Soil moisture conservation, proper irrigation scheduling and nutrient management are crucial for sustainable cucumber production. A field experiment was set up over two years (2018 and 2019) to investigate the effects of irrigation frequency, black polyethylene mulching, and nitrogen fertilization on cucumber yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) at Ikole-Ekiti, Nigeria. The experiment was a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a split-plot arrangement and the main plot as drip irrigation frequency: twice per week (I4), three times per week (I5), and four times per week (I6), while the sub-plots were nitrogen fertilization; (no fertilizer, N0 and 180 kg/ha urea, N180) and mulching (no mulch, NM and mulch, M). The highest yield (8.39 and 8.51 t/ha) with the best WUE was obtained from treatment I4MF (F, fertilization), while the lowest (5.81 and 5.79 t/ha) was obtained from I6MF for the respective years. The combination of variables significantly (P<0.05) influenced cucumber yield, WUE, and NUE, and significant correlations were obtained (r=0.87** and 0.85**) between WUE and fruit yield for the study years. The treatment I4MF therefore, could successfully be adopted to reduce water and fertilizer application for improved cucumber yield in the field.
Several factors influencing rural-poverty in sub-Saharan-Africa, for all the factors, agricultural-land access/management and “culture of poverty” are quite dominant in literature. This study examines socio-cultural/economic factors influencing poverty and establishes linkages of heterogeneity of land-use systems. Farm-level cost–route surveys of cross-sectional national-data of 800 respondents were used for analysis. Data were analyzed by descriptive-statistics, trans-logarithmic model, and poverty-measures. Descriptive statistics depict land-ownership structure, farmer’s socio-cultural practices, and exploits of government intervention programs influenced agricultural-poverty. Trans-logarithmic coefficients results of short-run sustainability-index (SRSI), land-policy intervention variables and household-sizes are dominance factors. Also, SRSI indicated 0.69, suggesting that 69% of the farmers made unsustainable use of agricultural-land. Moreover, 92% of extremely poor respondents with large household-sizes (61.2%) seek their agricultural-land ownership by rentage, while those with land-titled documents constitute 78.6% of the non-poor. Public-policy interventions must take into account formalization of land-property rights in order to facilitate its transferability and boosting investment.
ome soils in Kabba College of Agriculture, Kogi State, southern guinea savannah zone of Nigeria, were assessed to ascertain the levels of degradation of soil properties. The rigid grid soil survey method was used to identify seven soil units. Soils were sampled at 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm soil depth and analyzed for physical and chemical properties using standard methods. Levels of degradation were obtained by comparing laboratory data with the standard land/soil requirement (indicators/criteria) for grouping lands into different degradation classes of 1 to 4 (non to slightly, moderately, highly, and very highly degraded). Results showed that units D (soghum) and E (citrus) were very highly degraded (Class 4) of exchangeable potassium; units C (yam), D and E were highly degraded (Class 3) of organic matter. Other units were moderately degraded (Class 2) of base saturation, bulk density and total nitrogen. There was no degradation of available phosphorus and exchangeable sodium percentage in all the units. Physical and chemical degradation took place in the study area with respect to bulk density, base saturation, total nitrogen, potassium, and organic matter. Sustainable management practices that will promote good bulk density and organic matter accumulation should be encouraged.
The physicochemical parameters of surface water surface of Ero Dam for irrigation were assessed. Water samples were selected from three locations (upstream, downstream and control). Tested parameters for water samples are pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), chloride (Cl-), carbonate (C03-), bicarbonate (HC03-), boron (B), sulphate (S042-), nitrate (NO3-N) and phosphate (PO4-P). The samples were determined in accordance with the American Public Health Association standards. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Evaluation of surface water quality of Ero Dam was carried out using different irrigation indices methods such as sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), sodium percentage (Na %), potential salinity (PS), The Soluble sodium percentage (SSP), Kelly ratio (KR), magnesium adsorption ratio (MAR) and permeability index (PI) and compared with standard limits. The findings indicated that the concentrations of the Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, C03-, HC03-, B, S042-, NO3-N and PO4-P were within the acceptance limits for irrigation purposes except K+ that above the limits specified. Results indicated that majority, 87.5% of irrigation indices fall under excellent or suitable and classified as salinity (C1) and SAR (S1) which was known as (CISI). Hence, there are none degree of restriction in the application Ero Dam water quality for irrigation. Therefore, the results were concluded, that the study area surface water quality was suitable for irrigation.
Weeding is currently still carried out manually in Nigeria and some of the African countries. This is despite the efforts that have been made to develop different types of weeding machines in Nigeria with different drive mechanisms, features and designs. Up to this point, no model or design have been commercialized but they remain in the prototype stage partly due to sophistication, poor quality and low efficiency. In this study, a prototype of motorised weeding machine, actuated by a reciprocating mechanism was designed and fabricated for use on most subsistent crops plots. The reciprocation prevented the need to move the blades back and front as this action is automatically achieved in one process.The design features included 20o rake angle of the cutting blade, a working depth of 2.54cm and 28cm width of cut. Dimensions and the thickness of blades were designed according to the principles of general soil mechanics. Other machine elements were designed following PSG TECH procedures. After fabrication and assembly, the machine was tested on a 10m 10m plot planted with maize and test result indicated a functional efficiency of 98%, quality performance efficiency of 82.7% and field capacity of 0.036m2/s as against 0.01m2/s with manual weeding. The material for the construction was sourced from locally available materials.The weeding machine has an effective cutting width of 27.5 cm and a production cost of NGN 175, 000.00.
In this study, a mixed cropping 1 ha farm of maize and cassava was established using different planting and weeding modes to foster small scale agricultural machinery use among small holder farmers. The planting techniques employed include jab, rotary and manual planting while weeding methods include mechanical, chemical and manual weeding. The effects of these treatments were studied using field capacity of planting and weeding, yield of crops, and level of exertion of operator. The experiment was conducted using a split plot design with 2 replicates. The highest field capacity among the planting techniques was that of rotary planting with 1.53 ha / h while 0.012 ha / h was obtained for mechanical weeding.The highest yield of maize of 15.42 t / ha was obtained from rotary planting. All the treatments and their interactions are highly significant. However, there was no significant difference observed between all the variables for manual and mechanical weeding.
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