November 2010
Organic soil fertility amendments and tritrophic relationships on cabbage in Uganda: Experiences from on-station and on-farm trials
Organic soil fertility amendments may have direct or indirect pest management properties through an impact on crop characters and/or the pest’s natural enemies. This study was carried out to assess the effect of utilizing market crop wastes (MCW) as soil fertility amendments on tritrophic relationships of cabbage. The study was conducted on-station for three consecutive seasons; and was verified on-farm for one...
November 2010
Contribution of savings and credit cooperatives to food crop production in Swaziland: A case study of smallholder farmers
Using primary data collected in Ludzeludze and Bhekinkhosi/Mliba RDAs from 80 smallholder farmers in the 2008 cropping season, the study used a Cobb-Douglas production function model to analyze the contribution of savings and credit cooperatives to food production in Swaziland. The results from the analysis indicated that on average, members of savings and credit cooperative societies used capital worth E 6185.00,...
November 2010
Comparing alternative methods for conjoint analysis: A case of tomatoes in the German market
Conjoint analysis is a multi-attribute, decompositional and analytical method for estimating the consumer’s preference structure from a global evaluation of a set of alternatives on the basis of a series of different attributes and their possible combinations. Conjoint analysis is mature and widely used in the study of consumer goods, recently, this analytical technique is been used in the study of food, and to...
November 2010
Labour productivity among small- holder cassava farmers in South East agro ecological zone, Nigeria
The study employed a Cobb-Douglas regression technique to measure labour productivity in the southeast agro ecological zone. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 240 respondents from the zone in 2008. The study found gender and age to be negative and significantly related to labour productivity at 1.0% level of probability. The coefficients for fertilizer and hired labour were positive and also...
November 2010
Dietary fortification of a natural biosurfactant, lysolecithin in broiler
Responses to dietary fortification of natural biosurfactant were investigated using broiler performance, serum chemistry and carcass traits. A total of 996 day old broiler chicks (Cobb 500 strain) were weighed individually and randomly assigned into four groups and three replicates per group with 83 birds per replicate. Group I, (negative control) was fed a lower nutrient density test diet without Lysoforte Booster®...
November 2010
The effects of exogenous cytokinin application on sink size in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum)
To study the effect of exogenous cytokinin application on wheat yield, an experiment was conducted in 2005 - 2006. Three varieties of wheat (Azadi cross, Darab 2 and Niknezhad) and four levels of BAP (N6- benzyl amino purin) (0, 2, 4 and 6 mg/L) that were applied at the stage of ear emergence had been used. The results showed that treatments to which 4 and 6 PPM of BAP were applied had the highest flag leaf area...
November 2010
Assessing impact of soil management technologies on smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in north western Kenya
Soil nutrient depletion is a major constraint to agricultural production on smallholder farms in Kenya. Intervention in the depletion through soil management project (SMP) was initiated in 1994 through 2004. Phase one involved development of low cost technologies while phase two was designed to upscale the technologies. An impact assessment of the SMP project on the livelihoods of target beneficiaries...
November 2010
Technical efficiency of traditional and hybrid maize farmers in Nigeria: Comparison of alternative approaches
In this study, technical efficiency of traditional and improved maize farms as well as impact of technological innovation on technical efficiency were investigated. Two-stage procedure was followed. In the first stage, technical efficiency scores were obtained from four different models namely parametric stochastic distance frontier, parametric stochastic production frontier and two non-parametric distance frontiers and...
November 2010
Knowledge and utilization of job enrichment techniques among district agricultural officers in Botswana
In Botswana, agricultural extension services delivery is faced with problems of inadequate skilled manpower to carry out research and disseminate information to farmers and existing staff are not motivated to perform at optimum level, hence performance with productivity declines over time. Structuring jobs and roles correctly is very important in elevating the motivation of employees, which is addressed by job...
November 2010
Comparison of effectiveness of ISSR and RAPD markers in genetic characterization of seized marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) in Turkey
This paper presents results from comparison of effectiveness of Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR), Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), and ISSR and RAPD (ISSR-RAPD) markers together in characterization of Cannabisaccessions. The plant material used was common accessions of psychoactiveCannabis samples (a total of 17 accessions), which were used in discriminating drug type Cannabis from...
November 2010
In vitro micro-propagation of indigenous chick pea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars, KK-1 and Hassan-2K
Multiple shoot induction and plantlets regeneration ability from nodal explants of two indigenous cultivars of Cicer arietinum was investigated on MS+B5 medium supplemented with different concentration of Benzyl amino purine (BAP). Data were taken on shoot and root initiation, numbers, length (cm) and percent shooting for both varieties. Shoot initiation was best achieved on lower concentration (3 and 5...
November 2010
Coagulation efficiency of Moringa oleifera for removal of turbidity and reduction of total coliform as compared to aluminum sulfate
The use of Moringa oleifera seed extract as a primary coagulant for a local river water source was studied with respect to turbidity removal and total coliform reduction. Aqueous solutions of powdered M. oleifera seeds and conventional aluminium sulfate (alum) were evaluated. The quality of the treated water was analyzed using a standard jar test procedure and compared with that achieved using alum....
November 2010
Impact of climate variability on tomato production in Limpopo Province, South Africa
The relationship between tomato production, monthly average temperature and seasonal average temperature in Limpopo province, South Africa during the period of 1971 - 2006 were investigated using statistical regression analysis methods. The motivation for selecting Limpopo in this study lies in the 66% tomato contribution to the tomato industry in South Africa. The results showed yearly peak values of tomato in the...
November 2010
The Tswana tshimo: A homegarden system of useful plants with a particular layout and function
The Tswana tshimo (homegarden) is a model of sustainable resource management in South Africa. However, gardens of indigenous cultures are often considered to be spontaneous and disorganized. A reconnaissance survey of homegardens of the Batswana people in the North-West Province of South Africa examined the different use categories of garden plants, the indigenous and alien composition of garden floras, and determining...
November 2010
Development of an automatic self balancing control system for a tree climbing robot
The purpose of this project was to design, fabricate and test a self balancing control system for a four wheeled climbing robot. A HM-RF transparent wireless data link module was used for transferring the data between the remote control and robot. A programmed microcontroller ATmega16 was used to generate an appropriate signal for each of the remote control buttons. The control system balances the robot during the...
November 2010
Study on the prevalence of Ovine fasciolosis in and around Dawa-Cheffa, Kemissie
A cross sectional study was conducted to determine prevalence and risk factors associated with Fasciolosis in three selected areas of Dawa Cheffa district of Amhara regional state from October 2009 to March 2010. Faecal samples from a total of 384 sheep were subjected to coprological investigation. Based on the coprological investigation the overall prevalence of fasciolosis was 188 (49%). High prevalence was recorded...
November 2010
The yield and berry quality under different soil tillage and clusters thinning treatments in grape (Vitis vinifera L.) cv. Cabernet-Sauvignon
The effects of 3 different soil tillage treatments and 2 cluster thinning treatments on leaf water potential (Ψleaf), yield and quality parameters of Cabernet-Sauvignon were investigated in this study. The research was conducted (40°58'10.71 N, 27°28'21.71 E) in Tekirdag, Turkey. There were no statistically significant differences among tillage systems. Half of the clusters on a vine were removed at...
November 2010
Relations between air temperatures and mating behaviour of Spodoptera litura adults in nighttime in the tobacco field
Because it was previously shown that nocturnal moth larval behavior is influenced by both circadian rhythms and climatic variables, we pursued to investigate the relations between air temperatures and mating behavior of Spodoptera lituraadults. Nighttime recordings of adult movement showed a complex interaction between timing and temperature. We found maximum number of mating adults at 3:00 when the average...
November 2010
Evaluation of a core collection of Brassica rapa vegetables for resistance to Xanthomonas campestris pv. Campestris
The identification of juvenile resistance to isolates Xcc512 (race 1) and Xcc524 (race 4) of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) was performed in a screening of Brassica rapa vegetable core collection with 210 accessions representing the genetic and geographic diversity of the specie. Twenty-four plants per accession were screened against the isolates Xcc524 (race 4) and Xcc512 (race 1) at the third thrue-leaf....
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