Amaranthus is one of those rare plants whose leaves are eaten as vegetables and seeds as cereal. Unfortunately, one of the major factors limiting the productivity of Amaranthus is the incidence of insect pests attack. The aim of this study was to determine the insect pest occurrence on cultivated Amaranths in Benin City, Nigeria. The experiment was conducted in the Agricultural farm of University of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria. Three varieties of Amaranth were used for this experiment, namely, Amaranthus cruentus (white-seeded), Amaranthus hybridus (red-seeded) and Amaranthus hybridus (black-seeded). The experimental design used was completely randomized design with three replicates, each replicate having nine plots. The result showed the diversity of insect pests associated with Amaranth. Insects found on Amaranth were classified into seven (7) orders, namely Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera and Mantodea; and eight (8)

In the last one decade and half, lablab was evaluated for its crop-livestock production potentials in Samaru, Kano and Benin City in both the savanna and humid forest zones of Nigeria. Very early, early and intermediate accessions were identified that may be suitable for dry savanna and late growing season of the humid forest while late, very late and extremely late accessions were identified for moist savanna and humid forest. Vegetable-type, grain-type and dual-purpose lablab were identified. Lablab grain ranged from 600-2400 kg ha

In tropical and subtropical areas, the importance of organic manure and inorganic fertilizer in increasing crop production for food security cannot be overemphasized. A field study was therefore conducted at the Results showed that plant height, number of branches and number of leaves per plant were enhanced by organic and inorganic fertilizers. Similarly, combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizer increased the pod weight/plant compared to the sole application of organic and inorganic fertilizer. Application rate of 2.5 t/ha poultry manure + 150 kg/ha NPK 15:15:15 gave the highest grain yield of 7.367 t/ha followed by 5 t/ha poultry manure + 100 kg/ha NPK which gave (7.244 t/ha), application rate of 7 t/ha poultry manure + 60 kg/ha NPK gave (6.654 t/ha), while 10 t/ha poultry manure gave (3.889 t/ha) and this was followed by application rate of 200 kg/ha NPK 15:15:15 which gave (4.112 t/ha) and the control gave the lowest grain yield of (3.245 t/ha). The application of 2.5 t/ha poultry manure + 150 kg/ha NPK 15:15:15 is therefore suggested for the growth and yield of soyabean in Edo rainforest of Nigeria.

City to examine the effects of location of pruning on some vegetative and reproductive attributes of tomato varieties. The trial was laid out in a 3 × 4 factorial arrangement fitted in a randomized complete block design in three replicates with twelve treatment combinations per replicate and 36 for the whole replicates consisting of four location of pruning, P1 (pruning the tips only), P2 (pruning the lateral suckers only), P3 (pruning the tips and lateral suckers) and P0 (control, i.e., no pruning) on three varieties of tomatoes V1 (Cobra), V2 (Roma VF) and V3 (UC82). The results showed that Cobra variety produced higher fruit weight/plant (37.86 g) and more number of rotted fruits (1.42) than other varieties. Roma VF showed superiority in number of branches /plant (22.58) compared with Cobra variety (15.42) and UC82 (14.67). Pruning at P1 and P0 increased number of branches (23.33 and 21.89) than P2 (14.56) and P3 (10.44) Number of leaves increased in P1 compared with P2 and P3 and the leaf area increased at P3 (36.32 cm 2) more than P0 (28.34 cm 2). The rotted fruits increased in this order P2, P3 > P0, P1. Since pruning increased the number of rotted fruits/plant but produced non-significant increases in fruit weight/plant (g) and fruit yield (t ha-1), any of the three varieties of tomato could be used in Edo rainforest zone of Nigeria at no pruning.

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