Perception of Job-Seeking Graduates in Oyo State Nigeria to Cashew Production

Cashew is an important and commercially grown cash crop in Oyo state and Nigeria generally for its apple and most importantly the nuts. Cashew cultivation in recent years has experienced a yield decline due to few cashew farmers involved and moribund cashew trees. This paper aims to understand the perception of job-seeking graduates in Oyo state to cashew production and proffer recommendations that will help in promoting their participation. Some selected areas were considered in Oyo state and data were collected using a questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics of the respondent, awareness on cashew tree and its importance, opinion of respondents to cashew farming, perception of respondents to money-making opportunities in cashew production and categorization of the respondents based on their level of perception. 270 respondents were considered in the survey. Data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. Results showed that 45.5% of the unemployed graduates were between the ages of 30-34 years. The study also showed that 90.7% know the economic importance of cashew while 89.3% know cashew farming as profitable. Farming ventures interest 73.3% of the unemployed graduates while 66.7% would want to venture into cashew farming. 52.2% of the job-seeking graduates had a favourable level of perception about cashew production. The perception of the job-seeking graduates is satisfactory as the favourability of their level of perception to cashew production is a little above average. Feasible loans or grants should be made available and easily accessible to job-seeking graduates to promote their involvement in cashew farming.

Leaf Blight Caused by Colletotrichum Fructicola of Large Cardamom (Amomum Subulatam Roxb.) an Important Cash Crop Grown in Sikkim, India

The full text of this preprint has been withdrawn by the authors due to author disagreement with the posting of the preprint. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as a reference. Questions should be directed to the corresponding author.

Coffee Consumption and the Sustainability of the Coffee Industry in Malaysia

Malaysia’s popular beverage has always been tea; however, current trends show an increase in coffee consumption among its population. The introduction of international coffee chains and the adoption of the coffee culture among the overseas educated has led to an increase in coffee consumption in Malaysia. Hence, the objective of this research was to determine the status of coffee consumption in Malaysia; to investigate the demographics and reasons for coffee consumption and to study the efforts carried out to sustain the Malaysian coffee industry. The study was conducted via an online self-administered questionnaire uploaded in Google Form. Results, obtained from 174 respondents, showed that 77.6% of participants consumed coffee. The main reasons for coffee consumption are the taste (69.6%); “to boost energy” (60.0%) and “to start up the day” (58.8%). 92.5% make their coffee at home or in the office. A low disposable income and restrictions imposed by the current pandemic has led to 62.7% of the respondents purchasing coffee less than once a week. 55.5% buy their coffee from branded outlets (Starbucks, Coffee bean and tea leaf, McCafé) compared to 46.7% from non-branded outlets (kopitiams, office canteen). So, when people do purchase their coffee, they do not mind splurging out on the occasional cup of branded coffee. Study of the literature shows that efforts are being carried out within Malaysia to improve its coffee industry, especially with respect to coffee farming. This alternative cash crop would aid in stimulating the failing Malaysian economy.

Agricultural Productivity and Urbanization: Evidence from Grain and Tobacco Production Efficiency in China

This paperbased on grain production efficiency and tobacco production efficiency studies the impact of agricultural productivity on urbanization in open economy. Theoretically, a theoretical model allowing biased technological progress is constructed. The research finds that when technological progress is labor-saving technological progress, the improvement of agricultural productivity can significantly improve the level of urbanization. Empirically, using The Panel data of Chinese cities from 2000 to 2014, the empirical study finds that The improvement of grain production efficiency and the improvement of tobacco as a cash crop production efficiency will significantly improve the urbanization rate, and each standard deviation increase of agricultural productivity will increase the urbanization rate by about 4-9.6 percentage points, or about 12-30%. The above findings are robust and hold even after using instrumental variables and introducing more control variables. The research of this paper shows that the improvement of staple grain production efficiency and cash crop production efficiency can effectively improve the level of urbanization in China. Under the new normal of the economy, implementing the rural revitalization strategy and continuing to improve the efficiency of agricultural production is conducive to further improving the urbanization rate and boosting high-quality economic development.

The effect of application of control techniques to the population, damage intensity of onion caterpillar (Spodoptera exigua hubner) and yield of shallots

Shallot is an important cash crop in Indonesia. However, its productivity is relatively low, due to the attack of the onion caterpillar (Spodoptera exigua Hubner). This study aimed to identify the effect of the application of control techniques on the population, damage intensity, and shallots yield. This research was conducted by field experiment. Control treatment consisted of covering shallots by using gauze/net and insecticide treatment with active ingredients of profenofos, metomil, and carbosulfan. The research variables consisted of the population and the damage intensity of S. exigua, as well as the yield of shallots. The results showed that the caterpillars population of S. exigua was found at 16 DAP and increased up to before harvest at 44 DAP. Covering shallots with gauze effectively suppressed the population of S. exigua (0.0 per hills), followed by treatment with profenofos (0.14 per hills), carbosulfan (0.15 per hills), and methomyl 0.32 per hills). The damage intensity of S. exigua in the plot gauze covered was 0%, lower than 32%, 25%, 12%, 10%, respectively, in the control plot, treatment of metomil, carbosulfan, and profenofos. Covering shallots with gauze also increased the weight of wet-harvested tubers (50.83 g per hills).

Leaf Blight Caused by Colletotrichum Fructicola of Large Cardamom (Amomum Subulatam Roxb.) an Important Cash Crop Grown in Sikkim, India

Large cardamom (Amommum subulatum Roxb.) a high valued spice crop grown in Sikkim Himalaya is now facing a devastating leaf blight disease that has brought down the yield drastically. Present study was focused on identification of this major fungal pathogen based on the morphological and molecular characterization. During this study infected leaves of large cardamom with blighted appearance were collected from all the four districts of Sikkim. The pathogen was isolated using Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) medium, incubated at 25°C. The mycelium was septate, hyaline, and 2-4 µm wide. The conidiospores were cylindrical with both ends rounded, sometimes oblong. Length and breadth were 11-12 µm and 3-4 µm, respectively. On the basis colony morphology, growth and microscopic observations, out of the total 48 samples studied Colletotrichum sp. was identified from 14 samples. Based on phylogenetic analysis of the ITS4, ITS5 and ApMAT genes and phenotypic characters (colony morphology, microscopic features) the isolate (No. LC05) isolated from the sample collected from the village Assam Linzey, East Sikkim showed 100% homology with Colletotrichum fructicola from NCBI database. The pathogenicity of C. fructicola was also confirmed during the study. The fungal culture has been deposited at the NFCCI-ARI, Pune with an accession number NFCCI 4542 and the sequences have been deposited in NCBI GenBank with accession number (ITS) MN710587, (ApMAT) MW348934 respectively. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of C. fructicola causing blight disease of large cardamom. Also the finding is very important to improve the disease control strategies of this high valued cash crop.