Soil erosion is a major threat to sustainable agriculture in the humid tropics. Management practices adopted to control soil erosion and improve soil quality include mulching and the use of Vetiver Grass Strips (VGS). Integrating VGS with mulch could be more effective in controlling soil erosion than VGS or mulching alone. However, information on the effectiveness of combined utilisation of VGS and Vetiver Mulch (VM) in controlling soil erosion and improving crop yield is scanty. Therefo...
ABSTRACT Use of single soil specific extractants to determine plant available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium for crops such as bell pepper, are costly, laborious and time wasting. Bell pepper, rich in antioxidants, requires phosphorus and potassium for high quality fruit yield. Mehlich-3 (M3), a multi-purpose extractant could extract phosphorus and potassium simultaneously. However, M3 has not been evaluated and adapted for Nigerian soils. Therefore, M3 as a multi-purpose extractant o...
ABSTRACT Pepper a perishable seasonal fruit, requires storage to extend its shelf-life. Appropriate postharvest handling and storage prolong longevity and preserve quality of Pepper Fruit (PF). However, there is dearth of information on its handling and storage in Southwest Nigeria. Therefore, the effects of postharvest handling methods and storage conditions on storability of PF were investigated. Two hundred Pepper Fruit Marketers (PFM) were randomly selected from pepper markets in Ibadan,...
ABSTRACT Crop Rotation (CR) and planting of Cover Crops (CC) are important methods of weed management for sustainable crop production. These and various other methods are usually integrated to enhance weed management in crop production. While reports abound on integrated weed management involving these and other practices, there is inadequate information on integrated use of Pre-emergence Herbicides (PH), CC, and CR in maize production. Therefore, effects of continuous use of CC with PH were...
ABSTRACT Fifteen genotypes of okra were evaluated in eight environments for stability of seed yield, and also to identify the most suitable environments for producing high quality seed at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria from 1984 to 1986. There was significant genotype x environment interactions for all characters examined except for percent seed germination. On the average, highest seed yield and best seed quality as measured by percent seed germination were associated with environments wi...
ABSTRACT High and sustainable kenaf production in a fragile tropical soil requires the use of soil amendments. Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (AM) are important for nutrition of plants in nutrient depleted soils of the tropics. Due to insufficient information on kenaf production using fertilizers and AM, the effects of fertilizers and AM on soil chemical properties, growth and fibre yield of kenaf were investigated. Screenhouse and field experiments were conducted at the Institute of Agricultural Res...
ABSTRACT Soil erosion is a major threat to sustainable agriculture in the humid tropics. Management practices adopted to control soil erosion and improve soil quality include mulching and the use of Vetiver Grass Strips (VGS). Integrating VGS with mulch could be more effective in controlling soil erosion than VGS or mulching alone. However, information on the effectiveness of combined utilisation of VGS and Vetiver Mulch (VM) in controlling soil erosion and improving crop yield is scanty...
ABSTRACT Nitrogen is a major soil nutrient for the growth and development of crops. Nitrogen deficiency in-between pre-nodulation and nodulation in soya bean is critical to enhancing its growth and yield. Decision Support Systems for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT) model like CROPGRO-soya bean could be a useful tool for predicting starter nitrogen requirement in soya bean. However, information on starter nitrogen application to overcome Ndeficiency-induced-stress during early seedling growth...
ABSTRACT This research was carried out to determine the optimum cocoyam density, time of cocoyam introduction and poultry manure rates for sustainable plantain/cocoyam mixture. The experiment was a 3x3x2 factorial arrangement fitted into a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 18 treatment combinations replicated 3 times to give 54 experimental plots. The experiment was conducted in two phases; the first phase involved plantain and cocoyam planted the same time in the month of ...