Sustainable Use of Macrotermes spp. to Improve Traditional Poultry Farming through an Efficient Trapping System in Burkina Faso

This study aimed to promote the use of termites as feed in traditional poultry farming by developing sustainable and inexpensive termite trapping techniques. Various tests were carried out in Burkina Faso to improve the traditional technique of trapping termites of the genus Macrotermes using a reversed container filled with organic matters. We studied the effect of containers’ types, substrates, habitats, harvesting times, duration of trap deposition, and season on the quantity of termites trapped. Calabashes and terra cotta pots trapped more termites than iron boxes, but calabashes were quickly destroyed by termites. The quantity of termites harvested increased proportionally with the volume of the pot and was higher in a cultivated habitat than in a forest, despite the higher number of termite mounds in the forest. The quantity of termites harvested was lowest in the cold-dry season and highest during the rainy season, however, sizeable amounts of termites were collected throughout the year. Among six substrates and mixtures of substrates tested, maize cobs trapped the highest number of termites and cow dung the lowest. The best time of harvest varied among seasons and, if substrates are abundant, it is more efficient to empty the containers on a daily basis.

Effect of substituting maize grain with cobs treated with combinations of urea and wood ash on chemical composition and in sacco degradability

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of substituting maize grain with maize cobs treated with 25% urea (U) plus 75% wood ash (WA) on chemical composition and in sacco degradability. Maize grain was substituted with graded levels of 25U75WA in the dietary ingredients and the treatments were: 100M = 100% maize grain, 66M34C = 66% maize grain plus 34% treated maize cobs, 34M66C = 34% maize grain plus 66% treated maize cobs and 100C = 100% treated maize cobs. Samples were analyzed for dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), ash, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL); they were incubated in saccofor 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hrs and their DM degradation kinetics described using the equation y = a + b ct (1- e- ). Results indicated that as maize grain is substituted with treated maize cobs, NDF, ADF and ADL also increased, however only the neutral detergent soluble (NDS) for treatment 100C was reduced. At 72 hrs of incubation, treatment 34M66C had the highest DM degradation, rapidly soluble fraction 'a' and potential degradability 'a+b'. It was concluded that maize cobs treated with combinations of urea and WA could substitute 66% of maize grain in sheep diets. Une expérience a été menée pour déterminer l'effet de la substitution du grain de maïs par des épis de maïs traités avec 25 % d'urée (U) plus 75 % de cendre de bois (WA) sur la composition chimique et la dégradabilité du sac. Le grain de maïs a été remplacé par des niveaux gradués de 25U75WA dans les ingrédients alimentaires et les traitements étaient : et 100C = 100 % d'épis de maïs traités. Les échantillons ont été analysés pour la matière sèche (MS), la matière organique (MO), les cendres, les protéines brutes (CP), les fibres au détergent neutre (NDF), les fibres au détergent acide (ADF) et la lignine au détergent acide (ADL) ; ils ont été incubés dans sacco pour 6, 12, 24, 48 et 72 heures et leur cinétique de dégradation de la matière sèche décrite en utilisant l'équation y = a + b (1-e-ct). Les résultats ont indiqué que lorsque le grain de maïs est remplacé par des épis de maïs traités, NDF, ADF et ADL ont également augmenté, mais que seul le détergent neutre soluble (NDS) pour le traitement 100C a été réduit. À 72 heures d'incubation, le traitement 34M66C présentait la plus forte dégradation de MS, la fraction rapidement soluble « a » et la dégradabilité potentielle « a+b ». Il a été conclu que les épis de maïs traités avec des combinaisons d'urée et d'AO pouvaient remplacer 66% des grains de maïs dans l'alimentation des moutons.

Effect of substituting maize grain with cobs treated with a combination of urea and wood ash on sheep performance and rumen parameters

Effect of treating maize cobs with a combination of urea and wood ash (WA) on chemical composition, in vitro gas production, and in sacco degradability were examined in a previous study. The treatments were: (100U) =100% urea +0% wood ash, (75U25WA) = 75% urea +25% wood ash, (50U50WA) = 50% urea +50% wood ash, (25U75WA) =25 % urea + 75% wood ash and (0U0WA) = Untreated maize cobs. It was concluded in the study that, treatment 25U75WA gave better results in terms of all the parameters measured. This study aimed at determining the effect of feeding Twana sheep diets whose grain was substituted with maize cobs treated with 25%U and 75%WA on nutrient intake, digestibility, nitrogen utilization, rumen NH3, pH and performance. Tswana sheep were fed experimental diet whose maize grain was substituted with graded levels of 25U75WA in the dietary ingredients and the treatments were: 100M = 100% maize grain, 66M34C = 66% maize grain plus 34% treated maize cobs, 34M66C = 34% maize grain plus 66% treated maize cobs and 100C = 100% treated maize cobs in a 4×4 Latin Square Design (4 animals were rotated in 4 periods for all the treatments). Treatment 34M66C had crude protein intake (CPI), dry matter intake (DMI), organic matter intake (OMI) and neutral detergent fibre intake (NDFI) of 0.1334, 0.9500, 0.8921 and 0.4800 kg/d respectively (P<0.05) while the crude protein digestibility (CPD), dry matter digestibility (DMD), organic matter digestibility (OMD) and neutral detergentfibre digestibility (NDFD) were 79.57, 68.02, 66.26, and 57.8% respectively (P<0.05). All the treatments had similar (P>0.05) rumen NH3 ranging from 23.55 – 24.00 mg/ml while rumen pH were different (P<0.05) and ranged from 6.117 – 6.937 however treatment 100M had lower pH. Treatment 100M and 34M66C had average daily gain (ADG) of 0.1150 and 0.1417 kg/d, respectively (P<0.05), however, treatment 100M had lower feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 5.217 compared to 7.059 (P<0.05) for 34M66C. It was concluded that farmers should include 34M66C in the diet of Tswana sheep for optimum performance and also reduce the cost of feed. Effet du traitement des épis de maïs avec une combinaison d'urée et de cendres de bois (CB) sur la composition chimique, la production de gaz in vitro et dans la dégradabilité de SACCO ont été examinées dans une étude précédente. Les traitements étaient: (100u) = 100% urée + 0% de cendre de bois, (75U25CB) = 75% d'urée + 25% de cendres de bois, (50u50wa) = 50% d'urée + 50% de cendre de bois, (25U75CB) = 25% d'urée + 75% de cendres bois et (0U0CB) = épis de maïs non traité. Il a été conclu dans l'étude que, le traitement 25U75CB a donné de meilleurs résultats en termes de tous les paramètres mesurés. Cette étude visait à déterminer l'effet de l'alimentation des régimes de moutons Twana dont le grain a été substitué aux épis de maïs traité avec 25% U et 75% de CB sur l'apport nutritionnel, la digestibilité, l'utilisation de l'azote, le rumen NH3, la performance de la pharmacie. Les moutons de Tswana ont été nourris à une alimentation expérimentale dont le grain de maïs était substitué par des niveaux de grade de 25U75WA dans les ingrédients alimentaires et les traitements étaient les suivants: 100m = 100% de grain de maïs, 66 m34c = 66% de grain de maïs de maïs plus 34% d'épis de maïs traité, 34m66c = 34% de maïs Grain Plus 66% COBS de maïs traité et 100c = 100% cobs de maïs traités dans un design carré latin 4 × 4 (4 animaux ont été tournés en 4 périodes pour tous les traitements). Traitement 34M66C avait une consommation de protéines brutes (CPB), une consommation de matière sèche (CMS), une consommation de matière organique (CMO) et une consommation de fibres de détergents neutres de 0,1334, 0,9500, 0,8921 et 0,4800 kg / j respectivement (p <0,05) tandis que le Digestibilité des protéines brutes (DPB), digestibilité de la matière sèche (DMS), digestibilité de la matière organique (DMO) et digestibilité de fibres de détergent neutres (DFDN) étaient de 79,57, 68,02, 66,26 et 57,8% respectivement (p <0,05). Tous les traitements avaient des analgésiques similaires (p> 0,05) Rumen NH3 allant de 23,55 à 24,00 mg / ml tandis que le pH de rumen était différent (p <0,05) et allait de 6,117 - 6,937Cependant, le traitement 100M avait un pH inférieur. Traitement 100m et 34m66C avaient un gain quotidien moyen (GQM) de 0,1150 et 0,1417 kg / j, respectivement (p <0,05), cependant, le traitement 100M avait un rapport de conversion d'alimentation inférieur (CAI) de 5,217 par rapport à 7,059 (p <0,05) pour 34 m66c. Il a été conclu que les agriculteurs comprennent 34 m66c dans le régime alimentaire des moutons de Tswana pour des performances optimales et réduisent également le coût des aliments pour animaux.

Cobs Porous Carbon-Based Materials With High Energy And Excellent Cycle Stability For Supercapacitor Applications

Background and purpose: For application in supercapacitors, improving the efficiency of the electrode materials is the most important for obtaining high performance. Porous carbon with suitable architectures is reliable for improved electrochemical capacitors. In this study, we optimized the maize cobs as a potential abundant precursor for the production of porous carbon supercapacitor applications. This research study aimed to advance on the activation method for Activation of the biomass and to up-cycling agricultural biomass into carbon-based porous materials for supercapacitor electrode application. The carbonized samples were kept in a desiccator for 3 hours to allow intercalation and interaction of the carbon lattice expansion by K+ ion before Activation [Topic, RQ]. Results: The physical and chemical characterization of the synthesized materials was carried out several techniques for determining different properties of the activated carbon from maize cobs, including; structural-functional groups, morphology, chemical composition, physical properties and electrochemical performance. The results revealed surface structure with oxygen-based functional groups carried by XPS and FTIR, the amorphous nature by XRD, high-temperature stability to degradation by TGA/DSC, among others. Also, the structural characterization revealed a BET specific surface area of 1443.94 m2/g with a pore volume of 0.7915cm3/g. Symmetric devices based on the produced materials delivered a specific capacitance of 358.7F/g with an energy density of 12.45 Wh/kg and a corresponding power density of 250 W/kg at 0.5A/g [Outcome]. Conclusions: The as-prepared electrodes exhibited excellent stability with the capacitance retention of 99% at the maximum potential for a repeated 10hr to a total of 130 h. The industries can commercialise these activated carbon materials for application in energy storage systems and water purification due to their porosity and high-temperature resistance to degradation [Contributions].

DeepCob: precise and high-throughput analysis of maize cob geometry using deep learning with an application in genebank phenomics

Background Maize cobs are an important component of crop yield that exhibit a high diversity in size, shape and color in native landraces and modern varieties. Various phenotyping approaches were developed to measure maize cob parameters in a high throughput fashion. More recently, deep learning methods like convolutional neural networks (CNNs) became available and were shown to be highly useful for high-throughput plant phenotyping. We aimed at comparing classical image segmentation with deep learning methods for maize cob image segmentation and phenotyping using a large image dataset of native maize landrace diversity from Peru. Results Comparison of three image analysis methods showed that a Mask R-CNN trained on a diverse set of maize cob images was highly superior to classical image analysis using the Felzenszwalb-Huttenlocher algorithm and a Window-based CNN due to its robustness to image quality and object segmentation accuracy ($$r=0.99$$ r = 0.99 ). We integrated Mask R-CNN into a high-throughput pipeline to segment both maize cobs and rulers in images and perform an automated quantitative analysis of eight phenotypic traits, including diameter, length, ellipticity, asymmetry, aspect ratio and average values of red, green and blue color channels for cob color. Statistical analysis identified key training parameters for efficient iterative model updating. We also show that a small number of 10–20 images is sufficient to update the initial Mask R-CNN model to process new types of cob images. To demonstrate an application of the pipeline we analyzed phenotypic variation in 19,867 maize cobs extracted from 3449 images of 2484 accessions from the maize genebank of Peru to identify phenotypically homogeneous and heterogeneous genebank accessions using multivariate clustering. Conclusions Single Mask R-CNN model and associated analysis pipeline are widely applicable tools for maize cob phenotyping in contexts like genebank phenomics or plant breeding.

Performance evaluation of throat type updraft biomass gasifier using different biomass fuels

A biomass gasifier converts solid fuel such as wood waste, saw-dust briquettes and agro-residues into a gaseous fuel through a thermo-chemical process and the resultant gas can be used for thermal and power generation applications. The present research aims to evaluate the updraft biomass gasifier using different biomass for thermal application. The capacity of updraft gasifier was a 5-10 kg.h-1 and three types of biomass: maize cobs, sized wood and saw dust briquettes were used as fuel for producing producer gas by thermal application. The maximum carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2) and Methane (CH4) found were 14.8, 12.7 and 3.9%, 14.6, 13.7 and 3.9 % and 14.2, 13.5 and 3.9% at 5 kg.h-1 biomass consumption rate, respectively using maize cobs, sized wood and saw dust briquettes as fuel. The maximum and minimum producer gas calorific value was found 1120 and 1034 kcal.m-3; 1139 and 1034 kcal.m-3 and 1123 and 1036 kcal.m-3 at biomass consumption rate of 5 and 10 kg.h-1 using maize cobs, sized wood and saw dust briquettes as fuel respectively. The maximum gasifier efficiency of 77.94, 70.26 and 69.60% was found at the biomass consumption rate of 5 kg.h-1 using maize cobs, sized wood and saw dust briquettes as fuel, respectively. The minimum gasifier efficiency of 72.72, 64.49 and 64.90 % was found at the biomass consumption rate of 10 kg.h-1 using maize cobs, sized wood and saw dust briquettes as fuel in the system, respectively. The maximum overall thermal efficiency of 29.60, 30.65 and 23.69 % were found at the biomass consumption rates of 8, 7 and 7 kg.h-1 using maize cobs, sized wood and saw dust briquettes, respectively.