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Insecticidal Efficacy of Syzygium aromaticum, Tephrosia vogelii and Croton dichogamus Extracts against Plutella xylostella and Trichoplusia ni on Brassica oleracea crop in Northern Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article published by AIMS Agriculture and Food, 2020The insecticidal efficacy of 10%, 5% and 1% w/v of Tephrosia vogelii, Croton
dichogamus and Syzygium aromaticum aqueous plant extracts were assessed against larvae of
Plutella xylostella and Trichoplusia ni on Brassica oleracea var. capitata crop field. Synthetic
organophosphate pesticide (Chlorpyrifos) was used as a positive control and the negative controls
were water and water plus soap. It was revealed that, aqueous plant extracts significantly (P ≤ 0.05)
controlled the number of P. xylostella and T. ni larvae compared to negative controls. The 10%
concentration of aqueous plant extracts showed significant higher efficacy in terms of reducing the
insect population and their damage than 1% and 5 % concentration. The population of P. xylostella
larvae per B. oleracea in five weeks of treatment applications at 10% w/v of T. vogelii, C.
dichogamus and S. aromaticum aqueous plant extracts were 0.08, 0.15, 0.13, 0.05 and 0.08; 0.08,
0.20, 0.15, 0.13 and 0.18; 0.03, 0.05, 0.15, 0.18 and 0.13, respectively which was significantly (P ≤ 0.05)
lower than in water (1.13, 1.68, 2.28, 2.20 and 3.28) and water plus soap (0.75, 1.60, 2.58, 1.83
and 3.30) negative controls respectively. The number of T. ni larvae per B. oleracea in five weeks of
treatment applications at 10% w/v of T. vogelii, C. dichogamus and S. aromaticum of aqueous plant
extracts were 0.00, 0.03, 0.05, 0.03 and 0.00; 0.03, 0.08, 0.05, 0.08 and 0.08; 0.05, 0.03, 0.00, 0.05
and 0.03, respectively which was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) lower than in water (0.50, 0.63, 0.60, 0.48
and 0.78) and water plus soap (0.30, 0.48, 68, 0.65 and 0.80) negative controls. The percentage
damage of B. oleracea in five weeks of treatment applications at 10% w/v of T. vogelii, C.
dichogamus and S. aromaticum aqueous plant extracts were 10.0, 6.3, 7.5, 7.5 and 5.6; 11.3, 11.3,
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AIMS Agriculture and Food Volume 6, Issue 1, 185–202.
11.3, 11.3 and 12.5; 8.8, 8.1, 6.9, 8.1 and 9.4, respectively compared with water (33.8, 33.1, 38.8,
45.0 and 70.6) and water plus soap (30.0, 31.9, 41.3, 41.3 and 56.3). These pesticidal plants can be
recommended for smallholder farmers to significantly control P. xylostella and T. ni larvae in B.
oleracea cro
Linking rhizosphere bacterial diversity and soil fertility in tobacco plants under different soil types and cropping pattern in Tanzania: A pilot study
Get PDFThis research article was published by Heliyon, 2020Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), one of the major crop plants in Tanzania, cropping affects the level of soil fertility, but the reason has not been known. Plant rhizosphere plays an important role in affecting soil fertility through changing microbial composition. We planned a pilot study to understand the changes in microbial composition and soil nutrients in the rhizosphere soils of tobacco in three agro-ecological zone, namely Sikonge, Tabora and Urambo in Tanzania. This study assessed bacteriota composition using 16S rRNA sequencing and soil fertility in the rhizosphere of tobacco plants. The results showed that bacterial diversity in tobacco rhizosphere soils belonged to Proteobacteria phyla, associated significantly (p < 0.05) with solubilization of insoluble P, K and S. The solubilization of P, K and S in soils facilitates the availability of these nutrients to the tobacco plants (a heavy feeder crop) allows low levels of these nutrients in the soils for the subsequent crop. The Proteobacteria phyla also associated with an increase in soil N content through fixation. Therefore, bacteria diversity in tobacco rhizosphere influence solubilities of macronutrients (P, K, S) and quickly up taken by the tobacco plant and reduces their levels in soils, some bacteria involved in fixing N and increases total N in the soil
Quality Assessment of Formulated Osmotically Dehydrated Cashew Apple (Anacardium occidentale L.) Slices Dried using Hot air and Solar Driers
Get PDFThis research article published by the International Journal of Biosciences, 2020Cashew apples are rich in phytochemicals particularly vitamin C and yet are highly underutilized in low
technological countries. This study investigated the effect of drying methods on quality attributes of osmotically
dehydrated cashew apples. Specifically; nutrient retention, rehydration coefficient, microbial safety and sensory
attributes were assessed. Fully matured, ripe and intact fruits were washed, blanched, sliced, and immersed in
70% sucrose before drying on hot air and solar drier. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed on
carotenoids (0.28-0.33 g/100g), vitamin C (0.73-0.85 g/100g), and tannins (266.59-267.95 mg/100g) in both
dried cashew apple slices, except on significantly higher total phenolic (p < 0.05) in hot air-dried slices. During
storage at room temperature for 60 days: total phenolic, tannins, and vitamin C were significantly reduced (p <
0.05) in both hot air and solar dried slices; while carotenoids were maintained (p > 0.05) in hot air-dried slices,
and slightly reduced (p < 0.05) in solar dried slices. Solar dried slices had better rehydration efficiency compared
to hot air-dried ones. Both dried products had similar (p > 0.05) overall acceptability, and zero microbial counts
when observed for 60 days. Though solar drying retained less of the desirable nutritive values, it is relatively
cheaper and is recommended for use in low resource settings
Participation-reputation based incentive game model (PRIGM) for trustworthy fisheries information collection and dissemination framework
Get PDFA research article was submitted by International Journal of Advanced Technology and Engineering Exploration (IJATEE)
volume-7 Issue-70 September-2020The fisheries and aquaculture sectors worldwide use Information and communication technologies (ICT) to collect and disseminate fisheries information. Currently, the African member state is significantly strengthening the use of ICT systems in data collection and dissemination to ensure timely access and accurate fisheries information. Fisheries stakeholders are obliged to submit and retrieve information honestly as well as provide feedback voluntarily. We conducted ancient literature reviews to discover worldwide and indigenous struggles towards developing and implementing fisheries data collection and dissemination systems. Existing worldwide and indigenous innovation systems bases on voluntary user participation and lacks effective incentive mechanisms. However, due to dishonest human behavior, such a promise is impractical. Without an efficient mechanism to incentivize fisheries stakeholders, it would not be easy to achieve the required system adoption and performance. This paper proposed an evolutionary participation-reputation incentive game-based mechanism (PRIGM) to motivate fisheries stakeholders to contribute accurate information, retrieve information, and return honest feedback to the system. Our proposed model adopts stakeholder participation and reputation as merit to incentivize the honest stakeholder and punish the dishonest one. Our proposed PRIGIM model modeled the stakeholder's participation as an evolutionary game and coded the model using the python programming language. We simulated the model in five cases using randomly generated data, each with four-game rounds plays, using a different number of stakeholder participants in each case. Lastly, we used a bar chart graph to evaluate stakeholder's honest and dishonest behavior. The simulation results show that no matter the population of stakeholders, many stakeholders choose a dishonest strategy at the beginning of the game; after several game rounds, most stakeholders will be motivated to choose a simple strategy. Our simulation results proved that PRIGIM effectively motivates stakeholders to use the system, contribute accurate information, and return truthful feedback
Knowledge and Dietary Practices on Vitamin A and Iron Among Maasai Pregnant Women: A Mixed-Method Study, Ngorongoro, Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article was published by Dovepress in 2020Background: Provision of micronutrients knowledge is important during pregnancy as it
informs mothers what to eat and avoid, to ensure sufficient micronutrient absorption by the
mothers and fetuses. Most studies focus on general nutrition knowledge and dietary prac tices, but there is minimal known about micronutrient knowledge especially in pastoral
societies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explain the current micronutrient knowl edge and dietary practices of pregnant women in this unique pastoral society.
Methods: This is a mixed-method study that involves focus group discussions and question naires in assessing the micronutrient knowledge and frequency micronutrients dietary practices
of Maasai pregnant women from one week to thirty-six weeks pregnant. Chi-square test and
descriptive statistics, such as percentages, frequency distribution and measures of central
tendency, were used to assess socio-demographic data, micronutrients knowledge and frequency
of micronutrients dietary practices and the comparison between knowledge and dietary practices,
while inductive thematic content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data.
Results: In total, 140 questionnaires were completed with a response rate of 100% and 32
participants drawn from this group attended one of four focus group discussions. The study
found that most participants had good knowledge of dietary iron, while less than a quarter
(24.3%) had good knowledge of vitamin A. Moreover, there was a statistical significance
difference (P=0.043) between knowledge and dietary practices. Low dietary micronutrient
intake was primarily due to cultural restrictions, prohibition in cultivating and unavailability
of micronutrients rich foods in this geographical area.
Conclusion: The majority of the study participants had good knowledge of iron compared
to vitamin A; however, they do not translate the knowledge in dietary practices. Therefore,
the Government of Tanzania through Ministry of Education and Health should introduce
different interventions to increase micronutrients knowledge and practices in pastoral
societies
Antimalarial potential and phytochemical composition of fractions of Lippia kituiensis Vatke (Verbenaceae) growing in Northern Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article published by Journal of Medicinal Plants Research, 2020Despite past decades of steady advances in the fight against Malaria, statistics show that the disease is still a threat to human health. Previous successes in the development of antimalarial drugs from medicinal plants have fuelled research in this area. However, antimalarial studies on fractionated extracts from such plants have progressed slowly. This study reports the antimalarial potential of fractions from Lippia kituiensis Vatke, for the first time. Column chromatography was used during fractionation. Antiplasmodial assay against chloroquine-sensitive (D6) and resistant (W2) plasmodium strains were done using hypoxanthine incorporation assay. MTT assay was used to assess the cytotoxicity of fractions against the Vero cell line. Fractions obtained exhibited varied inhibitory concentrations (IC50); with the most efficacious being, Lk-5 (19.45 ± 6.20 μg/ml), Lk-3 (30.43 ± 0.68 μg/ml), Lk-4 (30.82 ± 18.01 μg/ml), and Lk-6 (36.53 ± 14.42 μg/ml) against D6. Generally, lower activity against W2 was obtained with the most active being LK-4 (24.18±2.50 μg/ml), and Lk-5 (24.42±5.95 μg/ml), while chloroquine (positive control) exerted IC50 of 77.86±4.09 ng/ml (W2) and 15.71±6.49 ng/ml (D6). LK-4 was the most cytotoxic showing cytotoxic concentration (CC50), 46.26 μg/ml. When tested in mice, fractions suppressed Plasmodium berghei significantly compared to the negative control with Lk-3 being most efficacious (80.01±1). Due to substantive efficacy, GC-MS done on Lk-3 revealed 8 compounds where three have previously been ascribed to antimalarial activity and other pharmacological effects. This study adds to present knowledge of antimalarial efficacy of L. kituiensis and provides the basis for further work to be done on the isolation of compounds from its extracts
Molecular Identification and In Vitro Plant Growth-Promoting Activities of Culturable Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Rhizobacteria in Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG., 2020The present study investigated the diversity of culturable rhizobacteria associated with potato (S. tuberosum L.) in Tanzania and assessed their in vitro plant growth-promoting (PGP) activities to deduce their potential as biofertilizers. Potato rhizosphere soil and tuber samples (54 samples in total) were collected from 9 villages in three different agro-ecological regions in Tanzania. A total of 145 rhizobacterial isolates were obtained, 52 of which were selected and identified by partial 16S rRNA gene sequences and screened for various PGP traits in vitro including qualitative and quantitative solubilization of phosphorus (P), zinc (Zn) and potassium (K), nitrogen (N2) fixation and production of ammonia (NH3) in nitrogen-free medium, and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acids (GA) and siderophores production. The results showed that the isolates were all Gammaproteobacteria, belonging to 4 families (Enterobacteriaceae, Yersiniaceae, Pseudomonadaceae and Morganellaceae) and 9 genera (Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Serratia, Pseudomonas, Morganella, Buttiauxella, Pantoea and Cedecea). Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed for all assessed PGP abilities of the external and endophytic rhizobacterial isolates except for quantitative siderophore production and qualitative P and K solubilization for the external rhizobacteria and production of IAA and GA for the endophytic rhizobacteria. Among the best PGP isolates which can be exploited for biofertilization of the potato were Klebsiella pneumoniae KIBS1, K. grimontii LUTS10, Serratia liquefaciens KIBT1, Enterobacter ludwigii KIBS10 and Citrobacter freundii MWALS6. Comparative evaluation of PGP abilities of these two groups of isolates revealed significant differences (P < 0.05) only for NH3 and IAA production and qualitative K solubilization
Design and implementation of tour guide portal for enhancing tourism in Tanzania
Get PDFA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master’s in Information and Communication Science and Engineering of the
Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyTour guides contribute significantly to the enjoyment and satisfaction of tourist thereby promoting
tourism worldwide. Unfortunately, in many developing countries, it has been problematic to locate
a suitable tour guide for particular tourism or wildlife activities. Although in Tanzania, there are
various efforts to ensuring tour guides are professional; however, there is no baseline information
about tour guides that can help plan and promote tourism through a tour guide. Moreover, the
registration process for tour guides are unnecessarily cyclical, costly and time-consuming. This
study, therefore, seeks to design and implement a Tour Guide Portal that will facilitate access to
tour guide information for the promotion of the tourism sector in Tanzania.
The study employed qualitative and quantitative methods and has found that User Generated
Contents through learning library, discussion forums and reviewing and rating tour guides, can
enhance the tour guide profession. In this work, we used agile methodology through extreme
programming to develop a tour guide portal. Further, we used real participants to execute task
scenarios in combination with think-aloud protocol and system usability scale to evaluate the
usability of tour guide portal. This evaluation has found that the tour guide portal is usable and
suitable for tour guide management in Tanzania. Additionally, this study employed a lean canvas
to create a business model that will determine the operationalisation of tour guide portal in
Tanzania.
The findings of this study imply that tour guide portal is a massive step towards promoting the tour
guide profession in Tanzania. It will avail the tour guide statistics to the government, assist tourism
stakeholders locating the right tour guide for a particular activity and consequently enhance
tourism in Tanzania
Refining Network Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Network Using Energy-Efficient Clustering and DRL-Based Sleep Scheduling.
Get PDFThis research article published by MDPI, 2020Over the recent era, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has attracted much attention among industrialists and researchers owing to its contribution to numerous applications including military, environmental monitoring and so on. However, reducing the network delay and improving the network lifetime are always big issues in the domain of WSN. To resolve these downsides, we propose an Energy-Efficient Scheduling using the Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) (ES-DRL) algorithm in WSN. ES-DRL contributes three phases to prolong network lifetime and to reduce network delay that is: the clustering phase, duty-cycling phase and routing phase. ES-DRL starts with the clustering phase where we reduce the energy consumption incurred during data aggregation. It is achieved through the Zone-based Clustering (ZbC) scheme. In the ZbC scheme, hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Affinity Propagation (AP) algorithms are utilized. Duty cycling is adopted in the second phase by executing the DRL algorithm, from which, ES-DRL reduces the energy consumption of individual sensor nodes effectually. The transmission delay is mitigated in the third (routing) phase using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and the Firefly Algorithm (FFA). Our work is modeled in Network Simulator 3.26 (NS3). The results are valuable in provisions of upcoming metrics including network lifetime, energy consumption, throughput and delay. From this evaluation, it is proved that our ES-DRL reduces energy consumption, reduces delays by up to 40% and enhances throughput and network lifetime up to 35% compared to the existing cTDMA, DRA, LDC and iABC methods
Status of sucking insect pests in cashew growing locations of South and Central Zones, Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article published by the International Journal of Biosciences, 2020Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is an economically important cash crop for many rural households in Tanzania. However, its production is constrained by some insect pests and diseases. As a precondition for the development of a more sustainable integrated insect pest management strategy for cashew, information on the incidence and severity of cashew sucking insect pests in a changing environment is required. Field surveys were conducted in the major and minor cashew producing areas of Tanzania in two phases, February to March 2019 during the vegetative season and July to August 2019 during reproduction season. The surveys were conducted in 24 cashew fields in six districts (Liwale, Masasi, Nachingwea, Manyoni, Kongwa and Mpwapwa) in southern and central agricultural research zones in Tanzania. Data on a number of shoots infected by sucking insect pests, i.e. black lesion, leaf damage, dieback level, pest counts and counts of natural enemies were collected from the two zones. Data showed that incidence and diversity of sucking cashew insect pests differed in terms of abundance and distribution within cashew fields in the central and southern zones. Liwale and Kongwa districts recorded higher incidence and severity followed by Mpwapwa, Masasi, Manyoni and Nachingwea districts, respectively. In general, insect pests affecting cashew production in selected locations of southern and central Tanzania have been known in terms of identity (genus level), abundance and distribution; therefore, more efforts on the study should be made on identification to species level to formulate management measures to each specie