African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6883

Table of Content: 18 September; 7(36)

September 2012

A review of methodological issues relating to the estimation of terms of trade and trends in terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors of the Indian economy since 1950’S

The movements of intersectoral terms of trade (TOT) in India since independence is characterized by periodical shifts in favor and against agriculture. The intersectoral terms of trade has been favorable during 1967- 1968 to 1977-1978 and during the post reforms period. But the indicators of performance and growth of the sector has been showing unimpressive trends in the post reforms period....

Author(s): Rajesh, G. K.    

September 2012

Forest crown closure assessment using multispectral satellite imagery

Forest inventories have traditionally been used for acquiring quantitative and qualitative information of forests and for formulating management and conservation strategies of forests in Pakistan. It involves intensive and time consuming field surveys of rigid forest environments and entails high costs. However, with the advent of technology, remote sensing offers an alternative tool for acquiring forest data...

Author(s): Juwairia Mahboob and Faheem Iqbal        

September 2012

Differential requirements for breaking seed dormancy in biotypes of Cleome gynandra and two Amaranthus species

Differential seed dormancy mechanisms arise among plant provenances and biotypes/ecotypes due to adaptations to local environmental cues that synchronise seed germination with optimal periods for seedling survival. This is one of the likely sources of unpredictable and variable germination often noted in semi-domesticated plants such as Cloeme and Amaranthus species. To test this, a study...

Author(s): G. E. Zharare      

September 2012

Germination rates of hybrid seeds of rice (Oryza sativa L) Zhuliangyou 02 with different treatments of dehydration, storage and soaking

Zhuliangyou 02 is a hybrid rice from Zhu 1S, as the female, and ZR02, as the male. We studied the germination rates of Zhuliangyou 02 under different treatments including dehydration, storage variation, and seed soaking, and used Lu 18S/ZR02, H155S/Hua 284, Zhu 1S, and Nipponbare as controls. The results obtained show that the rates of dehydration of air-drying and cold-drying were the quickest and slowest. The...

Author(s): Wenjia Li, Gongping Kang, Houxiong Wu, Liangbi Chen        

September 2012

Collection and agro-morphological characterization of aromatic short grain rice in eastern India

Exploration and collection of aromatic short grain rice were undertaken in tribal dominated districts of Orissa viz., Dhenkanal, Anugul, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Phulbani and Cuttack. A total of 55 germplasm accessions were collected with detailed passport information. Analysis of variance for 16 quantitative morpho-agronomic characters showed very significant results. The qualitative characters were...

Author(s): H. N. Subudhi, S. Samantaray, D. Swain and O. N. Singh        

September 2012

Response of weed flora to conservation agriculture systems and weeding intensity in semi-arid Zimbabwe

A field study was conducted in the fifth (cowpea crop) and sixth (sorghum crop) seasons of a long-term conservation agriculture trial at Matopos Research Station to determine the effect of tillage, maize mulch rates and intensity of hoe weeding on weed density and community diversity. The experiment was a split-plot randomized complete block design with three replications. Tillage was the main plot factor; conventional...

Author(s): Nester Mashingaidze, Ignacio Casper Madakadze and Stephen Twomlow,        

September 2012

Ethnoecological appraisal of Acacia modesta Wall. common tree of dry ecosystem in Pakistan

Ethnoecological studies on Acacia modesta Wall. (Mimosaceae) growing wild in Dargai area of Malakand District (Pakistan), demonstrated a great demand due to the medicinal value of its flowers oil, gum, resins and sticks for honey bee. The plant as a whole is also valuable as fuel-wood and as construction material for income. Locally, common folk used it as fodder, timber, fencing, and household items and...

Author(s): Hassan Sher, Ali Aldosari and Shabir Ahmad        

September 2012

The effects of heading and benzyladenine applications on branching of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L. cvs. ‘Siah Mashhad’ and ‘Dovomras’) trees in nursery

This experiment was carried out to study the effects of mechanical and chemical treatments for developing the lateral shoot and increasing the quality of one year old sweet cherry (Prunus avium L. ‘Siah Mashhad’ and ‘Dovomras’ cvs) trees in nursery. In the first experiment, heading treatments (0, 40, 60 and 80 cm above ground) and in the second experiment, benzyladenine (BA) treatments (0, 200,...

Author(s): E. Ganji Moghadam and M. Zamanipour        

September 2012

Jujube post-harvest fruit quality and storagability in response to agro-chemicals preharvest application

The present study was conducted on Peyuan jujube cultivar (Ziziphus Mauritania Lamk) during the two successive seasons, 2010 and 2011 at Research and Agricultural Experimental Station, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia in order to investigate the effects of preharvest application of putrescine (Put), gibberellic acid (GA3), salicylic acid (SA), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), cytofex (CPPU) and calcium chloride...

Author(s): R. S. Al-Obeed   .  

September 2012

The role of chemical cues in host-plant selection by adult female Homoeosoma electellum (Hulst) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and Cochylis hospes Walsingham (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

The sunflower moth, Homoeosoma electellum (Hulst), and banded sunflower moth, Cochylis hospesWalsingham, are important insect pests of cultivated sunflower, Helianthus annuus L., in North America. We tested whether females and larvae of the two species were able to differentiate between different phenological stages of sunflower heads, as well as whether females of the two species...

Author(s): Maboko S. Mphosi and Stephen S. Foster        

September 2012

Effect of drying conditions and harvest time on soybean seed viability and deterioration under different storage temperature

Quality attributes of seeds may decline during storage. Quantifying loss of seed germination during storage has given rise to an equation proposed by Ellis and Roberts that, “same rate of seed deterioration will take place among seed lots of a species in identical environments”. This study was conducted to determine whether deterioration will take place at the same rate, and also to evaluate the factors that...

Author(s): A. Abbasi Surki, F. Sharifzadeh and R. Tavakkol Afshari        

September 2012

Effect of two patterns of forest rehabilitation on soil enzyme activity and its relationship with soil fertility

Soil enzyme activity and their seasonal variation-vertical distribution, the relationship between soil enzyme activity and soil fertility were measured on the two different patterns of forest rehabilitation with the methods of fixed sample plots, mechanical sampling and conventional enzyme activity- physicochemical characters determination. The results showed that the ranked order of urease and cellulose activity...

Author(s): Shujiang Li, Yan Peng, Tianhui Zhu, and Hanmingyue Zhu        

September 2012

Crop coefficients and yield response factors for onion (Allium Cepa. L) under deficit irrigation and mulch practices in Samaru, Nigeria

This report presents a study of crop coefficient (Kc) and yield response factors (Ky) for onion crop cultivated under deficit irrigation and different mulch covers in Samaru, Northern Nigeria. The field experiments were conducted at the irrigation fields of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) irrigation field in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 irrigation seasons using surface irrigation method. The experiments...

Author(s): Henry E. Igbadun and Ezekiel Oiganji        

September 2012

Combining ability analysis of days to silking, plant height, yield components and kernel yield in maize breeding lines

The present study was carried out to determine the combining ability for yield and yield associated traits by crossing 8 diverse maize inbred lines in a half diallel mating design. Twenty eight F1 progenies along with their parents were planted in randomized complete block design with four replications in two environments. Combined analysis of variance showed significant mean squares of general combining ability (GCA)...

Author(s): Mohammad Hossein Haddadi, Maqsadollah Eesmaeilof, Rajab Choukan and Valiollah Rameeh        

September 2012

Design of digital weight transfer display for agricultural tractors

A microcontroller based digital display unit was developed for 2WD agricultural tractors to measure and display the weight transfer from tractor front axle. The device includes a transducer for measuring the tractor front end reaction, an amplifier to amplify the transducer signal and a microcontroller to calculate and display the weight transfer from the front axle. The developed device can be mounted on any make and...

Author(s): A. Ashok Kumar, K. P. Pandey and A. Srinivasarao