Merit Research Journal of Agricultural Science and Soil Science

062-065

Authors: Khogali Izzeldin Idris

Striga poses major constrains to sorghum production in Africa. The study was conducted in pots at Gezira Research Station, Sudan during the seasons 2006/07 and 2007/08 to investigate the Influence of D. dichotomum planting time on S. hermonthica incidence and sorghum growth and yield. Results showed that D. dichotomum planted 60 days prior to sorghum was more effective in suppressing the parasite. Keywords: Sorghum, Plant Species, S. hermonthica, D. dichotomum.

058-061

Authors: Hamid Reza Ghanbaryan Alavijeh, Hossein Ahmadi Chenarbon and Behnam Zand

One of the factors affecting the physical properties of soil and crops is tillage systems. The experiment was conducted in summer 2012 at the research farm of Islamic Azad University. This study was performed by experiment a split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The factors in this study, four different tillage methods were considered. For soil physical properties statistical analysis, randomized complete block design was used. Based on the results، different tillage methods on soil physical properties showed significant differences at 1%. According to the results, the high amount of humidity in after ploughing and postharvest respectively of conventional tillage methods, and twice the disk and the lowest bulk density after tillage in the conventional tillage was obtained. Also the highest rate of crushed soil tillage with rotary plough was calculated. Keywords: Soil, Soil physical properties, Tillage methods.

048-057

Authors: Anushiya Shrestha and Rajesh Sada

This paper provides an overview of changing climatic context in Kathmandu valley based on the analysis of temperature and rainfall data and perception of local people on key climatic variables. Perceived changes in climate, its impacts on peri-urban agriculture and adaptation strategies practiced by peri-urban farmers were assessed using participatory tools and household questionnaire survey at four peri-urban villages in Kathmandu valley. Temperature in Kathmandu showed an increasing trend while rainfall was erratic with no distinct pattern. The impacts of these changes on agriculture have been primarily negative with increase in crop pests and diseases and decline in the crop production. The adaptive strategies evolved include shifts in cropping dates, switch towards drought tolerant crop varieties and application of technological inputs to adapt against the increasing climatic stresses. The study found needs of communicating the knowledge and experiences, replicating the successful adaptive practices and intervening to control malpractices to strengthen the adaptive capacity and ensure resilient peri-urban agriculture. Keywords: Peri-urban agriculture, rainfall, temperature, impacts, adaptation.

042-047

Authors: Mohamed B. Atta and Gehad M. El-Shenawi

Due to the severe shortage of animal protein, especially in developed countries, research has focused on providing new sources of plant proteins for the lack of this gap. On the other hand, industrial citrus processing creates large quantities of waste which have an adverse environmental impact. So, this work was performed to valorized bitter orange seed proteins including its functional properties and amino acid composition as a source of edible plant protein. The results revealed that foam capacity of bitter orange seed flour (BOSF) proteins was better at acidic medium (pH4), while, its stability was better at natural medium (pH7). Also, emulsion, water holding and oil holding capacities of BOSF were 15.5 ml/g, 2.6 ml/g and 2.1 ml/g. Moreover, good gel was formed at 10% (w/v) of heated and defatted BOSF. Crude protein and nitrogen protein content were 17.9% and 12.96%, respectively. Protein solubility, digestibility and amino acids composition of protein were also determined to evaluate the protein quality. The first limiting amino acid was Lysine 48.8% and second limiting amino acid was Isoleucine 77.1% comparing with reference protein. The protein efficiency ratio (PER) was 1.1. Keywords: Bitter orange seed, Functional properties, Nitrogenous compounds, Amino acids composition

033-041

Authors: Abua Moses Adah

The study is aimed at identifying the most important soil properties influencing cassava yield in Akpabuyo Local Government. In order to gain a proper understanding of the relations between soil variables and the cassava parameters, and also to identify those soil properties contributing significantly to the prediction of cassava yield and its vegetative parameter in the study area, cassava yield parameters (tuber, leaves and stem) were examined and related to 21 soil parameters to statistically examine how soil properties related to yield of cassava. Consequently, bivariate and multiple-regression models were used to carry out the statistical relationship between the aforementioned variables. The results of the models form which discussions on soil parameters contributed to cassava yield were pursued. First, over-parametised model test was conducted, the essence of which is to capture the main dynamic process in the model. From this model, a parsimonious model was achieved via a reduction (selection) process, guided mostly by statistical consideration. Thus, the parsimonious reduction (selection) process made use of the step-wise regression procedure, subjecting each stage of the reduction process to several diagnostic tests before eventually arriving at an interpretable model. The results of the regression analysis show that 14 different soil properties contributed significantly to the prediction of cassava parameters in the study area. To achieve this selection/reduction process, an index of soil variables influencing the yield of cassava was computed. The index is simply the mean percentage contribution of each of the 14 significant variables to the prediction of the tree cassava parameters in the area. In order words, the percentage values representing the levels of explanation of each soil parameter on each of three multiple-regression results are summed up and the total is divided by 3. The mean value obtained is used as an index of each soil property contributing to the prediction of a cassava parameter. Keywords: Soil properties, Cassava yield, Akpabuyo, Southern Cross River State and Nigeria.