Volume 6, No. 1, 2018

Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L), is indigenous still grows wild in the forests of south-western Ethiopia, which remains an important source of genetic resources for the world coffee industry. It is one of the stimulating crops widely drunk in the world next to tea, contributes to more than 50-60% of the Ethiopia’s foreign earning and with 44% of all production consumed domestically. In Ethiopia, most soils are exposed to nutrient leaching over a long period resulting in low organic matter content and require careful management to support good crop yields. However, 85% of Ethiopian farmers don’t use organic fertilizers while the rest add it at levels significantly below the recommended rate. The bulk of coffee soils in the South-Western region are classified at nitosoils, which are highly weathered and originate from volcanic rock. These soils are deep and well drained having a PH of 5-6, and have medium to high contents of most of the essential elements except nitrogen and phosphorous. The importance of proper coffee nutrition cannot be over emphasized because nutrition affects bean size and bean quality, both of which determine the value of the coffee produced. It is worth remembering that for optimum growth and productivity, the coffee plant requires adequate nutrients. Nutrients are applied to replenish those that are lost through tissue formation, yields, leaching and those that form compounds where they cannot be easily extracted by roots. This calls for application of fertilizers so as to apply the necessary nutrients in the required amounts. When fertilizing coffee trees, two distinct aspects should be considered: The compensation of the actual deficiencies, the necessary inputs to replace depletion caused by the coffee trees themselves and by lixiviation. Fertilization should also provide for the needs of the various microorganisms which play an active part in the quality of the topsoil. Replacing mineral depletion in the topsoil and neutralizing the effects of toxic elements are basic prerequisites to ensure production & Coffee quality in the coffee plantation. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review various investigations of coffee inorganic nutrient requirement & its influence on growth, yield and quality. A balanced fertilization of all major and minor nutrients will result in two important functions, namely production of good crops and also production of fresh cropping wood frame work for the succeeding year. Coffee plants have high N and K Requirements Coffee has a very high demand for nutrients and takes up huge quantities from the soil. It has been estimated that a hectare of fast- growing highly-yielding coffee takes up an annual total of about 135kg N, 34kg P2O5, and 145kg k2O. Laves need the major part of the uptake – more than the flowers or fruits. The results reported show significant coffee yield increment with increasing level of nitrogen. Significant yield improvement was reported in response to the interaction between nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. Several studies have been reported that Phosphorus is known to be one of the most recognized limiting factors for coffee production in most soils of south-western Ethiopia. The study indicated that the highest available P content in the soil was found 80 days after application at a distance of 45cm from the trunk and 15cm depth. Results from some trials involving potassium fertilizer also indicate positive crop responses to potassium application. Fertilizer application & recommendation depends on various factors including: type of production system, soil fertility status and soil reaction, type of coffee variety, age of the coffee tree and plant population. Too much & little fertilizer in the plant will reduce cup quality. Younger leaves have higher alkaloid contents than older leaves & statistically similar to the control treatment, omission of K encourages the greatest increase (12%) of caffeine contents in leaves. The nutrient status of most soils is expected to change after a long period, varieties released and new for users might have different response or requirement to mineral nutrition. Therefore, fertilizer recommendations have been carried out should be updated ted.

Keywords: Coffee, Inorganic fertilizer, N, P, K application

A field experiment was conducted in the Research and Teaching Farm of the Department of Crop Science and Horticulture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State Nigeria, to evaluate the residual effect of pre-emergence herbicide application (XtraForce – Atrazine 250 a.i. g/L + Metolachlor 250 a.i. g/L, SC at the rate of 1kg a.i. /ha) on weed emergence, growth and yield of cucumber. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. The treatments included; a control with no herbicide application; sowing cucumber seeds one day after herbicide application; sowing cucumber seeds one week after application of herbicide; sowing cucumber seeds two weeks after application herbicide and sowing cucumber seeds three weeks after application of pre-emergence herbicide. Results showed that the application of XtraForce (Atrazine 250 a.i. g/L + Metolachlor 250 a.i. g/L) SC at the rate of 1kg a.i. /ha effectively controlled weed density, fresh and dry weights of weeds, including broadleaf, grasses and sedges. The herbicide significantly (P<0.05) caused 65%, 45% and 18.8% crop injury to cucumber plants sown one day, one week and two weeks after application respectively. Length of Cucumber vine, number of leaves, leaf area, number of branches and fruit yield were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the herbicide application after three weeks of treatment. Cucumber plants grown three weeks after herbicide application produced the highest fruit yield (699 g/plant), while the lowest fruit yield (75 g/plant) was obtained from plants sown one day after herbicide application.

Keywords: Cucumber, Herbicide, Crop injury, Sowing time

Research on the use of algae in the production of third generation of green energy are invoke in recent time. Various species of Spirogyra are being investigated, but little attention has so far been paid to Spirogyra africana specie. The samples were collected from Ahmadu Bello University dam, sum dried, sized to ≤ 125µm, and subsequently analyzed for carbohydrate content. Prior to hydrolysis, a set of the samples were pre-treated with NaOH, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 %(w/v), another set was blanched for 5minutes at different temperatures (30oC to 100ºC), another set served as control (untreated). Aspergillus niger was used for saccharification. Proximate analysis showed that Spirogyra africana contains 39.72 % carbohydrate. Untreated biomass sample at 2days of hydrolysis with glucose yield of 29.13wt/wt% was chosen as ideal for saccharification in this study purely on economic considerations, even though on the first day of hydrolysis, the blanched sample gave a relatively superior glucose yield (15.94 wt/wt %) in comparison to the values of 14.33 and 12.03 for NaOH treated sample and the control respectively, while on the second day, the glucose yield from the three set ups (blanched, NaOH treated and the control) all gave a comparative glucose yield of 29.15, 29.41 and 29.13 respectively. Only marginal increments were experienced on the third day corresponding to 30.72, 32.28 and 30.66 wt/wt % respectively. Reaction temperature, 25-30oC, pH, 4.5, residence time, 48 hrs., substrate concentration, 50g/l and A.niger concentration of 0.6 %(w/v) were Optimal condition obtained.

Keywords: Algae biomass, Biofuel, Glucose, Hydrolysis, optimal conditions, Spirogyra africana

The utilization of some species of algae biomass for biofuel production has been documented in various journals, but a little attention has been paid on Spirogyra africana species. Hence, this study exposed the influence of pre-treatment on Spirogyra africana biomass for bioethanol production. Parameters investigated are pre-treatment temperature, residences time, and glucose yield. Aspergillus niger was used for hydrolysis. The result shows that there is no influence of thermal and NaOH pre-treatment on the glucose yield. This is because glucose yields of 30.66% (v/v), 30.72% and 30.88% (v/v) were achieved for 80oC thermal pre-treated, 1.0% NaOH and untreated sample, and there were no significant differences. The residence time for Spirogyra africana saccharification is 36 hr (3 days).

Keywords: Algae biomass, Biofuel, Glucose, Hydrolysis, Pre-treatment, Spirogyra africana

The study was carried out from 2014-16d during cropping season with the objective of promoting Quality Protein maize demonstration which was conducted with active participation of farmer’s in collaboration of wereda bureau of agriculture in three major maize potential kebeles namely Dawatebel, WajituHaribu and Hamusgebya under 19 demonstration plots. The demonstrated QPM materials with their respective check were AMH-760Q, BH-660, BHQPY-545, BH-540 and AMH-852Q Varieties. The analysis result indicated that AMH760Q varieties has given the highest grain yield (88.9Qt) followed by BH-660 (84.4Qt) while AMH-852Q (42Qt) and BH-540 (43.4Qt) gives the lowest grain yield. This variation could be happened due to differences in environmental and genetic combined factors over years.Crop technology demonstration has given a good impact over the farming community as they were motivated by recommended technology applied in the demonstration fields. The analysis of Data further indicated that yield of QPM in following years increased successively within each variety. This clearly suggests the positive impact of demonstration over farmer’s practices and QPM has found to be the best protein source to protein deficient communities and as recommendation more scale out activity with best performed QPM varieties has to be done in areas where QPM is not introduced especially in areas where protein deficiency is predominant since QPM materials helps to alleviates nutrition related problems to the segment of population living under chronic undernourished problem.

Keywords: Demonstration, Improved technology, Nutrition, Promotion, QPM,Yield