Asian Journal of Advances in Agricultural Research

Background: Pulses are important food crops that can play a major role in achieving food security, nutrition, and human health, contributing to the sustainability of agriculture and aiding the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The nutrient uptake is directly or indirectly affected by many factors like total concentration as well as available quantity of different nutrients, root development, aeration, water potential, climatic conditions and other related soil parameters.

Aims: A field experiment was carried out to find out the effects of different manures along with inorganic fertilizers on nutritional status of two mungbean varieties.

Study Design: Experimental treatments consisted of eight combinations of each manure and inorganic fertilizers with Soil Test Base (STB).

Results: The results showed that integrated effects were found significant on Ca, Zn and Mn contents in seed and P, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn contents in stover. The highest N (4.34%), Mg (0.48%), P (0.56%) contents in seed and N (1.52%), Mg (0.78%) and B (30.67 µg g^-1) contents in stover was obtained by the application of 3 t ha^-1 poultry manure + 70% STB. The highest seed protein content was found from the same treatment. On the other hand, the highest Zn, Mn, Cu and S contents in seeds, and Zn, Fe and K contents in stover were obtained from 3 t ha^-1 vermicompost + 70% STB. The treatment of 3 t ha^-1 poultry manure + 70% STB produced the highest uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Mn, and Cu in seeds and the highest uptake of Mg, Fe and B was found with stover. The nutrient contents of seeds were positively and significantly correlated with each other. In Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the first two principal components accounted for approximately 81.80% of the total variability. BARI Mung-6 appeared as the best variety and poultry manure @ 3 t ha^-1 along with 70% inorganic fertilizers treatment for the better nutritional quality of Mungbean.

Conclusion: It was observed that different treatments performed differently in respect of nutrients contents and uptake of seed and stover, and protein contents. From the above experimental findings, it is concluded that BARI Mung-6 appeared as the best variety and poultry manure @ 3 t ha^-1 along with 70% IF should be applied for getting better nutritional mungbean seed with higher protein contents under the agroclimatic condition of BARI.

The importance of adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) approach to improve food production cannot be overemphasized in policy development and research agenda of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This study investigates how socio-demographic factors influence farm-level decision process associated with the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Ogun State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 196 farmers. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Likert scale rating and multivariate probit model. The results showed that majority of the farmers were male with mean age of 35 years cultivating an average farm size of 5.8 hectares. The use of improved variety was adopted by 95.41% and this was rank first among the practices adopted by the farmers. Agroforestry was rank second and adopted by 85.71% of the respondents. The extent of adoption by the respondents showed that 94.39 and 72.45 were practicing the use of improved variety and agroforestry regularly. The factors influencing adoption of sustainable practices were age, education, farm size, farming experience and membership of social organization. The result further revealed that young farmers are more likely to adopt sustainable agricultural practices as option to increase productivity and reduce vulnerability of environment to ecological problems. This suggests that campaign for adoption of sustainable agricultural practices should target young farmers. However, this is not to discriminate older farmers in the sustainable agriculture policy agenda. The study established that there are complementary and substitute effects between the sustainable agricultural practices. This showed that policy changes that affect adoption of a given practice can have spillover effect on the other. Hence, extension services and promotion agenda should always emphasize the effects between different practices to enhance farmers’ choice.

Aims: Maize is of great significance in the national food security of South Africa. Maize production levels in South Africa continue to decline, further deteriorating the situation of increased food insecurity, unemployment and increased poverty levels in the face of increasing population. This paper investigated fundamental variables influencing maize yield in the South African major maize producing regions.

Study Design: A multi-stage stratified sampling method was employed to select maize producing farmers in the major maize producing provinces, namely Mpumalanga, Free State and North West provinces of South Africa. Furthermore, three districts were selected from which maize farmers were then selected.

Methodology: Using linear multiple regression for a sample of 202 maize farmers, maize yield as a dependent variable was regressed against land size, fertilizer usage, labour, herbicides and seeds as independent variables. The paper employed the Cobb-Douglas production function to estimate parameters. The data obtained from the field were subjected to analysis using inferential statistics using SPSS v20.

Results: The study showed that fertilizer, labour, and herbicides used in the production of maize in the study area were positively and statistically significant at a 5% confidence interval (P<0.05) with elasticity coefficients of 0.55, 0.47 and 0.198 respectively. The independent variables computed in the model had positive elasticity coefficients indicating a direct positive relationship between the input variables and maize output. The study also revealed that farmers in the study area were applying fewer amounts of fertilizer than the recommended rates per hectare.

Conclusion: The study recommends that the South African government should supply inputs to maize farmers at subsidized rates to promote correct application rates and attain higher yields.  The promotion of good quality extension services to foster good agricultural practices in the production of maize is also recommended.

Additional warming caused by climate change will negative impacts on agricultural sectors. The problem is expected to be most harsh in regions were lacking in adaptive capacity in terms of information needed to make adaptive decisions to combat climate change impacts. Many strides have been made to understand and quantify climate impact on sensitive regions to climate change. However, for many food-insecurity hot-spot areas, the comprehensive data for impact assessment are rarely available. This paper outlined a research framework for providing knowledge for policy-makers, local authorities, and agricultural organizations to make informative climate change adaptive decisions for such areas. Several models are compared and discussed to show their advantage and disadvantage for appropriate model applications. We propose a framework to facilitate future impact assessment research, especially for regions where relevant data are lacking. This paper provides a research method of linking different models and combines the useful information acquired from models to make climate policies and adaption schemes cost-effectively with limited local data and farm information.

This study analyzed the pattern of fish consumption among Kogi State University students in Anyigba. It described the socio- economic characteristics of respondents, determine the effects of socio-economic characteristics on fish consumption, describe the types, forms, reasons for fish consumption and identify the constraints affecting fish consumption among the respondents. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 150 respondents. Well structured questionnaire coupled with interview scheduled were used to elicit primary data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics, binary logit regression and 3- point likert scale were used for data analyzing. The results showed that majority (60%) of the respondents were female, 72% were unmarried with an average household size of 3 persons and average income of N 20, 000 per month. Their sources of income were from parents and guardians. The result of the binary logit regression indicated that age (-1.21), income (0.99), price (-0.19), taste (0.65), health benefit (2.31) and price of substitute (0.68)  influenced the consumption of fish at 1%, 5% and 10% level of significant respectively. The types of fish consumed were majorly mackerel fish (45.33%), followed by tuna (27.34%). Iced fish were  mostly (40%) consumed, followed by 20.67% steamed fish and 7.33% were consumed in grilled form. 43.33% consumed  fish for health benefits, 24% consumed fish due to affordability and 14% consumed fish due to availability. Among the constraints facing fish consumption were allergy, proximity, storage and cost with mean score of 2.37, 2.16, 2.10, 2.36 and 2.38 respectively. Thus, fish and fish products were mostly consumed by the respondents with high consumption rate recorded by the female students. The prices of fish should be stabilized, adequate cold storage facilities should be purchased by the fish mongers and the university Fishery department should expand their ponds for efficient production.