Simultaneous stimulation of arsenic methylation and inhibition of cadmium bioaccumulation in rice grain using zero valent iron and alternate wetting and drying water management,

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Agriculture education plays a significant role in Agriculture development which is pivotal to Malawi's economy that employs over 80% of the workforce and contributes more than 65% to foreign exchange earnings. For secondary school agriculture to remain relevant to agricultural needs, competent qualified agriculture personnel are needed. Training Needs Assessment (TNA) was conducted to identify and establish training needs of secondary school (SS) agriculture teachers, to establish the gap between demand and availability of SS ISSN 2162-6952 2015 www.macrothink.org/jse 225 agriculture teachers, to identify subject matter deficits in the current SS agriculture curriculum, and solicit suggestions of subject combinations to be included in the NRC Diploma in Agriculture Education curriculum. Information was obtained through interviews of selected SS head teachers, senior education method advisers, principal education method advisers in government institutions, and from heads and members of faculty of education in selected university colleges using semi-structured interview questionnaires. Results indicated that there is a great shortage of agriculture teachers in almost all SS. Forty-four (44) SS out of fifty eight (58) SS sampled in the survey have unqualified or under qualified agriculture teachers which represents 76%. The results also revealed that 75%, 59% and 55% of DCSS, Private SS and Conventional SS respectively have unqualified agriculture teachers indicating that the problem of unqualified agriculture teachers is most severe in CDSS and Pprivate SS. The shortage has worsened in convention SS (it was less than 20% in 1995). The shortage is attributable to high agriculture teacher attrition rate (60%) as more agriculture teachers leave for more lucrative jobs in NGO. Majority of the SS use either unqualified or under qualified teachers to agriculture. The situation calls for more programmes to train agriculture teachers to address the current agriculture teacher shortage. Journal of Studies in Education

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A field experiment was conducted to determine amount of inorganic fertilizer saved by using chimato composts TD60 produced by blending 60% of Tithonia diversifolia with 40% maize stalks in maize production. In this experiment, 0 g, 100 g, 200 g and 400 g of TD60 were supplied per maize planting station in combination with 0%, 33%, 67% and 100% of recommended rates of NPK (23-21-0+4S) inorganic fertilizer. Maize growth parameters and yield were measured. Results showed that maize cob length, cob circumference, leaf length and maize grain mass in treatment supplemented with 200 g of TD60 combined with 33% of NPK were significantly different from those supplemented with lower quantities of chimato composts and were not significantly different from those supplemented with TD400 combined with 23-21-0+4S quantities of equal to or greater than 33% of the recommended rates. However, maize cob length and cob circumference were not significantly different in maize plants supplemented with 400 g and 200 g of TD60. Yield of maize were maximal in planting stations supplemented with 200 g and 400 g of TD60 combined with 67% and 33% of recommended rates of NPK respectively. It is concluded that application of 200 g and 400 g of TD60 combined with 67% and 33% of recommended rate of NPK respectively are likely to produce optimal growth parameters as well as optimal maize yield if recommended to smallholder farmers.