African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6900

Table of Content: 18 October 2010; 5(20)

October 2010

The causal model role of ICTs in food utilization of Iranian rural households

Access to desirable, sufficient, safe and nutritious food is one of the basic components of the development and health of a society. ICTs represent an important strategy that can be used in attaining food security. The main purpose of this research, performed in 2006 to 2007, was to identify the effectiveness of ICTs in improving the food utilization of Iranian rural households. A descriptive methodology was applied in...

Author(s):   Farhad Lashgarara, S. Mehdi Mirdamadi and S. Jamal Farajollah Hosseini  

October 2010

African cereal demand and supply analysis: Past trends and future prospect

For the past four decades there has been an overwhelming dependence on cereals for daily direct human food energy in Africa. Most of these demands were largely met through domestic production, although the contribution of import started to grow in recent years. In this paper, cereal production and import trend were analyzed in 51 countries in Africa from 1961 to 2003. A system model was used to analyze the future...

Author(s): S. Betru and H. Kawashima

October 2010

Use of nonlinear programming to determine the economically optimal energy density in laying hens diet during phase 1

This study was designed to show the advantage of nonlinear programming in diet formulation. A nonlinear programming Excel workbook was developed that used the Excel solver to optimize energy density and bird performance. In this study 6 dietary treatments (include 2.515, 2.615, 2.715, 2.815, 2.915 and 3.015 Mcal of metabolizable energy per kilogram) were fed to Hy-line W-36 laying hens (n=192) in phase 1 (from 24 to 32...

Author(s): M. Afrouziyeh, M. Shivazad, M. Chamani and G. Dashti

October 2010

Growth and yield of cassava as influenced by grain cowpea population density in Southeastern Nigeria

The use of some leguminous crops for soil fertility improvement is being promoted for root and tuber crops production in Nigeria. Cowpea has a lot of advantages and is more compatible with cassava than other legumes. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) was intercropped with cassava (NR 8082 at 10,000 plants per hectare) at four plant densities (20,000; 40,000; 60,000 and 80,000 plants per hectare) in 2004 and 2005 planting...

Author(s): D. N. Njoku, S. O. Afuape and C. N. Ebeniro

October 2010

Development of feed package for layers using low energy agro-industrial by products

A feeding trial of 20 weeks duration was conducted using 240 point-of-lay Hy-line layers to study the nutritive value of diets containing low-energy agro-industrial by-products namely wheat bran, maize bran, rice bran, brewers’ spent grains and cocoa pod husk on laying performance. The experimental diets were formulated to be iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. They contained an average of 16.3% crude protein and...

Author(s): A. Donkoh and H. K. Zanu

October 2010

Effect of acetochlor and carbofuran on soil nematode communities in a Chinese soybean field

A field experiment was conducted at the Shenyang experimental station of ecology, Northeast China, to determine the response of soil nematode communities to agrochemical applications. Four treatments were compared including the control (CK, no agrochemicals applied), herbicide acetochlor (A), nematicide carbofuran (F) and the combination of acetochlor and carbofuran (AF). The obtained results indicated that the...

Author(s): Jingnan Zhang, Qi Li and Wenju Liang

October 2010

Assessment of metals accumulated in Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), pepper (Capsicum annuum) and agricultural soils

Soil contamination by heavy metals is widely spread and concerns have been raised over the potential risks to humans, animals and agricultural crops. Toxic metals are readily accumulated in some plants and may cause a threat to humans and grazing animals. In this study, an assessment on contaminated edible vegetables by heavy metals is made. Two major sites (denoted S1 and S2) where durum wheat (Triticum...

Author(s): A. Baba Ahmed and K. Bouhadjera

October 2010

Social interaction in urban transformation areas and the characteristics of urban outdoor spaces: A case study from Turkey

This study defends that solution to environmental and even social problems faced around the house which is the basic habitat has relations with space design. Therefore, spatial characteristics supporting social togetherness, cohesion and communication especially among different social groups living together in urban transformation areas have been analyzed. The research question of the article has been set as "How...

Author(s): Aysel Uslu and Åžafak Gökçe⊃

October 2010

Impact of reforestation in a part of degrading natural ecological system of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

This paper examines the response of soils in degraded land to reforestation in Ilorin region. A total of 16 soil samples were systematically collected from two quadrats of 25 × 25 m in each of reforested and deforested sites respectively. Standard laboratory techniques were used to test 8 soil fertility indices on each of the landscapes. Coefficient of variation was used to establish variability or otherwise...

Author(s): E. O.  Oriola, I. P. Ifabiyi and A. T. Hammed

October 2010

An operational approach for estimating surface vapor pressure with satellite-derived parameter

Surface vapor pressure (SVP) is a highly significant variable for physically based crop growth simulating and crop yield modeling. Regional spatially representative data of observed SVP are not currently available. However, an excellent correlation has been found between SVP and precipitable water vapor (PWV) with many previous works. Based on the correlation analysis between satellite-derived PWV...

Author(s): Yaohuan Huang, Dong Jiang and Dafang Zhuang

October 2010

Determining the yield and several quality parameters of 'Chili Jalapeno' in comparison to 'Pical' and 'Geyik Boynuzu' pepper cultivars under Mediterranean conditions

We studied yield and quality parameters of three hot Chili pepper cultivars under Antakya conditions. The cultivars tested were 'Chili Jalapeno', 'Pical' and 'Geyik Boynuzu', which is a local cultivar. The experiment was designed as a completely randomized block design with three blocks in each treatment and conducted for two years. The variable measured in the experiment include total yield...

Author(s): Tamer Sermenli and Kazim Mavi

October 2010

Evaluation of yield potential and stress adaptive trait in wheat genotypes under post anthesis drought stress conditions

Twenty winter wheat genotypes were evaluated under both post-anthesis drought stress and normal conditions in Ardabil Agricultural Research Station in two successive growing seasons 2005 - 2007 using randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that there were significant differences between genotypes in stem reserve under both normal and post anthesis drought stress conditions....

Author(s): Amirgholi Sanjari Pireivatlou, Bahram Dehdar Masjedlou and Ramiz T. Aliyev

October 2010

Effects of Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass) and Ocimum suave (wild basil) applied as mixed and individual powders on the eggs laid and emergence of adult Callosobruchus maculatus (cowpea bruchids)

Post harvest losses of cowpea grain are a serious problem, in Africa, as much as 20 - 50% of grain is lost because of infestation due Callosobruchus maculatus(Cowpea bruchids). Plant mixtures containing Cymbopogon citratus (Lemon grass) (L) and Ocimum suave (Wild basil) (W) powders in the ratios (Lemon grass: Wild basil): 100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 20:80, 0:100 and 0:0 were used under...

Author(s): C. C. Ojianwuna and P. A. Umoru

October 2010

Taxonomy, morphology and palynology of Aegilops vavilovii (Zhuk.) Chennav. (Poaceae: Triticeae)

Aegilops vavilovii (Zhuk.) Chennav., a rare species, was collected from Southeast  Anatolia, Turkey. During the field studies of the project “Taxonomic revision of Tribe Triticeae in Turkey”, Ae. vavilovii was accidentally recollected from three localities in Åžanliurfa and Mardin provinces in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The main objective of this study is to shed light on the diagnostic...

Author(s): Evren Cabi Musa DoÄŸan Hülya Özler, Galip Akaydin and Alptekin Karagöz

October 2010

Potential and limitations of soil organic matter build-up in dry areas

Semi-arid areas comprise a large portion of the world’s agricultural crop land. These areas are characterised by high temperature and low rainfall which hinders soil organic matter accumulation. The reported experiments were designed to study the effect of soil organic matter (SOM) from green manure crops on soil physical properties in two contrasting soils, sandy clay loam and loamy sand under the severe...

Author(s): M. A. Hamza and W. K. Anderson