Menthol mint, corn mint or Japanese mint (Mentha arvensis) belongs to the family Lamiaceae, which is well-known for its aromatic and medicinal properties in the world, is asserted to have certain capabilities and to use modern technology. Studies on the phytochemistry of Mentha spp. found that it contains glycosides, which are flavonoids. The main chemical constituent i.e. menthol is used in cosmetics, as well as an alternative or complementary treatment for conditions like nausea, vomiting, ...
Rose flowers are considered an emerging nutraceutical due to their specific nutritional and medicinal properties. In ancient times, people used fresh rose petals or flowers to improve the flavor, taste and aesthetic appearance of foodstuffs. Petals of Rosa damascena, R. centifolia and R. indica, etc., are preferably used for extraction of rose oil and the making of gulkand and residual parts used as rose water. Among all the products, rose oil and gulkand are the most popular and demanding ...
ABSTRACT This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of inclusion of bio-char on milk yield and composition of dairy cows in the JUCAVM dairy farm. Ten milk samples (in three day interval for 30 days) were collected separately and aseptically from all treatments. The General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS version 9.2 were used to analyze milk yield and composition traits by using treatments and parity as fixed effect. The results showed that, milk yield was not significantly affecte...
Land degradation is a major cause of decreasing yields and loss of dryland ecosystems resilience in the Kenyan drylands. One of the solutions to land degradation is the application of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) technologies. However, adoption of SLM practices in Kenyan drylands is low. This study sought to enhance adoption of SLM practices by improving farmers capacity through social learning in a Community of Practice (CoP). The study employed Participatory Action Research (PAR) desig...
Despite the importance of Global-GAP standards in promoting production and marketing of quality French beans in Kenya, compliance is still low. Using data from randomly selected 492 French beans, farmers, the study sought to determine the link between risk preferences, Global-GAP certification, observed poverty, and vulnerability to future poverty. The study used social experiment and 5-point Likert scale to solicit risk attitudes parameters, binary Logit model to determine the effect of risk...
Scarcity and seasonality of supply of cereals (for human and livestock feed) causes fluctuation in quantity, quality and increase in feed cost. This results in poor livestock growth, low reproductive performance and high production cost. Prosopis juliflora pods have been used to mitigate this, but success has been hampered by their high content of anti-nutritive compounds (ANC); tannins, crude fibre (CF) phytic acid and aflatoxins. Fermentation has been reported to reduce ANC concentrations. ...
The goat industry plays a key role in provision of economic and social benefits to a significant population in Kenya. Therefore improving their performances would contribute to food security, poverty reduction and economic empowerment of resource poor rural households. Reproductive performances and estimation f response to selection are considered among the essential pillars of economic viability of dairy operations. This thesis evaluated reproductive performance and response to selection of ...
Small farmer commercialization was an indispensable pathway towards sustainable food security based on production specialization of food crops. The common staple food crops in Mwala and Yatta sub-counties which are the main semi-arid areas in Machakos County were green grams and pigeon peas. However, the factors affecting productivity and the resultant output for commercialization are not fully understood. The main objectives were therefore to assess the extent and determinants of the levels ...
Small scale potato enterprises play a central role in creation of jobs and wealth creation for 3.8 million potato farmers along the potato value chain in Kenya. Although, potato roduction and marketing emerges as a promising farm enterprise that can contribute to increased incomes fosmallholder potato farmers. There is little or lack of mpetitiveness among potato farmers.This study intended to fill this knowledge gap by determining the effect of entrepreneurial behaviour on the competitive ad...
Globally, sustainable intensification in rice growing systems and practices has been accelerating in response to the declining productivity trends and the high market demand, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where uptake of improved technology is low. However, in Oluch irrigation scheme, Rangwe Sub-County, Kenya, weak networks and low innovative capacity are associated with smallholder rice farmers’ which has significantly contributed to limited uptake of system of rice intensification (S...
About 60% of the Kenyan population is comprised of youth. Agriculture provides over 80% of employment opportunities and livelihood to Kenyans. However, while youth unemployment is rising, youth engagement in agriculture is declining. Kenya‟s service and industrial sectors have not created enough jobs for the youthful labour force. Declining youth engagement in agriculture has implications on household and national food and nutritional security, unemployment and underemployment which may und...
The role of agricultural extension is vital to the diffusion of new technologies, but extension is currently not very effective in many African nations, with conventional extension approaches having minimal impact. In Kenya, there have been gaps on the availability of studies and documentation of the specific extension approaches and their influence on the acquisition of knowledge and skills for improved farm productivity despite the various extension efforts and resources put in place in man...
In-silico predictions to project the response to selection in livestock breeding programmes are done to estimate the possible genetic and economic gains. In these predictions, genetic and phenotypic parameters from various studies are used as some of the input parameters. Since parameters are affected by various factors such as sample sizes and genetic gain is a function of these parameters, the sources from which these parameters are obtained should be accounted for. Reduction of genetic var...
Poultry farmers use a variety of non-conventional feed ingredients including rumen contents (RC) in order to be competitive. However, lack of appropriate knowledge on RC use limits famers to achieve optimum production. This study evaluated extent of use of RC in livestock diets and the effect of dried goat rumen contents (DGRC) as a partial replacement for fishmeal in broiler and layer diets was investigated in a bid to reduce feed costs. Extent of RC use in livestock diets was done by admini...
Endometritis is a uterine disease that interrupts cow reproductive cycles as a clinical (CLE) or subclinical (SCLE) condition between 21st and 90th days postpartum (dpp), resulting in suboptimal fertility, production and profitability in a herd. This study tested the hypothesis that suboptimal fertility and production performance of zero-grazed dairy cows on smallholder farms result from prevalent CLE and SCLE cases and multiple risk factors (RFs) at the cowand herd levels. The specific objec...