Journal of Agriculture and Ecology Research International
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Effect of Nitrogen Fertilizer Rates on Growth Performance and Yield of Brachiaria Mulato II in the Benadir Region, Somalia
No full textA field experiment was conducted at the Somali National University experimental farm, Gaheyr campus (Mogadishu, Somalia), from October 2021 to February 2022 to evaluate the effect of different nitrogen fertilizer rates on the growth and yield of Brachiaria Mulato II. The study employed a randomized complete block design with three replications and seven nitrogen levels (0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 kg N/ha). Growth and yield responses were assessed to determine the optimum nitrogen requirement and identify the critical rate beyond which forage yields are no longer significant or economically justified.
Nitrogen application significantly (P < 0.05) improved most growth parameters and had a clear positive effect on both fresh and dry biomass yield. Fresh yield increased from 40,750 to 56, 833 kg/ha, while dry yield increased from 14,583 to 23,083 kg/ha between 0 and 150 kg N/ha, respectively. Economic analysis further indicated that application of 100 kg N/ha provided the highest net profit, making it the most economically efficient nitrogen rate for Brachiaria Mulato II production under the conditions of this study.
Overall, the study concludes that 100 kg N/ha represents the critical nitrogen dose for Brachiaria mulato II grown on sandy soils of the Benadir region, producing the highest statistically significant yield while remaining economically optimal for farmers
Structural Analysıs of Turkısh Agrıculture: Regıonal Profıles, Concentratıon and Change Trends (2015-2024)
No full textThis study examines the structural transformation of Turkish agriculture at the regional level during the 2015–2024 period. Utilizing two principal analytical tools-regional concentration ratios (CR₃) and regional crop pattern profiles-the research investigates spatial specialization, product clustering, and temporal shifts in land use. Findings indicate that high-value-added products such as ornamental plants exhibit extreme geographical concentration (92.7%) due to market proximity and logistical advantages, whereas staple crops like cereals and vegetables demonstrate a more balanced national distribution (40%). Over the decade, a significant reduction in fallow areas (–6.2 percentage points) and a notable expansion of fruit cultivation (+2.1 percentage points) underscore a shift toward intensification and market-oriented production. However, this transformation exerts mounting pressure on water resources and soil health, particularly in arid regions. The study concludes with evidence-based policy recommendations emphasizing smart specialization, sustainable intensification, and climate-resilient planning to harmonize productivity gains with ecological boundaries
Pesticide-free Crop Production and Climate-smart Agriculture in Developing Countries: A Review of Practices, Challenges and Prospects
No full textThis study synthesizes existing research and initiatives on pesticide-free agriculture and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in developing countries and nexus between the two approaches. Through a comprehensive review, we analysed the principles, practices, impacts, methodologies, implementation challenges, and future potential of these sustainable farming approaches. The study employs a narrative review of documents which include peer reviewed articles from Google scholars and reports of organizations on pesticide-free crop production, climate-smart agricultural practices and the nexus between the two. The review covers a period of 2017 to 2024. The findings highlight the critical need for adopting pesticide-free and CSA practices to address pressing environmental and food security concerns. It also identified significant barriers including financial constraints, technical capacity gaps, educational limitations, input availability, and land tenure issues. Despite these challenges, developing nations are actively pursuing solutions through international climate financing mechanisms like the Green Climate Fund, alongside domestic commitments such as public-private partnership. The review underscores the urgency of implementing pesticide-free and CSA strategies to simultaneously enhance environmental quality, public health, agricultural sustainability, and climate change mitigation through reduced greenhouse gas emissions. This is because of the nexus between the two approaches in terms of their practices and benefits derived from them. It was found out that pesticide-free agriculture is a subset of climate-smart agriculture, as both aim at sustainability in agricultural production, reduced gas emissions, and climate resilience. And adopting pesticide-free methods, farmers contribute to CSA goals, creating a synergistic approach for a sustainable food system. To realize these benefits of these two approaches, the study recommend a multi-stakeholder approach involving: strengthening extension services to bridge knowledge gaps between researchers and farmers; full engagement of all relevant actors across the agricultural value chain; enhanced farmer education and capacity building programmes, and improved access to necessary agricultural inputs. This collaborative framework is essential for overcoming existing barriers and accelerating the transition to sustainable agricultural systems in developing country contexts
Value Chain Analysis of Garcinia kola (Bitter kola) in Kumba, Meme Division, Southwest Region of Cameroon
No full textThis study provides a comprehensive analysis of the value chain of Garcinia kola (bitter kola) in Kumba, Meme Division, Southwest Region of Cameroon. Bitter kola represents a highly valued non-timber forest product (NTFP) with significant medicinal, cultural, and economic importance in West and Central Africa. Despite its contribution to rural livelihoods, the sector remains characterized by informal operations and structural constraints that limit its potential. Using a mixed-methods approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative techniques, this research identifies key actors, analyzes marketing channels, examines harvesting techniques, evaluates profit margins, and identifies systemic challenges through semi-structured questionnaires (n=100 actors), key informant interviews (n=7), and focus group discussions (n=5). Findings reveal a male-dominated value chain with significant price volatility (US23.18/kg) and modest annual incomes for most harvesters despite the high profitability for some traders (average US$981.15 annually). Major constraints include limited storage facilities, capital shortages, poor transportation infrastructure, and price fluctuations. The study concludes with recommendations for improving post-harvest management, enhancing cooperative organization, and facilitating market access to optimize the bitter kola value chain for improved livelihood outcomes and sustainable development. The findings hold important policy implications for sustainable NTFP management, rural development, and conservation planning in similar agroforestry contexts
The Science behind Seed Vigour: Biological Trait Linking Seed Quality
No full textUnder actual field conditions, successful crop establishment and overall productivity are determined by seed vigour and seed quality, which is a very important attribute of seed quality. Collected in contrast to the percentage of germination, which is used to report the performance of the seed under ideal laboratory conditions, seed vigour is used to report the ability of the seed to germinate quickly and uniformly, establish a healthy and synchronized stand of plants and withstand biotic and abiotic stresses. A complex interplay of physiological, biochemical and genetic processes which modulate reserve mobilisation, membrane integrity, metabolic efficiency and the pathways of stress responsiveness controls seed vigour in germination and early seedling development. The high-vigour seeds are characterized by a high performance in unfavorable environmental factors like drought, saline environment, extreme temperatures and non-optimal soils, which helps in maintaining stable yields. With the current problem of climate change and growing production limitations, seed vigour is crucial to sustainability in agriculture and food security. The measures to enhance seed vigour are the breeding, seed production and storage practices, and seed enhancement technology. The combination of these methods can enhance the performance of the seed in different environments and help to create a system of crops resistant to various weather conditions and able to adapt to the new patterns of climate change
Climate-Resilient Fodder Production: Perspective and Challenges in India
No full textAgriculture employs roughly 54.3% of India\u27s workforce, with the livestock sector accounting for 4.11% of national GDP. The major economy in livestock sector revolves around milk and its by-products, which is highly dependent on livestock nutrition through fodder, roughages and concentrates. Amongst them, fodder remains one of the cornerstones for providing sufficient nutrition to livestock. Despite its importance, fodder production is limited due to focused cultivation of cash crops, growing in marginal lands, limited resource and increasing impacts of climate change. Frequent weather anomalies such as erratic rainfall, drought frequency, temperature immoderations and rapid increase in greenhouse gases impairs whole value chain of fodder supply, quality and seasonal availability, which results in risk to productivity of livestock and farmers income. Fodder production can be improved through several agro-interventions and innovations including resource management, diversification, biotechnological approaches, artificial intelligence, ICT and sensor tools. Adoption of such technologies may enhance productivity and also support climate resilience. Utilization of simulation models and group-based management practices are also helpful in mitigating the impact of climate change on fodder dynamics. Various approaches to climate resilience agricultural adaptation and mitigation are need of the hour to achieve climate resilient fodder production and to mitigate harmful impact of climate change on forage crops for achieving sustainable production
Assessment of Plant Growth Promoting Traits of Bacterial Endophytes Resides in the Mulberry (Morus indica L.) through Laboratory Analysis
No full textEndophytes are the microorganisms living internal tissues of plants without causing any negative effect and they enhance plant growth by direct and indirect mechanisms. Mulberry is a crop mainly cultivated to rear silkworms for cocoon production further it leads to silk production. Th quality and quantity of mulberry leaves depending one of the important factor, fertilizer application. This study involved in the isolation and identification of growth promoting traits of bacterial endophytes present in the mulberry (Morus indica). The Plant Growth Promotion (PGP) assessments like IAA production, ammonia production, HCN production and siderophore production were carried out. Among obtained 30 isolates, all the isolates showed positive reaction for IAA test, 22 isolates for ammonia test, 12 isolates for siderophore production test and 2 isolates for HCN production tests showed positive reaction. Out of 30 isolates, 2 superior isolates were selected and identified as Enterobacter cloacae using 16s rRNA sequencing
Assessment of Market Survey Analysis on Fish for Mgombezi Community Aquaponics Project
No full textThe market survey analysis aimed to collect information on the demand, supply, pricing trends, and consumer preferences for fish among the communities living in the area and its environs. This information would support the Mgombezi community’s initiative to implement fish farming using aquaponics technology, to address malnutrition, kwashakor and food insecurity and at the same time empowering community members through experiential learning to discover and solve their own problems. An observational and survey method of study was employed. Primary and secondary data collection strategies were used. It involved planning for the survey where use of face-to-face interviews, questionnaires, phone calls and observations at markets were adopted. Questionnaires were used to collect information. The questions that sought to know fish types that had high turnover; fish types in high demand; price trends in each market and season; and sources of fish sold. Other data collected included the type of market, open or enclosed in a building or space; source of fish in terms of whether locally or externally sourced; buying/selling price; perishability, whether high or low; mode of transport, either motorbike or vehicle; market capacity; demand/supply; government interventions, among others. During the survey, 27 different types of fresh fish were sold in these markets. Almost 99% of these fresh fish were salt water fish obtained from the nearby Ocean. Few fresh water fish either from Lake Victoria or from China found their way into these markets. Most Coastal communities preferred salt water fish rather than fresh water fish. The quantities of dried fish sold were also pocket friendly and therefore either sold in kilograms or in tins. These dried fish formed the major source of fish protein for most communities living in the hinterlands away from the sea. The study revealed that fish marketing is a viable business and offers significant growth opportunities since the demand for fish cannot be satisfied as evidenced by the high prices. However, there is need to address the observed challenges especially on provision of cold storage facilities and processing equipment since fish is a highly perishable commodity
Participatory Evaluation and Demonstration of Improved Forages in the Case of Jarati District, Somali Regional State
No full textA participatory study was conducted at Jarati Woreda with main objective to evaluate biomass yield of Improved Forage technology under the rain Fed cultivation for three improved forage species; Rhodes grass and Buffle Grass were evaluated in Mean compares with four replications. Data on growth yield and yield related parameters were collected and analyzed using SAS software. The result indicated that the plant height, and fresh biomass yield (qt/ha) were significantly different (P< 0.05) among the tested improved forage Grass The biomass yield production potential of tested species under rain fed condition in to the study area were 6.1 and 4.6 t/ha for Rhodes, Buffle Grass respectively. Regarding the parameters such as forage recurrent capacity biomass per area, palatability, drought tolerant, disease and pest resistance early maturity, easy management, height at harvesting as evaluated by the research participant PAPRAGs members, Rhodes grass ranked first followed by Buffle grass on farmer perception Based on this data, the researcher came to the conclusion that farmers in Jarati Woreda and other areas with similar agro ecologies are recommended to plant Rhodes grass than other variety. Further adaptation trials across more locations and years are of paramount importance
Constraints Faced by Potato Growers in Chhindwara District of Madhya Pradesh, India
No full textAim: The present study was conducted in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh to identify the major constraints faced by potato growers and to document their suggestions for overcoming these challenges.
Study Design: Using an ex-post-facto research design (descriptive approach)
Place of Study: The Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh is divided into 12 Tehsils, 9 Development Blocks. Chhindwara block was selected due to the highest production of potato compared to other vegetable crops (tomato, okra, and pepper). The Chhindwara block comprises 132 villages, out of which 4 Villages (Chargaon, Jamuniya, Gangai, Dungariya) were selected for the study on the basis of the maximum area under Potato Crop.
Methodology: Sample of 105 respondents was selected proportionately from four villages with the largest area under potato cultivation. Data were collected through personal interviews and analyzed using frequency and percentage methods.
Results: Findings revealed that lack of scientific training (95.24%) emerged as the most critical constraint, followed by inadequate long-term storage facilities (94.29%), frequent insect-pest attacks (93.33%), and shortage of private cold storage units (92.38%). Other significant issues included unavailability of quality seeds, absence of government storage facilities, reduced productivity due to climate change, and lack of technical guidance. To address these problems, farmers suggested timely availability of improved seed varieties (94.29%) as the foremost solution, along with regular visits by Rural Agricultural Extension Officers (83.81%), establishment of adequate storage facilities (75.24%), timely supply of fertilizers and inputs (68.57%), and provision of proper technical training (65.71%).
Conclusion: The study highlights the urgent need for strengthening extension services, improving input delivery mechanisms, and investing in storage infrastructure to enhance production efficiency and reduce post-harvest losses. The insights provide valuable directions for policymakers, extension personnel, and agricultural development agencies to design targeted interventions that promote sustainable and profitable potato cultivation in the region