Asian Research Journal of Agriculture

The objective of this research was to identify the reasons prompting the adoption of organic fertilizers in vegetable production and also to establish the factors that discourage organic fertilizer usage in vegetable production. Data from 50 purposively selected farmers based in Agotime-Ziope District was used. A binomial logistic regression analysis was fitted to a data of 50 farmers. Results show that five factors; X4 (Easy access), X5 (Less processing needed), X8 (More economical), X9 (Consumer preference of organic products), and X11 (Enhanced healthy ecosystem) were statistically significant in the prediction of the adoption of organic fertilizers with a predicted adoption rate of 93.64%. Furthermore, respondents were unanimous on “Doubtful efficacy”, “Health risk”, and “Labour intensive” as the factors that discourage organic fertilizer usage in vegetable production. It was therefore suggested that entrepreneurs and investors should be incentivized by Government through tax exceptions and subsidies among others things to put resources into setting up more more composting sites as composting help remove some portion of the constraints related with raw manure such as the need for drying which consumes time and increases opportunity cost. Finally, there is the need for consumer sensitization by nutritionists on the potential benefits of patronizing organically grown vegetables. This could expand the demand for organically grown vegetables and the willingness of consumers to pay premium price and hence stimulate organic production by farmers.

A field experiment was conducted in summer to evaluate the response of wheat to different potassium fertilizer rates on Cambisols of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The experiments were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design replicated three times with 4 levels of potassium (0, 30, 60, 90, K₂O kg/ha). Data on yield and yield components of wheat were collected and regression, as well as variance analyses, were done. Results depicted that wheat plant height, spike length, harvest index and 1000 seed weight were all not significantly influenced by K fertilizer rates. However, biological and grain yield of wheat was significantly influenced by potassium levels. Hence, the highest biological yield (straw + grain) and grain yield of wheat were obtained at the rate of 90 K₂O kg/ha. Besides, the highest N and K uptakes by wheat were found at 60 K₂O kg/ha. Similarly, the highest apparent K recovery and agronomic use efficiency were found at 30 K₂O kg/ha. Hence, it can be concluded that potassium fertilization is important and the levels in the blended formula did not meet the wheat requirement in the soil reference group. Thus, this study recommends application of potassium.

Solanum constitutes the largest and most complex genera of the Solanaceae family, many of which are economically important. However, seed germination of the majority of the cultivated species of general Solanum is a major constraint to its production. The objective of this study was to investigate the germination behavior of three Solanum species under three storage environments at different periods. Seeds of three accessions of the Solanum species: S. macrocarpon, S. nigrum and S. aethiopicum were used in this study. The processed seeds of each accession were partitioned into three equal parts and packed in aluminium cans. Samples from the three accessions were kept separately in three storage environments, namely: ambient, short and medium term conditions in February 2015. The stored seed samples were drawn at quarterly intervals starting from May 2015 to February 2016 which constituted three storage periods and evaluated for germination.  The laboratory experiment was conducted at Seed Testing Laboratory of the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) Ibadan, Nigeria. The experiment was arranged in 3 x 3 x 3 factorial using completely randomized design (CRD) in three replications. Results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that effects of Solanum species, storage environments, storage periods and their interactions were highly significant (P=.01) on germination. The germination values of 18.67%, 41.83% and 44.17% were observed for seed samples stored under ambient, short term and medium term conditions respectively. Also, germination decreased as storage period increased with values of 44.2%, 38.5% and 16.2% for the first, second and third quarters respectively. In conclusion, the result of the interactive effect of storage environments and periods on germination revealed that a medium storage condition is the best environment to store Solanum species seeds. However, <50% germination value observed in all the storage periods indicates that further studies could be carried out on effective dormancy breaking method for these species to enhance their germination.

This study intended to determine factors affecting the adoption of new technologies in rainfed paddy production practiced by smallholder farmers in the Central District-Zanzibar, Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was employed. A structured questionnaire, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant (KI) interviews were used to explore issues related to rainfed paddy production. 120 respondents who were engaged in rainfed paddy farming were selected from 4 village clusters (30 respondents in each village cluster) from December 2013 to January 2014. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression model. Results show that majority of respondents (55%) were female while 45% were male aging 19-59 years. The study revealed that rainfed paddy production technologies that were adopted by smallholder farmers included row planting, fertilizer application (P=.03), weed control and the use of improved paddy seed varieties (p= .04). Descriptive analysis results showed that the adoption level of technologies was high.  The logistic regression analysis showed that extension services, age, off-farm income and distance from residence to the marketplaces were factors that influenced the decisions of smallholder farmers to adopt technologies (p<.05). Researchers recommend that the government of Zanzibar should continue providing efficient extension services to smallholder farmers in order to ensure sustainability in the adoption of rainfed paddy production technologies in Zanzibar.

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the yield performance of five new hybrid combinations of tomato (DCH1, DCH2, DCH3, TCH1 and TCH2) along with BARI Hybrid Tomato-4 at the experimental field of Horticulture Department, Sylhet Agricultural University in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) under with and without hormone application systems (4-para chlorophenoxy acitic acid) during the summer season from May to September 2015. Both hybrids and hormone application systems had a significant influence on growth and yield of tomato during summer. The hybrid, BARI Hybrid Tomato-4 produced the highest number of fruits plant^-1 (22.67) and fruit yield plant^-1 (0.89 kg) closely followed by TCH1 (0.84 kg plant^-1). The hybrid DCH3 produced the heaviest individual fruit weight (46.65 g), but its plant yield was only 0.63 kg. The number of fruits plant^-1, individual fruit weight and fruit yield were largely affected due to hormone application. Fruit yield plant^-1 was quite high in the hormone-treated plant (0.82 kg) compared to untreated plant (0.68 kg). In general, all the hybrids performed better when treated with the hormone in respect of yield compared to their corresponding untreated plants. Among the hybrids, BARI Hybrid Tomato-4 had the highest fruit yield (1.03 kg plant^-1) followed by TCH1 (0.92 kg plant^-1) when the plants were treated with the hormone. These two hybrids again produced appreciable amount of tomato under untreated condition (0.75 kg plant^-1 and 0.77 kg plant^-1, respectively). This indicates that, there is a possible scope of tomato production during the summer season in Sylhet region with and without hormone application, though hormone application had benefit on fruit yield.