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A hydrogeochemical relation has been hypothesized through the analyses of physiochemical data of a fractured volcanic rock aquifer located in the Lower Baringo Basin, Kenyan Rift. Data sets included 15 individual metrics determined in 42 dry and wet season water samples obtained from 6 boreholes in the area. Aquifer evolutionary theory was postulated using sequential principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis. To eliminate the effects of scale dimensionality, PCA decomposed the variable data into 4 factors, namely, electrical conductivity, salinity, alkalinity, and carbonate equilibrium with external pH control for the dry season and salinity, carbonate equilibrium with external pH control, alkalinity, and electrical conductivity for the wet season. The main result depicted a major shift in the variability factor from electrolytic conductivity (34.8%) in the dry season to salinity (23.5%) in the wet season. Ward’s linkage cluster analysis partitioned the aquifer into 2 spatially discrete associations; the western and the eastern entities, respectively, in spite of their shared recharge area. These agglomerative scheduling validated in an integrative approach (with groundwater flow predictions using a calibrated petrophysical groundwater model for the area) linked the 4 factors to aquifer processes and 3 pathways: fault permeability, weathering processes, and water-rock interaction. Statistical approaches are, therefore, useful in the conceptualization of pollutant sources and their attenuation for effective groundwater quality management.

Cabbage farming in Kisii County is faced with a number of challenges, top among them being pests and disease damages. Black rot disease has been identified as one of the major reason responsible for the low yields in cabbage. As such, a number of Biotechnological approaches such as Mulching, hot water seed treatment, pruning, biocontrol agents, use of resistant varieties and chemicals have been employed to manage the disease. However, these approaches have been found to have many shortcomings such as being expensive and thus increasing the cost of production, causing environmental pollution, not easily available to the farmers and others have even failed to manage the disease effectively hence subjecting farmer to risks of losing their investment capital. Therefore, this research study was carried out with the main objective being to examine the economic analysis of using hot water seed treatment, mulching, pruning and plant debris management to control black rot disease in cabbage farms. 50 grams of Gloria Hybrid cabbage seeds were inoculated with 10 4 CFU/ml (Colony Forming Units) suspensions of the field bacterial isolates. A portion of the inoculated seeds was then treated with hot water using the Miller et al., 2005 ISTA (International Seed Testing Association) standard procedures while the second portion was left untreated. All the seeds were then established in separate nursery beds in a greenhouse for a period of 3 weeks before being transplanted into the main field where the impact of hot water seed treatment, mulching, pruning and plant debris management on cabbage yield through disease management was evaluated. The marketable yield was arrived at by working out the average weight of the individual cabbage heads randomly sampled from on-station field experiments in the two seasons running from 2017-2018. The data obtained was analyzed using the Statistical Analytic system (SAS) with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to establish whether there was any significant difference among yields from the various field treatments. The 2017-2018 local market price rates and KALRO (Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization) cost rates were used to compute the net benefits and value/cost ratios (VCR). The results obtained showed that integration of all the three methods had the highest % yield increase (78.3 %) with the highest VCR value of 6.2 hence was recommended as the most profitable technology for managing black rot disease in cabbage farms.

The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of selected factors on the choice of agriculture subject among secondary school students in Kisii and Nyamira Counties. With the objective of determining the influence of teachers on the choice of agriculture subject among students, to determine the influence of gender on the choice of agriculture subject among students, to explore the extent to which students attitude influence the choice of agriculture subject and finally to determine whether school finance influence the choice of agriculture subject among students in secondary schools. A survey methodology was employed to collect data from students and teachers with the help of a Questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. The study targeted form four agriculture students and agriculture teachers. Simple random sampling method was used to sample 330 agriculture students and 22 agriculture teachers while stratified sampling was used to sample 22 schools. Data from the students and teachers was analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, as well as, standard deviation was used while inferential statistics which includes Pearson correlation and t-test was used to test the hypothesis, with levels of significance set at 0.05.Stastistical package for social sciences software version 20 was used for data analysis. The findings of this study show that agriculture teachers have got influence on student's choice of agriculture subject. The study revealed further that the gender of the student does not influence the choice of agriculture as a subject neither does the gender of a teacher influence student’s choice of agriculture. Additionally, the positive attitude exhibited by the students by studying agriculture often and quest to know more has an influence on choice of agriculture as a subject. Lastly, resources do not influence the choice of agriculture as a subject. The findings of the study might be useful to parents, teachers and the ministry of education. The study recommended that principals of schools to monitor syllabus delivery to ensure that the right content is taught, that career and guidance to be strengthened in schools for this will create awareness on career opportunities in the job market and finally ministry of education through the government to provide enough funds to schools to enable purchase of teaching learning resources.