In the face of water scarcity and the several negative consequences, such as water wastage, flooding, water logging, soil losses and production losses, conserving the finite amount of fresh water is a must. The quality of irrigation water must therefore be ascertained. The chemical quality of three sources of irrigation water from canal and drainage water, namely drainage water, fresh irrigation water from canal, and drainage/irrigation water mixture, were analyzed from Kadawa irrigation Project for year 2013 and 2014 cropping seasons, with the view to evaluating the potential risks associated with their use in irrigation and hence their suitability or otherwise for irrigation purposes. The analysis revealed that the use of drainage water alone for irrigation may result in problems associated with salinity, while a blend of drainage/irrigation water in the ratio of 1:1 is a viable means of water conservation and a good means of crop production.
A research was conducted on the soils of teaching and research fadama farm of Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero located at Jega, with the aim of assessing the soil quality irrigated with tube well water of the study area. The entire University Fadama land was divided into three sections namely T1, T2 and T3 and from each section, three (3) composite soil samples were collected. Each soil sample was collected 2meters away from a tubewell where water sample was also collected. Three (3) samples of the tube well water were collected from the three demarcated areas T1, T2 and T3, making a total of nine (9) samples. These samples were collected in a clean 75cl water bottle provided with a cap. Each water sample was analysed for pH, total dissolved solid (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K). Soil sample was analyzed for pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus. Result obtained showed that pH was 7.2, TDS 2.55 mg/l, EC 0.25 µs/cm, SAR 1.35, Mg 90.25, K 1.43 and RSC -3.8. Soil analysis showed that organic carbon content was 0.75 g/kg, total nitrogen 0.06 g/kg, Phosphorus 0.65 g/kg and CEC ranged 6.96-7.32 cmol(+)/kg. The study showed that soil in the area were low in fertility, therefore fertilizer of both organic and inorganic should be supplemented to make the soils more fertile. The soils were found to be free from salinity/sodicity problems at least for now.
The waste snail shell was screened to determine its efficiency as heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production via trans-esterification reaction. Prior to its use, the solid oxide material (shell) was calcined at 800°C for 4 h to convert CaCO 3 to CaO. Physicochemical analysis of waste cooking oil reveals the acid value (3.47 mg KOH/gm), density (0.9 g/cm 3 ), moisture content (0.1%) and kinematic viscosity (42.2) respectively. The prepared solid oxide catalyst was characterized using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) methods. The catalytic activity of the catalyst was evaluated by the transesterification reaction under the following reaction conditions: temperature (60°C), time (3 h) and methanol to oil ratio (9:1) respectively. GC-MS analysis was used to characterize the fatty acid methyl ester composition. The research signified successful application of waste snail shell as heterogeneous catalyst for prospective economic preparation of heterogeneous catalyst. It also developed an unconditional avenue for using the waste snail shell as the catalyst.
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