International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

About: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture is a nonprofit organization based out in Ibadan, Nigeria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Agriculture. The organization has 2638 authors who have published 4330 publications receiving 119041 citations. The organization is also known as: IITA.

Screening Cassava for Low Cyanide Using an Enzymatic Assay

Abstract: The cyanide contents were determined quantitatively of the peeled roots of 108 cassava clones, which had been previously selected as low-cyanide by the picrate leaf-test, and compared with the qualitative picrate leaf-test scores used for rapid screening. The correlation coefficient between root tuber cyanide content (dry weight basis) and leaf-test score was r = 0·36 (P < 0·01). The picrate leaf-test, while useful for screening large numbers of clones in early stages of breeding, needs augmenting by more accurate methods. There was no significant correlation between root cyanide content and dry root yield (r = 0·18). The cyanide content varied considerably between roots of the same plant; and plants of the same cultivar grown under the same conditions. Possible improvements in the effectiveness of the cyanide screening procedure are discussed.

Poor farmers - poor yields: socio-economic, soil fertility and crop management indicators affecting climbing bean productivity in northern Rwanda

Abstract: Climbing bean is the key staple legume crop in the highlands of East and Central Africa. We assessed the impact of interactions between soil fertility characteristics, crop management and socio-economic factors, such as household resource endowment and gender of the farmer, on climbing bean productivity and yield responses to basal P fertiliser in northern Rwanda. Through a combination of detailed characterisations of 12 farms and on-farm demonstration trials at 110 sites, we evaluated variability in grain yields and responses to fertiliser. Grain yields varied between 0.14 and 6.9 t ha−1 with an overall average of 1.69 t ha−1. Household resource endowment and gender of the farmer was strongly associated with climbing bean yield, even though these were partly confounded with Sector. Poorer households and women farmers achieved lower yields than wealthier households and male farmers. Household resource endowment and gender were likely to act as proxies for a range of agronomic and crop management factors that determine crop productivity, such as soil fertility, current and past access to organic manure and mineral fertiliser, access to sufficient quality staking material, ability to conduct crop management operation on time, but we found evidence for only some of these relationships. Poorer households and female farmers grew beans on soils with poorer soil fertility. Moreover, poorer households had a lower density of stakes, while stake density was strongly correlated with yield. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser application led to a substantial increase in the average grain yield (0.66 t ha−1), but a large variability in responses implied that its use would be economically worthwhile for roughly half of the farmers. For the sake of targeting agricultural innovations to those households that are most likely to adopt, the Ubudehe household typology – a Rwandan government system of wealth categorisation – could be a useful and easily available tool to structure rural households within regions of Rwanda that are relatively uniform in agro-ecology.

Influence of tillage methods and fertilizer application on chemical properties of worm castings in a tropical soil

Abstract: The effects of four rates of N (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg/ha) and three rates of P (0, 13 and 26 kg/ha) on chemical characteristics of soils and earthworm casts for no-tillage and conventionally disc plowed systems were investigated for a tropical Alfisol. Worm casts contained 2.3 to 1.5 times more organic matter, 1.8 to 1.2 times more nitrogen, 1.6 to 1.3 times more Bray-P, 3.2 to 2.1 times more exchangeable Ca 2+ , 3.8 to 2.5 times more exchangeable Mg 2+ , 3.1 to 2.2 times more exchangeable K + , and 1.4 to 1.2 times more exchangeable Na + than the top 10 cm of the soil. The ECEC of worm casts was 3.1 to 2.1 times higher than in the surface soil. The nutrient status of both casts and soil in no-tillage plots was generally superior to that in conventionally plowed treatments. Different rates of N and P application had a significant positive effect on the nutrient status of worm casts. The results are discussed in terms of the role of earthworms in soil productivity.

Agronomic performance of maize (Zea mays L.) breeding lines derived from a low nitrogen maize population

Abstract: Eighteen S1 lines of maize (Zea mays L.) derived from a low nitrogen tolerant pool and two inbred lines were evaluated for agronomic performance under moderate N conditions in the southern Guinea savannah of Nigeria. Generally, the breeding lines differed in yield, growth, vertical root-pulling resistance, N-uptake and N-use efficiency. Breeding lines with high vertical root-pulling resistance took up more N and utilized it more efficiently. They also showed better agronomic performance and recorded higher yields. Principal component and cluster analyses classified the breeding lines into six groups. The results of principal components analyses (PCA) suggest that the most important variables for the classification of the S1 lines were grain yield, plant height, total dry matter during the grain-filling period and at maturity, N-accumulation, N-uptake and N-use efficiency. Other important traits were days to silking, anthesis-silking interval, ears per plant, harvest index and vertical root-pulling resistance. Two groups containing a total of 14 S1 lines that had higher agronomic performance than others are recommended for further evaluation under severe N stress to ascertain their tolerance of low N stress before recombination to form a new population for the next cycle of selection.