Tomato is a popular vegetable in Kenya and is extensively grown by small-scale farmers. In spite of the economic benefits to the farmers, insect pests remain one of the most significant constraints to tomato production. Current insect pests control measures rely on pesticides despite the known hazards to human health and the environment. Repeated use of pesticides has also led to the development of resistance by pests. Therefore, it is important to evaluate other pest control strategies ...
Industrial effluents, agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and residential wastes are the major sources of heavy metals in drinking water. Presence of heavy metals in drinking water is the cause of many diseases in human beings. Worldwide over six million people lack access to clean drink water. In Kenya it has been reported that sources of drinking water such as rivers, boreholes and wells are having heavy metals. In Bungoma Central Sub County, residents depend on River...
ABSTRACT Inadequate piped water supplies in urban centres is a growing problem; making communities resort to buying vended water. In recent years, vended water has become a major source of drinking water in most of the urban areas in the world. This study assessed the quality of vended water and its implications on price and health risks to households in Msimbazi sub catchment Dar es salaam, Tanzania. It involved assessing the physical, chemical and micro-biological quality of the vended wat...
ABSTRACT Recycled Low Density Polyethylene waste pollutes the environment since it is nonbiodegradable. This work investigates the enhancement of disposal of these wastes without compromising their tensile strength and permeability by blending Recycled Low Density Polyethylene with Cellulose. Injection molded blends of Recycled Low Density Polyethylene and Cellulose were prepared in percentage ratios of 100:0, 95:5, 90:10, 85:15 and 80:20. Dynamic mechanical analysis, creep, diffusion, therm...
ABSTRACT Globally in 2010, about 800 women died daily due to complications of pregnancy and child birth (WHO, 2010). Out of the 800 deaths, 440 deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, 230 in Southern Asia and only five in high-income countries. In Kenya, maternal death is the leading cause of death amongst women of child bearing age, overall maternal mortality ratio in Kenya remain high at 488/100,000 and could even be higher in rural sub-counties. In response to the rising burden of MMR, the...
ABSTRACT Agroforestry presents opportunities for adaptation to the impacts of climate change and variability in food security and livelihood development systems.According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Kenya is experiencing climate change and projections suggest that there would be more extreme weather conditions by the year 2030 and beyond. This would worsen the food insecurity and poverty situation currently observed in arid and semi-arid districts such as Machakos County. ...
ABSTRACT It is increasingly difficult to ignore the role of soil water management practices in watershed conservations. Watershed degradation has been a major intimidating problem in many catchments of developing countries, Tanzania inclusive. The general objective of this study was to analyze the limiting factors in soil water management practices of small holder farmers in Magamba sub-catchment of Lushoto District, Tanzania. Primary data was covered by use of structured questionnaire (for...
ABSTRACT Water hyacinth (Eichhornia Crassipes) invasion in Lake Victoria has become a matter of concern over the last two decades. There has been suggestion on the possibility of producing compost from water hyacinth as a way of managing the weed cover in the lake and at the same time help local farmers in the region boost their agricultural production by supplementing the use of commercial chemical fertilizers. However, the safety of using water hyacinth’s compost has to be investigated a...
ABSTRACT Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important cereal crop in Kenya with 90% of the total population relying on it as the main staple food. Post-harvest losses in maize is caused by insect pests such Sitophilus zeamais and Fungi such Aspergillus and Fusarium among others. Post harvest losses by insect pests can sometimes be up to 90 percent. Synthetic chemicals are used to manage weevil infestation and control mould development in maize. However, chemical residues have been detected on t...
ABSTRACT Banana (Musa spp.) is an important fruit and staple food crop globally. It is grown in over 140 countries on more than 11 million hectares, with current production of 145 million metric tons per annum, out of which about 30 % is produced in Africa. However, its production is limited by banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease caused by bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pathovar musacearum (Xcm) and Fusarium wilt disease (FWD) caused by Fusarium oxysporum subspecies cubense race 1 (Foc)....
ABSTRACT Antimicrobial resistance is reported to be on the increase due to gene mutations of the disease causing pathogens. It is believed that, new antibiotics with activities and structures different from those in current use could be found through ethnobotanical route. This requires a follow up of promising leads with attempts to isolate and identify the active principles from the medicinal plants. Two Kenyan plants Echinops hispidus Fresen. (Asteraceae) and Grewia similis K. Schum. (Tili...
ABSTRACT Kenya has prominent geographical features such as the Rift valley which gives rise to geothermal reservoirs which can be exploited to produce geothermal energy for power generation and heating; Lake Magadi, Suswa, Eburu, Menengai, Lake Bogoria as well as other areas are considered to have potential for power geothermal energy because of the geothermal manifestations. For above mentioned regions it is known that positive gravity anomalies within the Rift valley proper are superposed ...
ABSTRACT This thesis reports the results of a study aimed at optimizing pozzolanic activity of a blend of Rice Husks (RH), Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) and Broken Bricks (BB) to form pozzolana that would have pozzolanic activity comparable to natural pozzolanas. Four ratios of RH, BB, and SBE were burnt in the Fixed Bed Kiln (FBK). The starting ratio had 20 kg of RH, 0 kg of BB and 4 kg of SBE. The amount of BB was increased by 2 kg each to a maximum of 6 kg as the mass of SBE was kept consta...
ABSTRACT Integration of robotic arms into working tasks has currently increased magnificently in performing the very repetitive, dangerous or difficult tasks. Typically, a robotic arm is a mechanical arm that is programmable to mimic the behavior of a human arm in terms of how it functions. Computers and microcontrollers have widely been used in the control of robotic arms with the help of sensors, levers, buttons, wireless devices, just to mention but a few. More advanced technology has lat...
ABSTRACT Due to industrialization and increase in population, there is need for clean, green and renewable source of electrical energy. Traditional sources of electrical energy like fossil fuels are getting depleted, on the other hand silicon based solar cells are expensive hence the need for low cost and reliable alternative source of energy. Photovoltaic is a reliable energy source which is renewable. Photovoltaic is a process of conversion of solar energy to electricity directly using sol...