Farmers’ Adoption of System of Rice Intensification in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

The study evaluated the adoption of System of rice intensification (SRI) among rice farmers in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. A 3-stage sampling technique was used to collect data for the study through a structured questionnaire and interview schedule administered to 200 rice farmers. The results indicated that the majority of the farmers were males (83.0%) and married (68.5%) with no formal education (50.5%). Mean age was 44.1 years, household size was 8.8 persons, farming experience of 16years, average monthly income was N590,000.00 and average farm size was 1.7 ha. The most adopted SRI production practice was fertilizer and herbicide application (100.0%), planting depth (91.5%) manual land cultivation and planting method (91.0%). The respondents were at different stages of adoption with accelerating growth, rotary weeding and use of organic fertilizer having positive adoption index of 0.972, 0.970 and 0.601, respectively. Level of adoption of SRI technologies was low (34.5%) with a positive perception. Major constraints to SRI technologies were high labor ( =3.27), non-awareness of SRI technologies ( =3.14) inadequate understanding of SRI ( =2.89). The profitability of SRI in rice cultivation was higher compared to the conventional method. Therefore, the provision of  more training and demonstration programmes and input subsidy should be encouraged to boost adoption of SRI for improved rice production. Keywords: Rice Intensification, Farming activities, Training, Chanchaga, System, Niger Stat

An analysis of air pollution at some industrial areas of Kano using the AERMOD Model

The effect of pollution on air quality has been a concern for mankind for a long time. In some cases the problem is essentially one of local emissions in a given urban area leading to an adverse effect on air quality in that same area. However, in the general case, the problem is more diverse in that the problem of air pollution has multiplicity effects beyond the point source and these effects are dynamic in nature. Such effects are usually evaluated using dynamical equations. In this study, a comprehensive review on effect of air polluting variables was described on the basis of evaluation of formulation equations of the American Meteorological Society and U.S. Environmental protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD view 9.6.5). The AERMOD model was also used to simulate the dispersion and deposition of the hourly and daily H2S and NO2 concentrations from two domains: Challawa and Sharada industrial estates /areas respectively. The AERMOD model evaluation showed that there was good correlation between the modelled and observed H2S concentration for the daily and hourly comparison at Challawa  (0.53 and 0.91 respectively) but the daily and hourly comparison of H2S at Sharada (0.13 and 0.46 respectively) was seen to drop indicating poor correlation and model skill. However, model evaluation of NO2 shows poor agreements and model skill at Challawa as well as daily comparison at Sharada. However, the modelling shows good agreement (R2= 0.64) in the trend for the hourly value modelled versus observed concentrations at Sharada. Moreover, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for the two pollutants (H2S and NO2) at all the two domains indicates highly accurate result for both daily and hourly concentrations. AERMOD software can therefore be used to estimate the dispersion and deposition of the pollutants at some domains considered in this study. Key Words: AERMOD model, Air pollutant, Industrial sources, Dispersion and Depositio

Model prediction and climatology of aerosol optical depth (τ550) and angstrom exponent (α470-660) over three aerosol robotic network stations in Sub-Saharan Africa using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer data

The spatial and temporal variations of aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (τ550) and Angstrom exponent derived from 470 and 660 nm (α470-660) over Nairobi (NAI), Skukuza (SKU) and Ilorin (ILO) Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) stations in sub-Saharan Africa, as recorded by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellites for fifteen years (2000-2015), were examined in relation to their climatologies and prediction. The MODIS measurements of τ550 and α470-660 from aqua (MYD04) and terra (MOD04) satellites were used in this study. Retrievals of τ550 for both satellites were validated with AERONET τ550 for the same period. The validation results showed that they compare favourably over the three stations, but MOD04 performed better than MYD04 data in NAI and ILO for τ550. This shows that the τ550 of NAI and ILO are best captured using the MOD04 data while that of SKU is best with MYD04. It was also discovered that MODIS underestimated AERONET τ550 data over NAI and SKU. The most polluted station is ILO while the least polluted one is NAI. Similarly, the station with the highest concentration of absorbing aerosols is NAI and the least was observed in ILO. The aerosol climatology shows that the most polluted months in NAI, SKU and ILO are October, June and March respectively. On the other hand, February, November and March has the highest amount of scattering aerosols in the atmosphere for NAI, SKU and ILO respectively. The highest amount of absorbing aerosols was found, respectively, in the months of June, June and August. The generated time series (TS) models are all good, though a general underestimation of the parameters by the models was also observed. Keywords: Aerosol optical depth, Angstrom exponent, MODIS, Time series, sub-Saharan Afric

Effects of neem seed cake and NPK fertilizer on the growth and yield of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

Soils of the southern Guinea savannah zone of Nigeria are low in organic matter content, inherently infertile due to intensive weathering and leaching caused by high temperature and rainfall. A field experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Ilorin, during the 2013 and 2014 cropping seasons, to determine the effect of neem seed cake and NPK fertilizer on the performance of sesame crop (Ex Sudan cv). Treatments consisted of three levels of NPK fertilizer 20:10:10, applied at 0, 100 and 200 kg ha-1 and neem seed cake (NSC), applied at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 t ha-1. The experiment was laid out in a 3 x 5 factorial arrangement replicated thrice. Data were collected on soil parameters (some physical and chemical properties), plant growth parameters (plant height, number of leaves and leaf area) and yield components (number of capsules per plant, weight of seeds per plant and weight of seeds per hectare). The result of the study indicated that using the highest level of application of NPK fertilizer, neem seed cake and their combinations significantly (p<0.05) increased the growth of sesame plants, in the 2 years of study. However, the 100 kg ha-1 of NPK and 3 tha-1 and their combinations gave the highest yield and yield components of sesame during the period of study. The result of the study revealed that using high levels of NPK, neem seed cake and their combinations favoured vegetative growth at the expense of seed formation. Farmers are therefore encouraged to use organic and inorganic fertilizer moderately to prevent excessive vegetative growth of sesame

Survey of the symptoms and viruses associated with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.)) in the agroecological zones of Kwara State, Nigeria

A comprehensive field survey was carried out in 2011 spanning thirty locations within the forest and savannah agroecologies of Kwara State, Nigeria. This was with the objective of having an overview of the prevalence of virus disease symptoms and to specifically identify the viruses infecting cowpea (Vigna unguiculata .L.) in Kwara State. Data were collected on the prevalence of some peculiar virus symptoms on cowpea plants on growing on farms in each location. Symptomatic cowpea leaves were also collected from each location for virus identification in the laboratory. The serological protocol employed for virus detection in the leaf samples was the antigen – coated plate Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ACP–ELISA) method. The results of the field survey indicated that the symptoms observed on the cowpea plants were peculiar to those associated with virus disease infection. The symptoms observed were leaf mottling (36.8%), mosaic (24.9%), leaf curl (15.6%), necrotic spots (8.2%) and other symptoms (14.5%). The result of the laboratory assay to detect the viruses present in the leaf samples revealed the presence of four (4) different viruses. The viruses identified were, Cowpea Aphid Borne Mosaic Virus (CABMV), Cowpea Yellow Mosaic Virus (CYMV), Blackeye Cowpea Mosaic Virus (BICMV) and Cowpea Mottle Virus (CPMoV). These viruses were detected infecting the cowpea plants in mixtures of two or three. These results are indicative of the presence of viruses in all the ecological zones of Kwara State where cowpea is cultivated

Evidence of expanded diversity in weeds as reservoir host of viruses in pepper fields across southwestern Nigeria

This study aimed to investigate virus occurrence in weed species in the main pepper-growing areas in Southwest Nigeria. The weed samples collected from pepper farms were identified and subjected to Antigen-Coated Plate Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay using antibodies specific eight different viruses. Results showed that the Weed species collected contain 17 families, 33 genera and 36 plant species of which 83.33% of the plant species tested positive to one or more plant viruses. The results indicate that potato virus Y (PVY) and potato virus X (PVX) infected more weed species (24). Also, Ageratum conyzoides serve as host to 8 viruses while Alchornea cordata, Corchorus olitoris and Talinum triangulare serve as host to 7 viruses respectively. These results provide information on weeds as virus reservoirs and contribute to the knowledge of epidemiology of these diseases, enabling a proper weed management aiming at reducing the secondary spreading control of viruses