FABRICATION AND TESTING OF GYPSUM BLOCKS FOR SOIL MOISTURE DETERMINATION

Over the last decade, many new developments of soil moisture sensors have been evolved, especially those based on the frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) capacitance technique, due to the rapid developments in the micro- electronics industry. This project work is aimed at field study of gypsum blocks for soil moisture determination. Three types of GBs were fabricated and used in this study. The dimension for GB as given by Michael (1978) was used as reference. The other two sizes were two-third ( ) and one and half ( ) of the Michael’s size. The field evaluation of the three types of GB was carried out to measure soil moisture content. A field area of 3 by 4 m was prepared and three blocks each of the types fabricated were installed. The blocks were installed at 25 cm depth below the soil surface into holes made with augers. The block was calibrated using a log-log graph and exponential function to obtain the relationship between moisture content and resistance as . The equation was used to evaluate the resistance based moisture content. The result shows that there is a variation in the moisture content using different sizes of blocks. Keywords: fabrication, testing, soil moisture DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-3-0

Assessment and Modeling of Drawbar Power Necessities of Disc Plough in Sandy-clay Soil in South-East Nigeria

The incongruities between agro-ecological soil states demand statistical records of the performance of tillage equipment under various soil classifications for proper choice of implements to minimize charge, curtail energy wastage, and upsurge agricultural output. This research was carried out to assess and model the drawbar power requirements of disc plough on sandy-clay soil in South – East Nigeria that will help farmers predict the power requirements and detect the optimum value of power demand of the plough in orderto select apposite plough subject to the soil type for proficient and bravura productions. Results showed that the highest drawbar power of 5.42kW was achieved when the plough was engaged at full working width of 180 cm, at tillage depth of 15 cm and least operational speed of 6km/hr. The statistical analyses revealed that tillage depth and operational speed have a significant effect (p˂ 0.05) on the drawbar power of the disc plough compared to the effective working width of the plough.The quadratic model was statistically significant for the response (P ˂ 0.05). Results also pointed out that the coefficient of determination; R2 was 0.9759 for drawbar power, which indicated high correlations amid the factors. The adequacy Precision of 19.912 obtained indicated decorous indicator and that the models could navigate the design space. The optimum drawbar power of 4.95kW was achieved with the desirability of 1.000 at optimal effective working width of 119.06 cm, ploughing depth of 13.71 cm and operational speed of 7.74kmh-1. Farmers can henceforth, appraise and select the disc plough implements with the developed model equation

Efekti aktivne filtracije tretmanom sa ugljem na procenu kvaliteta vode

Activated carbon has been identified as one of the major favoured water treatment technique because of its multifunctional nature without further detriment to the treated water. In this study, varying masses of the activated carbon from palm kernel (PK) shells were weighed at intervals to treat the water samples obtained at different locations. Location A is Otamiri River, in FUTO community while location B is Umuariagha River, in Ikwuano Local Government area of Abia state. The water samples collected were then analyzed using standard equipments. Results of the analyses revealed that the water quality parameters in the samples were highly reduced after treatment except for parameters like Nitrate ,with values 24.17 mg/L to 27.3 mg/L in location A; 4.73 mg/L to 7.9 mg/L in location B, Iron with values 1.0 mg/L to 0.42 mg/L in location A; 0.75 mg/L to 0.38mg/L in location B, and total bacteria coliform count with values 30 to 26 cfu/ml in location A; 28 to 24 cfu/ml in location B, showed little effect but confirm to standard for agricultural uses. Furthermore, these values are within the ranges recommended by FAO for irrigation uses. In conclusion, these water samples should be subjected to further treatment processes such as boiling before being used for drinking.Aktivni ugalj je identifikovan kao jedna od glavnih tehnika prečišćavanja vode zbog svoje multifunkcionalne prirode bez daljnjeg oštećenja tretirane vode. U ovoj studiji su izmerene mase aktivnog uglja dobijenog od ljuski palminog ploda (PK) u intervalima da bi se tretirali uzorci vode dobijeni na različitim lokacijama. Lokacija A je reka Otamiri, u zajednici FUTO, dok je lokacija B reka Umuariagha, u oblasti lokalne samouprave IKVUANO u državi Abia, Nigerija. Uzorci vode su analizirani standardnom opremom. Rezultati analiza pokazuju da su parametri kvaliteta vode u uzorcima posle tretmana visoko smanjeni, osim za parametre poput nitrata, sa vrednostima od 24,17 mg/L do 27,3 mg/L na lokaciji A; 4,73 mg/L do 7,9 mg/L na mestu B, i sadržaj gvožđa ima vrednosti od 1,0 mg/L do 0,42 mg/L na lokaciji A; 0,75 mg / L do 0,38 mg / L na mestu B. Ukupan broj koliformnih bakterija sa vrednostima 30 do 26 cfu/ml na lokaciji A; 28 do 24 cfu / ml na lokaciji B, pokazuje male efekte filtracije, ali potvrđuje kao standard za poljoprivrednu upotrebu. Pored toga, ove vrednosti su u granicama koje preporučuje FAO za upotrebu za potrebe korišćenja kod navodnjavanja. Zaključno je, da ove uzorke vode, treba podvrgnuti daljim postupcima obrade filtracije, i zagrevanja (ključanja), pre upotrebe za piće

Estimation of Rainfall Erosivity Index for Auchi, Edo State, Using Lombardi’s Method

The erosivity factor in the universal soil loss equation (USLE) provides an effective means of evaluating the erosivity power of rainfall. This study evaluated the erosivity factor based on monthly and annual precipitation rainfall data of Auchi, Edo State covering a period of 2005 – 2014 using Lombardi method (EI =1.03Vd1.51).  It was discovered that higher rainfall values resulted in high erosivity index values which was in line with other tropical climates. The average annual erosivity index for the city during the period of study was 587.32 MJ mm/hr. The R2 of 0.651 shows that precipitation alone contributed 65.1% of the erosion risk within the study period. The knowledge of impact of rainfall on erosivity is essential in soil erosion risk assessment and for soil and water conservation planning. Keywords: Erosivity, Kinetic energy, Erosion, Rainfall intensity, Lombardi, Erodibility, Auchi, Soil loss DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-1-0