American Journal of Agricultural Research

Field experiment was conducted at the University of Uyo Teaching and Research Farm, Uyo, Southeastern Nigeria during the 2021 cropping season to evaluate agro-morphological characters, and determine correlation coefficients and principal components in 10 groundnut varieties. The experiment which occupied a land area of 21.8m x 4.12m was laid out in a randomized complete block design in three replications. Characters studied were plant height (cm), number of leaves, leaf area (cm2), number of branches, length of petioles (cm), days to first flowering, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, length of pods (cm), circumference of pods (cm), weight of pods per plant (g), harvest index (%), weight of 100 seeds (g), pod yield (tha-1) and seed yield (tha-1). Significant differences (p>0.05) were observed among the groundnut varieties for all the characters. The variety, RC-128B was superior over all other varieties in nine characters, namely number of leaves, leaf area (cm2), number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, weight of 100 seeds (g), harvest index (%), pod yield (tha-1) and seed yield (tha-1), followed by RC-128S in seven, namely number of leaves, number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, harvest index (%), seed yield (tha-1) and pod yield (tha-1), while RMP-24 was superior over the rest in six characters, namely plant height (cm) length of petioles (cm), plant biomass (g), weight of haulm (g), fresh weight of pods (g) and number of pods per plant. Six characters correlated significantly and positively with seed yield, namely number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, circumferences of pods (cm), weight of pods (g), weight of 100 seeds (g), harvest index (%) and pod yield (tha-1). First 3PC with Eigen values greater than 1.0 jointly explained 77.6%…

In the design process of corn harvester, the influence and action mechanism of corn plant characteristics on the working parts of corn harvester (including cutting device, ear picking device, peeling device and other key parts) should be considered, and the physical and mechanical properties of corn plant need to be analyzed. To prevent serious “gnawing” of ears, high loss rate and crushing rate of ears and grains, and low efficiency of harvesting operation due to high moisture content of ears of corn in harvest period. Therefore, it is particularly important to analyze the physical and mechanical properties of maize plants.

The bioactivity of turmeric, garlic and curry oil and powder were evaluated and compared against maize storage pest, Sitophilus zeamais (Motsch.) at 28+20C and relative humidity (r.h.) 65+5% in the laboratory. Ten pairs of newly emerged weevils were introduced separately into each of the plastics containing 20 g maize seed treated with plant oil at different concentrations, 0.25%, 0.50% and 1.00% v/v and similarly plant powder at dosage levels of 0.25 g, 0.50 g and 1.00 g of the tested plant parts. Each treatment, including the control comprised four replicates which were laid out 3×3 factorial arrangements in a completely randomized design. Results indicated that oil and powder of curry, and turmeric evoked significant mortality (82.50%) and (81.00%), while garlic powder is equally effective (72.00%) in achieving mortality of the weevil. There was an appreciable reduction in means of exit hole and percent seed damage in treated maize seeds at 0.50% and 1.00% concentrations. Curry had exit hole (12.25 &11.00), turmeric had (12.75&11.75); also lower seed damage was recorded in curry (11.00% & 21.75%), while turmeric had (20.75% &31.00%). There was however corresponding high percent undamaged seed recorded in curry (89.00% & 78.25%) and turmeric (79.25% & 73.25%). All the plant parts tested reduced weight loss in the stored maize seeds when compared with the control. Adult mortality significantly correlated with exit hole (r = 0.381), seed damage (r = 0.0509) and undamaged seed (r = -0.0643). Therefore, 0.50% was lowest concentration at which control was achieved.

Introduction: Enset is a native food security crop in Ethiopia; and it has been served as emergency food crop in Vietnam during second world war. The crop is commonly used as staple food, and raw material for domestic and high-tech industries. Despite such opportunities, its production is declining due to introduction of new cereals, recurrent droughts and pests. There is also limited research conducted to address challenges. Methodology: Purposive sampling was used to select samples and three separate semi-structured interview schedules were used to collect data from producers, traders and consumers, accordingly. Tobit regression model was run to analyze market supply and intensity of market participation. Porter’s Value Chain Analysis tool was used to map the value chain. Result: Minimum and maximum number of enset trees harvested per year per household was 24 and 144, respectively; this was similar to National average. 34.75% of respondents consumed enset as alternative food due to skyrocketing prices of latter crops. Eight and seven marketing channels were observed in enset and bulla market, respectively. Recommendation: to ameliorate decreasing production and to increase farmers’ market participation, training should be given on enset value chain; intention should be done on integrated disease and pest management.

The systematic assessment of community livelihood assets, strategies and economic and social conditions are essential for improving the living standards of the existing community and sustaining the resource development of the future generation. The main aim of this study is to identify the community development needs and potentials by assessing the challenges and prospects of the community under Chira watershed. Cross-sectional research design was employed. The data were analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, cross-tabulation along with inferential statistics like t-test; Chi-square test. The survey result indicated that only 17.5% of this land is conserved and covered by improved soil and water conservation measures. Only 17% of the respondents have used irrigation for crop production purpose and all of them were used traditional irrigation activities. Regardless of production increase, high price of fertilizer (50%), land shortage (25%), soil degradation (16.7%), lack of money (3.3%), lack of oxen (3.3%) and natural disaster (1.7 %) were mentioned as the current problems regarding crop production activities. Generally, infrastructure development in the area is weak and, therefore, much improvement is in need like developing roads, well developed farmer training center and demonstration sites, saving and credit institutions, electricity and mobile networks.

The falling number instrument analyzes viscosity by measuring the resistance of a flour and water paste to a falling stirrer. The level of enzyme activity measured by the falling number test affects product quality. If the falling number is too high, enzymes can be added to the flour in various ways to compensate. If the falling number is too low, enzymes cannot be removed from the flour or wheat, which results in a serious problem that makes the flour unusable. Falling number results were recorded as an index of enzyme activity in a wheat flour sample and the results were expressed in time as seconds. In this study six samples from Arsi Robe, four samples from Bekoji and two samples from Kulumsa were samples with high values of falling number that indicates minimal enzyme activity and sound quality wheat or flour. On the other hand two samples from Arsi Robe, three samples from Bekoji and two samples from Kulumsa were samples with low values of falling number that indicates substantial enzyme activity and sprout-damaged wheat or flour. In short from the total of wheat samples collected from each sampling sites, 67% from Arsi Robe, 44% from Bekoji and 22% from Kulumsa were samples with high falling number values and thus minimal enzyme activity. Similarly, 22% from Arsi Robe, 33% from Bekoji and 22% from Kulumsa were samples with low falling number values and the enzymes activities were substantial.

In view of the technical development requirements of digital agriculture and the requirement of operation parameter regulation in the operation process of grain harvester. An on-board grain mass flow monitoring system based on pressure sensor was developed. The mathematical model of grain mass and grain flow pressure was established, which realized the real-time measurement, display, and storage of grain dry/wet quality information during the operation of grain harvester. An indoor bench test was carried out with the independently developed grain flow monitoring test bench. The results showed that the output error of the grain mass flow monitoring system was less than 4.25% under the conditions of indoor bench test, which meets the accuracy requirements of grain flow monitoring and provides the decision basis for variable seeding and variable fertilization.

Ensiling as a method of forage feed conservation is the most appropriate in conserving of crude protein (CP) enhanced forages for sustainable dairy production. This is attributed to the fact that with this method, protein dependent lactic acid bacteria (LAB) hydrolyze water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) into short chain volatile fatty acids (VFAs) which are precursors for milk synthesis while the proteins buffers the excessive organic acids to produce more acetate and propionate. The study therefore aimed at assessing the quality of Brachiaria silage which was protein supplemented with graded levels of lablab forage. To achieve this objective, wilted Brachiaria forage (Brachiaria hybrid cv Mulato II) was collected, wilted and ensiled with and Lablab purpureus forages at inclusion levels of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% Lablab purpureus forage. The resultant 4 treatments were assessed in a completely randomized design in 3 replicates. All silages were prepared using plastic jar mini-silos to laboratory scale and then incubated at room temperature (±30°C) for 45 days. After the 45 days, chemical analysis for quantification of water soluble carbohydrate (WSC), none protein nitrogen (NH3-N), Acid detergent fiber (ADF), Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), pH, in-vitro organic matter digestibility (INVOMD), acetic acid, lactic acid and propionic acid composition were conducted. The results indicated that; none protein nitrogen, acetic acid and propionic acid composition decreased in quadratic trends with increasing legume forage inclusion to minimum values of 5.8, 48.0 and 0.7g/kg at 14.7, 1.8 and 6.0% inclusion levels of lablab forage, respectively. On the other hand, following a quadratic trend, WSC composition decreased with increase in lablab forage, with a maximum of 28.9g/kg obtained at 7.6% inclusion level of lablab forage. Generally, CP, dry matter, INVOMD and metabolizable energy of the silage increased with increase in the inclusion levels of lablab silage. Using regression equations of the response curves,…

The aims of this research were to identify the topographical slope characteristics most preferred by wild olive trees in the Al-Bahah region. This study successfully identified the degree of the slope preferred for wild olive groves. The findings revealed that the majority (72.9%) of wild olive trees in Al-Bahah region occupy slopes of 5–30°. However, the patterns in Qelwa and Al-Mekhwah districts are a bit different where most of the wild olives were found on steeper slopes of 20–40°. This is probably because these sub-regions have a medium to steep slope, descending gradually toward the west, the altitudes ranging from 200 (400) to 2001 and 2200 m west of Al¬-Bahah city and Uwera, and between 2000 and 2100 m west of Baljurashi. The results further depicted that the wild olive with the medium-large crown diameter mostly occupied the gentler slopes of 0–25° compared to those with small crown diameters at steeper slopes of 5–35°. This indicates that the wild olive trees grow better on gentler slopes. These findings can be regarded as theoretically revealing the potential landform suitable for olive plantation. As a basis for olive plantation site suitability, these factors are the essential prerequisites to be considered. However. In addition, it is obvious that site suitability is subject to the temporal dynamics of environmental variables.

The development of combine harvester has greatly promoted the development of global agricultural mechanization, In this paper, a large number of research results related to power allocation of combine harvesters were collected, The development status of combined harvester transmission system and power test system is summarized through analysis and selection, It is found that there are few researches on the power distribution of the combine harvester, so it is necessary to further study the related research of the combine harvester.