Comparative morphoanatomical studies of south eastern Nigerian representatives of Oldenlandia L. (Rubiaceae)

Leaf and stem anatomical structure of the four Oldenlandia L. (O. affinis (Roem. & Schult.) DC., O. corymbosa L., O. herbacea (Linn.) Roxb., and O. lancifolia (Schumach) DC.) from some parts viz. Ogbokor (Edo State), Obiga-Asa (Abia State), IITA staion Onne (Rivers State), and Agricultural farm Uniport (Rivers State) Nigeria were examined by light microscopy. The epidermal cells are pentagonal to polygonal with straight, curved or wavy anticlinal walls, and paracytic stomata. All the species have dorsiventral leaf with the leaf vein vascular bundles embedded in the spongy mesophyll. The midribs vascular bundles form an arc enclosed by parenchymatous endodermal cells. O. herabcea is amphistomatic while the other species are hypostomatic. Raphide bundles were seen only in the lamina of O. corymbosa. Tuft hair is absent in O. herbacea but occurred on the adaxial leaf surfaces of O. affinis, O. corymbosa, and O. diffusa. The stem of O. diffusa is terete while other species have quadrangular stem. Papillae occurred on the adaxial epidermis of O. affinis and O. corymbosa. The stem pith thickness (PT)/cortical thickness (ET) ratio varied among the species. Notable diagnostic features in these species include the PT/ET ratio, layers of cortex in the stem, occurrence of tuft hairs on the leaf veins and surface, presence or absence of raphides and papillose, layer of abaxial and adaxial cortex in the midrib, and amphistomatatic or hypostomatic leaf.

Study on crop losses due to COVID-19 lockdown period in Nagaon district of Assam

An online survey was performed among the different categories of farm households in Nagaon district, Assam. Out of 300 cropped based agricultural farm households, of farmers were selected randomly and were grouped in accordance to their operational holdings viz. marginal (<1 ha), Small (1.01 to 2 ha), Medium (2.01 to 4 ha) and large (>4.01 ha). The necessary information was collected through their Whatsapps, messages and telephonic conversation from different 43 revenue villages. With a view to estimate the loss of crops cultivated during Lockdown Period (24th March, 2020 to 18th April, 2020) due to COVID 19 and determines the loss percentage of different crop enterprises for each group of farmers with district as a whole. After analyzing the received information it was found that large farms suffered maximum (71.69%) due to small tea garden and betel vine and medium farms incurred loss of about 61.33%. the overall loss of crops was 68.96% . The loss was found to be chiefly due to acute shortage of field labourers following COVID 19 restrictions during Lock Down period 1. As a result of which plucking, harvesting, marketing etc. all are at halt.

Comparison of ploughing vs. ploughless cultivation in terms of energy expenditure and quality

The article discusses the basic technologies of soil cultivation and presents the results of analyses of the effectiveness of the product resource base of ploughless cultivation machines manufactured in Poland. The study also describes the design of a prototype MultiCat 6HD aggregated tillage unit, which should be regarded as innovative, and presents the methodology of experimental research focused on the aggregated unit and machines for traditional plough tillage. The experiment determined fuel consumption, effective and operational efficiency, the depth of placing and mixing of crop residues and the indicator of crop residue surface embedding. Based on the conducted analyses, it was found that ploughless cultivation required approx. 30% less expenditure for fuel as compared to the traditional plough tillage. In addition, a more favourable distribution of plant material within the soil profile was found along with almost identical embedding of crop residues, as compared to the plough tillage. It was demonstrated that the application of ploughless cultivation based on the MultiCat 6HD aggregated unit would improve agricultural farm competitiveness.