African Journal of Crop Science

‎African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 12 (8), pp. 001-004, August, 2024. Available online at https://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajcr/table-of-contents © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

The Influence of Community Engagement in Varietal Selection on Seed Quality and Production in Dabat District, Northwestern Ethiopia

Tafere Mulualem

Pawe Agricultural Research Center, Pawe, Ethiopia, Tel: +251-585500271; Fax: +251-585500270; P.O.Box 25, Pawe,
Ethiopia.
E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 13 July, 2024

Abstract

Participatory variety selection was initiated to evaluate the performance of improved faba bean varieties and used in the seed production system. The study was conducted in wokin zuria village of Dabat district on four volunteer farmers’ field during the 2010 cropping season using ten faba bean genotypes. The analytical tools employed include descriptive statistics and average score value. Selection was carried out at four different growth stages by organizing a field day at each stage i.e. at vegetative, flowering, physiological maturity, and harvesting. The evaluations mean score for each genotype ranged from 5.6 to 9.2. DOSHA (13.2) scored the highest and the lowest was scored by DEGAGA (8.2). Finally, the three best varieties namely DOSHA, WOLKI and WAYU were selected by farmers’ evaluation which showed better performance and found to be promising from the analysis of collected data and more likely to enter in the seed production system by Seed Producing Cooperatives (SPC’s). The findings showed that farmers have an indigenous knowledge to select varieties that meet their demand.

Keywords: Ethiopia, participatory, seed production, selection, varieties.
 

‎African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 12 (8), pp. 001-012, August, 2024. Available online at https://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajcr/table-of-contents © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Comparative Analysis of Pepper Cultivar Resistance and Inducer Treatments for Mitigating Gray Mould (Botrytis cinerea) in Capsicum annuum L.

A. Kamara¹, E. El-Argawy²*, A. El. Korany² and G. Amer²

¹Plant Pathology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt.
2Plant Pathology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Egypt.

Received 23 October 2023, Accepted 22 April, 2024

Abstract

Four different highly economic value pepper cultivars Trezaa, Emberu, Mazurka and Taranto usually grown in Egypt were used to evaluate the efficacy of certain resistance inducers to enhance resistance of pepper fruits against gray mould fungus. Pathogenicity tests with Botrytis cinerea (BC-3 isolate) revealed that cv. Mazurka (Red Colour) was most tolerant and exhibited 40.15% rot severity, while cv. Emberu (Yellow Colour) was highly susceptible and showed 79.12% rot severity. The other two pepper cultivars, that is, cv. Trezaa and Taranto showed severity of 50.23 and 52.75%, respectively. Treatment of pepper fruits with resistance inducers salicylic acid (SA); abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate and calcium chloride significantly decreased gray mould development under laboratory conditions. Calcium chloride was the most effective on all pepper cvs. mentioned earlier and inhibited diameter of rotting area with overmean of 40.6%. This was followed by SA as 34.01%. Abscisic acid and methyl jasmonate, however, showed lower mean inhibition of 16.8 and 18.8%, respectively. Meantime, treatment of pepper fruits with such resistance inducers and calcium chloride increased activity of the defense related enzymes, that is, polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) as well as the total phenols where SA and calcium chloride were the most effective. This could explain potentiality of such compounds to enhance pepper resistance to control B. cinerea of the gray mould of pepper.

Key words: Pepper, gray mould, Botrytis cinerea, resistance inducers, calcium chloride, defence enzymes, phenolic content.
 

‎African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 12 (8), pp. 001-011, August, 2024. Available online at https://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajcr/table-of-contents © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Impact of Pre-Harvest Chitosan Foliar Application on Washington Navel Orange Tree Growth and Chemical Composition Across Diverse Environmental Conditions

Ahmed Hussien Hanafy Ahmed¹, Mohamed Ramadan Aboul-Ella Nesiem¹, Hesham Ali Allam² and Amira Fahmy El-Wakil²*

¹Plant Physiology Section, Agricultural Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. ²Post-harvest Research Department, Horticultural Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center (A.R.C.), Giza, Egypt.

Accepted 10 November, 2023

Abstract

The present study was carried out during 2012 and 2013 seasons to study the effect of pre-harvest foliar application of chitosan (a natural beta-1-4-linked glucosamine polymer) at two concentrations 250 and 500 ppm on vegetative tree growth, fruit yield and quality as well as leaves chemical composition of Washington navel orange trees grown under two locations. As for growth parameters (shoot length, leaves number, and leaves area), the results revealed that chitosan treatments had insignificant effect. Meanwhile, it had a significant improvement on most of the studied fruit characters and leaf chemical constituents, that is, pigments, sugars, total soluble phenols, total free amino acids, endogenous plant hormones “IAA, ABA and GA3” as well as leaf nutritional status “N, P, K, Zn, Ca, B and Si”. Generally, pre-harvest chitosan applications mostly had pronounced positive effects on improving navel orange quality, that is, fruit weight, firmness and T.S.S.%, especially at the rate 500 ppm.

Key words: Citrus, chitosan, growth characters, fruit quality, total chlorophyll, sugar, total soluble sugar (TSS).
 

‎African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 12 (7), pp. 001-013, July, 2024. Available online at https://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajcr/table-of-contents © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluating the Spatial Variability of Soil Micronutrients in Southern Ethiopia: Insights from Damboya, Kedida Gamela, and Kecha Bira Districts

Alemu Lelago Bulta¹*, Tekalign Mamo Assefa², Wassie Haile Woldeyohannes¹ and Hailu Shiferaw Desta³

¹School of Plant and Horticulture Science, Hawassa University, Ethiopia.
²Ethiopia Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), Ethiopia.
³International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Accepted 25 June, 2024

Abstract

Micronutrients are important for crop growth, production and their deficiency and toxicity affect crop yield. However, the up dated information about their status and spatial distribution in Ethiopian soils is scarce. Therefore, fertilizer recommendation for crops in the country has until recently focused on nitrogen and phosphorus macronutrients only. But many studies have revealed the deficiency of some micronutrients in soils of different parts of Ethiopia. To narrow this gap, this study was conducted in Kedida Gamela, Kecha Bira and Damboya districts of Kambata Tambaro (KT) Zone, Southern Ethiopia, through assessing and mapping the status and spatial distribution of micronutrients. The micronutrients were extracted by using Mehlich-III multi-nutrient extraction method and their concentrations were measured by using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). The fertility maps and predication were prepared by co-Kriging method using Arc map 10.0 tools and the status of Melich-III extractable iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), boron (B), copper (Cu) and molybdenum (Mo) were indicated on the map. The extracted Fe ranged from 50.04 to 209.72 mg/kg, 60.08 to 240 mg/kg and 46.84 to 412.23 mg/kg in Kedida Gamela, Kecha Bira and Damboya districts soils, respectively. Zn ranged from 1.3 to 28 mg/kg, 0.9 to 47 mg/kg and 1.0 to 39 mg/kg for Kedida Gamela, Kecha Bira and Damboya districts, respectively. The calculated manganese activity index (MnAI) indicated that Mn is in excess and even toxic. B ranged from 0.02 to 1.83 mg/kg, 0.4 to 1.44 mg/kg and 0.06 to 2.03 mg/kg in soils of Kedida Gamela, Kecha Bira and Damboya woredas, respectively indicating that most of soils were deficient in B. Cu ranged from 0.6 to 2.9 mg/kg, 0.5-1.44 mg/kg and 0.8 to 3.4 mg/kg in Kedida Gamela, Kecha Bira and Damboya districts indicating its status fall between low and optimum category. Mo ranged from 2.21 to 18.71 mg/kg in the soils of the study area indicating that all soils were sufficient in Mo content. The means of all micronutrients except B showed significant differences among districts and showed moderate spatial dependences. The range of semivariogram for all studied micronutrients was greater than the average sampling distance indicating that it was adequate enough to catch spatial variability of them. In order to strengthen this result, plant sample analysis and calibration of micronutrients with plant response are recommended.

Key words: Boron, Copper, Iron, Kriging, Manganese, Mehlich-III, Molybdenum, Zinc and spatial dependency.
 

African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 12 (6), pp. 001-009, June, 2024. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Pathogenicity of satellite associated with cassava Begomovirus in Côte D’Ivoire

K. Kouamé Daniel, T. Marie Noël Yeyeh, and K. Yadom Yao François Régis

Natural Sciences Department, Laboratory of Plant health, University Nangui ABROGOUA, 02 BP 801 Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire.

Received 3 April, 2024; Accepted 8 May, 2024 and Published 11 June, 2024

Abstract

Africa represents more than 50% of global cassava production. A study was carried out in Côte d'Ivoire in Abidjan, Abengourou, Grand-Lahou and Toumodi. In cassava and Chromolaena odorata, similar symptoms of virus disease were observed in the fields. Mosaic deformations and discolorations were observed in infected leaves with medium to very high severity. These collected leaves were subjected to total DNA extraction and conventional PCR targeting the Begomoviruses gene. Multiplex PCR was performed with specific primer pairs CMBrep/F, ACMVrep/R and EACMVrep/R for the detection of CMV and ACMV in cassava and C. odorata leaves. Additional PCR was performed with the specific primer pair JPS001/JPS002 for detection of ACMV, followed by PCR with primers JPS001/JPS003 for Begomovirus satellite detecting in both leaf samples. PCR confirmed the presence of ACMV, EACMV, Sat II and Sat III satellites, associated with cassava Begomovirus DNA in infected leaves with the highest severity for both cassava and C.odorata.C. odorata could ensure the rapid spread of the very serious cassava virus in the fields of farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. It would be important to consider C. odorata in the management of cassava viral diseases.

Key words: Begomovirus, Cassava, Chromolaena odorata, Satellites, Pathogenicity.

African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 12 (6), pp. 001-006, June, 2024. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Combating Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in Kenyan Wheat: Insights on Ug99 Resistance

P. N. Njau¹*, R. Wanyera¹, G. K. Macharia¹, J. Macharia², R. Singh³ and B. Keller⁴

¹Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Njoro, Kenya.
²Egerton University Njoro. P. O. Box 536 Njoro, Kenya.
³CIMMYT Mexico. Apdo - Postal 6-641, 06000 Mexico, DF.
⁴Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Accepted 31 March, 2023

Abstract

Stem or black rust, caused by Puccinia graminis, has historically caused severe losses to wheat (Triticum aestivum) production worldwide. The causal race, commonly known as Ug99 and designated as TTKS based on the North American nomenclature, carries virulence for several genes commonly present in wheat germplasm. All Kenyan germplasm are known to be susceptible or partially susceptible to Ug99 although no proper documentation has been done. This study was aimed at evaluating the Kenyan bread wheat varieties on their response to Ug99. The varieties were screened for resistance at seedling stage and adult plant resistance stage. None of the varieties apart from Bonny were resistant at seedling stage. Some old Kenyan varieties were found to have adult plant resistance probably due to the presence of non-race specific gene Sr2 complex which among others can be exploited in breeding for resistance in Kenyan wheat.

Key words: Race specific resistance, adult plant resistance, genetic erosion.