No abstract

Maize (Zea mays), which is the third most important cereal crop of the world, is an important dual purpose crop used in human diet and animal feed. The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of weeds on the growth and yield of maize, and to determine the best time and frequency of weeding to get an optimum yield. The experiment was conducted at Teaching and Research Farm of The College of Education, Lanlate in the cropping season of 2016. There were four treatments replicated four times to make the total number of plot to be sixteen (16). The treatments are; No weeding, weeding after 2, 3 and 4 weeks. It was shown that if the first weeding is done between 3weeks and 2weeks after planting the optimum yield will be obtained. When the first weeding is allowed to reach 4weeks before it is done there is a drastically reduction in the crop. A crop failure with absolutely low yield was obtained in a field where weeding was not done at all.

Many farmers are incorporating green manuring into their practices as a result of the growing issues facing agriculture, such as climate change, extreme weather events, soil deterioration, and land contamination due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers. Growing green manure is a useful and affordable way to ensure the long-term productivity of agricultural soils. Given the significant loss of soil fertility caused by improper agronomic practices, human-induced land degradation is extremely serious. Due to their positive effects on the physical, chemical, and biological quality of the soil as well as the proper justification of soil fertility, green manures can play a significant role. Utilizing green manure is one of the trends in environmental protection that aids in the agricultural sector's transition to sustainability by conserving resources and meeting consumer demand for food. Modern farmers are faced with a number of challenges as they try to transition to productive and ecologically friendly practices. To preserve soil fertility while utilizing less chemicals is one of them. Green manure crops could be a potential answer to this issue. Back in ancient times, farmers learned that this method had a positive effect on the soil. Thus, for growers who want to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals for soil fertilization, green manure is indispensable. In terms of operations, many farmers must employ green manure to reduce the overuse of chemical fertilizers in agriculture.

Effects of Weeding Regimes on Prevalence and Rigidness of Viral Diseases on Okra (abelmoscus esculentus l. Moench) Performance

Nitrate nitrogen (NO3- -N) in the soil is one of the important nutrients for growing crops. During the period of precipitation or irrigation, an excessive NO3- -N readily causes its leaching or runoff from the soil surface to rivers due to inaccurate fertilization and water management, leading to non-point source pollution. In general, the measurement of the NO3--N relies upon the laboratory-based absorbance, which is often time-consuming, therefore not suitable for the rapid measurements in the field directly. Ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) support the possibility of NO3--N measurement by measuring the nitrate (NO3-) ions in soil quickly and accurately due to the high water solubility and mobility of NO3- ions. However, such a method suffers from a complicated calibration to remove the influences caused by both temperature and other ions in the measured solution, thus limiting field use. In this study, a kind of all-solid ISE system combined with a temperature sensor and a pH electrode is proposed to automatically measure the concentrations of the NO3--N. In this study, a soil water content calibration function was established, which significantly reduces a relative error (RE) by 13.09%. The experimental results showed that the stabilization time of this electrode system was less than 15 s with a slope of −51.63 mV/decade in the linear range of 10–5–10–2.2 mol/L. Both the limit of detection of 0.5 ppm of the NO3--N and a relative SD of less than 3% were obtained together with the recovery rate of 90–110%. Compared with the UV-Vis spectroscopy method, a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9952 was obtained. The performances of this all-solid ISE system are satisfied for measuring the NO3--N in the field.