EJPAU, 2019, Volume 22, Issue 4

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22(4) #01
17 Dec 2019
Biotechnology
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Three halolactones with the trimethylcyclohexene system obtained from beta-ionone by chemical synthesis were biotransformed by filamentous fungal cultures (Fusarium, Absidia, Aspergillus). Bromolactone, converted to hydroxylactone by hydrolytic dehalogenation, was the most susceptible to the action of microorganisms. However, chloro- and iodolactone were only slightly transformed. Both substrates and product were subjected to odour evaluation. The one of them, iodolactone had a very interesting coconut-cream fragrance. The fragrance of a biotransformation product, a hydroxylactone, was less interesting than the odour of its precursor. The significant differences between the odours of lactones obtained from beta-ionone with their corresponding earlier obtained alpha-ionone derivatives were presented.

22(4) #02
17 Dec 2019
Agricultural Engineering
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Sesame plants are harvested manually and mechanized. As the cultivation area of this product is increasing in the world, due to the excessive grain loss in the head of combine harvester and the toxic spray called Regelon, which is a human health hazard, the need to make a special head of combine for harvesting sesame has been the manufacturers focus of attention. In this research, a special small-scale head of combine harvesting for sesame made up bowl fingers and stair frame has been fabricated and evaluated. As the results have showed farm capacity of the machine with a working width of 60 cm and a speed of 1.3 m/s is 217 m2/hr. Also, the results of the SolidWorks analysis indicate a maximum displacement of 0.057 mm, a maximum strain of 0.0000407, and a maximum von Mises Stress of 8929 KN/m2, in triangular bowl fingers under load 26 N by a stem of Sesame. moreover, the head loss of this special head is about 16 percent.

22(4) #03
20 Dec 2019
Agronomy
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Among Fabaceae cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), and soybean (Glycine max L. Merry) are the major pulse crops grown in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), however, the yield remains very low due to the low efficacy of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) process. Improvement of the yields is possible only in the presence of an efficient BNF rhizobia strains that can be either native or exogenous introduced as a seed inoculants capable to establish effective symbiotic interactions with their legume crops. There are very few studies targeting the phenotypic and genetic characterization of effective indigenous symbiotic rhizobia of Fabaceae plants in Sub-Saharan Africa ecozones. This review describes nearly 100 BNF rhizobia out of about 4000 indigenous strains isolated from soils and root nodules of pulses from different SSA ecozones. Most of these isolates outperformed reference strains and most of the commercial inoculants. The majority of the described indigenous isolates effectively nodulating common bean roots were identified as Rhizobium etli, R. leguminosarum, R. leguminosarum sv. phaseoli and R. tropici, whereas potent diazotrophs symbionts of soybean and cowpea were identified as Bradyrhizobium elkanii and B. japonicum. In addition, some strains of B. yuamingense were found to be beneficial as inoculates for cowpea along with several unidentified isolates effective as seed inoculants of common bean, soybean, and cowpea. Overall, this review provides a first comprehensive assessment of biodiversity of indigenous symbiotic rhizobia in legume plants grown in SSA and discusses their potential agricultural applications.

22(4) #04
31 Dec 2019
Economics
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Nigeria has been a nation seeking to step-up economic growth and development particularly since the end of the civil war but this appears to have proved too difficult. Agriculture has been earmarked as a key sector to cause faster growth through sufficient food production. However, the output supply from the sector to the domestic economy has been inadequate, leading to massive food importation. This study examined the effect of macroeconomic variables on agricultural output in Nigeria spanning over 37 years, from 1981 to 2017. It is assumed that appropriate macroeconomic variables would serve as transmission channels to address the short comings in agricultural sector. To achieve the study specific objectives, the OLS method was employed as estimation technique. Error Correction Model was set for the short run effects. This was followed by the long run effect of macroeconomic variables on agricultural output in Nigeria. The Granger Causality Test was also carried out. The short run error correction term revealed a speedy adjustment process to long run equilibrium. There was evidence of long run relationship between macroeconomic variables set for this study and agricultural output. The major findings revealed that in the long run, government support in form of microcredit was an essential factor in agricultural development in Nigeria. Exchange rate was also found to be significant in determining agricultural output growth. It is suggested that government should increase its financial support to agriculture and that the stability of the exchange rate should be taken seriously by the apex bank.


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