Agriculture

The study evaluates the effects of land rights on agricultural investment in Imo, State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents from the list of farmers obtained from the Extension agent in-charge of Okigwe Agricultural Zone. The mean age of the respondents is 49.5. The respondents are married with over 60% educated, have large family size, and small farm size of 0.5-1ha. The existing tenure systems are purchase, inheritance, pledge, communal and rent. The respondents (87.5%) have use rights only. Land right affect enhance household food security, bolster family economy, increase optimal land use by farmers, eliminates fear of eviction, encourages investments, allow the development of an off farm economy and improve family stability. We concluded that secure land right is a veritable tool for poverty reduction, food security and agricultural investment. The benefits include bolstering family economy, enhancing household security and increasing optimal land use by farmers. It was therefore recommended that policies should be made by government for improving tenure security. Land should be made available to enhance agricultural production and programmes to increase the standard of living and the purchase of land should be introduced by the government.

Estimating soil temperature from air temperature is very necessary in some areas that are difficult to reach for the purpose of measuring soil temperature. In this research There are three Station Automatic Weather were selected in the study areas located in the North (Almosul), Middle (Abu-Ghraib), west (Hadethaa) and South (Alkahlaa) of Iraq (36.33° N, 43.16° E), (33.32° N, 44.23° E), (42.00°N, 34.35°E) ,(47.19°N, 31.80° E) respectively. The results referred to strong relationships between the averaged daily air temperature and averaged daily soil temperature at the 10 cm depth for sites. The correlations (R2) values were very high 0.93, 0.939, 0.980, 0.937 in Almosul, Abu-Ghraib , Hadethaa and Alkahlaa sites respectively. Linear equations to estimate soil temperature from air temperature were y=1.274x-6.517 in the north of Iraq, y=1.084x-0.305 in the middle of Iraq, y=1.065x+0.154 in the west of Iraq, y=0.849x+5.14 in the south of Iraq.

Rapid population growth in a country like India is threatening the environment through expansion and intensification of agriculture, uncontrolled growth of urbanization and industrialization, and destruction of natural habitats. The present paper is an attempt to study the population change and its impacts on land, forest and water and energy resources. Rapid population growth plays an important role in declining per capita agricultural land, forest and water resources. The analysis reveals that outcomes of high population growth rates are increasing population density and number of people below poverty line. Population pressure contributes to land degradation and soil erosion, thus affecting productive resource base of the economy. The increasing population numbers and growing affluence have resulted in rapid growth of energy production and consumption in India. The environmental effects like ground water and surface water contamination; air pollution and global warming are of growing concern owing to increasing consumption levels. The paper concludes with some policy reflections and emphasizes the potential importance of natural resources.

The Manya Krobo area is bounded in the east by Lake Volta which resulted after the construction of the Akosombo dam since 1965. The groundwater quality of 25 samples in the study area was evaluated for its suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes by estimating pH, EC, TDS, hardness and alkalinity besides major ions, isotopes, SAR, % Na, RSC, RSBC, chlorinity index, SSP, non-carbonate hardness, Potential Salinity, Permeability Index, Magnesium hazard and Index of Base Exchange. The percentage sodium, sodium absorption (SAR), and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) indices show that the groundwaters are generally suitable for irrigation purposes. Negative Index of Base Exchange indicates the chloro-alkaline disequilibrium in the study area and all the water samples fall in the rock dominance field based on Gibbs’ ratio. Based on total hardness, the groundwater in the area is soft. Na-K-HCO3-Cl (48%), Na-HCO3 (40%), and Na-Cl (12%) water types were delineated from the area. Stable isotope analysis of water samples indicates meteoric origin of recharge.

Land is critical to the economic, social and cultural development of Kenya. It is crucial to the attainment of economic growth, poverty reduction and gender equity. Its importance is recognized by various Government initiatives including the initial Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), political party manifestoes and the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (2003-2007). Land was a key reason for the struggle for independence and Land issues remain politically sensitive and culturally complex. The Republic of Kenya has an area - approximately 582,646 sq.km comprising of 97.8% land and 2.2% water surface. Only 20% of the land area can be classified as medium to high potential agricultural land and the rest of the land is mainly arid or semiarid. Forests, woodlands and national reserves and game parks account for ten percent (10%) of the land area, i.e. 58,264 sq. km. Approximately seventy five per cent (75%) of the country’s population lives within the medium to high potential (20% of land area) and the rest in the vast Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs). One consequence of this is that size and distribution of land varies quite widely just as population density which ranges from as low as 2 persons per sq. km. in the ASALs to a high of over 2000 in high potential areas. This leads uncontrolled subdivision of agricultural land, leading to reduced productivity and hence a likelihood of food insecurity. As the old saying goes, ‘the devil is in the detail’ - in our case FRAGMENTATION.

Global warming frightens even the baby in the womb. No one wants to be roasted by sunshine or swept off the earth by tsunami arising from extreme weather events. The sights of such events are frightening. Global warming is daily effects of human civilization. There are several controversies surrounding it. Some positive, while others are negative. Negative impacts means gain, while positive impact means loss. We need more negative than positive impacts for a safe world. This paper reviews the subject matter from the point of boon, pandemic or quagmire.

An experiment was conducted in one of the fields of the University of Baghdad in 2015 In sandy loam soil to evaluate the effect of irrigation methods and discharge on growth and yield of green onion .The research using two factors included Subsurface irrigation system and drip irrigation system as main plot and three levels discharge included 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 L\hr as secondary plot. Soil bulk density of the soil, distribution uniformity, the plant height, number of onion plant leaves and plant yield. were measured in this study. Nested design under randomized complete block design (CRBD) with three replications were used in this experiment. Least significant differences (L.S.D) at 0.05 levels were used to compare the mean of treatments. The results showed Soil bulk density in drip irrigation system reached 1.351 mg /m3,and uniformity distribution for subsurface irrigation system reached 88.7% compared with the drip irrigation system which reached 86.8% ,for the plant characteristics , subsurface irrigation exceeded generally in the plant characteristics, and the maximum of leaves number in subsurface irrigation system in one plant reached 10.6 and the average of plant height reached 65.6 in subsurface irrigation system. It's obvious through the results the exceeding of subsurface irrigation system in increasing, Leaves number average and the height of plant while the values of soil bulk density and the uniformity distribution were close between the two system. The successful of using subsurface irrigation system for planting good growing onion.

This paper was prepared to estimate the current and projected relationship between climate change (rainfall) and variability and the productivity of sorghum under rainfed mechanized farming system in Gadarif State. The study ultilized secondary data covering the period 1940-2014. The data analyzed using descriptive analysis, Bias Correction and Spatial Downscaling (BCSD) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The most important results revealed that an increasing trend of rainfall indicating the evidence of existance of climate change in the State. The study also found that the dry rainfall years affect the productivity of sorghum by reducing it by 4.9 kg/feddan/year and that floody rainfall years leads to decreasing the productivity by 11.3 kg/feddan/year, while the productivity was decreasing by 3.39 kg/feddan/year in normal rainfall years. As with respect the projection to future rainfall and yield, two scenarios based on greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere for the period 2020-2100 were used. The best scenario assumed an RCP of 2.6 and the worst one assumed an RCP of 8.5 .The results of best scenario predicted an expected decrease rainfall by 0.865 mm/year and decrease in crop yield at rate of 1.121 kg/fed/year in case of maximum temperature; and at rate of 0.618 kg/fed/year in case of minimum temperature. The result of the worst scenario predicted an expected decrease in rainfall at the rate of 0.554 mm/year with consequent decline in crop productivity at a rate of 5.235 kg/fed/year in case of maximum temperature and at a rate of 4.844 kg/fed/year in case of minimum temperature. The effect of increase greenhouse gas concentration in future leads to decrease rainfall and decrease yield of sorghum in Gadarif State.