African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6894

Table of Content: 12 November 2011; 6(26)

November 2011

Variation of quercetin content in different tissues of Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum L.)

  Due to its proposed potential role in reducing risk of cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer, flavonol level in plants is an important trait. In this study, nine Welsh onion cultivars were grown in 2006 in Jinan, and six cultivars were grown in 2007 in Qingdao to study the distribution of quercetin (a flavonol) among different tissues of the Welsh onion. After harvest,...

Author(s): Xihuan Feng and Weixin Liu

November 2011

Determination and evaluation of superior self-compatible almond genotypes resulting from crosses between “Touno” and “Ferragnes” in Iran

  Self-incompatibility is one of the most considerable difficulties in almond production, which reducing fruit set dramatically and making orchard management difficult. Therefore, breeding almond to produce self-compatible genotypes is very important. The purpose of this investigation was determination and evaluation of self- compatible and late flowering cultivars with good kernel characteristics in 38 almond...

Author(s): Momenpour, A., Ebadi , A., Imani, A. and Javanmard, T.

November 2011

Effects of irrigation frequency regimes on morphological and physiological characteristics of six sedum species

  Nowadays, green space expansion is faced with some limitations such as water and budget deficiency. There are some recommendations about limiting usage of turfgrass and replacing it with ground cover plants in urban green space. These recommendations are in a form of a program, which is called Xeriscaping. This study has been conducted to investigate the adaptability of new ground cover plants in Mashhad...

Author(s): Salman Shooshtarian, Ali TehraniFar, Askar Ghani and Mahnaz Kiani

November 2011

Participatory analysis of problems limiting goat production at selected districts of East Showa zone, Ethiopia

  The study was conducted at selected districts of East Showa zone namely; Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha and Fentale districts with an objective of identifying problems limiting goat production at the area, to identify constraints and opportunities of goat production of the area and generating   information for development practitioners working in the area. The sampled district was selected based on the...

Author(s):   Gurmesa Umeta, Misgana Duguma, Feyisa Hundesa and Merga Muleta  

November 2011

The effect of estrus synchronization on the reproductive characteristics of Turkish Saanen goats and growth characteristics of kids under extensive conditions

  The aim of this study was to determine the effect of oestrus synchronization on the growth characteristics of the Turkish Saanen kids under extensive production. In this study, 70 goats undergoing estrus cycles were synchronized and mated by 10 Turkish Saanen bucks, and together with the produced 124 Turkish Saanen kids, provided the animal material of the study. As a result, 204 animals were used as a...

Author(s): Duygu Ä°nce and AfÅŸin Köker

November 2011

Potential role of traditional vegetables in household food security: A case study from Zimbabwe

  The aim of the present investigation was to study the utilization of wild and semi-domesticated traditional vegetables in Zimbabwe. The study employed oral interviews and detailed discussions with 118 participants drawn from 8 different provinces of Zimbabwe. Plant use was found to be an integral part of the way of life of Zimbabweans, living in both rural and urban areas. This research has identified 32...

Author(s): Alfred Maroyi

November 2011

Assessment of weed management strategies and intercrop combinations on cassava yield in the middle belt of Nigeria

This study assessed the determinants of weed management strategies on yield of cassava in Kogi State, Nigeria using the ordinary least square regression analysis. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 450 cassava farmers in the state in 2009. The result showed that there was a significant difference in the yield of cassava between plots applied with herbicides  and plots without...

Author(s): A. E. Agahiu, U. E. Udensi, G. Tarawali, B. C. Okoye, R. O. Ogbuji and K. P. Baiyeri

November 2011

The photosynthetic physiological properties of Illicium lanceolatum plants growing under different light intensity conditions

  In this study, the photosynthetic properties and CO2 conductance of four-year old plants of Illicium lanceolatum were measured under three different light conditions (full light, half shadow and shadow) treatments. The results show that during the peak growth season, compared to those under full light, plants growing under half shadow light condition had the highest net...

Author(s): Yonghui CAO, Benzhi ZHOU, Shuanglin CHEN, and Jianghua XIAO and Xiaoming WANG

November 2011

Effect of microcredit program on rural poverty alleviation: An empirical study of four major microcredit organizations at Monirampur Upazila in Bangladesh

  Numerous microcredit organizations conduct microcredit programs in Bangladesh and provide small loans to rural poor people with the purpose of eradicating poverty. This study attempts to elucidate the extent to which these microcredit programs are effective in reducing poverty and to examine the impact of microcredit in income generation and upliftment of borrowers’ living standard. All the respondents...

Author(s): Wen Cong Lu and M. A. Hasan

November 2011

Induction of systemic resistance in soybean plants against Fusarium wilt disease by seed treatment with benzothiadiazole and humic acid

  The ability of benzothiadiazole (BTH), humic acid (HA) and their combination when used in seed soaking to induce systemic resistance against a pathogenic strain of Fusarium oxysporum was examined in four soybean cultivars under greenhouse conditions. Both inducers and their combination were able to protect soybean plants against damping-off and wilt diseases compared with check treatment. These...

Author(s): Montaser Fawzy ABDEL-MONAIM, Mamdoh Ewis ISMAIL and Kadry Mohamed MORSY

November 2011

The effect of physical treatments on control of Penicillium digitatum decay orange cv. Valencia during storage period

  The aim of this study was to assess the effect of hot water treatments on some of the quality characteristics and control of green mold decay orange cv. Valencia during storage period. The research was conducted in a completely randomized design with 26 treatments and 3 replications at two levels of inoculation and un-inoculation. Treatments  included: hot water (45, 50, 55 and 60°C) with the...

Author(s): Sajad Fatemi and Hassan Borji

November 2011

Soil physicochemical properties and vegetation pattern in an arid environment affected by a salt diaper

  Soil degradation, most notably caused by salinization and water-logging, creates formidable problems in arid and semi-arid environments. Advancing our knowledge of salt-affected soils is a prerequisite for understanding how salinization affects environmental concerns, such as soil erosion, nutrient leaching, and lack of vegetation cover. Therefore this study investigated the impact of salt diapirs on soil...

Author(s): Reza Ghazavi, Abbasali Vali, Reza Ghasemiphassai and Saied Eslamian

November 2011

The effect of water deficit and sowing date on yield components and seed sugar contents of sweet corn (Zea mays L.)

  Considering the little amount of research on this crop in Iran and especially in Kermanshah, this paper was devoted to its study. In order to study the effect of sowing date and water stress on yield and yield components and seed sugar content in sweet corn cv.SC403, an experiment was conducted in the research farm and laboratories of the department of agronomy and plant breeding at Razi University,...

Author(s): Arash Farsiani, Mohammad-Eghbal Ghobadi and Saeid Jalali-Honarmand

November 2011

Groundwater modeling using hybrid of artificial neural network with genetic algorithm

  Accurate estimates of groundwater level have a valuable effect in improving decision support systems of groundwater resources exploitation. The present study investigates the ability of a hybrid model of artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA) in forecasting groundwater level in an individual well (target well). A standard feed forward networks (FFN) and recurrent neural networks (RNN) are...

Author(s): Amir Jalalkamali and Navid Jalalkamali

November 2011

Effects of shifting surplus farm labor and grain subsidy on land use in Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi Province, China

  This paper analyzed the factors influencing the relationship between population, cultivated land and grain on the shifting of surplus farm labors and providing grain subsidy in the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi Province of China. We supposed four scenes about cultivated land pressure index from 1998 to 2008, and introduced Mann-Kendall’s non-parametric test method. The results showed that cultivated...

Author(s): LiuSan Cheng,, PuTe Wu,  and XiNing Zhao,

November 2011

The performance of Masiri City in spatial equalization for surrounding villages, case: Central district of Rostam County, Iran

  Each geographical region as a system is a space of rural and urban settlements which is proportional to the structure, degree of accessibility, economics and environmental conditions have a special function inside the region. The city in the center and the villages in its peripheral areas play different roles. The local and small towns that have close ties with the villages, corresponding to their degree of...

Author(s): Ali Shamsoddini and Masoud Mahdavi