Effect of abiotic stress (salinity) on the fruit quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L)

This research was conducted to evaluate the effect of salinity on the fruit quality of three varieties of tomato. The work was carried out at the nursery of the Federal College of Forestry Jos, Plateau State within the dry season between January and April, 2018 by irrigation. After the plants of the three varieties of tomato (Roma vf, Tima and UTC) had grown in their various bags for four weeks, four different salt concentrations including the control (0.00M, 0.05M, 0.08M and 0.10M) were added to the various bags accordingly. These treatment-combinations were replicated three times and laid out using the Randomized Block Design. The parameters assessed include number of fruits per plant, fresh weight of fruits at maturity, thickness of pericarp, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight and salt tolerance index. The data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance and the means were separated using the Least Significant Difference. No significant differences (due to the effect of different salt concentrations) were observed in all the parameters studied except for pericarp thickness. There were significant differences (p≤0.05) due to variety in the number of fruits per plant, fresh weight of fruit and fruit pericarp. The study revealed that Tima variety had the best pericarp thickness of about 6.00 cm (fruit quality), highest number of fruits and heaviest fruits. Roma vf had the highest salt tolerance index (127.70%). A mild salt concentration (0.08M) improved the pericarp thickness

Appraisal of Natural Durability of a Lesser – Known Boscia anguistifolia (A. Rich) Wood Using Ground Contact Test

The optimal utilization of lesser-known wood species is dependent on their natural durability. In this study, the natural durability of a lesser-known wood species (Boscia anguistifolia) using ground contact test was carried out. Wood blocks of Boscia anguistifolia and Ceiba petandra (reference species) with dimensions of 20 x 20 x 300 mm were obtained from the axial and radial direction of the trees. The wood blocks were conditioned and their moisture content determined before exposure to ground contact for 12 weeks after which their weight loss was determined. Data obtained were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 probability level. The moisture content of B. anguistifolia and C. petandra ranged from 12.80 – 18.02 % and 12.73- 16.63%, respectively while the weight loss of B. anguistifolia and C. petandra ranged from 5.10 – 69.11% and 37 – 50 % respectively along the axial position. It was observed that the core wood in the base portion of B. anguistifolia has the lowest weight loss value of 5.10% while the reference species has a value of 39.73%. Conclusively, B. anguistifolia is moderately durable at the base part of the species when compared with the reference non-durable species used in this study

Maize genetic improvement for enhanced productivity gains in West and Central Africa

During the past 45 years, the genetic improvement programs of IITA and its partners have made spectacular progress in developing high-yielding crop varieties that offered best-bet solutions to major production constraints, such as, cassava mosaic, maize streak, Striga, soybean rust, insect pests, and even drought. These have led to dramatic increases in the production of cassava, maize, soybean, cowpea, and yam in sub-Saharan Africa that have directly contributed to increases in food availability and indirectly to improvements in national economies. This section presents the status, progress, and achievements, and also outlines future work on crop improvement by genetic enhancement in IITA's six crops

Microbiological quality of fermented Cassava (Gari) sold in Ota Ogun State Nigeria

Thirty six gari samples (eighteen each of white and yellow types) were subjected to microbial analysis. Samples were serially diluted to 104 and appropriate dilutions inoculated by spread plate method onto Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar and Potato- Dextrose agar plates for Total aerobic plate count (TAPC), Coliform count (CC) and Fungal count respectively. TAPC for white gari ranged from 2.0x102 to 1.1x104, coliform count ranged from no growth (NG) to 7.1x103 while fungal count ranged from no growth to 6.0x102. The microbial load of yellow gari ranged from 1.0x102 to 5.0x103 for TAPC, NG to 6.0x103 for coliform count and NG to 3.0x103 for fungal count. The bacteria isolates from the various samples include Bacillus spp Enterobacter spp, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus and Klebsiella spp. Fungi isolated includes Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Fusarium, Rhizopus and Penicillium spp. The pH of the samples ranged from 4.76 to 4.94 in the yellow type and 4.78 to 4.91 in the white type. The moisture content was 6 to 8 percent in yellow type and 4 to 7 percent in the white type. Application of good manufacturing practices (GMP) and HACCP in gari production is imperative

Financial Liberalization and Economic Growth in Nigeria (1986-2018)

Several studies have emerged since the work of McKinnon and Shaw (1973) on the relationship between financial liberalization and economic growth. However, there are still dearth of literature in respect to the proxies employed for financial liberalization. As a result, this study investigated the effect of financial liberalization on economic growth in Nigeria covering a period of 33years spanning 1986 to 2018. Adopting McKinnon and Shaw hypothesis as the theoretical framework, economic growth was represented by gross domestic product (GDP), financial liberalization was represented by prime lending rate, saving deposit rate, exchange rate, credit to private sector and ratio of private investment to GDP. Data were sourced from CBN Statistical Bulletin and estimation done using auto regressive distributed lag. The study found that, financial liberalization has long and short run relationship with economic growth. Further findings also showed that prime lending rate had insignificant positive and credit to private sector had significant positive effects on economic growth. On the other hand, savings deposit rate, exchange rate and ratio of private investment to GDP have insignificant negative effects on economic growth. The study concluded that, financial liberalization has significant positive effect on economic growth with overriding effect from credit to private sector. Therefore, the study recommended among others that, government through the Central Bank of Nigeria should review the saving deposit rate upward in order to encourage increase of domestic savings by surplus sector of the economy. More importantly, policies that will encourage private sector investment should be looked into by government so as to further stimulate economic growth in Nigeria

Parâmetros fisiológicos do estresse e lesões de suínos suplementados com ractopamina em condições de produção comercial.

bitstream/item/50856/1/publicacao-487.pdfProjeto: 02.09.07.007