Economic importance of tobacco plantation has long been undeniable for East Java. In this province, especially in Madura, Pamekasan constitutes one of the greatest tobacco producers, cultivated in many types of farm typology such as sawah, tegal, and gunung. This current study aimed at investigating sustainability index of tobacco planted in various land typologies in Pamekasan. Data were collected using in-depth interview and focus group discussion. The study was conducted in Pamekasan, Madura, between April 2016 and March 2016. Data obtained were evaluated using Rap-Tobacco (derived from Rap-Fish) commonly known as Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS), covering ecological, social economy, institutional and policy, and technological aspects. The results demonstrated that the highest sustainability index was observed at technological dimension, reaching up to 66.99 (sawah), 55.97 (tegal) and 58.13 (gunung). Although tobacco farming was sustainable in terms of technological dimension, more advanced technological supports might help it to reach a meaningful improvement, such as the use of information system for generating accurate climate data, as well as production and better distribution of proper tobacco seeds. Statistically, stress value was found <0.25%, while R2 value ranged from 92% to 94%. In short, we could conclude that the present model successfully fitted the testing data and could satisfactorily calculate sustainability index.
Cocoa is an important economic crop and has many uses industrially and locally. For its chocolate flavour to be obrained proper fermentation, drying and other postharvest practices needs to be done.
A study was conducted to examine the effect of placenta and varied fermentation periods on drying time and moisture reabsorption of cocoa beans from December, 2017 to January, 2018. Experimental design was 2×5 factorial of placenta inclusion or exclusion and varied fermentation days in CRD and replicated three times. Parameters studied included; drying time, weight loss, moisture reabsorption. The study revealed that placenta exclusion and fermenting for at least six days quickened the drying time (5 days) and boosted the mean bean weight of the cocoa beans. Also significantly maximum % moisture reabsorption (0.51%) was produced by cocoa beans w ith placenta fermented for eight days and the minimum (0.26%) was recorded by cocoa beans without placenta fermented for eight days. It was concluded that for the production of premium quality cocoa beans, fermentation should be done for, at least, six days without placenta since that reduced the time of drying significantly.
Diego Gonçalves dos Santos, Oscar Mitsuo Yamashita, Marco Antonio Camillo de Carvalho, Lara Caroline Alves de Oliveira, Hudson de Oliveira Rabelo, Lucas de Paula Mera, Adriano Maltezo da Rocha
The corn crop has been cultivated throughout the country, with increasing productivity with the help of technology products. There are greater demand and greater use of improved seeds, associated with treatments of fungicides, insecticides, and bioregulators. It is believed that the use of biostimulant can improve many plant characteristics, one of which is productivity. The present work had as objective to evaluate the effect of the use of biostimulant applied in the treatment of seeds on the germinability and initial development of corn plants. The biostimulants used in the experiment were the Haf-Plus® from the Inesta group, which is an organomineral stimulant and Stimulate® from Stoller do Brazil which is a hormonal bio stimulant. The experimental design was completely randomized, in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme, with two biostimulants (Stimulate® and Haf Plus®) in 4 doses (Stimulate: control, 0.5 mL of Stimulate + 1 mL of water, 1.0 mL of Stimulate + 0.5 mL of water, 1.5 mL of Stimulate, and for Haf Plus: control, 0.125 mL + 0.375 mL of distilled water, 0.25 mL of Haf Plus + 0.25 mL of water and 0.5 mL of Haf Plus), with 4 replicates of 10 seeds each. The Stimulate biostimulant was efficient to promote a significant increase of the entire root system and the volume of aerial part of the corn plants. With this, its use can increase the productivity because it makes the young plants more vigorous.
The aim of this study was to determine the best pre-treatment for the optimum germination of Garcinia kola Heckel and also to investigate its early growth characteristics. The study was conducted using 5 pre-treatments, these involved soaking 20 seeds of each treatment in cold water at room temperature for periods of 48, 72, 96 hours, 1 and 2 weeks respectively, before sowing, subjecting seeds to hot water treatment at 50°C, 70°C and 90°C for 30minutes respectively, treating seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for 10, 30 and 60 minutes respectively; removal of the seed coat of seeds and the control seeds (no treatment). Top soil was used as germination medium. The results showed that removal of seed coat and also soaking of seeds in cold water for 96 hours respectively proved very effective for germinating the seeds of G. kola and were thus recommended for its propagation. Its growth rate (17cm in 20 weeks) was quite slow, by all standards, and this gives an indication of what it could be in nature, especially given the high population density in the tropical rain forest area of Nigeria where it naturally dominates. This possibly accounted for the species being almost extinct. Thus, this study has provided better understanding of its propagation which is needed by farmers, as this will help this all important threatened species from going into extinction.
Cacti are ornamental, perennial, succulent and slow growing plants, especially known for their drought tolerant characters (xerophyte). The wide range of forms, shapes, and sizes of their stems and flowers and certain specific characters viz., areoles, spines, glochids etc. make this group of plants unique in the indoor as well as in outdoor gardens, parks and landscapes. An experiment on assessing cacti belonging to different genera for their morphological traits was conducted at the Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during 2017-2018. In the experiment for the morphological characterization of certain ornamental cacti genera viz., Hylocereus triangularis, Myrtillocactus geometrizans, Mammillaria beneckei, Hamatocactus setispinus, Ferocactus latispinus, Melocactus caesius and Gymnocalycium mihanovichii, various morphological parameters viz., growth form, characteristic features of ribs, areoles and spines, stem colour, plant height, plant girth, number of areoles have been evaluated for their suitability to be used in tropical landscaping. The morphological characterization of the above said cacti has revealed that Hylocereus triangularis and Myrtillocactus geometrizans can be used as potential rootstocks whereas Mammillaria beneckei, Hamatocactus setispinus, Ferocactus latispinus, and Gymnocalycium mihanovichii can be used as suitable scions in grafting programme.
