Agriculture

In this study the effect of land size on energy use of strawberry production in Iran was investigated. The data were collected from 110 farmers in 13 villages growing strawberry in Kurdistan province of Iran. The land size was categorized into 4 groups. Total input energy for the first group, second group, third group, and last group was 60556.6 MJ ha^-1, 49313.5 MJ ha^-1, 49823.7 MJ ha^-1, and 37234.1 MJ ha^-1, respectively. The difference between mean values of first group and last group was significant at the 5% significance level. The difference between mean values of other groups was not significant at the 5% significance level.

Agriculture is the most beautiful and easy profession in the world; yet marked by drudgery and exploitations. It is a beauty to behold nature: plants, animals, insects, air, water, soil, rock, food, medicine, drugs. It is prestigious and honourable to have food on the table: morning, afternoon and evening. It is very appetizing to have various food stuff and ingredients. Food is always delicious if not abused. A well fed man is a happy man. A hungry man is an angry and sad man. Food! Food! Food everywhere; yet they are unavailable and unaffordable. Something must be wrong: with ourselves or how we embrace agriculture. But nothing is wrong with agriculture; except where we checkmate and abuse nature, in the name of agricultural revolution and increased food production. This paper reviews agriculture in peril. Happy reading.

Subterranean termites Odontotermes sp. and Trinervieus sp. modify the soil properties through their mound- building activities, subterranean galleries, storage chambers, aggregate formation, aeration, organic content and soil fertility. Gut of subterranean termites are structured habitats with numerous microniches created by a combination of host and microbial activities with rich population of diazotrophs. The Azotobacter isolates of Odontotermes sp. and Trinervieus sp. worker caste showed a positive response in the production of enzyme dehydrogenase and biological exopolysaccharide. Biological exopolysaccharide producers influence soil quality cum plant growth increasing agricultural productivity.

This paper investigated the influence of cowpea characteristics on cowpea prices in Akure Metropolis of Ondo State, Nigeria, using an analysis of covariance model approach. A total of 104 cowpea sellers were randomly selected from chosen in the markets. Interview schedule with the aid of structural questionnaire was used to collect data from markets: Oja oba, Isinkan, Adedeji, Araromi, and Isolo in the study area. 12% of the cowpea sellers were from Oja-oba, 27.88% from Isinkan, 18.27% from Araromi, 16.35% from Adedeji and 15.38% from Isolo market respectively. 72.12% were female while the rest 27.88% were male. 64.42% of the cowpea sellers sold all the varieties of cowpea in the study area i.e. Peu/Drum, Sokoto white, Mala, Olo and Oloyin. 38.46% of the cowpea sellers sold Peu/Drum for its popularity. 44.23% of them sold Sokoto for its popularity. 30.77% of them sold Mala for customary reasons, 31.73% of them sold Olo for its popularity, 30.77% of them sold Oloyin for its availability and nutritive value. 49.04% of the cowpea sellers said that their customers use the cowpea bought for all it can be used for. From the study, 37.50% of the cowpea sellers said that their customers prefer Oloyin for whole grain cooking because of its colour and flavour, 8.65% of them said that their customers prefer Oloyin for whole grain cooking due to its quick cooking quality. 31.73% of the cowpea sellers said that their customers prefer both Peu/Drum and Sokoto for making fried balls (akara) because of its peeling and binding quality. 32.69% of the cowpea sellers said that their customers prefer both Peu/Drum and Sokoto for steamed cake (moin-moin) for its flavour and texture. The mean prices of peu/drum cowpea, sokoto white cowpea, mala cowpea, olo cowpea and oloyin cowpea are ?362.50, ?263.75, ?296.83, ?304.81, and ?393.85. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) which was used capture price-quality relationship of the type of cowpea purchased by consumers revealed that there is a significant relationship between the number of holes in each of the cowpea varieties and their respective prices in the various markets sampled in the study area. Hence, the numbers of holes appear to be the major determining factors affecting the prices of various cowpea types in the study area.

Potculture experiment was conducted to study the effect of different sources of phosphorus on soil phosphorus availability, uptake, yield and quality of groundnut. Four organic sources (farmyard manure, poultry manure, vermicompost and sewage sludge) were evaluated in comparison with single super phosphate, all applied on equal P basis @ 34 kg P2O5 ha-1. The six treatments, including a no-P as control were replicated four times in a completely randomized design.The results revealed that the addition of phosphorus markedly increased the phosphorus uptake and there by increased the pod yield. Among the sources poultry manure recorded the highest yield 0.4 g pot-1 and was followed by farmyard manure 37.1 g pot-1. Phosphorus sources significantly increased the oil content but no significant impact among sources. Phosphorus application significantly increased the crude protein percentage. Among sources, crude protein content was higher in poultry manure treatment (12.83). Highest available phosphorus content was recorded in poultry manure treated soil (28.5 kg ha-1) and Farmyard manure was the second best source of available phosphorus.

The present paper describes the effect of a single and an iterated use of organophosphorous insecticide chlorpyrifos on three species nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria. Treatment levels of 0.5 µg/ml-4.0 µg/ml were applied once or twice with two weeks interval. Graded concentrations higher than 2.5 µg/ml showed affect on the growth of cyanobacteria. Maximum yellowing was seen to be at 4 µg/ml in all three species. The reduction in bili protein started at 2.5 µg/ml concentration of the insecticide. Three algal species showed varying degrees of sensitivity to the insecticide. Calculated no observed effect concentration (NOEC) values after treatments were 0.021, 0.024 and 0.075mg/ml for first application and 0.17 and 0.19 and 0.064mg/ml after second application for Anabaena sp, Nostoc sp and Oscillatoria sp respectively. Normal agricultural use of chlorpyrifos (250gm/1000lit/hectare) in rice fields will likely to be toxic to these ubiquitous nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria. Low dose application 2.5 µg/ml enables growth of more tolerant cyanobacteria as biofertilizer.

This study analyse efficiency and productivity changes in ECOWAS agriculture using the Hicks-Moorsteen TFP index developed by O’Donnell (2008, 2009, 2010c). This approach has an advantage over the popular Malmquist productivity index in that it is free from any assumptions associated with firm optimising behaviour, the structure of markets, or return to scale. ECOWAS agriculture is inefficient over the entire period as the most of the measures of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency over the entire period considered (1961-2009) have their efficiency estimates that were less than unity. The inefficiency of the measures of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency over the entire period (1961 - 2009) may be due to weak human assets, a high degree of economic vulnerability, increasing trend towards urbanization, limitation of exports to few commodities, low export earnings, low capital formation, food insecurity and poor rural development as well as ineffective implementation of both regional and national policies due to poor knowledge of the determinants of agricultural productivity and their degrees. The declining behaviour of technical changes (?Tech) over the entire period (1961-2009) reveals that agriculture sector in all ECOWAS member states are not operating on the same point on the production possibilities set as well as changes in the economic, political and social environment of ECOWAS member states as it tends to capture the effects of technological change and the long term effects of inefficiency of both regional and national policies (with the inclusion of agricultural policies over the entire years) among the ECOWAS member states.

The energy-agriculture relationship is becoming very important in view of an increasing demand for food production to meet the pressure from an ever-increasing population. For these reasons, energy use pattern, energy efficiency, and energy inputs-output relationship were determined for Sesame in north central Nigeria. Data were collected from 120 farmers by using face to-face questionnaire method. The results indicated that total input energy use in sesame production was 2632.4 MJ, which was dominated by human labour energy (24.2%) and organic manure energy (21.1%). The output energy for sesame production was 13750.0MJ and the energy use efficiency ratio was 5.2. The proportion of renewable energy used (56.2%) in the surveyed Sesame farms was slightly higher than the non-renewable energy forms (44.8%), and sesame production in the study area is mainly depended on indirect energy forms. Organic manure was observed to be the most important energy input that influences the yield of Sesame in the study area.

For thirty years the cultivation of cotton has become very widespread in Benin. This has led to a sprawl of agricultural land and a significant increase in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and by extension, the pollution of the water resource in many parts of the country. In the north, high levels of nitrogen components are measured in the waters of the basin of Sota. Indeed the average value of 181mg / L measured for nitrate levels exceeding that permitted by the standards of quality of drinking water in the Republic of Benin. This study contributes to the knowledge of the impacts of agricultural activities on water resource in the basin of Sota in Benin.

A field experiment on sugarcane was conducted at Anbil Dharma lingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tiruchirapalli with the view to identify sodic tolerant variety and suitable amendment for sodic soil. Four sugarcane varieties viz., Co Si (Sc) 6, Co C (Sc) 86032, Co C (Sc) 23 and Co G (Sc) 5 and three amendments viz., pressmud @ 12.5 t ha -1, gypsum @ 4.8 t ha -1 and bottom slag @ 15 t ha-1 were studied along with the unamended control in the experiment were studied. The results revealed that sugarcane varieties Co G (Sc) 5 and Co C (Sc) 23 gave higher K+: Na+ as compared to the Co Si (Sc) 6 and Co C (Sc) 86032 under sodic soil. The sugarcane varieties namely Co G (Sc) 5 and Co C (Sc) 23 were found to be superior for accumulating more K than the Na+, hence these might be considered suitable for growing under sodic soil.