APPLICATION OF SOIL INFORMATION IN NIGERIAN AGRICULTURE: A CASE STUDY OF SOME HORTICULTURAL FARMS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE.

Soil information is a critical element in any agricultural venture. It often provides the missing link between assumptions and actuality in agricultural and non agricultural land use. A field study was carried out to assess the effects of poor application of soil information and the present level of soil information and utilization among small scale horticultural crop farmers in Ibadan, Oyo state. Six candidate citrus trees each were selected from two citrus orchards planted on suitable and marginally suitable soils based on available soil survey information which was monitored over two seasons, while structured questionnaires were administered to get empirical data on land use by the farmers. There was over 35% yield difference and this was significantly different (P <0.05) with loss of some trees after 15 years of establishment of the orchard on marginally suitable soils. Mean yield per tree was 50.43kg and 30.12kg for suitable and marginally suitable plots respectively. None of the respondents sought professional advice on land use or have knowledge of previous land use type while the farms were not surveyed before use. 56.27% of the farmers do not carry out soil test while less than 10% of the farmers apply fertilizers suggesting nutrient mining with an average land use period of 14years. The findings of this work show that soil information is not adequately utilized among horticultural crop farmers in Oyo state. Therefore, there is need to enlighten farmers on the need for accurate soil information and application for enhanced horticultural crop production

Improving Agricultural Education Curriculum Through Sea Food Resources at the Tertiary Institutions

This work centered on improving Agricultural Education curriculum through sea food resources at the tertiary institutions. The research was conducted in Ebonyi state of Nigeria. The design used for this research was a survey research design. The research had five specific purposes and five research questions. The collection of data used for the study was done using questionnaire as the instrument. The   questionnaire contained 50 items.  The questionnaire was validated by experts in agricultural Education, measurement and evaluation and curriculum. The reliability of the instrument was determined by carrying out a pilot test. The data collected from the pilot test was analyzed using cronbach alpha which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.812. The data collected were subjected to analysis using statistical mean and standard deviation. The outcome of the analysis of the data revealed that the concepts of the sea food resources should be included in the agricultural education curriculum at the tertiary institutions, the management skills in sea food resources, the harvesting techniques of sea food resources, the processing, preservation and storage techniques of sea food resources and the distribution and marketing of sea food resources should be included in the agricultural education curriculum at the tertiary institutions. On the basis of the findings, the researchers recommended that the ministry of education, the institutions offering agricultural education and the national university commission (NUC) should include the findings of this research in the curriculum of agricultural education. Keywords: Agriculture; Education; Curriculum; food;resources;tertiary;institutions. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-35-04 Publication date: December 31st 202

Reading tea leaves worldwide: decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass-loss rate and stabilisation

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization factors of plant-derived carbon, using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). The stabilization factor quantifies the degree to which easy-to-degrade components accumulate during early-stage decomposition (e.g. by environmental limitations). However, agriculture and an interaction between moisture and temperature led to a decoupling between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization, notably in colder locations. Using TBI improved mass-loss estimates of natural litter compared to models that ignored stabilization. Ignoring the transformation of dead plant material to more recalcitrant substances during early-stage decomposition, and the environmental control of this transformation, could overestimate carbon losses during early decomposition in carbon cycle models

Effect of multiple in-utero insonation on rabbit fetal thyroid hormonal level

Due to the increased use of ultrasound in the diagnosis of cyesis, it is necessary to study the possible adverse effect of insonation on thyroid hormone in fetuses. Sixteen (16) adult rabbit does that had kindled at least once were used for the study and were scanned using a Medison S600V® Ultrasound machine with a 6.5MHz transcutaneous curve-linear probe. All does were mated naturally by the introduction of a doe to a buck and then divided randomly into two groups. The does that were scanned (insonated)-, were properly restrained on dorsal recumbency, liberally shaved; aquasonic gel applied and scanned using a transcutaneous curve-linear probe for 5 minutes on the 5th day post coitus and thereafter on days 7, 12, 15, 20, 25, 27 and 29. The restrain and scanning procedures were mimicked on the group of does that were not scanned (non-insonated). Upon parturition, blood was collected from kits and serum was extracted and used to assay for total thyroxine (tT4) and triiodothyronine (tT3). Fetal thyroid glands were also harvested for histologic study. Mean tT3 concentration was 1.60 ± 0.90 μg/dl and 1.58 ± 0.03 μg/dl while mean tT4 was 1.46 ± 0.10 μg/dl and 1.39 ± 0.07 μg/dl for the non-insonated and insonated groups, respectively. P values of 0.610 and 0.132 for tT3 and tT4 concentration respectively showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the values even though there was a numerical difference between the groups. No histopathologic change on fetal thyroid gland from both groups was observed. In conclusion, although the values were not significantly different, the numerical decrease of both tT3 and tT4 in the insonated rabbits suggest the possibility that insonation could alter their values in fetuses when the threshold of ultrasound waves are increased and insonation prolonged.Keywords: Fetus, Insonation, Rabbit, Thyroid hormone, Ultrasoun