IJEAB Journal

Hematological Parameters of three Strains of Local Cocks in Northern Nigeria Yasks J. A., Momoh M. O, Dauda A. The study was conducted to determine the hematological parameters of three strains of the Nigerian indigenous cocks. A total of 15 sexually matured (14-18 month of age) breeders cocks comprising (5 normal feathered, 5 frizzled feathered and 5 naked neck) were used for the experiment. The study was conducted from October to December 2016 at the Teaching and Research Farm University of Maiduguri. Blood samples were collected from 9 breeder’s cocks which were randomly selected 3 per genotype and used for hematological parameters examination. Hematological examination such as Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Red Blood Cell ( RBC) , Haemoglobin (Hb), White Blood Cell (WBC), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin concentration ( MCHC), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) and Mean Corpuscular Volume ( MCV) showed significant (P<0.05) different among breeds. Lymphocyte (L) showed...

Screening of Guava genotypes to natural infestation of fruit flies (Diptera:Tephritidae) in River Nile, Sennar and North Kordofan States, Sudan Abdelaziz E. Gesmallah, Mohammed H. Mekki, Igbal A. Abdelatief, Ali E. El Jack, Ali O. Ali The infesting species and their infestation indices of fruit flies were determined for guava genotypes (Psidium guajava L.),grown in River Nile, Sennar and North Kordofan States during the period from June to August 2010 .Twenty genotypes were selected from each state to be evaluated ,where ten mature fruits from each genotypes were harvested randomly from insecticide unsprayed trees. Fruits were brought to the laboratory and placed in individual plastic vials containing sand at the bottom to obtain the pupae. Infestation indices were estimated by means of total number of pupae/fruit. Pupal viability was then calculated based on the percentage of pupae resulted in fly emergence. Data was analyzed using analysis of varia...

Indirect selection for resistance to Alectra vogelii (benth) infestation in cowpea (Vignaunguiculata (L) walp) Mbwando. A., Tembo. L., Lungu D. M, Tryphone G. M Alectra vogelii (benth) is a parasitic weed which causes significant yield reductions in cowpeas (VignaunguiculataWalp) in most of the sub-Saharan African countries. The objective of this study was to establish the effect of Alectra vogelii infestation on yield components of cowpea and the prospects of utilizing these components for indirect select to A. vogelii in resistance breeding. Seven genotypes of cowpea were crossed in all possible combinations without reciprocals and their 21 F2 progeny including parents were evaluated for reaction to Alectra vogelii infection at two locations, Ilonga and Hombolo. The experiments were laid using a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Significant (P < 0.001) genotypic responses to Alectra emergency and infestation were found. A significance nega...

Studies on the Antioxidant Properties of Various extracts of Hippophae rhamnoide M. Amin Mir, S. S. Sawhney, Jigmat Stanzin, Manmohan Singh Jassal Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) a spiny shrub native to Ladakh Region of Jammu and Kashmir, have been found to posses so many medicinal properties from times immoral. From this point of view the antioxidant property of the plant fruit extracts have been analysed by DPPH method. Various plant extracts viz, fruit, leaf and root have been analysed for the antioxidant power determination in which fruit extracts showed highest free radical scavenging activity followed by leaf and root extracts. Among the solvents which have been used, more polar solvents showed highest antioxidant activity than the less polar solvent extracts. The IC50 value of various plant extracts as determined have been found to be 40 for DCM extract of fruit, 38 for Methanolic extract of fruit and 30 for the water extract of fruit. Similarly the leaf...

Evaluation of Salinity Stress on Marigold’s Growth with Bacteria Inoculation Abedini Tina, Moradi Pezhman, Zeinab Deris This study was performed to Evaluation of salinity stress on marigold’s growth with Bacteria inoculation with afactorial experimental design and 3 replications. First factor was bacteria (inoculated and no inoculated) and second factor was salinity stress (control, 2, 4 and 8dS/m). After the experiment, some morphological characters and morphological of marigold were evaluated such as height, yield of fresh and dried flowers, number of flowers per plant, grain yield, petals, seed weight. Totally, it was founded that with increased stress levels from 0 to 8dS, the height, fresh yield of flowers, yield of flower dry weight, number of flowers per plant, grain yield, petals and seed weight, showed 43, 60, 56, 17, 64, 15 and 30percent of reduction, respectively. Also, it was determined that the using of bacteria can reduce the effects of stress on marigold...

Studying the tendency of citizens to participate in the protection and development of land scape in Tehran Shadi Maleki, Abbas Mafi, Seyedeh Mahsa Hosseini Today, as an essential part and parcel of urban landscape that they play a major role in metabolism and create a lack of serious damage to urban life. This study performed to investigate the willingness of citizens to participate in activities to protect and develop landscapeof Tehran district 4. The research was descriptive and correlation method that is used for collecting information. The statistical population consisted of district 4 of Tehran. The sample size was determined 230 by using Cochrane method. A questionnaire was used to collect data. According to the research, 63.04 percent of citizens showed participation in a high level. Among the variables investigated how citizen participation in conservation and development of landscape, effective strategies to motivate citizens to participate,the reasons for la...

Modelling the impact of climate change on cereal yield in Morocco Faiz Mourad, Laamari Abdelali, Lakhyar Zouhair To assess the impact of climate change different studies were conducted in several regions of Morocco. The assessment of climate change and its impacts involves the simulation of a range of different socio-economic and physical processes. Some of these processes are well known such temperature, rainfall, storms, etc.., others not. Hence for each modeling step researchers need to consider what is known, what is not known, and how climate change can be expressed.This paper is a contribution to research on climate change impact on cereal yield in the last 50 years. The application of the multiple linear regression model to a set of time series of yield, rainfall, temperature and storm has generated significant coefficients that can explain the relation between yield and the three climate variables. The model output confirms the results of the previous studies...

Synthesis and Evaluation of the Cytotoxic and Anti-Proliferative Properties of Dox-ZnO Quantum Dots Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles against MCF-7 and SKBR-3 Human Breast Cancer Cells Srikanth Jagadeesan, Roshini A, Kim Kyung Hwan, Yang-Hoi Doh, Yoon-Kyu Lim, Kyung Hyun Choi Doxorubicin (Dox) is a potent chemotherapeutic agent used in the treatment of cancer. In the present study, pH responsive chitosan polymer coated Dox nanoparticle (Composite) was developed to investigate targeted drug delivery against breast cancer. The anticancer drug DOX-ZnO QDs was loaded to the chitosan nanoparticles. The synthesized free and drug loaded nanoparticle were analyzed using Fourier transmission electron microscopy (FTIR) and UV-Visible spectroscopy(UV-Vis). The particle size was measured using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Further, the composite was evaluated for its anticancer effects. Drug release analysis showed significantly larger amount of drug released in acidic pH of ...

Effects of a Composite Endomycorrhizal Inoculum on Olive Cuttings under the Greenhouse Conditions Fairouz Semane, Mohamed Chliyeh, Zouheir Talbi, Jihane Touati, Karima Selmaoui, Amina Ouazzani Touhami, Abdelkarim Filali-Maltouf, Cherkaoui El Modafar, Abdelmajid Moukhli, Rachid Benkirane, Allal Douira This study was carried out in a nursery to evaluate the impact of mycorrhizal fungi on the cutting’s root growth, and root colonization of a Moroccan olive variety ‘Picholine Marocaine’ under greenhouse conditions during 2 years of cultivation. The results revealed that the inoculation with a composite inoculum of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) stimulated an early root formation and high development of vegetative shoots in inoculated cuttings respectively, 35 days (50 days in the control plots) and 40 days (60 days in the control plots) after their culture. The progressive establishment of mycorrhizal symbiosis in the roots of the inoculated plants showed that the ro...

Physicochemical Properties of Sugar Industry and Molasses Based Distillery Effluent and its Effect on Water Quality of River Musamya in Uganda Yonah K. Turinayo Despite the economic and ecological importance in terms of supply of water for industrial and domestic use, irrigation and support of aquatic life, River Musamya receives over 1000m3 of wastewater per day from the nearby sugar industry. However, there is scarcity of information regarding water quality of the River after wastewater discharge. This study determined the physico-chemical properties of a sugar industry and molasses based distillery effluent and assessed its effect on water quality of River Musamya. The analysis was conducted between February and April 2010, using standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. Results showed that pollutant concentrations (4.3 pH, 9104mg TDS/l, 48mg TN/l, 16 mg TP/l, 2256mg BOD/l, 8064mg COD/l) of wastewater (2,523±728 m3/day) were above permissible li...

Effectiveness of Adaptation Measures Taken by Farmers in the Field of Effects of Climate Change in the Coastal Department in Benin Acacha-Acakpo Hortensia V., Seboka Siriac A. It is evident that climate change affects the well being of farmers and increases their vulnerability in the future if no action is taken into account by them. In fact, Various adaptation measures, such as crop diversification, changes in the dates of semi and crops, use of seed and fertilizer varieties, irrigation, use of tractors etc. are carried out by Farmers. However, these different measures have not yet had the same effect in reducing the negative effects of climate change on agriculture. Thus, this paper aims at evaluating empirically assess the effectiveness of these measures or strategies of adaptations on the performance of farms in Benin. Using the estimation technique of MCO, estimating the technical efficiency of farmers' production reveals that the use of improved seeds and fe...

Optimization of Experimental Biomethanation Applied to Poultry Droppings for Better Energy Valorization Ghariani. I, Najar. T The fight against climate change is first and foremost passed by the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG). Mainly in the form of methane CH4, the GHGs emitted by the waste originate from the decomposition of organic matter which is more commonly known as Anaerobic Digestion (AD) or Biomethanation. Livestock manure is one of the major hazards to the environment and human health due to the nuisances and pollution generated. The present study consists of optimizing the methane fermentation applied to poultry droppings. This optimization focuses on the daily monitoring of experimental digesters, on the physico-chemical characterization of the inputs used and on the study of the effect of temperature and inoculum changes on the daily production of biogas and its composition (CH4, CO2 and H2S). The main results show, on the one hand, that the stabilit...

Measuring Social Complexity and the Emergence of Cooperation from Entropic Principles. The Collapse of Rapa Nui as a Case Study O Lopez-Corona, P Padilla, E Schmelkes, JC Toledo-Roy, A Frank, A Huerta, D Mustri-Trejo, K Perez, A Ruiz, O Valdes, F Zamudio The quantitative assessment of the state and dynamics of a social system is a very difficult problem. This issue is important for both practical and theoretical reasons such as establishing the efficiency of social action programs, detecting possible community needs or allocating resources. In this paper we propose a new general theoretical framework for the study of social complexity, based on the relation of complexity and entropy in combination with evolutionary dynamics to assess the dynamics of the system. Imposing the second law of thermodynamics, we study the conditions under which cooperation emerges and demonstrate that it depends on the relative importance of local and global fitness. As cooperation is a centr...

Study of Bryophytic Flora in the Ramsar Wetland of Merja Zerga (North-west of Morocco) Najib Chtaibi, Najib Magri, Nadia Belahbib, Lahcen Zidane, Allal Douira, Jamila Dahmani The research undertaken in the IBA and Ramsar wetland of Merja Zerga at Moulay Bousselham were interested only in the higher plants. Our study tends then to contribute to enrich the knowledge about the bryophytic flora of this area by filling the gaps in this field. Thus, we carried out a systematic sampling with a stop and a harvest in each encountered bryophyte population. This prospection enabled us to find 26 species of bryophytes including 22 species of mosses belonging to 15 genera and 9 families, and 4 species of liverworts belonging to 3 genera and 3 families. The relative low specificity of this wetland can be explained by the influence of sea spray and the strong anthropic disturbance. A comparison with previous studies allowed us to conclude that 11 species were observed for the first tim...

Comparison of 4 Buckwheat Cultivars and 2 Planting Densities in 2 Mountain Places of Umbria (Central Italy) Lisetta Ghiselli1, Sigfrido Romagnoli1, Remigio Tallarico1, Luciano Concezzi2, Stefano Benedettelli1 Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) is a pseudocereal grown on limited extensions in Italy and Western Europe in general, but is currently the subject of considerable interest from the scientific community and consumers for its unique nutritional properties: it is rich in vitamins and mineral salts, dietary fiber and antioxidant substances, and it is free of gluten. This species also has agronomic characteristics that make it suitable for cultivation in mountain environments, enabling farmers to extend and change crop rotations: a short growing season, limited nutritional needs, good adaptation to acid soils, tolerance to pests and weeds. Buckwheat cultivation in Italy is more common in the Alps, but recently experiments have been carried out which have shown it...

Development of a Bioactive Food Additive for Controlling of Fungal Growth Mauricio V. Cruz, Marcos A. Pereira-Junior, Karla A. Batista, Katia F. FernandesFresh foods have a great importance in human nutrition. However, they are marketed with greatly reduced shelf life mainly due to fungal spoilage. In this work, cell wall degrading enzymes produced by Trichoderma asperellum T00 (TCWDE) were immobilized onto cashew gum polysaccharide (CGP) in order to evaluate the potential use of this material as food additive aiming to increase the shelf life by inhibiting fungal growth. Results from factorial design (32) evidenced that the best conditions for TCWDE immobilization was achieved with 20 min of reaction using 1 mmol L-1 of NaIO4. On these conditions it was observed 91% of retention yield for NAGase (30.1 ± 0.38 U mL-1), 41% for chitinase (0.67 ± 0.05 U mL-1), and 24% for β-1,3-glucanase (0.017± 0.001 U mL-1). CGP/TCWDE was effective for growth inhibition of Aspergillus fum...

Pectinase: Substrate, Production and their Biotechnological Applications Oliyad Jeilu Oumer Pectinolytic enzymes can be applied in various industrial sectors wherever the degradation of pectin is required for a particular process. Several microorganisms have been used to produce different types of pectinolytic enzymes. Microbial pectinases account for 25% of the global food and industrial enzyme sales and their market is increasing day by day. Owing to the enormous potential of Pectinase in various sectors of industries whenever degradation of pectin is needed, this review broadly focus on types of pectin substances, pectinase, their production as well as their biotechnologically potential applications.  10.22161/ijeab/2.3.1 http://ijeab.com/upload_document/issue_files/1%20IJEAB-MAR-2017-24-Pectinase%20Substrate,%20Production%20and%20their%20Biotechnological%20Applications.pdf http://ijeab.com/submit-paper/

Price Transmission, Volatility and Discovery of Gram in Some Selected Markets in Rajathan State, India Sadiq, M S., Singh, I.P., Suleiman Aminu, Umar, S.M., Grema, I.J., Usman, B.I., Isah M.A., Lawal A. T Market integration in many agricultural commodities had been extensively studied for the insight it provides into the functioning of such markets, thus giving valuable information about the dynamics of market adjustment, and whether there exist market imperfection, which may justify government intervention. This study empirically investigated price transmission, volatility and discovery of gram across four wholesale gram markets, viz. Jaipur, Kishangarh, Chomu and Malpura in Rajasthan state of India using Johansen’s multivariate cointegration approach, VECM, Granger causality tests, GARCH, EGARCH and ARIMA. Monthly wholesale gram price data spanning from January 2011 to December 2015 sourced from AGMARKNET were used. Multivariate cointegration showed that all the sele...

Pathways to Reduce the Environmental Footprints of Energy Inputs in Sesame Production in Jigawa State, Nigeria Sadiq M S., Singh I.P., Umar S.M., Grema I.J., Usman B.I., Isah M.A., Saleh A.M. This research investigates the pathways tto reduce the environmental footprints of energy inputs in sesame production in Jigawa State of Nigeria using data elicited from 99 sesame farmers via multi-stage sampling technique. Energy efficiency was studied and degrees of technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) were determined using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Additionally, wasteful uses of energy by inefficient farms were assessed and energy saving of different sources was computed. Results revealed that only 9.4% DMUs were technically efficient with average TE score of 0.624; based on BCC model 34.4% DMUs were identified to be efficient with mean PTE score of 0.79; while based on scale efficiency only 12.5% DMUs were efficient with ...

Assessment of Phycoremediation Efficiency of Spirogyra Sp. Using Sugar Mill Effluent Vinod Kumar, Prabhav Gautam, Jogendra Singh, Roushan K. Thakur Phycoremediation is the use of algae for the removal of pollutants from wastewater since algal species are relatively easy to grow, adapt and manipulate within a laboratory setting and appear to be ideal organisms for use in remediation studies. The present investigation was carried out to determine the phycoremediation potential of Spirogyra sp. using sugar mill effluent. The results of the present study revealed that sugar mill effluent is considerable loaded with TDS, EC, BOD, COD, TKN, PO43- , Ni, Cr, Fe and Mn. The phycoremediation studies showed that the maximum removal of TDS (24.92%), EC (14.47%), pH (11.47%), BOD (47.82%), DO (21.46%), COD (15.73%), TKN (40%), PO43- (44.44%), Ni (42.79%), Cr (40.74%), Fe (24.78%) and Mn (34.92%) was recorded after 60 days of phycoremediation experiments using Spirogyra sp. moreo...

Effect of Preceding Crops and Nitrogen Rates on Post Harvest Attributes Of Winter Hybrid Maize (Zea Mays L) B.P. Yadav, D. N.Yadav, K.B. Koirala, K.R. Pandey , R.B.Thapa A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy research farm of IAAS, Rampur, chitwan, Nepal during summer and winter season 2010 and 2011 to study the effect of crop sequence and nitrogen rates on hybrid maize. There were thirty treatment combination consisting of six crop sequences, maize-maize, fallow-maize, greengram-maize, cowpea-maize, blackgram-maize, clusterbean-maize in main plots and five nitrogen rates 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 kg/ha in subplots with three replication.The research finding revealed that grain yield of maize was higher after summer legumes than after maize, fallow and clusterbean. Maximum grain yield of maize (4840 kg/ha in 2010 and 5230 kg/ha in 2011) was recorded under greengram-maize sequence followed by cowpea-maize, whereas the lowest grain yield was noted under maize-maize du...

The Ecological Impacts of Light Pollution at Night-time a Mechanistic Appraisal Abdullahi MG, Roslan U, Kamarudin M. K. A. Artificial light at night and its negative consequences are of great interest in the fields of Ecology, Human Geography Astronomy, and Human Health. Most of the studies to date concentrated on the influences of light pollution has on our ability to view the night sky, on biodiversity, and ecosystems. Though, in recent years, with the use of new technologies sensors, which provide accurate information for determining of night lights at the area, most consideration were given for estimating artificial light at night within the urban areas. In this study, urban night lights within the cities of Nigeria was evaluated by monitoring data from the ground measurements using Sky Quality Meter (SQM-LU-DL) devices. Besides, the SQM was used at the zenith (upward direction) for maximum evaluating of artificial light at the sites. Differences in night sky bri...

Assessment of Feed Resource Availability and Quality in Kedida Gamela District, Southern Ethiopia Mengistu Lemma, Tegene Negesse, Ajebu Nurfeta Availability of major livestock feed resources, their chemical composition and balance between available feed resources and requirements of existing tropical livestock units (TLU) in Kedida Gamela district (Southern Ethiopia) were assessed. A survey was conducted on 100 sample households (HH) and data collected using group discussions, structured questionnaire and personal observations. Furthermore, chemical composition and in vitro dry matter (DM) digestibility (IVDMD) of major feed resources identified (natural pasture and crop residues) were also determined. A total of 28,675 tonnes of DM were produced annually for a total of 40,080 TLU which satisfies only 31.4% of their maintenance requirement. Maize stover and wheat straw contain lowest ash and from agro-industrial by-products noug cake and wheat bran the highest ash c...

Effect of Inorganic Fertilizers on Leaf Mineral Content of Plantain (CV. Nendran) and on the Nutritional Status of Studied Soil S. K. Mahato, S. Gurung, B. Chhteri, C. P. Suresh Nendran is the popular variety grown commercially in different regions due to its wider adaptability and high degree of tolerance to drought in a perennial cropping system and is the leading commercial cultivar of Kerala. A field experiment was laid out in randomised block design with ten treatments and three replications consisting of nitrogen and potassium at different combinations to know their nutrient concentrations in banana leaves and soil at different growth periods viz., vegetative stage, flowering stage and harvesting stage. The treatment N250P80K400 grams/plant was recorded significantly higher leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium during 9th month of vegetative stage (3.36, 0.5 and 4.37% respectively), shooting (2.94, 0.45 and 3.39% respectively), fruiting (2.67, 0.41 and 2.4% res...

Water Supply and Health: Drinking water and Sanitation Coverage in Ethiopia 1990 - 2015 Review Thewodros Bekele , Seyoum Leta Background: Human health, incorporating physical, social and psychological well-being, depends on an adequate supply of potable water and a safe environment sections. Waterborne infections are one of the commonest problems in developing countries. Access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation needs will eliminate vast part of water-borne disease cases. Objectives: to assess the trends safe water coverage and sanitary conditions in Ethiopia together with the challenges of the sector. Methods: In depth literature survey from online published peer reviewed articles, publications from international organization and Ethiopia ministry of health was used to assess the trend and access of improved water and sanitation coverage since 1990 to 2015 in Ethiopia. Results: Among 93 articles, 45 of them have important information and included in the qu...

Land Use Land Cover Change Detection by Using Remote Sensing Data in Akaki River Basin Adimasu Woldesenbet Worako   Land use land cover change (LULCC) is the result of the long time process of natural and anthropogenic activities that has been practiced on the land. GIS and remote sensing are the best tools that support to generate the relevant land use/cover change in the basin. This study was conducted in the Akaki River basin to detect land use land cover changes within the 30 years period (1985-2015) by using landsat imagery data acquired from the GCF. Supervised maximum likelihood algorithm classification were deployed to classify land use/cover into four prominent land use groups and data’s were processed by using ERDAS imagine 2014 and ArcGIS10.1 software. In the basin dominant LULC was agricultural land use which accounts around 56.28% and the second largest is built-up area by 31.51% and the rest, forest(11.9%) and water body(0.31%) coverage were takes t...

Pathological, Bio-chemical and Molecular diversity amongst the isolates of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri causing Citrus canker in acid lime from different agro-climatic region of India Madhuri Katkar, K.S.Raghuwanshi, V. P. Chimote, S.G.Borkar In present investigation isolates of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri (Xac)causing citrus canker were collected from fourteen agro climatic regions of India. The pathogenic variability of Xac was studied on four different varieties of acid lime viz. Sai sarbati, Phule sarbati, Pramalini and PKM-1 by using detached leaf assay. The isolates showed varied reaction in the symptoms development. The isolates viz. Xac- III, Xac- V, Xac- VII, Xac- XI, Xac- XIII and Xac- XIV found highly virulent and showed of typical symptoms at the point of inoculation within 7 to 9 days. The isolates Xac- I, Xac- II and Xac- IV were found less virulent, developed symptoms after 13 to 16 days of inoculation. The isolates Xac- I and Xac- II failed t...

Contributions of Urban Mixed-Cropping to Household Food Security in Nigeria and Around the Globe Kuye O. O., Ettah O. I Rapid rate of urbanization as a result of provision of improved infrastructural facilities in the cities has resulted in massive rural-urban migration of young people to cities in Nigeria and in other parts of the World. This has led to over-population and food insecurity among the urban people. Feeding over-populated towns has been a considerable challenge to governments of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Several strategies had been employed by the past Nigerian governments. The practice of urban mixed-cropping, whereby the urbanites grow two or more crops simultaneously in small plots or using available materials like worn-out tyres, plastic pots, sacks and wheelbarrow among other things, has helped to improve urban household food security, enhance household income and provide job opportunities, among others. Urban mixed-crop farmers...

Evaluation of impact of participatory Forest Management on forest cover of West Bengal through real time monitoring using Remote Sensing Technology Atanu Kumar Raha, Amitav V. Mishra, Sumita Ghatak, Sumana Bhattacharjee, Srilekha Raha, Souvik Saha, Ranajit Sengupta West Bengal is one of the most densely populated States of India. The State is predominantly agriculture-based, with only 13.4% of the total land area being reserved as notified Forest. The Forest ecosystem however is extremely diverse. With the initiation of World Bank aided Social Forestry Project in the State in 1980-81, an ambitious programme was initiated to bring large chunks of the barren lateritic tracts of the State under green cover. Subsequently, another World Bank aided West Bengal Forestry Project was initiated during 1990s, for improvement of Government-owned degraded forests through people’s participation. The present paper shows the usefulness of RS/ GIS technology in real-time assessment of f...

Micronutrients: A Current Status and its Symptoms on Crops Rakesh Giri Goswami, Thaneshwar Kumar, Ashish Kumar Singh, Surbala Painkra Micronutrients are essential for the normal growth of plants. Deficiencies of micronutrient drastically affect the growth, metabolism and reproductive phase in plants, animal and human beings. Wide spread deficiencies of micronutrients has been found in Indian soils. About 3 billion people in the world are affected with micronutrient malnutrition. Crop plants requires 17 nutrient elements viz. C, H, O, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, B, Mo, Cl and Ni for completing their life cycle. Out of these last eight elements are micronutrients that are needed in very less amount for crops but these are equally important as that of macronutrients. Management of micronutrients deficiencies in view of decline in production of major crops is a cause of concern that requires immediate attention. Production of adequate food grain from the finite lan...

Water Related Poverty among Farm Households in Ebonyi State, Nigeria Ufiem O.O, Umeh G.N, Alimba J.O Water related poverty among farm households in Ebonyi State, Nigerian was studied. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select a total of 180 respondents. Primary data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire and interview schedule and analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The result of the study shows that more males participated in agriculture than females. Analysis also indicated that majority of the farm households live below poverty line with about two-third (68.1%) of the farmers’ mean per capita household income spent on food alone and one-third (31.8%) of the income on non-food items such as education, accommodations, clothing and transformation. The poverty indicator analysis shows that there was incidence of water borne diseases, infant mortalities, and poor primary school enrolment among others in the study...

Diet and Foraging Ecology of Fork Tailed Drongo (Dicrurusadsimilis) in Leventis Foundation Nigeria, Agricultural School South West Nigeria Okosodo E.F.,Orimaye J.O. ,Odewumi O.S This research study investigated the diet and foraging ecology of the Fork Tailed Drongo (Dicrurusadsimilis) inLeventis Foundation Nigeria Agricultural Training School, South Western Nigeria. Direct field observation method was used to collect data for 12 months on the diet and foraging ecology of these bird species. The study area was divided into three compartments according to land use types (secondary forest, Farmland and Developed Area). The result revealed that the Fork Tailed Drongo consumed variety of insects and pla nt species resources in the study area.Grasshoppers, butter flies and termites are the majorfood source and they also consumed the leaves and flowers of the Moringaoleifera and seeds, fruits of some tree species. Insect species provided the highest food source of 86% and plan...

Diversity and Abundance of Birds of Prey and Owls in Four selected Areas in South Western Nigeria Okosodo E.F., Orimaye J. O., Odewumi O.S This study examined the birds of prey and owls diversity and abundance in four selected areas South Western Nigeria. The study was carried out in two agro ecological zones, LFCW and OOYP in the guinea savanna zone and ONP and IFR in the rain forest agro ecological zone. A total of 120 counting stations were used and 30stations per each study site. Counting bands of 50m radius were used for all the stations..Thirty nine bird species belonging to three families were recorded in the in the four study areas. Black Kite has the highest number of individual species while, the Hooded Vulture and Tawny Eagle have the lowest individual species. The diversity index was higher in the Dry season than the Wet season. Rare species of owls were recorded in LFCW and ONP.  10.22161/ijeab/1.2.19 http://ijeab.com/upload_document/issue_files/24%2...

Standardization, Characterization and Shelf Life Studies on Sandge, a Traditional Food Adjunct of Western India Renu Khedkar, Pratima Shastri, Amarinder Singh Bawa Food adjuncts are an assortment of items that add variety, spice and crunch to the common menu. Maharashtra is a western state of India. Traditional food adjuncts of Maharashtra include sandge, sandaya, kurdaya, papad, pickles, chutney and chutney powders,wadi etc. Studies were undertaken to standardize the recipe, process parameters and select suitable packaging materials for Sandge(a dried vegetable product made from carrot and /pumpkin/ bottle gourd or radish as well as okra, coriander leaves, sesame seeds, green chilies and salt). Five different combinations using carrot (80%, 60%, 40%), pumpkin / bottle gourd (20%, 40%) each and other ingredients (20%) were prepared and evaluated for sensory characteristics. The product made with carrot (80%) and other ingredients (20%) scored the best. The product f...

Behaviour of High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete Beam under Cyclic Loading N.Parthasarathi,K.S.Satyanarayanan, V.Tamilarasu, M.Prakash This paper explores the cyclic behaviour of the high performance concrete and also describes influence of steel fibres in the HPC beams. The high performance concrete mix with M60 grade was designed using ACI 2411.4R. An experimental investigation of the behaviour of HPC beams reinforced with normal steel bars and steel fibres under cyclic loading is tested and the results are presented in this paper. In this study 9 R.C.C beams were casted using high performance concrete, which includes control beam that consists of normal mix without steel fibres. And remains R.C.C beams consists of two different volume fractions (0.75% and 1%) of steel fibres with two different aspect ratio ( 60 and 50). All beams were tested under full cyclic load to establish load-deflection curve and the results were evaluated. The results also show that ...

Pathogenic and Molecular Characterization of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri Causing Chickpea Wilt through ISSR Markers Pravin D.Gajbhe, Madhuri Katkar, S.S.Mane, P.V.Jadhav In the present investigation the pathogenic and genetic variability was assayed, amongst the seven isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri (Foc) collected from different agro-climatic zones of Maharashtra State, India. The isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.ciceri were confirmed by SCAR marker which yielded 1.5 KD band. The pathogenicity of each isolate was confirmed using the wilt susceptible chickpea genotype JG-62. On the basis of pathogenic ability the isolates were grouped as highly pathogenic (FOC-2, FOC-5, FOC-6), strongly pathogenic (FOC-1,FOC-3) and moderately pathogenic (FOC-4,FOC-7). Eight Inter Simple Sequence Repeats primers (ISSRs) were used to determine the genetic variability in seven isolates Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri. The seven primers produced 80 scorable bands. Off ...

Study of Bryophytic Flora in the Ramsar Wetland of Merja Zerga (North-west of Morocco) Najib Chtaibi, Najib Magri, Nadia Belahbib, Lahcen Zidane, Allal Douira, Jamila Dahmani The research undertaken in the IBA and Ramsar wetland of Merja Zerga at Moulay Bousselham were interested only in the higher plants. Our study tends then to contribute to enrich the knowledge about the bryophytic flora of this area by filling the gaps in this field. Thus, we carried out a systematic sampling with a stop and a harvest in each encountered bryophyte population. This prospection enabled us to find 26 species of bryophytes including 22 species of mosses belonging to 15 genera and 9 families, and 4 species of liverworts belonging to 3 genera and 3 families. The relative low specificity of this wetland can be explained by the influence of sea spray and the strong anthropic disturbance. A comparison with previous studies allowed us to conclude that 11 species were observed for the first ...

Comparison of 4 Buckwheat Cultivars and 2 Planting Densities in 2 Mountain Places of Umbria (Central Italy) Lisetta Ghiselli1, Sigfrido Romagnoli1, Remigio Tallarico1, Luciano Concezzi2, Stefano Benedettelli1 Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) is a pseudocereal grown on limited extensions in Italy and Western Europe in general, but is currently the subject of considerable interest from the scientific community and consumers for its unique nutritional properties: it is rich in vitamins and mineral salts, dietary fiber and antioxidant substances, and it is free of gluten. This species also has agronomic characteristics that make it suitable for cultivation in mountain environments, enabling farmers to extend and change crop rotations: a short growing season, limited nutritional needs, good adaptation to acid soils, tolerance to pests and weeds. Buckwheat cultivation in Italy is more common in the Alps, but recently experiments have been carried out which have shown i...

Development of a Bioactive Food Additive for Controlling of Fungal Growth Mauricio V. Cruz, Marcos A. Pereira-Junior, Karla A. Batista, Katia F. Fernandes Fresh foods have a great importance in human nutrition. However, they are marketed with greatly reduced shelf life mainly due to fungal spoilage. In this work, cell wall degrading enzymes produced by Trichoderma asperellum T00 (TCWDE) were immobilized onto cashew gum polysaccharide (CGP) in order to evaluate the potential use of this material as food additive aiming to increase the shelf life by inhibiting fungal growth. Results from factorial design (32) evidenced that the best conditions for TCWDE immobilization was achieved with 20 min of reaction using 1 mmol L-1 of NaIO4. On these conditions it was observed 91% of retention yield for NAGase (30.1 ± 0.38 U mL-1), 41% for chitinase (0.67 ± 0.05 U mL-1), and 24% for β-1,3-glucanase (0.017± 0.001 U mL-1). CGP/TCWDE was effective for growth inhibition of Aspergillu...

Pectinase: Substrate, Production and their Biotechnological Applications Oliyad Jeilu Oumer Pectinolytic enzymes can be applied in various industrial sectors wherever the degradation of pectin is required for a particular process. Several microorganisms have been used to produce different types of pectinolytic enzymes. Microbial pectinases account for 25% of the global food and industrial enzyme sales and their market is increasing day by day. Owing to the enormous potential of Pectinase in various sectors of industries whenever degradation of pectin is needed, this review broadly focus on types of pectin substances, pectinase, their production as well as their biotechnologically potential applications.  10.22161/ijeab/2.3.1 http://ijeab.com/upload_document/issue_files/1%20IJEAB-MAR-2017-24-Pectinase%20Substrate,%20Production%20and%20their%20Biotechnological%20Applications.pdf http://ijeab.com/submit-paper/

Harnessing Indigenous Technical Knowledge for Pest Management in Pea Crop Neha Makol,Dr. Puja Gupta India's rich bio-diversity is an ace factor, always providing a wide source of biopesticides which can be effectively used in agriculture at a large scale. Also increasing health consciousness of Indian citizens has created a demand of organic food. The rich indigenous technical knowledge base available with the highly diverse indigenous communities in India provide valuable clues for developing and innovating newer and effective biopesticides. Pea is one of the off-season vegetable grown in the villages in the ecozone of Great Himalayan National Park. The farmers are completely dependent on chemical pesticides for pest management in pea crop. The use of biopesticides can reduce the dependence on chemical pesticides and it will further reduce its harmful effects on consumers and environment. This indicates huge scope for growth of biopesticides sector.  10.22161/...