Review On Land Degradation and Its Management (Published)
Land is the essential component which provides us food, shelter, and fiber. It is non-renewable resource which is degrading day to day. The present review focuses on effect of land degradation on agriculture and environment; and how we can manage our lands from further degradation. Agriculture is an important sector of economy and plays a significant role like GDP share, foreign exchange earnings, and employment. Land degradation is an environmental process in which biological, economical, and quality of land is lost due to alteration in chemical, physical, and biological properties. Factors like climatic, natural, and anthropogenic deteriorate the quality of land and degraded it for agricultural use. Agriculture sector is directly linked with land while most of the agriculture land is degraded by some factors. The most frequent causes of degradation are poor farming practices, inappropriate irrigation, overgrazing, urban sprawl, commercial development, and land clearance. Due to rapid changes in climatic conditions, deforestation, desertification, erosion, salinization, water logging, and organic matter depletion lead to land degradation. For restoration of land, it is important to minimize these activities and properly managed all factors. We can manage our land by ground covers, alternate fuels, timber replantation, and dams and by making the policies. Improvement and reclamation of degraded lands the domestic structure must be integrated in all related areas which gives direction for asset in sustainable land management and stimulating community response towards sustainable land management. Furthermore, organic agriculture may be an alternative to save our land from degradation.
Keywords: Agriculture, Degradation, Environment, Land, Management
The Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Honey Production in Uganda (Published)
The study was conducted in Uganda in five districts of Lira, Kole, Nakasongola, Tororo, and Kabarole. A survey was conducted to establish the different socio-economic characteristics of bee-keeping farmers that influence the production of honey. A structured questionnaire was administered randomly to 218 beekeepers from the five districts and data analyzed using STATA 11. The results of STATA indicated four explanatory variables with P-values of <0.05 influencing honey production namely; bee keeping in income generation (P = 0.00, F = 6.6), types of hives kept per farmer (P = 0.00, F= 29.5), total number of hives kept per farmer (P = 0.00, F = 29.7) and number of hives colonized (P = 0.00, F = 13.2). Level of education, gender, age, beekeeping experience, market availability and training of bee keepers were not significant. Our results show that management of number of colonies corresponds to increase in honey production. These findings can support policy makers and beekeepers on honey production increase. We recommend bee keepers to match colony numbers to the resources available in their environment and maintain a minimum of 80 colonised bee hives. The country should promote the use of traditional bee hives and boost their production by making improvements on traditional bee hive construction.
Keywords: Bee Hives Type, Beekeeper, Environment, Honeybee Colony Management
EVALUATION OF SIX CHINESE MAIZE (ZEA MAYS) VARIETIES IN THE HUMID TROPICAL ENVIRONMENT OF CALABAR, SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA. (Published)
Six hybrid Chinese maize varieties with a local best were evaluated for their growth and yield performance with a view to adoption in South east agroecological zone of Nigeria. A Randomised Complete Block (RCBD) Design was used. The cultivars did not differ (p ≤0.05) significantly in some growth parameters, this included emergence percentage at 5DAP (days after planting), plant height at both 4WAP and 6WAP (weeks after planting). Tasseling and silking differed significantly, the exotic varieties tassled and silked better than the control at 8WAP and 10WAP respectively. The only significantly different yield parameters were the length and weight of undehusked cobs, circumference of dehusked cobs. The exotic varieties matured earlier than the control between 11 to 14WAP and 16WAP respectively. There was no significant difference in the grain yield between the maize varieties. The Chinese varieties did not show a marked difference in grain yield compared to the local
Keywords: Environment, Evaluation, Growth, Humid Tropics, Maize, Variety Trial, Yield