Variation in physico-chemical properties of seed of selected improved varieties of Cowpea as it relates to industrial utilization of the crop

Cowpea is an important food, cash and fodder crop in Sub-Saharan Africa and has potential of becoming an industrial crop. A trial was conducted to evaluate selected improved and popular varietiesof cowpea for physicochemical characteristics that can help to promote commercial production and industrial use. Variations in content were found among varieties for protein (21.3 - 26.9%), carbohydrate(63.37 - 69.56%), fat (1.2 to 1.80%), crude fibre (0.43 to 1.03%), and tannin (0.87 - 1.51 mg/g), also in water binding capacity (91.77 - 108.35%) and gelatinization temperature (79.13 - 84.83oC). High positive correlations (0.86) were observed between the content of fat and crude fibre, ash and protein (0.78), carbohydrate and viscosity of cowpea flour (0.76), and between ash and tannin (0.61) content of cowpea seed, negative correlations were observed between the content of crude protein and carbohydrate (-0.98), ash and fat (-0.78), crude protein and viscosity (-0.76) of cowpea flour, fat and water bindingcapacity of cowpea flour (-0.72) and carbohydrate and tannin (-0.54) in cowpea seed. Seed coat colour plays no significant role in the chemical content of the seed. The physicochemical properties evaluatedgenerally had high broad sense heritability (56 - 99%). Cowpea varieties (IT97K-1101-5 and IT89KD-288) with high protein content could be selected for formulating infant feeds, varieties with lowercarbohydrate, low fat and high crude fibre (IT90K-277-2) would be desirable in making meals for diabetic patients

The poverty impacts of improved cowpea varieties in Nigeria: a counterfactual analysis

Open Access Article; Published online: 12 June 2019Adoption of improved agricultural technologies has long been recognized as critical for reducing poverty through increased productivity, incomes, and asset accumulation. Using a nationally representative survey data from a sample of over 1500 households in Nigeria, this paper evaluates the impacts of adoption of improved cowpea varieties on income and asset poverty reduction using an endogenous switching regression model. The results showed that adoption of improved cowpea varieties increased per capita household income and asset ownership by 17 and 24 percentage points, respectively. The results based on the observed and counterfactual income and asset distributions further showed that adoption reduced both income poverty and asset poverty by 5 percentage points. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy options for increasing adoption and impacts of improved cowpea varieties in Nigeria

Intensive cereal-legume–livestock systems in West African dry Savannas.

The dry savannas of West Africa are undergoing rapid transformation of agricultural practices owing to the rapid human and livestock population growth, increase in agricultural intensification and accelerated climate change which has increased the incidence and severity of diseases, pests and drought. The major constraints to agricultural production in the savanna include poor soil fertility, pests and diseases of crops and livestock, parasitic weeds such as Striga hermonthica, drought, and competition between crops and livestock for resources, Inadequate policies, weak institutional mechanisms, and poor linkages among farmers, and researchers prevent adoption of improved agricultural technologies that can combat these constraints. The risk of continuous cultivation on these poor and fragile soils is huge. Integrating crop and livestock production offers ways to increase production while protecting the environment. Over the years, research and development institutions have generated several agricultural technologies to alleviate the majority of the production constraints in the West African savannas. However, most development organizations use traditional extension methods that result in poor adoption of the improved technologies. The integration of crop and livestock production is particularly desirable in intensively farmed and densely populated areas with access to urban markets. Proper integration of these practices will diversify smallholder income and increase food security. Integrated genetic and natural resource management provides the keys improved eco-efficiency. This includes integrating pesticide use with cultural practices such as modified planting date and disease control; rotating/ intercropping cereals and legumes; use of pest resistant\tolerant cultivars to increase the effectiveness of pest control and reduce the need for pesticides; and improving soil fertility restoration/maintenance. Government and national institutions in West Africa are encouraged to scale-out these technologies to wider areas for increased benefit to farmers through the use of proven extension methods

Algoritma Kompresi Fraktal Sequential Dan Paralel Untuk Kompresi Citra

Kompresi citra adalah proses mengurangi ukuran dari citra dengan mengurangi kualitas dari citra tersebut. Metode Fraktal yang digunakan bekerja dengan mencari kemiripan pada piksel-piksel citra dan mengelompokkannya dalam beberapa cluster. Semakin tinggi tingkat kemiripan pada citra, rasio kompresi akan semakin baik. Pada citra berwarna (RGB) metode tersebut diulang sebanyak tiga kali, masing-masing untuk satu elemen warna. Hasil akhir dari proses kompresi adalah tiga virtual codebook, masing-masing untuk satu elemen warna, yang menyimpan nilai dari brightness, contrast, dan tipe transformasi affine yang digunakan untuk tiap cluster. Proses dekompresi dari metode ini adalah dengan membentuk citra kosong dengan resolusi yang sama dengan citra asli dan mengisikan nilai RGB pada tiap piksel yang bersangkutan dengan menghitung nilai yang tersimpan pada virtual codebook. Dengan menggunakan nilai Coefficient of Variation (CV) sebagai penyesuaian nilai standar deviasi dan 57 citra BMP24-bit, hasil pengujian menunjukkan rasio kompresi rata-rata sebesar 41.79%. Dengan metode paralel yang digunakan, proses kompresi citra berwarna menunjukkan rata-rata nilai speed-up sebesar 1.69 dan nilai efisiensi prosesor sebesar 56.34%. Image compression is a process of reducing the size of the image by reducing the quality of the image. Fractal method is used to work by searching for similarities in the image pixels, and group them in clusters. The higher the degree of resemblance to the image, the better the compression ratio. In the color image (RGB) the method is repeated three times, each for one color element.The end result of the compression process is a three virtual codebook, each for one color element, which stores the value of the brightness, contrast, and the type of affine transformation are used for each cluster. Decompression process of this method is to form a blank image with the same resolution with the original image and fill in the RGB values at each pixel corresponding to the count value stored in the virtual codebook.By using the Coefficient of Variation (CV) as an adjustment value and standard deviation of 57 pieces of 24-bit BMP images, test results showed an average compression ratio of 41.79%. With the parallel method is used, the compression process of color image shows the average speed-up values of 1.69 and the processor efficiency of 56.34%

Nutritional evaluation and consumer preference of legume fortified maize-meal porridge

Open Access JournalMaize-meal porridge is commonly consumed meal for the adults as breakfast food and for the children as complementary food. Food-to-food fortification was employed in order to improve the protein content of maize-meal porridge using soy flour and local groundnut paste. The study was aimed at evaluating the nutritional properties and consumer preference of the attributes of the unfortified porridge, legume-fortified porridge, and powdered milk-fortified porridge. The influence of consumers’ knowledge of the type of fortificant added to the porridge was also investigated. Soy-fortified porridges provide comparable ash, crude fibre and fat contents to powdered milk- fortified porridge but with higher protein than powdered milk-fortified porridge. Soy flour raised the protein and ash content of the porridge by 90% and 63% respectively, the groundnut paste raised the protein and ash content by 88% and 41% and the powdered milk by 87% and 65% respectively. The unfortified porridge was the least preferred while the milk-fortified porridge was the most preferred. There was no significant difference between preference for some of the attributes of the groundnut paste fortified-porridge and the soy flour-fortified. There was no significant difference between consumption intent for the soy flour and groundnut paste -fortified porridge. Soy-fortified porridges provide comparable ash, crude fibre and fat contents to powdered milk- fortified porridge but with higher protein than powdered milk-fortified porridge. Soy-flour has shown to be a good substitute for powdered milk as a protein-fortificant for porridge and soy-fortified porridge could be a possible means of alleviating Protein-energy malnutrition among low income populations

Variation in physicochemical properties of seed of selected improved varieties of cowpea as it relates to industrial utilization of the crop

Cowpea is an important food, cash and fodder crop in Sub-Saharan Africa and has potential of becoming an industrial crop. A trial was conducted to evaluate selected improved and popular varieties of cowpea for physicochemical characteristics that can help to promote commercial production and industrial use. Variations in content were found among varieties for protein (21.3 - 26.9%), carbohydrate (63.37 - 69.56%), fat (1.2 to 1.80%), crude fibre (0.43 to 1.03%), and tannin (0.87 - 1.51 mg/g), also in water binding capacity (91.77 - 108.35%) and gelatinization temperature (79.13 - 84.83oC). High positive correlations (0.86) were observed between the content of fat and crude fibre, ash and protein (0.78), carbohydrate and viscosity of cowpea flour (0.76), and between ash and tannin (0.61) content of cowpea seed, negative correlations were observed between the content of crude protein and carbohydrate (- 0.98), ash and fat (-0.78), crude protein and viscosity (-0.76) of cowpea flour, fat and water binding capacity of cowpea flour (-0.72) and carbohydrate and tannin (-0.54) in cowpea seed. Seed coat colour plays no significant role in the chemical content of the seed. The physicochemical properties evaluated generally had high broad sense heritability (56 - 99%). Cowpea varieties (IT97K-1101-5 and IT89KD-288) with high protein content could be selected for formulating infant feeds, varieties with lower carbohydrate, low fat and high crude fibre (IT90K-277-2) would be desirable in making meals for diabetic patients

Inoculant formulation and application determine nitrogen availability and water use efficiency in soybean production

Published online: 22 Feb 2022Inoculation of suitable rhizobia enhances biological nitrogen fixation in soybean production and are economically viable for use among smallholder farmers due to its low price over inorganic commercial fertilizer blends. In Mozambique, inoculants are available in liquid or solid form (powder/peat or granular). Field studies were conducted in 2017 and 2018 seasons in three agroecologies (Angonia, Nampula and Ruace) in Mozambique to evaluate the performance of inoculants when applied directly to soil and on seed before planting. Data on nodulation, plant growth, nitrogen fixed, 13C isotope discrimination related water use efficiency, yield and yield components were analyzed in Statistical Analysis System® 9.4. Nodulation, yield, and yield components were significant for the different application methods, and solid form tended to be better than liquid form. The nitrogen derived from atmosphere (%Ndfa) were 45.3%, 44.2% and 43.6% with a yield of 2672, 1752 and 2246 kg ha 1 for Angonia, Nampula and Ruace, respectively. Overall, inoculants applied on soil or seed increase the amount of biologically fixed nitrogen and has the potential of improving soybean productivity in Mozambique

Performance of semideterminate and indeterminate cowpeas relaycropped into maize in Northeast Nigeria

Field trials were conducted in 2005 and 2006 in Tilla (northern Guinea savanna) and Sabon-Gari (Sudan savanna) in northeast Nigeria to determine the performance of two improved cowpea varieties when relay-intercropped with early and late maize, 6 and 8 weeks after planting the maize. Grain yield, number of branches and number of pods per plant were higher for the variety IT89KD-288 than for IT97K-499-35, whether planted sole or relay-intercropped with maize. Grain yield was lower for IT97K-499-35 than for IT89KD-288 when relay-intercropped with maize irrespective of the maturity period of the companion maize crop. This may be due to the indeterminate growth habit and shade tolerance of IT89KD-288 which allowed a higher pod load than IT97K-499-35. However, relay-intercropping with early maize gave higher yield than relay-intercropping into late maize. Also relay-intercropping at 6 weeks after planting maize (WAP) gave a higher yield than relay-intercropping at 8 WAP. This therefore, suggests that introducing cowpea into short statured early maize may mean less competition for light and soil resources compared to taller late maize. Also introducing the cowpea earlier may allow the crop to make full use of soil moisture during the cropping season

Weed seedbank response to planted fallow and tillage in southwest Nigeria

Planted fallows are an alternative to the unsustainable bush fallow for improved soil and weed management in the tropics. However, the interactive effects of planted fallows and tillage on the weed seedbank are not well documented in the tropical environment. The effect of fallow type and tillage on the weed seedbank in the soil was assessed in 1995 and 1996 at Ibadan, southwest Nigeria. The planted fallow species consisted of a herbaceous legume (Pueraria phaseoloides) and three woody legumes (Acacia auriculiformis, Leucaena leucocephala, and Senna siamea). Natural bush fallow and continuous cassava/maize plots were controls. Tillage treatments were minimum tillage and mounding. Continuous maize/cassava plots had the largest weed seedbank in both years. After six years of continuous fallow, the weed seedbank was 86% lower in A. auriculiformis, 79% in P. phaseoloides, 68% in S. siamea, 53% in L. leucocephala, and 35% in natural bush fallow plots than in continuously cultivated plots. Compared to minimum tillage, mounding reduced the seedbank by 47% in 1995 and 66% in 1996. Redundancy analysis showed that tillage contributed significantly to the variance in species composition. Euphorbia hyssopifolia, E. heterophylla, and Cynodon dactylon showed no preference in terms of tillage. Perennial and annual grasses (Digitaria horizontalis, Eleusine indica, Paspalum orbiculare, Cynodon dactylon) with Cyathula prostrata and Desmodium scorpiurus, an annual and perennial broadleaf, respectively, were most abundant in the seedbank of continuously cultivated plots. There were more annual broadleaf weeds in the seedbank of planted fallow plots than in the control plots. Species diversity of the seedbank was greatest in plots under minimum tillage. Mounding as a seedbed preparation method, especially within the improved fallow system, could reduce the high weed pressure experienced by smallholder farmers in southwest Nigeria

Visum Et Repertum Sebagai Barang Bukti Pengganti Mayat

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana kedudukan visum et repertum sebagai barang bukti pengganti mayat dan bagaimana peranan visum et repertum dalam pembuktian perkara pidana. Dengan menggunakan metode penelitian yuridis normatif, maka dapat disimpulkan: 1. Visum et repertum selaku keterangan dalam bentuk yang formil menyangkut hal-hal yang dilihat dan ditemukan oleh doker pada benda-benda yang diperiksa sesungguhnya adalah pengganti barang bukti, bahwa pada keharusannya dalam hal pembuktian mestinya orang yang menjadi obyek penganiayaan, pembunuhan atau kejahatan lainnya dari suatu peristiwa pidana selanjutnya diajukan menjadi barang bukti seperti misalnya orang yang dianiaya dan mati terbunuh sudah barang tentu menjadi kesulitan dalam praktek; karenanya orang yang meninggal (mayat) harus dikebumikan sebab dapat membusuk untuk selanjutnya mengalami proses alamiah hancur menjadi debu tanah. 2. Kedudukan visum et repertum dalam hukum pembuktian dalam proses acara pidana adalah termasuk sebagai alat bukti surat sebagaimana maksud pasal 184 ayat 1 huruf c jo pasal 187 huruf c KUHAP dengan keterangan ahli sesuai maksud pasal 1 angka 28 KUHAP jo Stb 1937-350 pasal 184 ayat 1 huruf b KUHAP