Mobile phone use by small-scale farmers: a potential to transform production and marketing in Zimbabwe

Smallholder farmers are major contributors of horticultural produce. Women’s contribution is noteworthy. Meeting market demand on time and avoiding market ‘floods’ is a challenge among communal farmers, leading to post harvest losses partly due to lack of information and uninformed decision making. Mobile phones have potential to connect farmers to markets, close the information gap and enable informed decisions. Currently most farmers target a few markets leading to market ‘floods’, low prices and fresh produce deterioration while some potential markets remain untapped. A survey conducted in 2015 covering 131 farmers in Svosve-Wenimbi, Marondera district of Mashonaland East province in Zimbabwe evaluated mobile phone ownership and use in farming; and its potential in transforming production and marketing. High literacy and mobile phone ownership of 95.32% and 94.45% respectively was reported, with 16% already accessing advisory services over mobile phone. 51.1% utilised various mobile phone services including accessing market information on inputs and produce, advisory services, weather data, mobile phone money transfers for transaction and crop insurance. By using mobile phones farmers made informed decisions and saved time and transport cost. Mobile phone ICT can promote better production, marketing, food security and livelihoods and more farmers may adopt the technology.Keywords: small holder agriculture, marketing, mobile phones, women, Zimbabwe, extension implication

Direct use of spent mushroom substrate from Pleurotus pulmonarius as a readily delignified feedstock for cellulase production

The feasibility of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) as an alternative fermentation feedstock for cellulase production has been demonstrated in this work. Utilization of SMS as a substrate has been attempted widely due to its high cellulose content and readily available in smaller particle size. On top of that, the availability of delignified SMS by the action of Pleurotus pulmonarius during mushroom cultivation offers another benefit to its use whereby no chemical pretreatment would be required prior to fermentation. The recovery of crude laccase and manganese peroxidase from delignified SMS were found to be 3 and 1.4 U/g, respectively. Further to this, the cellulase production from SMS by Trichoderma asperellum UPM 1 under solid state fermentation was optimized by applying central composite design, resulted in increment of 1.4-fold in CMCase (171.21 U/g) and 1.5-fold in β-glucosidase (6.83 U/g), with the optimum temperature of 27.5 °C, initial moisture content 81% and initial pH of fermentation 4.5. Therefore, this study showed that the direct utilization of SMS is feasible for promising cellulase production by T. asperellum UPM 1

Effects of Nitrogen and sulphur on canola (<I>Brassica napus </I>L.) vegetative and reproductive growth

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Potential of organic residues in producing oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus Fr. (Polyporaceae).

Low mushroom yields are observed when non-supplemented substrates are used for production. The experiments were carried out to evaluate potential benefits of organic supplements in cotton residues, maize stover and wheat straw substrates used for cultivation of oyster mushroom. Mixed formulations at various doses of 0, 4, 8 and 14 % sunflower seed cake supplement levels were autoclaved before inoculation with P. ostreatus spawn. Duration of developmental stages, mycelium vigour and yield of oyster mushroom on substrates formulations were evaluated. The mycelium vigour significantly increased (

Growth and Performance of Baby Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) Grown under Different Organic Fertilizers

Spinacia oleracea L. (baby spinach) is a relatively new leaf vegetable crop in Zimbabwe, so the agronomic performance is unknown. A 3-year field experiment was done at the Seke Teachers College research farm, Zimbabwe. The research evaluated the response of baby spinach to different types of organic manure sources, days after fertilizer application (DAS), and growing season. A 3 × 2 factorial in a completely randomized block design (CRBD) with three replicates was used. Baby spinach cultivar, Dash, was grown on three organic manures (goat applied at 14.894 t ha−1, cattle at 17.789 t ha−1, and poultry at 13.807 t ha−1) in winter 2018, 2019, and 2020. Compound D (7% N, 14% P, and 7% K) at 300 kg ha−1 was included as a control. Crop growth rate, leaf area index, leaf area ratio, net assimilation rate, total dry matter production, and harvest index were measured on 7-day intervals from 14 to 35 days after transplanting. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the effects of the treatments on the baby spinach growth parameters was done. Significant p<0.05 interactions on the type of organic manure × DAS × growing season were observed on all the measured response variables. There were varied effects of organic manures on growth performance at 14 to 28 DAS where poultry manure had higher growth performance compared to cattle and goat manure. Generally, there was a significant p<0.05 gradual increase in growth from 14 to 35 DAS on the organic manures and a decline from day 28 to 35 DAS under compound D. Low quality (large C/N) cattle and goat manure had lower effects than high quality (small C/N) poultry manure at early growth stages of the baby spinach. Unlike compound D, organic manure continuously supplied adequate nutrients throughout the life cycle (35 DAS) of the baby spinach

Improving biological efficiency of Oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus Fr. (Polyporaceae), through composting and use of organic supplements.

Various crop residues can be used in producing Oyster mushrooms either as main substrates or in combinations with supplements. Yield response is determined by the type of crop residue and production practice used. Two factorial experiments were performed to evaluate the mycelium vigor and biological efficiency (BE) of Oyster mushroom produced on composted cotton residues, maize stover and wheat straw substrates enriched with either sunflower seed cake or pigeon pea hulls. Yield improvement were observed in both pigeon pea and sunflower seed cake supplemented treatments with the highest mycelium vigor (91.65%) and biological efficiencies (106.65%) observed, whilst the control treatments had 71.1% mycelium vigor and 27.6% biological efficiency. Mycelium growth and biological efficiency were satisfactory with the use of either supplement. Contribution of flushes to total yield was improved with addition of either supplement with up to 70% contribution in pigeon pea supplemented cotton residues. Supplements were equally effective for improving the performance of Oyster mushroom in almost all the substrates used. Composting of the substrates was beneficial in cotton residues and wheat straw substrates with biological efficiency of 145.7 and 28.2% respectively compared to their controls (32.3 and 5.3 respectively). It was concluded that both supplement can be used to enhance production and composting was not beneficial with maize stover. Keywords: biological efficiency, compost, mycelium vigor, pigeon pea, sunflower seed cakeInternational Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences Vol. 2 (1) 2008 pp. 72-8

Use and Management of Animal Manure by the Communal Farmers, Seke District, Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe

Poor handling and storage practices reduce the manure quality as a fertilizer. A survey was done in the Seke communal area, Zimbabwe to establish common manure management practices, determine factors that influence use of manure and determine effects of the manure management practices on vegetable yield. A structured questionnaire was administered to 222 respondents from April to August 2019. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were done using SPSS. Chi-square tests and Spearman rank correlation were done to test for associations and the non-cause-effect relationship between different independent variables and farmers’ management practice of manure respectively. 88% of the respondents owned 0.5 t/ha) quantities and >50% of the farmers were void of information on animal manure management. Fencing only was the common type of animal housing but had negative effects on quantity and quality of the manure. Drylot was most common (90%) manure management practice and different manure management practices had significantly (P<0.05) varied effects on vegetable yield. Drying manure resulted in significantly (P<0.05) low losses in manure quality. Generally, poultry and pigs manure had higher nutrient content compared to cattle and goat manure. Animal housing affected the quantity and quality of the manures as a fertilizer. Extension service programs like vocational training on manure management, exposure visits between farmers as well as a lead farm approach are necessary