American Journal of Agricultural Research

The inception of legalization of Cannabis in America has paved way for the extensive research on this medicinal and religious plant all over the world. Despite the long relationship of Nepalese community with Cannabis since time immemorial, where it used to be used for both medical as well as recreational purposes, its illegalization during 1970s led to significant drop in one of the major source of income for numerous household and their families thereby impacting GDP of the country. Due to the geographical diversity of Nepal with most parts covered by hills and mountains along with the fertile land of plain region, the country has been a home to many landraces of Cannabis and we believe that it has the potential to be one of the major hub of harvest of Cannabis and Cannabis derived pharmaceutical industry. In this review, we have focused on the native strains of Cannabis in Nepal which are sold in the markets all over the world legally and how the legalization of Cannabis would bring remarkable upgrade to the country reeling under low economy and would be a great boost for the country to rise above its status of developing country. Apart from this, we have also proposed the steps that have to be taken at the government level for the stepwise legalization, substantial growth of the native strains and be a major leader in the world market by the export of Cannabis and its derived products.

Farmer involvement in the development of cowpea varieties for cultivation is an integral component for crop improvement in Northern Ghana where the bulk of cowpea is produced. The objective of this study was to assess farmers’ perception about the effect of drought on cowpea production, identify production constraints and determine farmer preferred traits using Participatory Rural Appraisal. Five cowpea producing districts were selected across the three Northern regions. Fifty cowpea producers, consumers and traders were randomly selected for the study. Data was collected using questionnaires and focus group discussions. Data was analysed using SPSS version 22. Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance statistical procedure was used to identify and rank farmers’s constraints and preferences, and to measure the degree of agreement among the respondents. Ninety three percent of the farmers reported that, the number of hot days has increased over the past ten years. Farmers across all the three regions linked the effect of drought to the stages of cowpea growth with podding stage seen as the worst affected. About 70% of the farmers preferred varieties with large grain size, smooth or rough textured seeds with white coats. About 84 % of farmers preferred varieties that were early and drought tolerant.

Cultivated areas of soybean in Brazil have been increasing with each harvest and the seed market is moving in the same direction, launching new varieties every year. To increase not only planted area but also productivity, it is necessary to use technologies and use integration systems. In this study, the effect of pollination by honeybees on two soybean varieties in two consecutive years was evaluated. Three treatments were established: cages with Apis mellifera honeybees, cages without bees and free areas for insect visitation. The results showed an increase 6.45% of soybean yield in areas with free access to insect visitation. While in the cages with the introduction of Africanized honeybee colonies the increase was 13.64%. These results indicate that even in the most recent cultivars, cross pollination can show productivity gains even in an autogamous species.

Twenty lactating Friesian cows and 20 lactating buffaloes with an average live body weight of 500 kg at 2-5 lactation seasonsafter the peak of lactation (60 days from parturition). Animals were fed summer rationconsisted of 40% concentrate feed mixture (CFM) + 40% corn silage (CS) + 20% rice straw (RS) (10 cows and 10 buffaloes) and winter ration consisted of 40% CFM + 40% fresh berseem (FB) + 20% RS (on DM basis) (10 cows and 10 buffaloes).Milk samples were taken from each cow and buffalo three times biweekly and prepared for minerals determination. The contents of Ca, K, Zn, Mn and Fe were higher in fresh berseem, while the contents of P, Mg, Na and Cu were higher in concentrate feed mixture, however, the lower contents of all minerals were detected in corn silage and rice straw. The contents and intake of all minerals were higher in winter ration containing fresh berseem than summer ration containing corn silage. The excretion of all minerals in feces and urine as well as absorption and retention increased significantly (P

A review was made to highlight various research works done so far regarding to the introduction, distribution and managements of fall army worm in Africa. It has been reported that the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) is an economically important pest native to tropical and subtropical America has recently invaded Africa there by causing substantial damage to maize and other crops. Accordingly, signals increased negative impacts on agricultural production and food security on the continent. Reports also suggested that this pest has already moved to at least 30 African countries. It was first detected in Central and Western Africa in early 2016 (Sao Tome and Principe, Nigeria, Benin and Togo) and from there proceeded further. Currently, in Africa the pest is causing huge damage to maize crop and has been estimated to 25-67% for maize in many countries. African continent provides favorable climatic conditions for a constant reproduction of the pest, which is expected to result in severe damage to high priority crops. Various control methods, including cultural, chemical and mechanical have been adopted and practiced by farmers in many African countries. Large-scale eradication efforts are neither appropriate nor feasible. Thus, in near future gathering and analyzing experiences and best practices from other countries where the pest is native will help to design and test a sustainable fall armyworm management program for smallholders in Africa. Furthermore, in order to reduce negative impacts associated with inappropriate usage of insecticide, emphasize should be given to develop or adopt the management practices which is environmentally safe.

Rice is considered as one of the monumental sources of human energy in Bangladesh. It can be stated that a vital element by which agronomic sector has been earned most of the quantity of profits for national development in this country is rice. This study covers the data of rice including the time from1972 to 2016 has been collected from secondary sources of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Different statistical tools have been used to complete the analysis. The analysis exposes that the area, production and yield of rice have improved meaningfully. Despite the production has been increased, It is not enough to full fill the shortage of the country. Therefore, advance research in this sector should be conducted with the assistance of researchers, government and policy makers. By this way new ideas and findings could be generated in order to improve the growth of rice.

Fruits are essential components of modern diet. Fruit nutrients provide important benefits to human in various ways for better health. Phytochemicals in fruit vary in quality and quantity depending mainly on fruit species and cultivar. Additionally, these phytonutrients can also be affected by different environmental factors including atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and temperature. The current changes and the continuous anticipated increase in the CO2 concentrations and temperature in the atmosphere has become a major challenge in crop production. The literature is rich with investigations of individual and combination effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on growth, development and yield of plants, including fruits. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the impacts of elevated CO2 and high temperature individually and interactively on nutritional quality of fruits. According to the reviewed literature, both elevated CO2 and temperature significantly influenced fruit nutrient content and availability. Elevated CO2 is expected to affect positively the fruits nutrient content, while mixed responses found for high temperature. Interaction effects of these factors are the most important since they are predicted to increase concomitantly. With available literature, the combination impact of these factors on fruit nutrients was discussed under three different hypotheses in this review. (1) high temperature may offset the positive effects of elevated CO2, (2) elevated CO2 would compensate for the negative effects of high temperature and (3) interactively, both elevated CO2 and temperature may increase or decrease the phytonutrients in fruits.

The study examined the role of ICT in agricultural productivity in India. It also analyzed the determinants of agricultural productivity. The causality test indicated the existence of long-run causality running from ICT and agricultural growth (AG) to economic growth. It showed bi-directional causality between agricultural growth and GDP. The long-run causality from ICT to AG was, however, uni-directional, implying the significance of ICT in agricultural growth. The determinants of agricultural productivity growth revealed increased machinery usage, investment in ICT, gross domestic capital formation and area under cultivation to be significantly contributing to increased productivity growth. The study suggests strengthening the effective implementation of ICT usage in Indian agriculture.

The study looks at the various information sources of natural health products and credibility of these sources. Television was the most frequent source of information on natural health products as half (51%) of the respondents were frequently exposed to the television. Consumers also trusted television most since this source is regulated. Before consumers purchase natural health products however, they consult family and friends since these sources have testimonies that can be trusted. The researcher recommends that the Food and Drugs Authority should implement policies that would check the efficacy of herbal medicine advertised on the television. If possible, the Food and Drugs Authority should implement policies to make efficacy test of herbal medicine advertised on television the same as orthodox medicine. This would enhance trust in consumers of natural health products. Information source from community center and social media should go through some form of registration authorized by the Food and Drugs Authority in order to increase trust of consumers who patronise these sources.

The association of traits that may exist between or among sorghum characters is essential for breeders. Therefore, the present study is aimed to analyze and determine the traits having greater association with yield utilizing the correlation and path analysis for different traits of early and medium maturing lowland adapted Ethiopian sorghum genotypes. A total of 110 early and medium maturing sorghum genotypes were used in alpha lattice design which is replicated twice at two locations in 2016 cropping season. The results of correlation analysis suggested that the magnitude of genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlation coefficients for most of the traits suggesting that there was inherent relationship between these traits. Grain yield showed significant and positive phenotypic correlation with number of heads per plot (r=0.34**), panicle weight (r=0.19**) and hundred grain weight (r=0.21**). The strongest phenotypic association was observed between days to flowering and days to maturity (r= 0.53**) followed by hundred grain weight and plant height (r= 0.47**). In addition path coefficient analysis provides an effective means of finding direct and indirect causes of association.