ABSTRACT Access to market plays a vital role in poverty alleviation among smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural markets provide income generating opportunities for farmers in rural areas hence improving their livelihoods. Avocado fruit has a high demand in both local and export markets due to its nutritional value and industrial use. However, smallholder avocado farmers have not benefited from this increased demand. The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of trans...
ABSTRACT The melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), is a serious pest of cucurbits, tree fruits and related crops in most continents of the world, including Africa. To manage the pest, most farmers in sub-Saharan Africa rely on synthetic chemicals which have detrimental effects to the environment and the habitat. Excessive use of chemicals may also lead to development of pest resistance and Z. cucurbitae has reportedly shown the most increased resistance to the used insecticides. For ...
TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION................................................................................................................ i DEDICATION................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................
ABSTRACT Water insufficiency due to scarcity, poor distribution and high variability of rainfall in the Central Highlands of Kenya (CHK) and a decline in soil fertility have contributed to a continuous decrease in water productivity. To increase food production to match the growing population, soil management practices that ensure improved water productivity should be embraced. The study, therefore, sought to characterize rainfall and to establish the effects of selected soil management pract...
ABSTRACT The need to provide sufficient protein food for an increasing population that is mainly resource poor requires opening up of marginal land for growing appropriate pulses such as chickpea. An experiment was carried out at KARI-Naivasha situated at an altitude of 1900 m, characterized with clayey to sandy loam soils in a split plot of randomized complete block design over two seasons (December 29, 2004 to May 26, 2005 and June 21 to November 15, 2007). The objective was to investigate ...
ABSTRACT The demand for non-renewable fossil fuel has greatly increased in the last few years from 84 million barrels of fossil fuel per day in 1980’s to over 100 million barrels per day in 1990. To supplement this demand, research on alternative sources has been going on since 1960’s in different parts of the world. Among the alternative sources, the phytoplanktons have shown great promise due to their high oil yield in comparison to energy crops. In Kenya, despite the occurrence of high...
ABSTRACT The global demand for fresh water resources has been increasing over the years due to population growth, urbanization, industrialization, climate change and the global warming effect. The available water resources have reduced over time leaving a water demand deficit. Recycling and reuse of greywater has been touted as one of the strategies to augment the existing water resources. This study characterized the greywater from students’ hostels and prepared biochar from banana stalks ...
ABSTRACT Sugarcane crop (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the important industrial crops that are major employers and contributor to the Kenyan economy. Despite the importance attached to this subsector, sugarcane production is dismally performing in Kenya. In a bid to attain self-sufficiency in sugar production, Kenya has made remarkable efforts to develop the subsector. Despite efforts put up by the Government of Kenya and other stakeholders, sugarcane production still faces low productivit...
ABSTRACT Somalia is one of the most drought prone countries in Africa. Drought is the country’s costliest natural disaster. The impact of drought events on the economy, on people`s livelihoods and on lives has grown. Drought events usually develop gradually unnoticed, causing tremendous effects on both agriculture and environment. This study evaluated the spatio-temporal variations of drought occurrences in Somalia and its implication on forest cover. In this study, precipitation and temper...
ABSTRACT Tobacco is an important cash crop contributing significantly to the Zimbabwean economy. However yield and quality remain very low in the small holder sector despite the availability of potentially high yielding varieties. There are various factors which contribute to lower yields some of which are poor plant spacing combinations which result in either intra specific or inter specific competition. Intra row spacing has the potential to improve yield and quality of the tobacco if prop...
ABSTRACT This research is aimed at developing a Crop Disease Detection and Control Advisory System which assists the farming community. The idea of developing the system came as a way of mitigating the problems affecting the organization that include poor and slow service delivery in FCC shops when assisting farmers or giving advice to farmers. Farmers from remote areas have to travel long distances to get assistance and be advised on how they can cure certain diseases affecting their plants...
ABSTRACT The study was carried out in Buhera District in 2013. The aim of the study was to assess the contribution of food aid on food security. The study sampled 30 households using simple random sampling who are the beneficiaries of food aid. Food aid programme is widely debated in the world and has made many people to believe that food aid has a disincentive effect while others believe it is an essential tool for agriculture and food security development. For the past decade, food aid del...
ABSTRACT Pollution of water bodies due to human activities such as industrial waste disposal is a serious challenge facing most developing countries in the world today. Thus the management and supply of freshwater to the public is compromised and the ecological integrity of these rivers is lost due to adverse impacts such as eutrophicaton with algal blooms proliferating in these rivers. This could be due to such factors as pre-treatment costs, costs of having pre-treatment plants and ineffec...
ABSTRACT The study sought to determine abundance and species of nematode parasites of Oreochromis tilapicus and Clarias gariepinus in Lower Umguza Dam,in the Gwayi catchment area. Fish samples were collected from fishermen and sent to the laboratory for observation and identification using standard parasitological methods and identification guides. 479 nematode parasites were recovered from 160 fish belonging to 2 species; Oreochromis tilapicus and Clarias gariepinus. Four nematode genera; P...
ABSTRACT Irish potato is a cool-season crop that require low temperatures for high yields. In potato production tuberisation is an important and complex process. High temperatures reduce successful cultivation of potato in the lowveld of Zimbabwe because they tend to promote vegetative growth at the expense of tuber production. High temperatures may increase in gibberellin activity that inhibits tuberisation.To overcome this problem paclobutrazol can be used to overcome the inhibitory effect...