ABSTRACT Maize is the main staple food crop in Kenya and the government policy objective is to increase maize production in order to achieve food self-sufficiency and security. The government has been applying import tariffs on maize, procuring maize at support prices, and imposing non-tariff barriers on maize imports as measures aimed at motivating farmers to produce more maize. Maize production has not, however, substantially improved in the last 13 years, and consumption demand has remain...
ABSTRACT Indigenous chicken (IC) depend on nutrients they scavenge for growth and egg production. Scavenging alone does not provide sufficient nutrients for both maintenance and high production. Feeding interventions to improve on productivity have been applied uniformly without considering the different growth phases though IC exhibit points of low and high rates of growth along their growth curves. A study was designed to provide a scientific basis for feeding strategies that exploit the p...
ABSTRACT Morphological and genetic diversity are important components for cultivar development and are a pre-requisite to cultivar improvement. The probability of producing unique genotypes increases in proportion to the number of genes for which parents differ (genetic distance). The objectives of this study were to determine the morphological and genetic diversity among native blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus Watson) accessions in selected counties in Kenya and their relationship with P...
ABSTRACT Stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) is one of the most important diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and is known to cause major wheat yield losses in Kenya as well as other wheat growing countries of Africa and Asia. The present study aimed at; i) determining seedling, adult plant resistance and yield of 64 advanced wheat breeding lines, and ii) estimating the kind of gene action in inheritance of adult plant resistance to stem rust and yield components in a 6 6 diall...
ABSTRACT Mastitis in dairy goats was investigated with the objective of establishing the effect of management and the identification of the key causative agents through common diagnostic procedures of somatic cell counts, bacteriological identification and, for the first time in goat mastitis, by use of Polymerase Chain Reaction. A cross-sectional survey, using a structured questionnaire was conducted in three agro-climatic regions of Coast, Nyanza and Rift Valley, with goat keeping clusters...
ABSTRACT This study was aimed at assessing the extent to which probiotics are used in the poultry feed industry in Kenya and their efficacies in broiler diets. In experiment 1, two surveys involving 100 Agro Vets and 36 Poultry farmers were carried out. 16 products were being sold as probiotics in Agro Vets in Kiambu County. The actual trade names of the probiotics are coded as Products 1 to 16 (see Appendix 3). It was found that 74.4% of the farmers used probiotics. The most commonly used b...
ABSTRACT Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard), Liriomyza sativae (Blanchard) and Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) are multivoltine flies, which are highly polyphagous, prolific and invasive. They are currently important pests in areas where horticultural crops are grown in Kenya. Both the adult flies and larvae cause considerable damage to crops. Infestation results to reduced photosynthetic potential of plants, which translates to reduction of the expected yield and loss of the aesthetic value. I...
ABSTRACT Blackberry is a crop of great economic potential but it has not been exploited commercially in Kenya. Breeding and commercial production of blackberry requires rapid propagation which is not possible through the traditional seed and vegetative techniques. This study aimed at developing an efficient protocol for rapid multiplication of blackberry (Rubus sp). The study comprised of seven separate experiments to establish the best sterilization protocol, explant size, source of explant...
ABSTRACT Evidence has shown that Time Allocation (TA) to various activities by gender has implications for the poverty status of households. Yet, there is little empirical evidence on the influence of TA on household poverty in rural Nigeria. Hence, the influence of gender TA on the poverty status of rural farming households in Southwestern Nigeria (SWN) was investigated. Oyo and Osun states were randomly selected from SWN. Two rural Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly chosen from eac...
ABSTRACT Washed, sliced and oven-dried whole sweet potato tubers (Iponwea batatas) of the local variety wcre milled and supplemented with a mineral salts solution containing (g litre) glucose, 5; (NH4)2SO4 1.5; KH2PO4, 1.5; MgS04 0.05; Yeast extract, 0.05 and fermented at 30C for 72 hr by solid siate fermentation (SSF) using Neurospora sitophila, Aspergillus niger, Candida ulilis and Saccharomyces warum. i tbe end of the fermentation period A.niger gave the highest protein content of 11.8%, D...
Abstract Consumption pattern and demand analysis of Dacryodes edulis commonly called ube by the Igbos in Umuahia, Nigeria was studied. The various uses and reasons for consumption of Dacryodes edulis, socio- economic characteristics of respondents, income elasticity, and chi square to determine the relationship between Consumption of Dacryodes edulis and some variables that affect it, are addressed. Simple random sampling was adopted. A well-structured questionnaire were used for Dacryodes ed...
Abstract Onifade, A.A. and Abu, O.A. 1998. Productive response of rabbits to supplemental copper in a diet based on tropical feedstuffs. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 13: 129-135. Effects of supplemental copper in a diet based on tropical feedstuffs on productive performance, carcass measurements and haematology of rabbits were investigated in a 70d trial. Copper as CuS04.0H2O was supplemented at 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg kg1 into a basal diet. The basal diet served as control treatment. Eight rabbits, e...
Abstract This study was conducted to assess population structure and threat to the sustainable management of woody species in the various ago-ecosystems in Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area (LGA) Katsina State, Nigeria. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used to collect data from 21 randomly demarcated 100m × 100m sample plots. All woody plant species found in the sample plots with stem diameter >2 cm at 20cm above ground, were recorded. Population structure was summariz...
ABSTRACT The media, especially the newspapers play a major role as sources of biotechnology information and will be useful avenues for disseminating related information. It is in view of this that this study examined coverage of biotech- nology and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Nigerian daily newspapers as an avenue to raise mass awareness especially amongst literate farmers. This study content analysed 63 GMOs and biotechnology items framed in four Nigerian newspapers (the Guardi...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Forestry sector plays key roles in supporting the livelihood of all Rwandans by providing most of the energy consumed by the bulk population, controlling soil erosion and protecting water catchments and supplying other goods and ecological services. Hence, the present and future extent of forest coverage in Rwanda is central to sustainable development and climate change considerations. Currently, about 87% of the population and 70% of the country’s land area are de...