Asian Journal of Advances in Agricultural Research

The study evaluated effect of Sex on Haematological parameters and Correlation with body weight of Japanese quails at Teaching and Research Farm of University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria. Authors declared that “principle of laboratory animal care” (NIH publication 85-23 revised 1985) were followed as well as the University law. The experiment has been examined and approved by the University law. Total of 400 birds (200 birds per sex) were reared in a Completely Randomized Design under standard management practices for 7 weeks with feed and water given ad libitum. Sex were considered treatments. Weekly body weight (BW) was measured. 100 birds per sex were randomly selected and blood samples were collected for haematological analysis. The parameters include: White Blood Cell(WBC), Red Blood Cell(RBC), Haemoglobin(Hb), Packed Cell Volume(PCV), Mean Corpuscular Volume(MCV), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin(MCH), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration(MCHC) and Platelet. The results showed that sex significantly (P< .05) influenced some of the haematological parameters of Japanese quails at 7 weeks. Females had significantly (P<.05) higher mean values in WBC (45.9 ±1.47 ×10⁹/L), Hb (15.58±0.23 g/l) and PCV (47.75±0.72%) than males with WBC (32.09±1.31×10⁹/L), Hb (13.72±0.25 g/l) and PCV (41.50±0.66%). There were no significant (P >.05) difference in mean values for RBC, MCV, MCH, MCHC and Platelet in both sexes measured. Correlation between BW and haematological parameters for male quails ranged from -10% to 50% (low to medium trend) while that of Female counterparts was -19% to 60% (low to high trend). In conclusion, female quails had higher values in WBC, Hb and PVC than the Males counterparts. Hence, female quails were considered fit for studying quails’ health status as this will help in establishing a breeding program of the quails than using Males. Body weight of female quails is a good selection tool to predict haematological parameters of quails.

Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla) is a leafy vegetable that belongs to the Chenopodiaceae family. The leaves are cooked, if still tender they are used in salads. Over the years, Emawati have adopted the use of inorganic fertilizers as they are easy to apply and come with recommended application rates. However, their main drawback is that they are environmentally unfriendly especially when washed into rivers, streams and other water bodies. For this cause, the use of animal manures has been promoted. Four-week-old Swiss chard seedlings were transplanted on the 4^th of February, 2016 in 1.5 x1.5 m plots with an inter and intra row spacing of 45 cm and they were irrigated twice a day during the first week and every second day from the second week until the end of the experiment. The experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Department Farm, Faculty of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, Luyengo Campus of the University of Swaziland to determine the effects of chicken manure application rates on growth, yield and quality of Swiss chard. Four chicken manure application rates (10, 20, 40 and 80 t/ha) and a recommended 900 kg/ha, inorganic basal fertilizer with a 125 kg/ha LAN top dressing fertilizer used as a control. A Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replicates was used. The study showed that the application of 80 t/ha of chicken manure improved the growth and yield of Swiss chard. It is recommended that farmers may use 80 t/ha of chicken manure because it gave the best results compared to the other treatments. The highest fresh shoot mass (237.5 g) was obtained in plants treated with 80 t/ha of chicken manure while the lowest fresh shoot mass (100.0 g) was obtained in plants fertilized with inorganic fertilizers. It was concluded that 80 t/ha was the best under the conditions of this study and it was found that fresh mass at the end was the most important parameter to consider.

Aim: Futility of current health care systems for nourishment is a challenge to health professionals and researchers. Moreover, the high economic load and side effects necessitates the identification of natural and cheap products for nourishment. Reflecting those points, this research was aimed to evaluate the nutritional properties of garden cress leaves along with suitable production time in Bangladesh.

Introduction: Garden cress has been used in different countries for nourishment and treatment of different types of diseases but is new to Bangladesh. Successful production practices are indispensible for meeting the economic demand. The present research work was designed to establish a suitable production time for high biomass yield and evaluation of nutritional properties of garden cress leaves for ethno-botanical uses.

Methodology: Factorial experiment with Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications was used to accomplish the experiment replications in different months (July to October from 2017 to 2019). Seeds were shown in pots on 1^st July, 1^st August, 1^st September and 1^st October. Relevant data were taken at 40 days from sowing.

Results: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed the production parameters such as shoot height (31.43 cm), root length (6.67 cm), leaf area plant^-1 (35.38), shoot fresh and dry weight (1.57 and 0.33 g) was the highest in October planting. In case of nutritional assessment, an attempt was made to establish the variation of chlorophyll, vitamin C and nitrate concentration over planting time and minerals and proximate composition over garden cress seeds. The chlorophyll (1.0 mg 100 g^-1 fresh weight), vitamin C (0.93 mg 100 g^-1 fresh weight) and nitrate (391.00 mg 100 g^-1 fresh weight) concentration was the highest in the October planting. Mineral content, i.e. sodium (73.67 mg 100 g^-1 dry weight), potassium (1821.00 mg 100 g^-1 dry weight) and calcium (578.67 mg 100 g^-1 dry weight) was higher in leaves than seeds, except iron concentration, though proximate composition was higher  in seeds than leaves, except moisture.

Conclusions: Winter planting (October) may attain higher biomass (leaf) production and its leaves could be a fresh source of bioactive compounds, minerals and vitamins.

Background: Agricultural finance from rural and community banks play a major role in increasing both yield and income of rural farmers in agricultural-dependent economies. These finances are needed for purchasing raw materials, paying labor fees and buying farming equipment, etc. However, substantial evidence about their roles in improving farm productivity is lacking, especially in the cocoa sector in Ghana, where rural and community banks are the forerunners in advancing credit to cocoa farmers in Ghana’s deprived rural cocoa-growing communities. This research, therefore, seeks to determine the impact of rural and community banks’ credit on cocoa farmers' productivity in the Bodi District of Ghana.

Methodology: Using random sampling method, a cross-sectional data of 350 cocoa farmers from 5 operational areas (Afere, Bodi, Amoaya, Kama and Suino) located in Bodi District in the Western region. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. Statistical software (SPSS v20 and STATA v14) were used to analyze quantitative data on cocoa productivity.

Results: The results revealed that cocoa farmers with access to credit experienced significant yield increase (p<0.05) with a mean of 359.71 kgha^-1 as compared to 235.30 kgha^-1 for non-credit takers. Further, only 34.3% of farmers accessed credit for farming. With Pseudo R² value of 0.78, farm tenure system, fertilizer use, access to credit and access to extension services significantly influenced cocoa yield, while the age of cocoa farmer, age of farm trees and vulnerability of farm to natural disaster negatively affected cocoa yield. Tukey HSD results (p<0.00) indicate that rural banks credit allocations to non-agricultural activities such as trade and transport, and social loans had the highest percentage means which suggests that agriculture is treated less favorable in rural banks' credit portfolio. These findings give credence to the assertion that rural banks are deviating from their core mandate of supporting agriculture in Ghana.

Conclusion: This study reaffirms the supporting roles played by rural and community banks in increasing cocoa yield in Ghana. However, this research recommends that, the Bank of Ghana should closely monitor the activities of these unit banks to reduce the instances of diverting all their funds to non-agricultural related activities.

Beef carcass classification represents an assurance to the consumer that the meat conforms to established set of official standards according to consumer demands and expectations. Most beef carcass grading systems combine both the grades for quality (carcass maturity, fatness, conformation, carcass defects) and quantity (expected yield). However, there is scarcity of documented information on the existing beef classification systems among some African countries. The main purpose of this review is to highlight the heterogeneity of the existing beef grading systems in selected African countries. The criteria used in beef carcass classification systems of these African countries were examined in the present study, and compared with the European Union red meat classification system. The results of this review indicated lack of uniformity in beef carcass classification systems among the selected African countries. In addition, the results show that at the moment some African countries have not adopted an objective system of beef carcass grading. Therefore, the existing red meat classification system using non-objective visual assessment of beef carcasses could be biased. The use of objective quality indices/attributes is recommended as a form of an improvement that will be aligned with consumer expectations.