Growth Response of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.)Walp to Inoculation with Different Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (Am) Fungi

This study was conducted to assess the variation in performance of four arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus clarum, Glomus etunicatum, Glomus intraradices, and Gigaspora rosea) with and without Rhizobium inoculation in promoting growth and nutrient (N and P) uptake in Gliricidia sepium. Gliricidia seedlings were grown in sterilised (autoclaved) vermiculite and sand mixture in 2:1 (v:v). Each week, plants received 50 cm3 of nutrient solution (with N and P additions) according to the treatments. The experimental design was a 4x2 factorial arranged in a randomised complete block design. Seedlings were harvested after 12 weeks. Dry weights of plant parts, nodulation, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration and content were determined. AM fungi differed in their effectiveness in enhancing growth of Gliricidia sepium. Glomus clarum was most efficient and produced statistically higher total plant dry weight than other mycorrhizal fungi. Dual inoculation with AM fungi and Rhizobium was effective in promoting host plant growth over Rhizobium- uninoculated mycorrhizal plants in terms of leaf area, shoot and root dry weights, total plant biomass and shoot-root ratio. Rhizobium-inoculated Glomus clarum treatment recorded significantly higher (approximately a third fold increase) total plant dry weight, than the similar treatments of Glomus etunicatum, Glomus intraradices and Gigaspora rosea. Shoot-root ratio was statistically greater with mycorrhizal plants inoculated with Rhizobium than the non-Rhizobium inoculated treatments due to improved mineral nutrition particularly nitrogen (through nitrogen fixation). Nodulation assessed by the number of nodules produced per plant was statistically similar between the Rhizobium- inoculated mycorrhizal treatments but significantly higher than the Rhizobium- inoculated non-mycorrhizal comparison treatment. Plants inoculated with Glomus clarum and Glomus intraradices significantly achieved higher root colonization than Glomus etunicatum and Gigaspora rosea. Rhizobium inoculation reduced root colonization with all the Glomus species except Gigaspora rosea. A highly significant (

Using Cajanus Cajan in Biomass Transfer Technology to Increase Yield of Tomato (Lycopersicon Esculentum Mill.)

The experiment was conducted at the Tono Irrigation Project site in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The objective was to investigate the effect of Cajanus cajan mulch and fertilizer application on the growth and yield of tomato (Lycopersiconesculentum). The split plot design, with treatments randomised within each block was used. Fertilizer was applied at three levels (0 kg N/ha, 75 kg N/ha and 150 kg N/ha) as main plot treatments and Cajanus cajan mulch at two levels (0 tons/ha and 15 tons/ha) as sub plot treatments. Mulch, fertilizer and mulch/fertilizer interaction had a significant effect on the growth (height and leaf area) of tomato. Tomato growth was highest at the highest rate of mulch and fertilizer interaction (15 tons/ha and 150 kg N/ha). Highest yield (9.35 tons/ha) was obtained at the highest rate of mulch/fertilizer interaction (15 tons/ha and 150 kg N/ha) and lowest yield (2.8 tons/ha) at control (No mulch and No fertilizer). However, fruit size was highest at half rate of fertilizer and mulch interaction (75 kg N/ha and 15 tons/ha). This accounted for the increase in marketable yield for the treatment. Half rate of fertilizer and mulch (75 kg N/ha and 15 tons/ha) gave the highest profit. Therefore, the use of Cajanus cajan mulch would reduce the dependence on inorganic fertilizers and ensure a sustained improvement in tomato yield

Escherichia coli as an indicator of bacteriological quality of water: an overview

Monitoring the microbiological quality of drinking water relies largely on examination of indicator bacteria such as coliforms, <em>Escherichia coli</em>, and <em>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</em>. <em>E. coli</em> is a member of the faecal coliform group and is a more specific indicator of faecal pollution than other faecal coliforms. Two key factors have led to the trend toward the use of <em>E. coli </em>as the preferred indicator for the detection of faecal contamination, not only in drinking water, but also in other matrices as well: first, the finding that some <em>faecal coliforms</em> were non faecal in origin, and second, the development of improved testing methods for<em> E. coli</em>. The faecal coliform definition has also been revised to coincide better with the genetic make-up of its members and now includes newly identified environmental species. As a result, faecal coliforms are increasingly being referred to as <em>thermotolerant</em> coliforms. This, combined with improved detection methods for <em>E. coli</em>, has started a trend toward the use of <em>E. coli</em> in place of thermotolerant coliforms as a more reliable indicator of faecal pollution in drinking water. At present, <em>E. coli</em> appears to provide the best bacterial indication of faecal contamination in drinking water. This is based on the prevalence of thermotolerant (faecal) coliforms in temperate environments as compared to the rare incidence of<em> E. coli</em>, the prevalence of <em>E. coli </em>in human and animal faeces as compared to other thermotolerant coliforms, and the availability of affordable, fast, sensitive, specific and easier to perform detection methods for <em>E. coli</em>

The Negative Impacts of Poor Municipal Solid Waste Management on Livelihoods in Walewale Township, West Mamprusi District, Ghana: A Social Survey and Assessment

In much of the developing world, district and municipal authorities have struggled to manage the waste generated in their area of jurisdiction due to a plethora of factors ranging from inability to enforce a comprehensive set of laws pertaining to the sector, through the dearth of technical capacity to the financial limitations imposed by budgetary constraints. The study considered the case of waste management by selecting five communities within the Walewale Township in the West Mamprusi District, Ghana. This social assessment of the impact of poor waste management employs interviews, personal observation and site visits, literature review and secondary data to identify the problems, examine its level and relationship with other variables.  The prevailing system of solid waste management was found to be overly inclined to early approaches of collection, transportation, transfer but with little attention to disposal and final landfill site (reduction, reuse, recycle).  The waste management in the District was frought with many challenges such as irregular collection of waste, proliferation of illegal dumping sites, overflowing of waste receptacles and partial involvement of stakeholders such as residents.  The research sheds light on the many areas of poor waste management, particularly on disposal, since such poor practices are not only common to the other towns in the district but also with many of the towns in the country as a whole.The paper proposes as solutions to the above, the expanded involvement of private sector actors, communities and the empowerment of the District Waste Management Departmnet to enforce its bye-laws on sanitation and waste. Keywords: Solid waste, Segregation, Waste collection, Waste receptacles, sanitary site, Walewale, West Mamprus

Landcover Change Patterns in the Volta Gorge Area, Ghana: Interpretations from Satellite Imagery

In much of the developing world, shifting cultivation is the predominant agricultural system usually practised by farmers, which is associated with increasing the unit of land under cultivation in order to increase the output. This small-scale shifting agricultural practices based primarily on burning has been the factor responsible for the conversion of forest fringe vegetation into cropland and pasture and it initiates a continuum of changes in the land cover and consequently fragmentation of the landscape. Since the construction of the Akosombo Dam in 1965, the potential for farming and fishing has increased tremendously within the Volta gorge area and this has resulted in the influx of many settler farmers and fisher folk into the area. This brought so much pressure on the natural resource base of the area and has transformed the landscape accordingly. Within this paper we aim at the estimation of the trend in changes of the landscape using multi-temporal satellite image processing and spatial change analysis. We also seek to determine the land use / cover change in the Volta gorge area of the Volta basin of Ghana for the period 1975 to 2007. Land cover change and agricultural expansion was observed through digital processing and classification based on five multi-temporal medium resolution satellite imagery (Landsat: 1975, 1990, 2000, 2003, 2007) into five classes. From this, accurately classified pixel information was used to determine each landcover class size and the number of changed pixels into other classes through change detection. The study shows that significant changes in the landscape involved a general pattern of conversion of both Closed forest and Open forest and woodland into cropland, fallow lands, pasture, and Bare areas consisting of settlements, roads and exposed soil surfaces. For the period under consideration 1975-2007, the Agricultural class increased from 52,605 hectares in 1975 to become the land cover type with the highest proportion of cover at 221,567 hectares in 2007. The study concludes among others that the expansion of agriculture has increased in all directions with the amount of land devoted to cropland and pasture increasing for all slope categories but more especially for less steeper slopes. Keywords: Landuse/landcover, Multi-temporal, Digital processing, Change detectio

Assessment of the resettlement compensation satisfaction of wood workers at Sokoban, Kumasi

Resettlement has been one of the strategies used to pave way for development and redevelopment of infrastructure in major cities of Ghana in the past few decades. Resettlement is usually characterized by displacement of people and their livelihoods. In Kumasi, resettlement has physicallydisplaced over 10,000 people mostly traders, in and around the Central Business District. Kumasi has undergone significant development in the past two decades in the areas of road and housing construction, resulting in the resettlement of some commercial neighborhoods including the wood merchants from Anloga to allow for the construction of the south-eastern section of the ring road from Oforikrom (Anloga) to Nhyiaeso. This study assessed the outcome of involuntary resettlement of wood merchants from Anloga to Sokoban Wood Village in terms of compensation, improvement in working space and the impact on the timber trade. The study used mixedmethods: it relied on the administration of questionnaires and interviews to gather data from respondents for analysis as well as the use of dependent sample T-test for hypothesis testing to evaluate the change in livelihood that resulted from the resettlement programme. The study revealeda significant improvement in the livelihood of the displaced workers after the resettlement.Keywords: Resettlement, Infrastructure, Compensation, Satisfaction, Livelihood

Barriers to Communication: The Views of People with Learning Disabilities with Epilepsy and Their Careers

People with learning disabilities experienced more health inequalities compared with the general population. Under-diagnosis is common among people with learning disabilities leading to unmet health needs compared with the general population. Numerous communication barriers have been reported in the literature but little is known regarding people with epilepsy and learning disabilities. The presence of epilepsy may further compound the communication needs of people with learning disabilities. The study investigated communication barriers between people with epilepsy and learning disabilities and carers.Method: Exploratory qualitative approach was adopted. Pictures and photographs were used when necessary to facilitate and elicit responses from participants. The interviews were recorded with participant consent.Analysis: The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically (Miles and Huberman, 1994).Findings: Service users and carers reported a range of communication barriers. These included; Stigma, discrimination, lack of knowledge, impairments and lack of alternative augmentative communication methods Keywords: Communication, epilepsy, learning disabilities, carers, healthcare professionals

Effect of Duration of Reclamation on Soil Quality Indicators of a Surface – Mined Acid Forest Oxisol in South – Western Ghana

The quality of degraded mined soils can be restored through effective reclamation practices. In this study, we evaluated the impact of varying duration of land reclamation on soil quality at AngloGold Ashanti, Iduapriem mine Ltd., Tarkwa, Ghana. Soil samples were taken from mined sites of the Company at various stages of phytoremediation: 2, 5, 9 and 11 year old reclaimed sites. The soils were analyzed for soil quality indicators. A nearby forest reserve representative of the pre-degraded condition was used as the control. Prior to phytoremediation with multipurpose agroforestry trees, the mined soils were subjected by the Company to earthworks/slope battering followed by spreading of oxide materials over the surface, construction of crest drains and cover cropping. Having determined the impact of the varying duration of reclamation on soil quality indicators, separate pot experiments involving maize and cowpea were set up using soils from the sites to assess heavy metals accumulation in the cultivated crops. Soil nutrient levels in the sites under reclamation were significantly higher (P &lt; 0.05) than the nearby forest reserve. Soil pH though generally low, was relatively higher (P &lt; 0.05) in sites under reclamation than in the control. Soil total nitrogen, available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium levels were highest (P &lt; 0.05) in the 11 year old site. Zinc contents of all sites were below the maximum permissible levels. There was somewhat antagonistic interaction between zinc and phosphorus contents of maize in the unclaimed site. Though heavy metal concentrations in maize were lower than that of cowpea, the concentrations in both plants were generally beyond the permissible levels suggesting a possible transfer onto the food chain if the crops are included as part of rotation programmes from the agronomic perspective. Our results indicate that phytoremediation of mined lands using agroforestry multipurpose trees could be marginal even after a decade of reclamation

Irrigation and Bradyrhizobium Japonicum Inoculation Effects on Performance of Soybean Production in Tropical Guinea Savanna Zone of Ghana

A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of irrigation regimes and Bradyrhizobium japonicum strains on the performance of soybean cultivar TGX1440-IE. The study was carried out for two consecutive years during the dry season (February-May) at Tono Irrigation Project site in a Guinea Savannah zone of Ghana. Three irrigation regimes based on soybean crop water requirements (full or normal (W0), half (W1) and one and a half (W2) crop water requirements) and two strains of B. japonicum (LS-50 and TAL-120) along with one uninoculated treatments with three replications were laid out in a split-plot randomized complete block design. The LS-50 strain inoculated soybean (I2) had the highest value in the number of nodulation, growth, yield and WUE, followed by the uninoculated (I0) and the TAL-120 (I1) had the least. The LS-50 strain significantly (P&lt;0.01) increased the number of nodulation, growth, yield and WUE by 15 %, 14 %, 10 % and 12 % respectively over the uninoculated soybean. The one and a half irrigation regime (W2) also had the highest values for all crop parameters determined except WUE followed by the full irrigation regime (W0) and the half irrigation (W1) had the least. W1 however, had the highest WUE, followed by W0 and then W2. The one and a half irrigation regime significantly (P&lt;0.01) increased the number of nodulation, growth and yield by 23%,  28% and 10 % respectively but decreased WUE by 65%, over the full irrigation regime.  However, the half irrigation increased the WUE by 36 % over the full irrigation regime. The interaction of LS 50 strain and the one and a half irrigation regime (W2I2) had significant (P&lt;0.05) increase in the growth by 45 % , decrease in WUE by 27 % and insignificant increase in  yield over the interaction of uninoculated and full irrigation regime (W0I0). However the interaction of LS 50 strain and half irrigation regime (W1I2) increased the WUE by 95 % over the interaction of uninoculated and full irrigation regime (W0I0). Keywords: Soybean cultivar, Tono Irrigation Project, Crop water, LS-50 strain, TAL-120 strain

Determination of Trace Metals Quality of Sources of Drinking Water in Some Selected Communities in the Akuapem South District of the Eastern Region, Ghana

The study was undertaken in three communities namely Adamrobe, Aburi and Pokrom-Nsaba, all located in the Akuapim South District of the Eastern Region. These communities depend on streams, wells, and springs for their drinking water requirements. The objective of the study was to assess the trace metals quality of the drinking water sources used by the communities. Water samples from these sources (streams, wells, and springs) were analyzed over a period of twelve months for various water quality parameters including the following trace metals: lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), &amp; arsenic (As), following standard methods designed in APHA, AWWA, and WEF. The results of the study revealed that, most of the mean levels of trace metals registered from the water samples were below the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) recommended critical limits for drinking water standards. The low level of trace metals recorded in the water samples was due to the absence of industrial and mining activities in these communities and their environs. The high level of lead registered in ABSP was as a result of the low pH discovered in the water sample for that station. It is therefore recommended that further study be conducted to track the long term health effects of the trace metals in the drinking water sources used by the study communities. Keywords: Trace Metals Quality, Sources of Drinking Water, Selected Communities, Akuapem South District, Eastern Region, Ghana