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Early season sowing is one of the methods for avoiding yield loss for basil due to high temperatures. However, basil could be exposed to sub-optimal temperatures by planting it earlier in the season. Thus, an experiment was conducted that examines how temperature changes and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels affect basil growth, development, and phytonutrient concentrations in a controlled environment. The experiment simulated temperature stress, low (20/12 °C), and high (38/30 °C), under ambient (420 ppm) and elevated (720 ppm) CO2 concentrations. Low-temperature stress prompted the rapid closure of stomata resulting in a 21% decline in net photosynthesis. Chlorophylls and carotenoids decreased when elevated CO2 interacted with low-temperature stress. Basil exhibited an increase in stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, apparent quantum yield, maximum photosystem II efficiency, and maximum net photosynthesis rate when subjected to high-temperature stress. Under elevated CO2, increasing the growth temperature from 30/22 °C to 38/30 °C markedly increased the antioxidants content of basil. Taken together, the evidence from this research recommends that varying the growth temperature of basil plants can significantly affect the growth and development rates compared to increasing the CO2 concentrations, which mitigates the adverse effects of temperature stress.

Seed germination is the stage in which plants are most sensitive to abiotic stress, including salt stress (SS). SS affects plant growth and performance through ion toxicity, decreasing seed germination percentage and increasing the germination time. Several priming treatments were used to enhance germination under SS. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify priming treatments to shorten the emergence period, (2) to evaluate priming treatments against the SS, and (3) to induce synchronized seed germination. Salt-sensitive ‘Burpee Bibb’ lettuce seeds were treated with 0.05% potassium nitrate, 3 mM gibberellic acid, and distilled water. All the primed and non-primed seeds were subjected to 100 mM sodium chloride (NaCl) or 0 mM NaCl (control). The seven-day experiment, arranged in a complete randomized block design with four replications, was conducted in a growth chamber maintained with 16/8 h photoperiod (light/dark), 60% relative humidity, and a day/night temperature of 22/18 °C. The result indicated that hydro-primed (HP) seeds were better synchronized under SS. Similarly, fresh mass (FM) and dry mass (DM) of cotyledon, hypocotyl, and radicle were the highest in HP lettuce regardless of SS. Electrolyte leakage was the lowest in the HP lettuce, while other priming methods under SS increased membrane permeability, leading to osmotic stress and tissue damage. Overall, hydro-priming can be a good priming method for synchronizing germination and increasing FM and DM by creating the least osmotic stress and ion toxicity in lettuce under SS.

The study on the economic analysis of broiler production was carried out in Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative' Poultry Estates, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling technique was employed for the selection of 100 out of 193 broiler farmers. The research findings revealed a male dominance (73%) in broiler production and an average age of 45 years within the range of 40 and 49. Also, majority of the broiler farmers (90%) were fully involved in broiler production, married (80%) and literate (90%), with an average farming experience of less than 9 years (81%), average household size of 4 persons (78%) and an average flock size of about 400 birds. It was found that over 80% of the cost of production was on the variable inputs while feeds constituted the highest percentage of the variable costs. This accounted for 54.86% of variable costs and 44.8% of the total costs. The result of the findings showed that a single broiler bird nurtured to maturity had a total cost of ₦1509.8 made up of ₦274.2 as fixed cost and ₦1235.6 as variable cost. The gross revenue per bird was ₦2169.99. The Net profit of ₦660.11 per bird was estimated and this gives a net margin-to-cost ratio of 0.44 which implies that a ₦1 investment in broiler production, all things being equal, would yield 44kobo in return. This indicates that the broiler in poultry estate were profitable. The maximum likelihood estimate of the stochastic frontier production function reveals that quantity of feeds and flock size were highly significant at 5% and 1% risk level respectively. Educational level of farmers and years of experience were the factors positively influencing the technical efficiency of broiler production in the study area. The estimated technical efficiency of the broiler farmers ranged from 57% to 96% with a mean technical efficiency of 74%. Disease outbreak, inadequate finance and high cost of feed were the serious problems faced by the farmers. It was therefore recommended that broiler farmers should increase their flock size, develop the skills of record keeping and feed formulation to reduce feed cost.

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