Watersheds provide important ecosystem services to humanity and also maintain the physicochemical and biological processes that occur within the watershed. The study was conducted at Dabo Hana district in Barite micro-watershed with the identifying, prioritizing and analyzing constraints and opportunities of barite watershed at Dabo Hana district of Buno Bedele zone was selected purposively from zone based on potentiality of watershed and Barite sub-watershed was selected randomly. A total of 63 sample sizes were selected by employing Probability Proportional to Size (PPS). Data collection tools such as interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), key informants’ interviews, field observations and document analyses were used by developing questionnaire and checklist. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.survey result discovered that mixed farming systems were taken place in the watershed. The major cropping systems in the study area are mono cropping, intercropping and crop rotations systems. Results of survey study revealed that the main crop production constraints were disease and pest problem, soil fertility problems, high cost of fertilizer, shortage of improved varieties and weather fluctuation. Similarly, livestock production in study area is constrained by disease, shortage of animal feed and improved forage, lack of improved breed, shortage of veterinary service and lack of grazing land. Declining of soil fertility, soil erosion, deforestation and climate change were main constraints to natural resources. Therefore, there is need for research, development and institutional interventions to alleviate the identified constraints to crop, livestock production, natural resources and socioeconomic in the study area through holistic approach.
Fruit tree based agroforestry system has great roles to play in the livelihood improvement and it provides multiple contributions of household income and supplementary food for smallholder farmers. However, there is limited quantitative empirical evidence on the contribution of fruit based agroforestry system. Therefore, this study was initiated to examine fruit tree based agroforestry system and its contribution of household income for livelihood improvement in Dale District. Data was collected through a combination of focus group discussions, key informant interviews, household survey and field inventories. A total of 145 respondents from three kebeles were interviewed and data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. The results revealed that the status of fruit based agroforestry in the study area varies with land holding size. Fruit trees such as; Musa acuminate, Persea americana and Mangifera indica were the major types of tree species grown in the system in the study area. The contribution of fruit for poor, medium and rich households was 3166.8 Birr, 3713.8 Birr and 1380 Birr respectively. The fruit tree contributes 24.75% for poor HHs, 23.34% for medium HHs and 5.16% for rich HHs from the total income. The average income earned from fruit trees was 2754 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) per year. Besides, the result from the econometric analysis indicates that access to extension service, family size, land size, and the number of livestock influenced the income from fruit trees. Further studies of examining of the market value chain, areas of intervention along the chain and economic value of the fruit tree based agroforestry system including environmental function served by the system is needed to fully understand the contribution of fruit tree based agroforestry system and livelihood improvement
An experiment on stimulation of rooting of six Bougainvillea species using three different rooting hormones was conducted in the nursery, department of crop soil and pest management of the Federal University of Technology Akure, March to June, 2013. The experiment was laid out in Completely Block Design (CRD) and replicated three times. Data were collected on number of days to sprouting, plant height, stem girth, stem length, wet root weight, dry root weight, the number of leaves per cutting and length of longest roots and subjected to Analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the level of significance and Tukey Test was used to separate the means. The results showed that the Indole -3-butyric acid and the coconut water had significant effect on the root emergence and root growth of Bougainvillea species compared to the other hormones used and the hard wood cuttings enhanced the rooting of the Bougainvillea compared to the semi –hard wood. Therefore root initiation in cuttings of Boungainvillea could be enhanced with Indole -3-butyric acid (IBA) or dipped in coconut water for 5 minutes and growth was also enhanced using the hard wood cuttings.
Rhizoctoniasolani on green beans has been chosen as one of the best pathosytems to evaluate root rot diseases as well as to determine the effectiveness of potential of the biocontrol agent Trichoderma species (ssp.). In this study we investigate the effective use ofthe pathosystem model; Rhizoctoniasolani-green beans to reveal bio control efficacy of three Trichoderma spp.; T. afro-harzianum, T. reesei and T. guizouhense, isolated from Moroccan soils. In greenhouse conditions, root-dipping approach was involved in revealing bio control potential of localTrichoderma spp. by suppressing root diseases in Rhizoctonia-green beans pathosystem. Interestingly, T. reesei (T9i12) a breaking cellulose succeeded in suppressing disease incidence in root units (DI-RU) = 0.0% in green bean cultivars infected with Rhizoctoniasolani.
