Integrative Investment Appraisal of a Lignocellulosic Biomass-to-Ethanol Industry

While theoretically more efficient than starch-based ethanol production systems, conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol is not without major challenges. A multi-region, multi-period, mixed integer mathematical programming model encompassing alternative feedstocks, feedstock production, delivery, and processing is developed. The model is used to identify key cost components and potential bottlenecks, and to reveal opportunities for reducing costs and prioritizing research. The research objective was to determine for specific regions in Oklahoma the most economical source of lignocellulosic biomass, timing of harvest and storage, inventory management, biorefinery size, and biorefinery location, as well as the breakeven price of ethanol, for a gasification-fermentation process. Given base assumptions, gasification-fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol may be more economical than fermentation of corn grain. However, relative to conventional fermentation processes, gasification-fermentation technology is in its infancy. It remains to be seen if the technology will be technically feasible on a commercial scale.biomass, biorefinery location, ethanol, integrative investment appraisal, logistics, mixed integer programming, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Impacts of Wildlife Conservation Policies on Rural Household Welfare in Zambia

KEY POLICY POINTS • Tourism is increasingly important in Zambia as a vehicle for economic growth, and has been identified as a key sector for poverty reduction due to its potential to generate off-farm income and employment in rural areas. Growth in arrivals and receipts in Zambia has outpaced average growth rates for developing countries. • Tourism in Zambia relies mostly on the stock of natural resources, including the protected area system which includes national parks and game management areas (GMAs). Co-management agreements between Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and rural communities present opportunities and threats for households living in GMAs. • Households living in GMAs have lower average income than households in other rural areas. Yet we find that, for prime GMAs (those well stocked with wildlife), the GMA designation leads to higher incomes than households would otherwise be expected to achieve, based on their own characteristics and those of the areas in which they reside. • We further find that the benefits of living in a prime GMA accrue mostly to the wealthier segments of the population. • Though overall effects on households are positive, losses from crop damage by wildlife are a threat to this success: we find that such losses are statistically significant, large enough to be meaningful to households, and greatest in prime GMAswildlife conservation, rural households, zambia, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, q57,

USING MIXED-INTEGER PROGRAMMING TO DETERMINE THE POTENTIAL FOR FLOUR-MILLING INDUSTRY EXPANSION

As in most predominantly agricultural states, agricultural producers in Oklahoma have expressed an interest in value-added processing opportunities. While Oklahoma produces mostly hard red winter wheat, most Oklahoma bakers require predominantly soft wheat flour for their products, almost all of which is purchased from out-of-state suppliers. An economic engineering-based, mixed-integer programming model was used to determine the optimal number, size, and location of additional flour mills in Oklahoma to capture this excess flour demand. The results suggest that additional mills are potentially justified and that the potential for additional milling will increase if Oklahoma soft wheat production increases.Agribusiness,

Investigation of gene action for resistance to early leaf spot of groundnut

Groundnut (Arachishypogaea L.) is an important global oilseed crop and a major source of protein and vitamins in many rural areas of Africa. In Zambia, the production of groundnut is limited by several factors, among which Early Leaf Spot (ELS) caused by Cercosporaarachidicola Hori, is a major destructive disease. Development of resistant varieties to ELS remains the most viable disease management strategy. The objective of this study was to investigate the type of gene action conditioning resistance to C. arachidicolain order to generate information for breeding of ELS resistant groundnut varieties in Zambia. The field work was conducted at Chitedze Research Station in Malawi which is a known hot spot for groundnut foliar diseases. A recombinant inbred line (RIL) population developed from a biparental cross (Robut 33-1, susceptible and ICGV-SM 95714, resistant) and consisting of 110 F8 RILs was used in the study. Data for analysis was generated by phenotyping of the RIL population and this was conducted during the 2013/14 season under field conditions supplemented by irrigation. To ensure that there was disease infection in the experimental field, diseased debris was used as primary inoculums. The nature of gene action was established by generating a distribution curve while the Chi-square test was used to confirm the generation level of the population. These were done using the area under disease progress curves (AUDPCs) and the results suggested additive gene action. The study thus concluded that the gene action conditioning resistance to ELS was additive and breeding schemes such as pedigree and single seed decent can be used in breeding for resistance to Cercosporaarachidicola

Evaluation for stable resistance to Stenocarpella maydis in tropical maize (Zea mays L.)

Maize ear rots caused by Stenocarpella maydis cause reduction in yield and quality of the maize due to the mycotoxins produced by the pathogen. Breeding for resistance is the most feasible option in managing ear rots. However, to obtain stable resistance to S. maydis has been a challenge partly due to effect of the environment and availability of different isolates. The objective of this research was therefore, to determine the effect of multiple isolate inoculations in breeding for resistance to S. maydis and to identify genotypes with stable resistance. Seven inbred lines were crosses in a 7 x 7 full diallel without reciprocals. The resultant crosses (21) and their parents (7) were planted and evaluated at two sites, Lusaka and Mpongwe, during the 2015/16 cropping season. The experiment was laid out as a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Treatments were: (1) single inoculation with isolate A, (2) single inoculation with isolate B and (3) a multiple inoculation of two isolates AB and (4) control with no inoculation at all. The mean genotypic scores were found to be 5.52, 4.96, 5.50 and 1 for treatment 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The t-test analysis revealed that treatment 1 had a higher mean disease severity score (5.52) as compared to treatment 2 (4.96) (P < 0.01). Equally mean for treatment 2 (4.96) and 3 (5.50) were significantly different (P < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences between mean disease severity score for treatment 1 and 3. This indicated that multiple isolate inoculations could give rise to inappropriate genetic information due to the possibility of antagonistic effect between isolates. The genotypes (P2 x P4) and (P3 x P6) crosses were found to have stable resistance to S. maydis. These exhibited consistent significant negative SCA effects (P< 0.05) in both locations

CLUSTERING COMMON BEAN MUTANTS BASED ON HETEROTIC GROUPINGS

Common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.), is an important legume crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Most of the local varieties are favoured for their colour and taste, but have a low yield potential of 0.3 to 0.5 metric tonnes per hectare. Mutation breeding is a crop improvement tool in beans that can create new alleles, which when advanced beyond mutated generation 5 (M5), produces stable mutants, which may possess desirable characteristics. These mutants may result in rapid genetic advance and help address issues of low bean productivity. The objective of this study was to cluster bean mutants from a bean mutation breeding programme, based on heterotic groupings. This was achieved by genotyping 16 bean genotypes, using 21 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) bean markers. From the results, three different clusters A, B and C, were obtained suggesting great genetic diversity among the bean mutants and these cluster groups (A, B and C) can be taken as heterotic groupings. Depending on the phenotypic trait under consideration, crossing of two distinct genotypes from different cluster groups may lead to hybrid vigour. Furthermore, to create genetic variability for further bean improvement, the breeder can cross distinct genotypes from different cluster groups, which after several generations of selfing accompanied by selection may lead to desirable progeniesLe haricot commun ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.), est une l\ue9gumineuse tr\ue8s importante en Afrique au Sud du Sahara (SSA). La plupart des vari\ue9t\ue9s locales sont favoris\ue9es pour leur couleur et go\ufbt, mais elles sont potentiellement de faibles rendements allant de 0,3 0,5 tonnes par hectare. La s\ue9lection par mutation est un outil d\u2019am\ue9lioration vari\ue9tale utilis\ue9e pour le haricot, cet outil peut cr\ue9er de nouveaux all\ue8les qui, lorsqu\u2019ils sont avanc\ue9s au-del\ue0 de la g\ue9n\ue9ration mut\ue9e 5 (M5), produisent des mutants stables, qui peuvent poss\ue9der les caract\ue9ristiques d\ue9sir\ue9es. Ces mutants peuvent contribuer \ue0 une avanc\ue9e g\ue9n\ue9tique rapide et aider \ue0 r\ue9soudre les probl\ue8mes de faible rendement. L\u2019objectif de cette \ue9tude \ue9tait de classer les haricots mutants, en se basant sur les groupements h\ue9t\ue9rotiques. Ceci a \ue9t\ue9 r\ue9alis\ue9 en utilisant 21 marqueurs des r\ue9p\ue9titions de s\ue9quences simples (SSR) pour le genotypage de 16 \ue9cotypes de haricot. Des r\ue9sultats obtenus, il ressort trois diff\ue9rentes classes A, B et C, ce qui sugg\ue8re une grande diversit\ue9 g\ue9n\ue9tique entre les haricots mutants, ces groupes (A, B et C) peuvent \ueatre consid\ue9r\ue9s comme des groupements h\ue9t\ue9rotiques. Selon le trait ph\ue9notypique consid\ue9r\ue9, le croisement de deux des g\ue9notypes appartenant \ue0 des groupes diff\ue9rents peut g\ue9n\ue9rer de la vigueur hybride. Par ailleurs, pour cr\ue9er une variabilit\ue9 g\ue9n\ue9tique dans un but d\u2019am\ue9lioration ult\ue9rieure, le s\ue9lectionneur peut croiser des \ue9cotypes appartenant \ue0 des groupes diff\ue9rents, ce qui apr\ue8s plusieurs g\ue9n\ue9rations d\u2019auto pollinisation suivie de s\ue9lection pourra g\ue9n\ue9rer des descendants ayant les traits d\ue9sir\ue9s

Ripening stage and drying method affecting colour and quality attributes of Ziziphus mauritiana fruits in Zimbabwe

Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk. (Ber) fruit is harvested at different stages of ripening in the Zambezi valley of Zimbabwe. We hypothesize that the organoleptic quality attributes of fruits depend on post-harvestdrying method and ripening stage at harvest. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different stages of ripening on the quality of Z. mauritiana fruits during drying. The fruits were graded into green, yellowish-brown and brown categories and these formed the treatments. Some of these fruits were blanched before drying for 1, 2 and 3 weeks under the solar dryer and the open sun drying methods. The green fruits lost significantly (

Enabling Small-Scale Maize Marketing and Processing to Assure Supplies of Low-Cost Staples

Crop Production/Industries, Downloads December 2008 - July 2009: 6,

NATURE OF RESISTANCE OF COWPEA ALECTRA VOGELII INFESTATION

Alectra vogelii (benth) is parasitic weed which causes significant yield reductions in cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata Walp) in Africa. The objective of this study was to identify the type of gene action controlling the trait for resistance to Alectra vogelii in cowpea and estimate the heritability of the trait. Seven genotypes of cowpea were mated in half diallel and their F2 progeny, including parents, were evaluated for reaction to Alectra vogelii infection in the field in two locations at Ilonga and Hombolo Agriculture Research Stations. Highly significant (P &lt; 0.001) differences were found for Alectra emergency and infestation at Ilonga. General combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects for Alectra shoot emergency and infestation were significant (P &lt; 0.05). The estimate of Baker\u2019s ratio for Alectra shoot emergency and infestation were 0.62 and 0.66, respectively. This indicates that both additive and non-additive gene actions influenced the trait for resistance to Alectra emergency and infestation. Narrow sense heritability estimates were 41.28 and 44.39 for shoot and emergency, respectively. These results imply that introgression of a desirable trait in an elite genotype would involve careful crossing with a resistance genotype, accompanied by selection in the advanced population.Alectra vogelii (benth) est une herbe parasite qui engender des reductions significatives dans les rendements du ni\ue9b\ue9 ( Vigna unguiculata Walp) en Afrique. L\u2019objectif de la pr\ue9sente \ue9tude \ue9tait d\u2019identifier le type d\u2019action de g\ue8ne controllant la r\ue9sistance \ue0 Alectra vogelii chez le ni\ue9b\ue9 et d\u2019estimer les valeurs d\u2019h\ue9ritabilit\ue9. Sept g\ue9notypes de ni\ue9b\ue9 ont \ue9t\ue9 crois\ue9s selon le mode half diallel et leurs descendants F2, ainsi que les parents, ont \ue9t\ue9 \ue9valu\ue9s pour leur reaction face \ue0 \u2018linfestation en plein champs du Alectra vogelii dans les stations de recherch\ue9 agricole de Ilonga et Hombolo. Des differences tr\ue8s significatives (P &lt; 0,001) ont \ue9t\ue9 observ\ue9es pour l\u2019\ue9mergence, la croissance v\ue9g\ue9tative et l\u2019infestation de Alectra \ue0 Ilonga. L\u2019habilet\ue9 \ue0 la combinaison g\ue9n\ue9rale (GCA) et sp\ue9cifique (SCA) pour l\u2019\ue9mergence, la croissance v\ue9g\ue9tative et infestation de Alectra \ue9taient significative (P &lt; 0,05). les valeurs du ratio de Baker pour l\u2019\ue9mergence, la croissance v\ue9g\ue9tative et l\u2019infestation de Alectra \ue9taient respectivement de 0,62 et 0,66. Ceci indique que les deux effets de g\ue8ne; additif et non-additif sont responsables de la r\ue9sistance \ue0 l\u2019\ue9mergence, la croissance v\ue9g\ue9tative et \ue0 l\u2019infestation de Alectra. Les valeurs de l\u2019h\ue9ritabilit\ue9 au sens strict \ue9taient respectivement de 41,28 et 44,39 pour la croissance v\ue9g\ue9tative et l\u2019\ue9mergence. Ces r\ue9sultats indiquent que l\u2019introgression d\u2019un caract\ue8re d\ue9sirable dans un g\ue9notype \ue9lite n\ue9cessiterait des croisements avec un genotype r\ue9sistant, suivi de selection au cours des g\ue9n\ue9rations avanc\ue9es