Asian Research Journal of Agriculture

The study was conducted to examine the involvement of youth in poultry production in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State. A total of one hundred and twenty five respondents were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected with the use of questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency count percentages and mean. Test of hypothesis was done using chi square. Findings show that more than half (59.2%) of the respondents were male, married (52.8%) while less than half (46.4%) had secondary school education with an average of 6 years farming experience. Most of the respondents (64%) were involved in poultry production specifically broiler production (86.4%). There was considerable high level of involvement in poultry production (64.0%). Years of farming experience (χ² = 8.12, p ≤ 0.05) was found to be significantly related with rural youth involvement in poultry production. The study therefore recommends that more youth should be encouraged in poultry production in other to improve their socio-economic status as well as enhancing animal protein sufficiency.

The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of aqueous 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on postharvest quality of carrots and to compare with/to gaseous 1-MCP and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) treatments. Carrots initially washed with tap water were distributed into 4 batches the first of which was subject to aqueous 1-MCP application, the second to the gaseous 1-MCP application, the third to MAP and the fourth left non-treated as a control. Carrots were placed in clamshell polyethene terephthalate (PET) boxes except MAP-treated ones and stored 23 ± 1°C for 10 days. During the 10-day period, carrots were evaluated by tracking weight loss, firmness, color, headspace gas composition, total soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, carotenoid content and decays. The results showed that gaseous 1-MCP application may have the potential for delaying postharvest quality losses by restricting decay ratios for carrots held at room temperature. Aqueous 1-MCP and MAP applications were however found to be inefficient suppressing or delaying postharvest quality losses.

This study was conducted in the field to evaluate the effect of onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV) on growth and yield of onion seed crop of two local onion genotypes (var. "Saggai" and Shendi"). It evaluated the possibility of alleviating the disease expression through the use of phosphorus and foliar spray (ADB) fertilizers. OYDV caused pronounced stunting of plants and reduction of leaf length, leaf width, and height and diameter of floral stalk. The virus infection was also associated with significant reduction in yields as demonstrated by umbel size and number of fertile florets carried by the small heads. Nutrition (phosphorus and ADB) was found to have a profound enhancement on growth and seed yield and seed quality of onion plants infected with OYDV. This was demonstrated by a substantial increase in the size of var. "Saggai" leaves (31.0% in length, 17.2% in width) and in the size of "Shendi" floral stalks (28.6% in height, 33.3% in diameter) in response to phosphorus plus foliar spray or phosphorus alone. Significant improvement in yield components, particularly in umbel size and number of fertile florets was obtained from both onion genotypes. The umbel diameter and number of fertile florets decreased in infected plants of cv. "Saggai" by 42.2% and 47.0% and in "Shendi” by 19.1% and 30.6%, respectively. Consequently, the loss in the final seed yield was substantial with reductions of 47.1% and 32.5% in "Saggai" and "Shendi", respectively. Although "Shendi" was comparably affected in its growth parameters to cv."Saggai", but it was affected considerably less in the yield components indicating that "Shendi" is perhaps tolerant to OYDV infection as far as the seed yield is concerned. However, the response to nutrition under test was noticeable for both onion genotypes in all growth and yield components including the final seed yield.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important cereal crop for most countries in the sub-Saharan Africa. Nitrogen (N) deficiency and aluminium (Al) toxicity are among the abiotic stresses leading to low maize productivity. Lack of N and Al toxicity in soil entails, in most cases, application of nitrogenous fertilizer and lime to ameliorate N deficiency and Al toxicity in the soil respectively. However, excessive application of nitrogenous fertilizers and lime may lead to environmental pollution and unavailability of nutrients due to increased pH respectively. To maximize yields and profits, the use of maize genotypes with high N-use efficient which are tolerant to Al toxicity presents a sustainable approach in this scenario. The objectives of this study were therefore i) to evaluate the effect of varying concentrations of N and Al in hydroponics, on genotypic responses of tropical maize and ii) the prospects of selecting genotypes with dual ‘N use efficient’ and ‘Al tolerant trait’. An experiment was carried out in a 9 x 3 x 2 factorial scheme under hydroponic conditions with nine maize genotypes (CML 538, CZL 113, CML 134, CML 537, CML 312, CML 489, CZL 112, CZL 0814 and CML 444) submitted to three nitrogen doses (0, 21.3 and 42.6 mg L^-1) and two aluminum doses (0 and 20 mg L^-1), completely randomized design with two replicates. Results showed a significant difference among the genotypes with CZL 0814 genotype identified as the best performing genotype in hydroponics across N and Al concentration levels. However, consideration of variance components showed that N main effect contribution on genotypic performance was lower compared to Al and genotypic main effects. These results imply that availability of N for plant uptake could have been affected by the availability of Al in solution. Evaluation for dual trait, N use efficiency (NUE) and Al tolerant requires assessing genotypes for N stress factor and further subject the candidate genotypes to Al stress or vice versa.

Aims: The environmental advantages of organic over conventional agriculture have gained increasing importance in the last decades. The organic agriculture discourse has been mainly propelled by food-sufficient countries in the West and the emerging economies in Asia. Strangely, it has not attracted similar attention in Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture plays a significant role in the economy, is a key livelihood activity for most inhabitants and food insufficiency is rampant. The objective of this paper is to comparatively analyze sustainability aspects of conventional and organic agriculture, using the common cabbage, Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata.

Study Design:  We apply the randomized complete block design.

Place and Duration of Study: Centre de Formation du Noun (CEFAN), in Noun division, in the western region of Cameroon, between August and October 2016.

Methodology: 1250 cabbage plants were planted on 10 equal and randomly selected plots. 5 replications were each subjected to conventional and organic practices. Plant parameters such as leaf area, plant height, survival rates, plant yields and soil pH were recorded from randomly selected plants from all plots, and used to estimate economic and ecological sustainability dimensions.

Results: Data analysis revealed that all captured parameters with the exception of soil pH were higher on average in the conventional agriculture plots. Survival rates and subsequent gross margin were significantly higher for conventionally cultivated cabbages (X²=.05, P=.04 respectively).

Conclusion: We therefore conclude that in agriculture-dependent economies at lower levels of development where market differentiation is highly deficient, conventional agriculture should be the preferred practice.