with(SKG14) yellow and(SKG20) violet (50.20/51.10 cm) than the(SKG10) white and(SKG18) orange ones where the smallest length was recorded for(SKG24) red (40.36cm) one. Almost same trends were recorded for breadth of leaves with the exception of few. The average number of leaves was highest for(SKG10) white (14.10) followed by(SKG24) red, (SKG20) violet, (SKG18) orange and (SKG14)yellow respectively. Most of the parameters of flower characteristics did not maintain regular trend and correlation when considered in terms of sequences starting from white to red as shown in the table 1, 2 and 3. The recorded results clearly indicate that the(SKG10) white genotype has the best planting materials which may be planted for luxuriant growth of plants and production of excellent flowers.

Uromyces fabae (Uromyces viciae-fabae) the pea rust was first reported by D. C. H. Persoon in 1801. Later DeBary (1862) changed the genus and renamed it as Uromyces fabae (Pers) deBary. There after, Kispatic (1949) described f. sp. viciae-fabae by including host vicia fabae. The pathogen Uromyces fabae described as autoecious rust with aeciospores, urediospores and teliospores found on the surface of host plant (Arthur and Cummins, 1962; Gaumann, 1998). Gaumann proposed that the fungus be classified into nine forma speciales each with a host range limited to two or there species. Later it was observed that the isolates of Uromyces viciae-fabae share so many hosts in common that it was impossible to classify them into forma speciales (Conner and Bernier, 1982). Based on the distinctive shape and dimensions of substomatal vesicle, Uromyces viciae fabae has been described as a species complex (Emeran et al., 2005). It revealed that host specialized isolates of Uromyces viciae fabae were morphologically distinct, differing in both spore dimensions and infection structure.

The correlation and path coefficient analysis among seed yield and its components in pigeonpea were worked out in 25 erect and 25 semi spreading genotypes separately during 2007-08. Results of the correlation coefficient analysis revealed that seed yield plant^-1 was positively correlated with seeds plant^-1 in erect group whereas, pod clusters plant^-1, pods plant^-1 and 100 seed weight in semi-spreading group. Path coefficient analysis of various characters towards seed yield indicated that the maximum positive direct effect on seed yield was exhibited by seeds plant^-1 in erect group and days to 50% flowering in semi-spreading group. Whereas, path coefficients for 100 seed weight revealed the maximum positive direct effect due to days to 50% flowering in erect group and days to flower initiation in semi-spreading group.