Academy of Agriculture Journal

The productivity of F₁ crossbred cows and growth performance of their calvesunder smallholder farmers’ management level was evaluated. Twenty threefirst parity pregnant crossbred cows disseminated to farmers around Addis Alem and Holetta areas. A total of 48 F₂ crossbred calves born at both locationswere used also for the study. Location had significant (p<0.05) effect on lactation milk yield, lactation length, annual milk yieldand daily milk yield butdid not show significant effect (p>0.05) on calving interval. Parity had no effect (p>0.05) on lactation milk yield, lactation length, daily average milk yield, annual milk yield and calving interval. Crossbred cows managed by farmers around AdisAlem area had higher (P<0.05) daily, lactation yields and lactation length of (8.78±0.34 lit, 2942.18±283.05lit and 324.80±26.15 days, respectively compared to cows around Holetta area (7.65±0.3lit, 11482.70±252.08lit and 194.28±23.29 days), respectively. However, calving interval was not significantly influenced by location.Calves born around AdisAlem had higher meanbirth,weaning,six months and yearling weightsof (29.04±0.39 kg, 66.14±1.89 kg, 94.33±4.23 kg and149.23±8.44kg, respectively).While calves born around Holettaattained lower mean birth, weaning, six month and yearling weightsof (27.26±0.33kg, 59.43±0.3.3kg, 84.05±3.49kg and 124.38±6.22kg,respectively).Calf sex had no marked effect(P>0.05) on birth and weaning weights. However, it had effect on six month and yearling weights.The effect of calf sex on post weaning growth performance of calves reared under farmers management condition could be manifested by preferential management treatment rendered to female calves than males. In conclusion important factors mainly feed availability, artificial insemination and health services should be improved in order to improve milk production andgrowth performances of dairy cattle in smallholder farmers.

The environmental factors of the Shatt al-Arab River and the Northwest Arabian Gulf were measured by the YASI measuring instrument. The dissolved oxygen factor in the water was selected as indicator of contamination of the area. Significant differences were observed in the oxygen measurements of water samples in nine stations of the Shatt al-Arab and the Arabian Gulf, with the highest concentration at Shatt al-Arab stations ranging between 8 and 8.8 mg / l. The lowest oxygen value was 5.5 mg / L in the marine fishing area station. The atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used to measure cadmium and lead in water and the highest value of the two elements in marine waters in the fishing area was 0.076 and 0.999 mg / L respectively.

Much has been written over many decades about the structure and properties of starch. As technology develops the capacity to understand in more depth the structure of starch granules and how this complex organisation controls functionality develops in parallel. Products were characterized by their chemical and functional properties. DSC analysis for starch gelatinization indicated that the peak temperature of all samples ranged from 64.041 °Cto 67.679°C. Their enthalpy (∆H) varied from 45156.274 mW to 1236.676 mW . The granular size of the flour from 48 to 163µm. Results from colour evaluation showed that there was a slight variation in the lightness values among the samples as shown by L* values of 83.195–94.917. Narrow range of a* values (1.512–5.71), indicate that the samples KW2 (5.71) developed fairly uniform tinge of red colour.  When RIE (1.512) did not. Variations in granule (_{  } 4-400µm in diameter)  were distributed as a monomodal distribution. The sorption isotherms of taro flours showed higher mo in CE (0.24 % d.b). The characterization of the starch is achieved by the infrared spectrometry.

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is an important spices crop, grown in a wide range of weather conditions. Coriander suffers from various abiotic and biotic diseases. Among the biotic diseases, stem gall caused by Protomyces macrosporus is a major disease, which causes yield loss up to 33-36%. The experiments were conducted during 2016-17 at  Vegetable Farm, Department of Vegetable Science, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad (U.P.) with eleven treatments viz., cow urine, cow dung slurry @ 10, 20 and 30% concentration of panchgavya, thiram @ 0.25%, carbendazim @.2%, propiconazole @ 0.2% concentration and control. The effectiveness of organic treatments @ 30% concentration was significantly reducing the disease intensity. The maximum reduction was found 49.60% and 49.57% in panchgavya @ 30% concentration and minimum 17.61%, 26.88% in cow dung slurry @ 10% concentration during flowering and maturity stage respectively. In case of fungicides, the maximum disease control was recorded 51.70% at flowering stage and 49.71% at maturity stage treated with propiconazole @ 0.2% concentration. The maximum average numbers of chlamydospores were found at soil surface (198.80 g soil^-1) and minimum in 2 inch depth (42.20 g soil^-1) around the plant. The highest plant height (111.14 cm), no. of branch’s/plant (7.26), number of umbel/plant (100.6),  nuber of umblet/plant (6.13), seed weight/plant (9.82 g), straw weight (14.52 g) were obtained in seed treatment + soil drenching of panchgavya @ 30% concentration. The lowest plant height (101.13 cm), no. of branch’s/plant (6.60), number of umbel/plant (84.93), number of umblet/plant (5.33), seed weight/plant (7.78 g) and straw weight (9.58 g) were obtained in seed treatment + soil drenching with cow dung slurry @ 10% concentration respectively.