March 2013
Aluminium toxicity tolerance in cereals: Mechanisms, genetic control and breeding methods
Aluminium (Al) toxicity is one of the major factors constraining crop production on 67% of the total acid soil area in the world. Al toxicity restricts root growth and affects nutrient and water absorption with resultant stunted growth and reduced grain and biomass yield of crops. Cereals occupy about half of the world’s cropland area and, therefore, take the lion share of the global Al-toxicity...
March 2013
Reproductive performance of different crossbred cows of Bangladesh
The study was conducted at Central Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farm in Savar, Dhaka to evaluate the reproductive performance of different crossbred cows in terms of gestation length, service per conception, postpartum heat period and calving interval. The genotypes Australian Friesian Sahiwal (AFS), Sahiwal × Friesian (SL×F), Local × Friesian (L×F), Local × Friesian ×...
March 2013
Nitrogen and phosphorus budgets for sorghum and cowpea production under simulated sole- and intercropping systems in low- and medium-P soils
A greenhouse study was conducted at Seibersdorf, Austria to simulate sorghum-cowpea cropping systems to quantify biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), estimate the nutrient budgets and yield advantages under low-P (Hungary) and medium-P (Waldviertel) soils. The soils were collected from Kompolt in Hungary and Waldviertel in Austria. 15N isotope dilution method was used to quantify BNF while a simple...
March 2013
Effects of different soil sampling instruments on assessing soil fertility in the caatinga area, Brazil
Soil sampling is designed to ensure obtaining reliable information about the existence, concentration and distribution of the analyzed substances in the investigated area. The caatinga is usually characterized as tree and shrub formations, mostly with high fertility soils, but suffering major physical limitations. This study aimed at determining the minimum number of single samples that theoretically should...
March 2013
Modelling of a locally fabricated flat-plate solar milk pasteuriser using artificial neural network
The objective of this work was to develop an artificial neural network model to predict milk temperature of a locally fabricated solar milk pasteuriser, based on measures of error deviation from experimental data. A three-layer feed-forward neural network model based on back propagation algorithm was developed using the Neural Network Toolbox for MATLAB®. The inputs of the model were ambient air...
March 2013
Expansion ratio of extruded water yam (Dioscorea alata) starches using a single screw extruder
The objective of this study was to develop predictive models that relate extrusion process variables to expansion ratio of five varieties of water yam starch. This was accomplished by varying the feed moisture content (FMC) and extruder parameters which include barrel temperature (BT), screw speed (SS) and determine their effects on resulting expansion ratio using response surface methodology. A single screw...
March 2013
Post-harvest losses in mandarin orange: A case study of Dhankuta District, Nepal
Worldwide postharvest fruit and vegetables losses are as high as 30 to 40% and even much higher in developing countries like Nepal. A systematic survey was conducted to assess the extent of loss due to post harvest conditions in oranges at field, transport, storage and market levels during October to January, 2011. The survey data were collected using oral questionnaires, personal interviews, group...
March 2013
Economic impact of Prosopis juliflora on agropastoral households of Dire Dawa Administration, Ethiopia
This study was undertaken to empirically evaluate the impact of a controversial alien species called Prosopis juliflora invasion on the livelihood of agropastoral households selected from rural Dire Dawa Administration of Ethiopia. One hundred and fifty five respondents were randomly drawn from both invaded and non-invaded rural areas of the Administration with similar pre-invasion characteristics....
March 2013
Determinants of consumers’ willingness to purchase East African Highland cooking banana hybrids in Uganda
This paper uses a survey of 908 consumers that participated in farmer field days to evaluate various hybrid banana varieties from across four regions of Uganda. Sensory attributes such as taste, flavour, texture, colour of the food when cooked and bunch weight were considered. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used to compare the sensory attributes of different banana hybrids...
March 2013
Effects of inoculating citrus (Citrus sinensis) tree leaves with either bacterial or whey on the fermentation and aerobic stability of silage
Shredded citrus (Citrus sinensis) leaves were treated with: Control (no additive), liquid whey and Lactobacillus buchneri (LB) and ensiled in 1.5 L anaerobic jars (15 jars/treatment). Jars were opened on day 2, 5, 10, 20 and 40 post ensiling for analysis of nutritive value and silage fermentation characteristics. In addition, samples of day 40 were subjected to a 5 day aerobic test where...
March 2013
Chemical composition and oil quality of seeds of sesame accessions grown in the Nsukka plains of South Eastern Nigeria
Sesame, Sesamum indicum L. is one of the oldest and important oil seed crop in the world. The sesame seed apart from providing edible oil is also rich in protein. This study was carried out to evaluate the chemical composition and oil quality of seeds of 13 accessions of sesame grown in the Nsukka plains of South eastern Nigeria. The treatments which comprised of the 13 accessions were laid out in a...
March 2013
The use of a critical analysis of a multicriterion method (IDEA) for assessing the sustainability of sedentary sheep rearing systems in the Algerian steppe areas
This paper refers to a study conducted in the province of Djelfa on 50 sedentary sheep farms whose objective is the assessment of sustainability using the Indicateurs de la Durabilité des Exploitations Agricoles (IDEA) method (Farm sustainability indicators). It shows that production systems have undergone a mutation from the pastoral to agro-pastoral. This is manifested by the introduction of plant...
March 2013
Effect of preharvest application of calcium chloride (CaCl2), Gibberlic acid (GA3) and Napthelenic acetic acid (NAA) on storage of Plum (Prunus salicina L.) cv. Santa Rosa under ambient storage conditions
The present investigation was carried out in the experimental field of Division of Fruit Science, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar, Srinagar during the year 2010 to 2011 with a view to study the various physical changes that occur during storage and to prolong the shelf life of plum under ambient storage conditions by preharvest application of various...
March 2013
Status and symptomatology of Alternaria leaf blight (Alternaria alternata) of Gerbera (Gerbera jamisonii) in Kashmir valley
Alternaria leaf blight is one of the most important diseases of gerbera (Gerbera jamisonii) worldwide. The disease was prevalent in all the flower growing areas of Kashmir valley surveyed during 2009. The overall mean disease incidence and intensity ranged from 50.7 to 67.5% and 19.2 to 28.2%, respectively. The highest disease incidence (60.72%) irrespective of phonological stages and intensity (24.96%) was...
March 2013
Yield of different white button strains in sugar cane by product-based composts
The production of quality compost for Agaricus bisporus using alternative and local agricultural wastes beyond the search for productive strains are among the main factors related to improve yield. Thus, we evaluated the effect of compost nitrogen supplementation type using two compost formulation based on sugar cane by-products such as straw and bagasse as raw materials: (1) classic compost...
March 2013
Landscape based urbanism enriched with geospatial understanding against landscape urbanism: Regeneration project proposal for Antakya City
The importance of landscape values and human and nature interactions are usually ignored or degraded during planning processes not only in Turkey but most of the countries, resulting in unhealthy urban environment. This viewpoint causes exclusion of landscape planning from national planning stages, which in fact has a vital importance for the development of sustainable cities, in terms of both natural and...
March 2013
Inclusion of the ecological criterion in the design of forest road network and its effect on the parameters of forest accessing
Forest accessing and planning of forest roads used to be based on technical and economic criteria predominantly. However, the criteria of the environment, the quality of the forest ecosystem are also being considered when designing a forest road network nowadays. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that the inclusion of the ecological criterion in the optimization design of a forest road network...
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