The Use of Oil Palm Bunch Ash for Amelioration of Crude Oil Polluted Soils

The use of Oil Palm bunch ash for the amelioration of Crude Oil polluted soil was investigated at six amendment levels (10g, 20g, 30g, 40g, 50g and 60g) per 2kg soil.  A further investigation of the cumulative effect of oil palm bunch ash at the above amendment levels were carried out.  Experimental soils were subjected to Laboratory analysis using standard analytical methods for soil pH, organic carbon, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and total hydrocarbon content.  Soil chemical property analysis indicated increase in soil pH value for soils amended with oil palm bunch ash over time thus reducing soil acidity for enhanced degradation.  Soil organic carbon and organic matter increased with levels of amendment material over time.  Soil total Nitrogen was generally deficient in soils. However, there was improvement at the end of experimentation.  Soil available phosphorus increased with amendment levels and was subsequently depleted in soils over time.  At the end of experimentation, there was improvement in soil available phosphorus.  Soil carbon, Nitrogen (C/N) ratio was observed to narrow down overtime in soils amended with oil palm bunch ash.  Soil total hydrocarbon analysis indicated a significant reduction in amended soils at 20g, 30g and 40g/2kg amendment levels with 28.99% to 30% reduction of total petroleum hydrocarbon content for residual treated soils  while cumulative treatment indicated optimum significant reductions at 40g/2kg with 29.34% reduction of TPH content. The finding of the work shows that Oil palm bunch ash amendment at the rate of 20g to 40g/2kg soil is the optimum treatment for remediation while cumulative application would favour the six levels of amendment with 40g/2kg as optimum. Keywords: Bioremediation, Biostimulation, Cumulative treatment, Residual  treatment.

Geotechnical Application for the Design and Estimation of Amata-Lekwesi, Nigeria Open Mine

The need for a proper understanding of the subsurface geology of a place and the depositional pattern of what is to be mined is very important in establishing its mining trend especially if such deposits are not exposed at the surface. Eleven borings were made in the quarry pit and around the surrounding berm to depths of 25 meters at a sampling interval of 1.0m into the intrusive rock bodies using Slanzi rotary diamond coring rig. The depth range of the boreholes varies from 15.0 meters to 25.0 meters. Rock/Soil samples obtained from borings were subjected to both visual field examination and laboratory tests/analyses to guide in designing a mine system that is based on the geology, trending pattern and geotechnical properties of the rocks. The intrusive was observed to trend in the east-west orientation. However, north-south trends were also observed at certain sections of the mine/quarry. The values of the plunges of the intrusive were observed to be between 2o and 6o at the northern southern segments. The average thickness of the intrusive bodies varies from 11.20m for the surrounding bench area to 20.00m in the pit. This observed thickness of rock mass covers an area of approximately 81,750 m2, made up of 29,500 m2 for the floor of the quarry and 52,250 m2 for the surrounding bench. The area of the surrounding berm and the pit floor area are  52,250 m2 and 29,500m2 respectively. A total reserve tonnage of 3,874,000 was obtained. Keywords: Geotechnical, Mining design, intrusive body, Slanzi rotary diamond coring rig, Quarry, Trend, Plung

Growth performance traits of broilers exposed to crude oil flame emissions

This study was a simulation of what obtains in the petroleum producing areas, where gas flaring and oil spill pollution effects are felt. The experimental design was a 2-factor factorial in a completely randomized design (CRD), with factor A as distances from the crude petroleum flame and factor B as the age of the birds in weeks. One hundred and eighty (180) Anak day-old broiler chicks were used in the study with 4 treatments of 45 birds per treatment, replicated thrice at 15 birds per replicate. A control was located in another poultry house outside the flame area. The crude oil was ignited in a metal burner, 22.86cm high with a diameter of 17.8cm and a thickness of 1.17cm designed for the purpose. Crude oil burning was from 6am to 10pm daily throughout the experimental period. Ambient temperature and relative humidity readings were recorded thrice daily (morning, afternoon and evening). The birds were fed ad libitum on a proprietory starter mash for 5 weeks, and a broiler finisher mash from for 3 weeks. Water was provided adlibitum. Routine inoculations and other medications were administered as and when due. The microclimatological experimental environment showed a generally lower light intensity, lower ambient temperature and high relative humidity. The values obtained in this study at an averaging time of 60 minutes (at 10 minutes interval) are higher than those stipulated by FEPA. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the effect of the treatments on the birds. Age of birds had highly significant (

A GCP Challenge Initiative: Drought Tolerance Improvement for Sorghum in Africa

Sorghum is, together with pearl millet, one of the most important cereals in West Africa. It is the second most important crop in Africa after maize. Sorghum production in West Africa is principally based on traditional, low harvest index cultivars and breeding efforts of the past 40 years have had limited positive impact. At the same time, sorghum with an aligned genome sequence available since 2007, constitutes a model for grass species and is rich of huge resources in terms of genomic tools and information. Building on a five-year effort to characterize worldwide sorghum diversity and develop resources for association mapping studies, several approaches are now explored for integrating molecular tools and approaches into sorghum breeding programs in Mali. This presentation will focus on two approaches developed as part of the GCP challenge initiative “Drought Tolerance Improvement for Sorghum in Africa”. The first strategy integrates recent sorghum breeding achievements in Mali and methodologies for marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) that provide significant improvement of breeding efficiency for complex traits, as demonstrated in maize. The second, develops a modified nested association mapping (NAM) design exploiting backcross products from a set of elite recurrent parents in combination with several genetically diverse donor parents chosen as sources of cryptic alleles for improvement of productivity and adaptation to prevalent biotic and abiotic stresses. This project will combine an applied component toward the development of new broadened basis varieties with the development of experimental populations with strong genetic resolution and long-term value for identifying marker-trait associations