Abstract An experiment in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica investigated the consequences of three land-use treatments applied following forest clearance on soil fertility and resulting crop growth over a five year period. The treatments were: maintained weed-free without cultivation (bare); cultivated with herbaceous crops (agriculture); and cultivated with herbaceous crops and intercropped with Calliandra calothyrsus contour hedges (agroforestry) and compared with an uncleared secondary forest...
Agricultural products like Cocoa, Palm Kernel/ Oil, Groundnut, Cotton, Timber amongst others, formed the bedrock of the Nigerian economy in the pre-independence period. Hence, non-oil exports sustained the Nigerian economy and served as the source of the country's foreign exchange earnings from around 1 900 up to 1965. However, the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity resulted to a decline in the agricultural sector. Revenue generated from the non oil export began to declin...
Low income of the arable crop farmers is sine qua-non to abject poverty associated with most of the farmers;hence the study evaluated the determinants of poverty among arable crop farmers using sustainable soilmanagement techniques (SSMT) in Imo State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used toselect 209 arable crop farmers for this study. Information on the objectives of this study was elicited from thesampled respondents through a well structured questionnaire. Data were ana...
Abstract Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face several challenges that include pests and diseases. Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) reduce crop yields and affect their quality. They are an emerging threat to smallholder agriculture with several species attacking economically important crops. In SSA, most PPN control strategies are therapeutic and therefore unsustainable. Cost-effective nematode management strategies that promote soil health and enhance soil suppressiveness agai...
ABSTRACT The study is to the assessment of the role of government financial institutions in the development of agriculture in Nigeria. The practice of government financial institutions in Nigeria is culturally rooted and dates back many years to the poor performances of the agricultural sector in the country’s economic developments which can be attributed to the traditional way of farming on the part of the small scale farmers. The objectives of study are to assess the impacts of government...
ABSTRACT Quality protein maize (QPM) contains nearly twice as much usable protein more than normal maize. Since 2001 QPM varieties have been disseminated in the country to small scale farmers for production and adoption. The thrust of this study was to determine the adoption of (QPM) technology and examine the factors that influence its adoption by farmers. Primary data was collected from randomly selected 120 smallholder maize farmers in four villages of northern Tanzania (Babati and Hai) d...
ABSTRACT West African rainfall variability plays an essential role in the economies of West African countries it has a major influence on industrial and agricultural production, which is largely, weather dependent. This plays an important role in food security and water availability. This work focuses on the West African Monsoon (WAM) jump and its implication for rain-fed agriculture in the Transition and Coastal Savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana. In this study, the seasonal rainfall va...
ABSTRACT Recently, there has been emergence in the use of semi-formal credit provided by devolved government in enhancing farm and off-farm enterprises. Despite the potential of the credit offered by devolved governments in terms of enhancing rural farm household welfare, little is known about the effect of this type of credit on household income. This study therefore, examined the effect of semi-formal credit use on household income in Kakamega County, Kenya. The study aimed to contribute ...
ABSTRACT This research work assesses the impact of agricultural policies on Nigerian economy. The study covered the key issues on Nigerian agricultural policies especially as it concerned the formulation and implementation of agricultural policies and programmes as well as their achievements in the agricultural sector in Nigeria. The study contends that government’s agricultural policies over the years in Nigeria recorded partial success going by the fact the country still face problems of ...
ABSTRACT This research work is centred on an assessment of agricultural literacy needs of cassava farmers in Ika North East LGA of Delta State. The purpose of the study was to assess the agricultural literacy needs of the cassava farmers. Five research questions were used to guide the study. A sample of 75 made up 41 male and 34 female cassava farmers in Ika North East LGA were used. The research design used for this study was the descriptive survey method and the instrument used is the quest...
ABSTRACT This study examines long run economic cost of HIV/AIDS on agriculture. Twenty-two African Countries were identi- fied through purposive sampling. The sampling procedure helped to identify 1420 affected households. However, 1300 observations were found suitable for the subsequent analysis. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics and Overlap- ping Generation (OLG) model. The causes of high prevalence rates are the issue of poverty, fertility, myth and migra- tion among others. Fa...
ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to look at the effectiveness of climate change adaptation strategies in Chirumanzu District. The study took into cognizance the fact that climate change has affected the livelihoods of communities and sought to find out how communities have adapted to climate change. Qualitative approach was used as it gave vivid descriptions of climate change impacts, community response and adaptation. Interviews, focus group discussions and observations were the tools impl...
Abstract: Climate change and agriculture are strongly correlated, and the fast pace of climate change will have impacts on agroecosystems and crop productivity. This review summarizes potential impacts of rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations on insect pest-crop interactions and provides two-way approaches for integrating these impacts into crop models for sustainable pest management strategies designing. Rising temperatures and CO2 levels affect insect physiology, accelerat...
Abstract Human existence relies on solar energy either directly or indirectly and the world at large cannot continue to exist, remain or live without the solar energy. Solar power in Nigeria can serve as a source of sustainable energy if fully utilized due to abundant availability all year round energy and its regular appearance on daily basis in the sky under a friendly environment. The maximum output current and power of solar panel used in harvesting solar energy are obtained at sola...
Agriculture forms the backbone of Kenya's economy contributing 30% of the country's GDP. However, little is known about the prices, supply and demand of fruits and vegetables. Market price information is a very important agricultural concern which can be enhanced by big data and machine learning techniques like predictive analytics. This research work was based on developing an agricultural commodity price prediction application that uses a machine learning model on appropriate data to facili...