264 mg/kg (dry season) and 0.627 ± 0.035-9.364 ± 0.786 mg/kg (wet season)) exceeded the Codex limits in all samples. Health risk indices for the species indicated potential risk to the population from the consumption of Oreochromis niloticus. However, hazard index and target carcinogenic risk values indicate that people in the communities do not face significant non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks from cadmium and lead intake by consuming the fish species.

This study involves the construction, installation and testing of a small farm gravity drip irrigation system on a land area of 900m 2 (30mx30m). It was done using a network of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes of three sizes (which served as the main, submain and laterals), control valves (located on the sub main) and micro emitters (which controlled uniform application of water and fertilizer directly into the root zone of the plant by gravity). The water application uniformity of the system was determined by measuring emitter flow rates at the times required to fill a container of 1 litre. Fertigation chamber was incorporated into the system for fertilizer application. The average discharge rate from the emitters was 5.5 l/hr. The average wetting diameter and wetting depth of 60 cm and 1.5 m respectively were achieved. The emission uniform of 85% and above compared favourably with micro irrigation uniformity classification standard based on American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE). It is recommended that the system be flushed after each irrigation season to prevent clogging.

This work studied variations in certain climatic parameters, specifically precipitation, soil moisture and outgoing Long wave radiation (OLR) from the earth from 1997 to 2006 in Makurdi, Nigeria. Results showed that precipitation rate in Makurdi deviated from the normal annual bimodal pattern of precipitation in Nigeria. Precipitation was highest in August/September throughout the study period. The dependent of soil moisture on precipitation is highly significant as shown by the high positive value (81%) of R2. Soil moisture content also varied similarly while OLR varied inversely. The effects of the variations of these parameters on agricultural production are highlighted.

Physico-chemical characteristics of Kaltungo groundwater were determined for a period of 12 months. The physical characteristics include odour, colour, taste, temperature, turbidity and TDS; while conductivity, pH, chloride, iron, copper, lead, zinc, fluoride, cadmium, nitrates, TH, total alkalinity (TA) and fluoride were the chemical characteristics. Nine water samples, three from three hand dug wells and six from six boreholes were taken monthly for the period. This study was undertaken because the people of Kaltungo town depend on groundwater from hand dug wells and boreholes for their water needs and children who grow up in the town during the ages of teething end up having mottled teeth. The results showed that the physical parameters were below their maximum limits, except temperature that had a mean of 29.7°C, which was still within ambient temperature. Most of the chemical parameters were below the recommended maximum limits except Iron and fluoride which had mean monthly values of 0.9mg/l and 1.66mg/l as against 0.3mg/l and 1.5mg/l respectively. Treatments for flouride removal carried out with alum, bone charcoal and Moringa olifera seeds showed that fluoride concentrations in water was reduced when treated with dosages ≥ 10g/l of raw water by between 15% and 43% reduction. Kaltungo groundwater should be treated for fluoride removal before consumption to avert teeth mottling.

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