Abstract: The livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Tigray region have been impacted by severe climate-related risks, including highly unpredictable rainfall and severe droughts. This study focuses on the densely populated semi-arid areas of Tigray (northern Ethiopia), where increasing land productivity is the only way to produce food sustainably. It is predicted that climate change will make some current issues worse and bring up new risks that go beyond what is now known. The Tigray re...
Abstract: At Fincha’aa sugarcane plantation, the whole part of the cane is used for planting. However, this has affected cane establishment, yield and profit for cane production. Therefore, this study was designed to identify cane portions which enhance sugarcane establishment for improved cane productivity. A field experiment was conducted during 2022/2023 to determine the effect of different cane portions/cuttings on percent sprouting, subsequent growth and cane yield of sugarcane variet...
Abstract: Maize is becoming an important cereal crop in Ethiopia due to its use as sources of food security and income. However, the productivity of the crop inhibited by insufficient application of NPSB fertilizer rates and gaps intra row spacing. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at Metta District to determine the effects of application of different rates of blended NPSB fertilizer and intra- row spacing on growth, yield components and yield of maize and to evaluate the cost bene...
Abstract: Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor(L.)Moench] is the most important staple crop in Ethiopia and cultivated in a wide range of elevation and rainfall conditions .In the dry lowland areas of Ethiopia. Sorghum production and productivity is constrained by various abiotic and biotic factors including parasitic weed Striga. Several studies revealed that, the effect of Striga on sorghum can vary from 40% to 100% yield loss. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the best combinatio...
Abstract: Studies were carried out to establish the role and significance of rice stem borers as pests of rice crop in irrigated low land rice ecosystems in Tanzania; and to evaluate the effectiveness of some management options against the pest. A survey by means of structured questionnaire was init ially used to assess the farmer’s perception on rice stem borers and their management practices in three wards of Kilombero district in Morogoro Region, namely, Mkula, Sanje and Signali. This w...
Abstract: Cowpea is one of the 14 species of grain legumes. It rewards insects by producing nectar and it advertises to the pollinators by producing floral volatiles. The volatiles act as cues that guide insect pollinators in terms of pollen and nectar. Floral volatile quality also influences the efficiency of pollination. Genetic manipulations involving selection of varieties with high quality floral volatiles and nectar can therefore increase pollination efficiency and hence cowpea yields....
Abstract: A study was carried out to isolate and identify the chemicals from sorghum and maize that determine the oviposition and feeding responses, respectively, of the moth and larvae of Chilo partellus a serious pest of these crops. Studies were carried out on a resistant and a susceptible cul ti var of maize (MP 704 resistant; INBRED A susceptible) as well as sorghum (IS 1044 resistant; IS 18363 susceptible). The allelochemicals were extracted sequentially with petroleum ether, ethyl ace...
ABSTRACT Modified three-way crosses involving advanced interspecific tomato hybrids (W x R), (R x W) and (W x T) at F12 generation and commercially cultivated tomato varieties namely Supersteak (S), Beef (Florida) (BF) and Plumb (Rio grande) (PR) were made to generate F1 hybrids. The F1 hybrids were crossed to both the pollen and seed parents to produce the backcrosses and were also allowed to random mate to produce the F2 and F3 populations. The parents, F1s, F2s, F3s, and backcrosses were ...
ABSTRACT Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. It is a major vegetable crop worldwide and develops rapidly, with a shorter time from planting to harvest than most crops. It is a monoecious annual climber or creeper that has been cultivated for over 3,000 years and is still widely cultivated today. The fruit is soft, succulent with high water content, roughly cylindrical and elongated with tapered ends. The plant shades one another, being allowed to creep on the ...
ABSTRACT Three field experiments were conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In the first experiment, the effects of fertilizer-N application and cutting management on establishment, growth and yield of guinea grass (Panicum maximum) were investigated. The experiment was a 4 x 4 factorial laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments comprised four levels of Ni...
ABSTRACT An effort to obtain a tomato cultivar that would adapt to high temperature and high humidity condition in the southern part of Nigeria in order to increase tomato yield in this part of the country has been in progress for the past nine years (2000-2008).The research was carried out at the Faculty of Agriculture Research Farm, University of Nigeria, Nsukka located in the derived savanna zone latitude 0.6o 52, N, longitude 07o 24, E, 447.26 m altitude. Three cultivated tomato varieties...
ABSTRACT Field trials were conducted in 2012 and 2013 cropping seasons on a naturally heavily striga infested field at the research farm of Federal University of Technology, Gidan kwano campus Minna to evaluate the effect of seed treatment, sowing date and trap crop in the management of Striga hermonthica. The experiment consisted of two varieties of sorghum (resistant ICSV1002 and susceptible Gwari local varieties), three different concentration of Parkia pulp powder (0, 66 and 100 g/l) and ...
ABSTRACT Field, greenhouse and laboratory studies were carried out at the Department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka in order to evaluate the leaf spot disease of eggplant and its management with some botanicals. Field survey of diseased plants was conducted on eggplant farm. Solanum aethiopicum L. plants were sampled on every 1 m distance along the diagonal transects for disease incidence and severity. Pathogen isolation from severely infected leaves was carried out in the lab...
ABSTRACT Promiscuous (naturally nodulating) IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) soybean (Glycine max (L) Merrill) varieties and elite varieties of maize (Zea mays L.) were evaluated in four experiments between 2007 and 2009, for their growth and yield responses to an area without history of soybean cultivation, some soil fertility management options and for soybean fertilizer replacement value (FRV) to companion and subsequent non-legume maize crop. These experiments were c...
ABSTRACT Cassava mosaic disease caused by begomoviruses is the most widespread disease of cassava in Africa. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) genetic analysis of an F1 population of cassava was carried out to identify new sources of CMD resistance. Genomic DNA extracted from parents and progeny was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR amplifications were run on polyacrylamide and agarose gels. SSR marker technology was used to identify markers linked to CMD resistance via bulk seg...