Climate variation is posing a threat to livestock production, especially the poultry enterprise. This study examined perceived effects of climate variation on poultry production in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State. One hundred and eighty poultry farmers were sampled for this study. Data were collected with interview schedule, described with frequencies and percentages, and analysed with chi-square. Result shows that 81.7% of the poultry farmers were male, 73.3% were married, and 8.3% had tertiary education. Most of the poultry farmers were aware of high temperature, change in rainfall pattern and intensity, loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation. Radio, friends, and family were their main sources of information on climate variation. Some of the effects of climate variation on poultry production were increase in feed intake of birds, outbreak of pests and diseases, and decrease in poultry products. Changes in feed formulation, use of well ventilated housing system and provision of more water ad-libitum were some of the measures taken to control these effects. It is concluded that the more the education and income of poultry farmers, the higher the measures used in controlling the effects of climate variation. Poultry farmers should be well informed on the best practices to reduce the adverse effect of climate variation on poultry enterprise to ensure continual production in changing times.

A Screen house experiment using potted plants was carried out to assess the effects of time and rate of application of Rice-husk powder as an organic amendment on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L Walp) cv. Ife Bimpe, that were mechanically inoculated with Cowpea Mottle Virus (CM e V). The results showed that the organic amendment was very effective on plants with soils amended with rice-husk powder, as the plants exhibited better yields and productivity. The amended plants also showed considerable less susceptibility to the virus pathogen compared to the non-amended plants. The results of the experiment further showed that the rate and time of application of the Rice-husk powder was a key factor in the ameliorative effect of this organic amendment in the suppression of the viral inoculum. An application rate of 0.50kg of Rice-husk powder per 10kg of soil two weeks before sowing the cowpea seeds was observed to confer on the plants the highest growth and yield attributes and also the least susceptibility to Cowpea Mottle Virus (CM e V). On the other hand, cowpea sown on soils amended at a lower rate of 0.125kg of Rice-husk powder per 10kg of soil two weeks after planting were found to have higher susceptibility to Cowpea Mottle Virus (CM e V). This is indicative that Rice-husk which is cheap, readily available and environmentally friendly offers a promising prospect in Agriculture both as an Organic amendment and in the control of virus disease in Cowpea if applied at recommended rates and time.

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The influence of sprouting on proximate and anti-nutritional factors of Jackbean flour was investigated. Jackbean was procured from the Genetic Resources Unit of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria. The seeds were carefully sorted and sprouted for 10 days. The sprouted and unprocessed (control) bean were then milled into flour and thereafter assessed for proximate and antinutritional factors. The data generated were subjected to statistical analyses using SAS 2.0 and SPSS 20.0 packages. The results of influence of sprouting on proximate constituents and anti-nutritional factors revealed that sprouting for nine days (S5) resulted in flour sample with highest protein content and significant reduction in anti-nutritional factors most especially trypsin inhibitor from 32.08 + 0.13; 29.18 + 0.46 in control to 39.50 + 0.06; 18.33 + 0.03 in the sprouted samples respectively. Sprouting thus had positive effect on proximate and anti-nutritional factors of Jackbean flour. Keywords: Proximate, jackbean, anti-nutritional, sprouting