ABSTRACT Thirty days old rice seedlings of 300 F5:6 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between a salt sensitive, IR29 (indica), and a salt tolerant, Hasawi (indica), were evaluated for salinity tolerance and thereafter QTLs linked to salinity tolerance were identified. Large variation in salinity tolerance among the RILs was detected. Final salinity injury scores ranged from highly tolerant to highly sensitive with a transgressive segregation towards sensitive parent. Howev...
ABSTRACT Field experiments were conducted simultaneously from April to July 2012 at agroecologies; Bambi (Latitude 06o 09’S, Longitude 039o 16’E; and Altitude 20m above sea level) Central District and Kizimbani (Latitude 05o 54’S, Longitude 039o 16’E; and Altitude 20 m above sea level) Western Unguja district. The aim was to investigate the effectiveness of selected cultural practices (weeding and hilling-up once, twice and thrice), vine portions (apical, middle and basal) and variet...
EXTENDED ABSTRACT A study was done to enhance the understanding of the diversity of begomoviruses and to identify tomato varieties resistant to Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCD) that can be used by farmers in the coastal belt of Tanzania. Twenty four out of 225 diseased leaf samples collected tested positive for DNA-A component for primer pairs VD360/CD1266 and VD360/AC1048. No DNA-B or satellites were detected. Their phylogenetic tree constructed with other closely related sequences f...
ABSTRACT Groundnut rosette disease is the most constraint to the production of groundnut causing annual economic loss of US $156 millions in sub-Saharan African countries. The present study evaluated 220 (F5) Recombinant inbred lines (RIL) derived from 12991 X ICGV 86124 resistant and susceptible parents respectively, for resistance to groundnut rosette disease so as to identify resistant Recombinant Inbred Lines (RIL) and markers linked to Groundnut Rosette Disease resistance. The RIL were ...
EXTENDED ABSTRACT The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is one of the most important food crops in Africa and the world that is in Tanzania produced in largest quantities in the central Regions where, however, yields are very low due to abiotic and biotic constraints. One of the most serious biotic constraints is the sweet potato weevil, an insect whose cryptic feeding nature of the very destructive larval stages makes chemical control often not effective. A survey was conducted in two Dist...
ABSTRACT Field experiments were conducted in two seasons at Sokoine University of Agriculture farm in Morogoro, Tanzania (6.850 S; 37.640 E and 568 m.a.s.l.) during the short rain (November 2014 to January 2015) and the long rain (March to June 2015). The experiment was a split plot in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 4 replications. Weed management practices (pre-emergence (ULTRA 2, 4-D), postemergence (Hansunil), hoe weeding (3x) and weedy) were the main plot treatments and f...
EXTENDED ABSTRACT Urban Agriculture is crucial to the supply of food especially fresh vegetables in many urban areas including Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In addition to the supply of food, it serves as a source of employment and income for many urban dwellers. However, the intensive and continued growing of vegetable on same piece of the land tend to trigger enormous pests pressure of diverse species which calls for the most effective and robust pest management practices. As such, most urban...
ABSTRACT Development of maize populations resistant to stem borers depends largely on the existence of useful genes or alleles, which can combine to confer resistance to progenies. Such genes are often available in areas of stress, having been responsible for the survival of such crops over the years. Pink stem borer, Sesamia calamistis (Hampson, Noctuidae) and sugarcane borer, Eldana saccharina (Walker, Pyralidae) are endemic in southeastern Nigeria. Damages caused by the larvae of these mo...
ABSTRACT Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are listed among the major fruit pests distributed in all fruit growing areas of the world. Fruit flies compete with human beings for food resources by causing direct damage to fruits and vegetables. The damage they cause brings about negative economic and social impacts to man since he depends on fruits for important food nutrients, employment and income. The fruit fly problem in Tanzania and Africa has been aggravated since the invasion of the ne...
EXTENDED ABSTRACT Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important cereal crop and staple food of over half the world’s population that provides 45-60% of the dietary calories. The global climate changes including increased heat affect negatively rice production and other crops resulting in increased food insecurity. The analysis of Induced gamma rays mutations from upland rice mutant lines was done to discover mutations in heat-tolerant genes (HSPs genes). Out of 64 putative heat HT mu...
ABSTRACT Despite the potential of improved sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) varieties in both root and fodder production, farmers are persistently cultivating local types without considering proper intensity and frequency of leaf removal to optimize both quality and quantity of roots. A study was carried out to determine growth responses of improved sweet potato varieties (Simama, Kiegea and Mataya) following leaf harvests; determine the effect of leaf harvest intensity on sweet potato root...
ABSTRACT A study was undertaken to assess the soil nutrients status on selected maize growing areas and determine combinations of nutrients to optimize yield. Soil samples were collected from10 villages where maize is the main food and cash crop. These areas were; Kipera, Lolanguru, Itema, Nyangahe, Farmnyamwezi, Malolo, Mpenge, Mawiti, Lyaudusi and Msange. Two composite samples were made from each village resulting to 20 samples. Field experiment was conducted at two villages (Kipera and Ny...
ABSTRACT Improvement of cowpea, pigeonpea and sorghum can be enhanced by knowledge of genetic diversity available between and within accessions. This variability is the foundation of all three crop improvement programs. A total of 85 accessions as 22 cowpea, 32 pigeonpea and 31 sorghum from Tanzania and Kenya gene banks were used for this study. Quantitative and qualitative traits such as, grain color, grain coverage, seed shape, days to 50% flowering, plant height, days to 50% maturity and ...
ABSTRACT Sorghum smut disease is one of the serious constrain in sorghum production especially when seeds are not treated before planting, where grain yield loss of up to 80% is reported in different parts of the world. A study was conducted to increase the potential of sorghum productivity by enhancing smut disease management in Central Zone of Tanzania. The field experiment was laid out in 6 x 4 (Sorghum varieties x fungicides) factorial in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with fo...
EXTENDED ABSTRACT The bean root rot disease mainly Pythium spp. is a major problem affecting bean production especially in the major bean producing areas of the Great lakes region including southwestern Uganda, Rwanda, western Kenya, northern and the southern highlands of Tanzania. The problem of Pythium bean root rot appears to be made worse by declining soil fertility, resulting from intensive land cultivation by the small holder farmers. Probably for a more sustainable farming system, br...