December 2013
Distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) characterization on phenological traits and assessing the diversity of inbreds in maize (Zea mays L.)
Maize is one of the economic crops of global importance. Protection of Plant varieties and Farmers Right Act (2001) insists on Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) characterization of extant, farmers and new varieties and recommends the registration of varieties for any one specific novel character. Studies initiated to develop morphological characters in seventeen inbreds including 16 domestic inbreds (UMI...
December 2013
How far do egg markets in India conform to the law of one price?
Growing demand for eggs in India is also accompanied by its production at six per cent compound annual growth rate. The law of one price states that in an efficient market, all identical goods or commodities should have a single price. Johansen’s cointegration test was done to identify whether spatially separated egg markets in India share a common linear deterministic trend and the law of one price holds true....
December 2013
An assessment of andrographolide production in Andrographispaniculata grown in different agro-climatic locations
An interlocational study was carried out to assess the effect of different agro-climatic locations on the secondary metabolite production in the medicinal plant Andrographis paniculata. Three accessions of A. paniculata were grown in three different locations of India differing in climatic conditions in RBD experimental plots. The andrographolide content in the plant samples of three accessions of A. paniculata was...
December 2013
Response of new rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties to different levels of nitrogen fertilization in Zimbabwe
The new rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties were bred and released in West Africa. This rice has high yield, good quality and other agronomic traits that include adaptability to harsh environments found in Africa. Zimbabwe, recently introduced NERICA varieties, however, the best performing NERICA varieties under local conditions were not known and the optimum level of nitrogen fertilization for those varieties was...
December 2013
Impact of water deficit on growth attributes and yields of banana cultivars and hybrids
Water deficit is one of the most important factors to limit banana productivity in the world, especially in dry and semidry areas where large fluctuation in the amount and distribution of the rain these areas faces. Some cultivars and hybrids have a set of physiological adaptations that allow them to tolerate water deficit and the degree of morphological and physiological adaptations may vary considerably among species....
December 2013
Effect of job characteristics on satisfaction and performance: A test in Egyptian agricultural extension system
The current study tested core dimensions of the job characteristics model (JCM) among extension agents in Egyptian agricultural extension system. Agricultural extension system was chosen due to its importance in achieving sustainable agricultural strategy 2030. The paper examines the effect of core job dimensions on both affective responses represented by satisfaction, and behavioral responses represented by...
December 2013
Application of earthworm urine via apical bud or stem-base: Differential effects on the growth of organs of the leafy-vegetable amaranthus
The present study was undertaken to determine how direct administration of earthworm urine to the apical bud or to the stem-base of the leaf-vegetable crop amaranthus affected the growth performance of the apical and axillary buds, stem girth and roots of the crop. Apical application significantly facilitated the growth of both apical and axillary buds, and the general growth of the whole plant. For agricultural...
December 2013
Effect of weed control methods on yield and yield attributes of soybean
Two field experiments were conducted at the experimental farm of Agronomy, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar Campus in the kharif seasons of 2004 and 2005 to study the effect of various weed control methods on yield and yield attributes of soybean. All weed control measures registered significantly higher seed yields of soybean than weedy check. However, weed free...
December 2013
Life history and predatory potential of eleven spotted beetle (Coccinella undecimpunctata Linnaeus) on cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley)
Cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley) proved a menace to subcontinent south East Asia economy since 2005. After introduction of this notorious Caribbean pest it was necessary to identify biological control agents in country which exist in prevailing environment and successfully suppress the pest. In this study eleven spotted ladybird beetle (Coccinella undecimpunctata Linnaeus) proved the best predator whose...
December 2013
Turkey farming: Welfare and husbandry issues
A review was undertaken to obtain information on the major welfare issues associated with turkey farming. In the hatchery there are some negative effects of long term storage of turkey fertile eggs on post-hatch growth and quality of chicks. There is a view that free range turkeys housed on deep litter in naturally ventilated sheds with natural light and access to forage and shelter belts is beneficial to bird welfare....
December 2013
Effect of timely application of alternated treatments of Bacillus thuringiensis and neem on agronomical particulars of cabbage
Diamondback moth (DBM) Plutella xylostella is an economical pest of cabbage. Chemical pesticides constitute so far the major tool for pest management. However, the use of botanical pesticides and microbial is also considered. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of alternating treatments of Bacillus thuringiensis and Neem on agronomic particulars of cabbage as compared to solo and chemical applications....
December 2013
Antifungal activity of cow urine distillates of local botanicals against major pathogens of bell pepper
Cow urine distillates of botanicals viz, Ranunculus muricatus, Melia azedarach, Vitex negundo, Eupatorium sp. and Murraya koenigii and cow urine alone were evaluated at 0.5, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0 and 10.0% concentrations under in vitro conditions against bell pepper pathogens namely Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Sclerotium rolfsii, Phytophthora nicotianae, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. capsici, Fusarium solani...
December 2013
Variability and predictability of productive and body traits of Fulani ecotype chicken
Improvement of the domestic chicken has dominated the effort of indigenous breeders in Nigeria in recent times. Three hundred and fifty-seven (357) Fulani ecotype chickens were surveyed and assessed for their phenotypic and productive characteristics in Osun State, Nigeria. Mature weight (kg), comb size, wattle size, breast length, breast width, leg length (all in cm); egg weight (gm), clutch size were examined and...
December 2013
The economic study of production and exportation of selected products from Iran
This paper presented an examination of Balassa’s ‘revealed comparative advantage’ (RCA). The results of the research showed that using the RCA should always be attuned in such a way that it becomes symmetric.This paper consisted of three major sections: The theoretical section, the analytical tool and the case studies of comparative advantage’ (CA). First, we evaluated the theory and various...
December 2013
Effect of water regimes and organic sources of nutrients for higher productivity and nitrogen use efficiency of summer rice (Oryza sativa)
Field experiment was conducted at farmers’ field of old alluvial zone (Manikchak, Malda) of West Bengal, India during winters of 2007-2009 to study the effect of water management practices with different combinations of integrated plant nutrient supply including lathyrus green manure, vermicompost, poultry manure, chopped rice straw on productivity and nitrogen use efficiency of irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.)....
December 2013
Optimum sowing dates and varieties for seed productivity of pole Frenchbean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) under north western Himalayas
Optimum sowing time and a promising variety are of prime importance to harness potential yield of any crop. Pole frenchbean is cultivated as a potential off-season crop in north-western hilly areas where information on these important agronomic aspects is lacking. Keeping this in view, a field experiment was conducted for two consecutive years during June to September 2007 and 2008 by following split plot...
December 2013
Benefits of donkeys in rural and urban areas in northwest Nigeria
The objective of this study is to explore the benefits of donkeys for rural and urban smallholder farmers in northwest Nigeria. We visited 112 smallholder donkey farmers located in rural and urban areas from four states in northwest Nigeriathrough four focus group meetings, interviews with individual farmers and in depth interview with 12 key informants. In addition, 80 citizens were interviewed about their perception...
December 2013
Effect of environmental factors on hybrid seed quality of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea)
The trinity of parental line superiority, climatic conditions during crop growth and effective cross-pollination is the decisive factor to reap best quality hybrid seed. In order to study the effect of environmental factors during sowing time on hybrid mustard seed quality, freshly harvested hybrid seeds from three plots sown on 21st October (D1), 30th October (D2) and 18th November (D3), 2009-2010 were tested for...
December 2013
Lantana camara and Tithonia diversifolia leaf teas improve the growth and yield of Brassica napus
Vegetable production is an economically viable enterprise in Zimbabwe. The most commonly grown leafy vegetable is Brassica napus (rape). The productivity of this vegetable is affected by poor soil fertility, with nitrogen being the most limiting nutrient. An experiment was carried out to evaluate the use of two invasive weeds Lantana camara and Tithonia diversifolia as leaf teas on harvestable biomass production of...
December 2013
Knowledge and perception of extension agents on information and communication technologies (ICTs) use in extension service delivery in Ondo State, Nigeria
This study determined the knowledge and perception of Extension Agents (EAs) on information and communication technologies (ICTs) use in extension service delivery in the two Agricultural zones of Ondo State. Fifty EAs were randomly selected from each zone. Validated questionnaire was used for data collection and appropriate statistical tools were used to analyze the data collected. The results showed that half (50.0%)...
December 2013
Genetic divergence of Indica rice genotypes in saline and non-saline environmental conditions
Rice is staple food for Asian people and there is urgent need to produce more rice per unit area, which can be enhanced by possibly utilizing the unexplored germplasm for adverse climatic and soil conditions. Among the stress, salinity is profound and gaining prime importance in upcoming years; only possible way is breeding for salt tolerance by utilizing available genetic resources. This study was undertaken to...
December 2013
Inhibitory effects of Acremonium sp. on Fusarium wilt in bananas
An endophytic fungus, strain Q34, isolated from Kandelia candel (L.) Druce showed strong in vitro antagonistic activity toward Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (foc) race 4. The crude extract of the strain inhibited the growth of foc race 4 and caused conidial deformation. In gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, the crude extract showed 18 main peaks. Three substances from the main peaks showed strong...
December 2013
Clinico- sonographic evaluation based surgical management of urolithiasis in young calves
The objectives of study were to screen the calves as stone and non-stone formers, to manage the calves with obstructive urolithiasis by diversified surgical approaches based on clinical and sonographic assessment. The study was conducted in bovine calves (n=27), manifesting clinical urolithiasis. All these animals and 52 calves of age group 3 to 18 months presented with any form of ailments were included in screening as...
December 2013
Development of hydraulic normal loading device for single wheel test rig
A study was conducted to develop a hydraulic normal loading device for a single wheel test rig available in the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur. A hydraulic circuit was designed to apply additional normal load up to 2000 kg on wheel axle. The same circuit also can be used to remove 1350 kg load from the initial load. The circuit uses a fixed displacement pump, a 3-way-4 port-solenoid...
December 2013
Enhancing farm profitability by growing wheat for chapatti quality markets in Haryana, India
In field experiments in six districts of Haryana, best practice management (including zero tillage and 3-way split application of N-fertiliser) provided small (2%) improvements in grain yield when compared with local farmer practice. This best practice management also gave consistent improvement in chapatti quality as measured by grain hardness (11.4%) and chapatti score (3.2%). Where a ‘shot-gun’ mix of...
December 2013
ONVAREF: A decision support system for onion varietal reference
This paper presents the development of a decision support system (DSS) called ONVAREF for screening of new onion varieties being released. The system is a windows oriented, user-friendly, database driven, having excellent graphical user interface (GUI), designed using 4GL, which works on searching and matching principle to spawn large database comprising of dozens of characteristics suitable for judging originality of a...
December 2013
Activity of rice bran proteic extracts against Fusarium graminearum
The application of natural antifungal substances is motivated by the need for alternatives to existing methods that are not always applicable, efficient, or that do not pose risk to consumers or the environment. Furthermore, studies on the behaviour of toxigenic species in the presence of natural fungicides have enabled their safe application in the food chain. This study aimed to identify the fraction of the rice grain...
December 2013
Oil quality and aroma composition of ‘Chemlali’ olive trees (Olea europaea L.) under three irrigation regimes
The present work focused on the chemical composition of monovarietal virgin olive oil from the cultivar Chemlali cultivated in the South of Tunisia: sub-arid zone under three different irrigation regimes: stressed, moderate and well irrigation treatment with the restitution of 50, 75 and 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), respectively. Quality characteristics (acidity and peroxide value) and chemical data...
December 2013
Simple and multiple linear regressions for harvest prediction of Prata type bananas
This study aimed to fit regression models for harvest prediction in Prata type bananas. The experiment consisted of plants and bunches of bananas carried out in Guanambi, BA, with genotypes Dwarf Prata (AAB) and BRS Platina (AAAB), planted at a spacing of 3.0 × 2.5 m, with irrigation. Measurements of vegetative and yield characteristics were sampled at random. Models of simple and multiple linear regression were...
December 2013
Estimation of combining ability and heterosis of quality protein maize inbred lines
Maize plays a great role for human food in Ethiopia. Even if it is cultivated for food, most improved varieties released were normal maize which are devoid of lysine and tryptophan. Combining ability analysis is one of the commanding means in identifying the best combiners that may be used in crosses either to exploit heterosis or to accrue productive genes. The objectives of this study were to examine combining ability...
December 2013
Effect of feeding graded levels of camel blood-rumen content mixture on nutrient digestibility and carcass measurement of growing rabbits
A ten-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of camel blood-rumen content mixture (CBRCM) on the nutrient digestibility and carcass measurement of cross-bred (Dutch x New Zealand) growing rabbits aged between five and seven weeks. Forty five rabbits were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments of nine per treatment in a complete randomized block design experiment. The CBRCM was included at 0,...
December 2013
Effects of NERICA - Cowpea intercropping systems on yield components and productivity of NERICA and Cowpea
New rice for Africa (NERICA) 1 and 2 are rice types recently introduced to upland farmers of West Africa by AfricaRice. Farmers in Ghana usually intercrop rice with other crops such as cowpea. The new rice types however have not been assessed for their suitability as intercropping partners of the other crops (for example, cowpea) grown in the savannah uplands of Ghana. Experiments were conducted at the upland rice...
December 2013
Response of Nutripellet placement on Marigold yield and its components
Nutripellet Pack has 3 parts viz., top bioinoculant mixture, central manure pellet and bottom fertilizer pellet. On the top, bioinoculants mixture responsible for N2 fixation, P and Zn solubilization and biocontrol agents are placed as a powder or granules. Highly decomposed manure having C:N ratio below 30:1 enriched with P, micronutrients and pesticide/ fungicide is pelleted with pelleting device and placed at the...
December 2013
Ensuing economic gains from summer pearlmillet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) due to different dates of sowing and land configuration
This study was undertaken at Navsari, India (20.95°N 72.93°E, elevation of 10 m above Sea level) during summer season 2010 to work out effect of different land configuration and dates of sowing on pearlmillet. The results gained confirm that ridges and furrow along with early sowing date during summer season is beneficial to obtain higher net returns from pearlmillet crop. Ridges and furrow sowing of pearlmillet...
December 2013
Influence of spacing and fertilizer levels on the leaf nutrient contents of Bhendi (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) under drip fertigation system
Field experiments were conducted during 2010 to 2012 to study the effect of spacing and fertilizer levels on the leaf nutrient contents of Bhendi (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) under drip fertigation system at Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The treatments consisted two spacings (M1-60 x 45 cm and M2 - 60 x 30 cm) and eight drip fertigation levels. The...
December 2013
Studies on agricultural waste management through preparation and utilization of organic manures for maintaining soil quality
Solid waste management has become one of the vital issues to protect health and public safety. Preparation of organic manures like vermicompost, Farm Yard Manure (FYM) etc. from various organic wastes (agricultural wastes) will save our environment from pollution as well as application of these manures in agricultural land prevent those lands from the harmful effect of chemical fertilizers. With these views keeping in...
December 2013
Heterosis studies for fibre quality of upland cotton in line x tester design
Cotton fibre length, strength and fineness properties have vital influence textile industry. The developing high fibre length and strength cultivars or hybrids are essential to current modernized spinning mills. Therefore, the present study was carried out to assess the expression of per se performance and heterotic effect for fibre quality traits from 28 hybrids involving four adapted varieties as lines and the seven...
Advertisement
Advertisement
