In the arid and semi-arid regions, soil moisture deficiency largely limits sustainable crop production. In the Nigerian dry Savanna (Northern Guinea savanna, arid and semi-arid zones), dry spells commonly occur between June and July, often lasts beyond three weeks. Rainfall is unevenly distributed and results in insufficient soil moisture for crop production. Soils at the uplands are commonly sandy loam to loamy sand at the surface horizons, have inherently poor fertility status, poor moisture retention capacity and rapidly degrade due to sheet erosion, continuous cultivation and overgrazing. The study on cross banding of ridges to conserve moisture and use of boron in association with nitrogen, and without boron was therefore conducted in Sabon Gari Garu areas in Katsina State, in the dry savanna of Nigeria during the 2007 and 2008 cotton cropping seasons. Data obtained were statistically analyzed. Results show that treatment with tied ridges þ NPK þ boron (415.70 kg ha 71 and 312.47 kg ha 71 cotton in respective years) resulted in significant higher cotton lint yields in 2007 and 2008 than NPK þ boron treatments (245.20 kg ha 71 and 255.16 kg ha 71 cotton in 2007 and 2008, respectively). Cross banding of ridges is recommended for farmers to conserve soil moisture and application of NPK þ boron fertilizers.

Computer-based assessment or e-assessment system is an e-learning system where information communication technology is utilized for examination activity, grading, and recording of responses of the examinees. It includes the entire assessment process from the examinees, teachers, institutions, examination agencies, and the public. E-assessment systems have been used extensively in educational and non-educational settings worldwide because of their significant impact on assessment to both the institutions and students. Electronic assessment systems have many significant advantages over conventional paper-pencil-based approaches, like reducing production cost, automatic marking, and fair grading. Other benefits include the ability to conduct adaptive testing, an increase in the frequency of assessment, a large number of people could be examined, low staff requirements during the assessment, and the ability to improve the quality of the evaluation. Text, images, audio, video, and interactive virtual environments in an e-assessment system are all feasible. Nevertheless, given all these advantages, some examinees expressed negative views about electronic assessment in our study due to fear or lack of familiarity with assessment technology and lack of information on e-assessment methods. Despite the increased adoption of e-assessment in higher education and organizations, the examinees' attitudes and opinions need to be studied to implement the system successfully. In an e-assessment environment, several factors account for the evaluation of the system quality. These factors can be categorized into three dimensions: technical, educational, and economical. However, based on literature reviewed,  limited studies attempted to map these quality factors to determine user satisfaction with an e-assessment system. This scarcity of e-assessment satisfaction studies is the gap the study intends to fill. Furthermore, this study's findings would help provide practical and theoretical implications for educational institutions and organizations. This study is among the first application of the Delone and McLean information system success model to predict user satisfaction with computer-based assessment in a developing, African country.

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It has been extensively researched how satisfied students are with the vast majority of goods and services offered by educational institutions of higher learning. However, there appears to be a paucity of research on students' satisfaction with the facilities and services of computer-based assessment (CBA) centers in higher education institutions, especially when the centers are equipped and staffed by third-party vendors. The CBA centers are public and private examination centers in developing countries that administer computer-based tests for higher education and other external organizations. Although satisfaction with the services and facilities is essential, it has been asserted that having the feeling of trust when using the CBA is even more critical to the students. Trust is essential for the success of any technological advancement, especially in the field of education. Any educational technology that lacks the stakeholders' trust, regardless of how effective it may be, is doomed to fail to be adopted on a large scale. However, limited studies have investigated how students' trust in the CBA affects their satisfaction. Therefore, this study aims to model and analyze the roles of CBA center service satisfaction and perceived trust in the CBA in attaining overall satisfaction by exploring their roles in influencing student satisfaction. A research framework based on the updated information system success model (ISSM) is validated using a survey incorporating system quality, service quality, question content, the cost-effectiveness of CBA services, CBA center service satisfaction, and perceived trust. A total of 459 survey responses collected from three higher education institutions in Nigeria were analyzed using structural equation modelling. As a result, the findings confirmed that students' satisfaction with services at the CBA centers is a mediator between service quality, system quality, and overall satisfaction with CBA. The correlation between CBA centre service satisfaction and overall CBA satisfaction was also found to be the strongest, indicating that student satisfaction with the services and facilities at the CBA centre is crucial. CBA center managers and institutions can utilize the findings from this study to successfully implement the CBA. In enhancing students‘ CBA satisfaction, higher education institutions should consider focusing on the necessary steps towards improving the conditions of the CBA centers in terms of infrastructure and services rendered. Meanwhile, to increase student satisfaction besides enhancing the system and service quality and cost-effectiveness, institutions should seriously consider promoting the CBA to the students by highlighting the personal impact of the CBA in terms of trust by improving the quality and features of the CBA.