Department of Crop Production and Management

Effects of partial leaf defoliation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp) on grain yield

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Effects of partial leaf defoliation of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp) on grain yield Ebayu, Abraham Cowpea is the third most important legume food crop in Uganda. Low grain yield of about 400Kg ha-1 has been recorded in farmers’ fields despite the grain yield potential of 3,000 Kg ha. This has been attributed to several production constraints such as pests and diseases, soil infertility, drought and water logging. Dual-purpose production of cowpea is most common in subsistence farming systems. Despite the nutritional and economic importance of cowpea like providing both leaf vegetable and/or grain, much work has not been done in the effects of defoliation in cowpea production, largely, farmers harvest tender leaves for consumption. Therefore, the study aimed at determining the effects of leaf defoliation on the 3 selected cowpea varieties growth and yield at different levels of defoliation intensities. The 3 selected varieties of cowpea were studied for 2 seasons; 2021B and 2023B at the faculty of agriculture and animal sciences, Arapai campus-Busitema University using Randomized Complete Block Designs (RCBD) with 3 replications. The analysis of variance showed significant differences (P<0.05) for grain yield and yield related components across all treatments, varieties, seasons, treatments by varieties. The mean grain yield of 937.9 Kg hax-1 was recorded across the cowpea varieties in season 2021B. Cowpea varieties, Secow2w was ranked as the best performed variety with the grain yield (1346 Kg ha-1), followed by variety, Narocowpea6 (787Kg ha), lastly Echrikukwai variety (681 Kg ha-1) respectively in season 2021B and the mean grain yield of 937 Kg ha-1 was recorded across the cowpea varieties in season 2023B. Cowpea varieties, Secow2w was ranked as the best performed variety with the grain yield (1332 Kg ha), followed by variety, Narocowpea6 (795Kg ha-1), lastly Echrikukwai variety (682 Kg ha) respectively in season 2023B. However, all varieties yielded dependent on the level of defoliation and high yields were recorded in season 2021B (938Kg ha-1) as compared to 2023B (937 Kg ha-1). Keywords: Cowpea defoliation; Levels of defoliation intensities; Echirikukwai, Secow2W, Narocowpea 6, Uganda; Yield performance. Dissertation

Efficacy of Sulpow 800wg in the management of scab disease of cowpea

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Efficacy of Sulpow 800wg in the management of scab disease of cowpea Aguti, Martha Cowpea is one of the most important legume food crops in Uganda. However, grain yields as low as 400kg ha−1 have been recorded in farmers’ fields despite a grain yield potential of 3,000kg ha−1. Cowpea scab is a major production constraint, causing yield losses of up to 100%. The main interest of this study was to contribute to the management of cowpea scab disease in farmer’s field so as to enhance sustainable production of cowpea towards food security and poverty alleviation among the resource poor and small holder farmers in Uganda. It is on this account that a study was conducted for two seasons (2022B and 202BB) to test the efficacy of a new fungicide, Sulpow to determine its efficacy in controlling scab disease in cowpeas. Experiments were set in a randomized complete block design with three replications and five treatments (Sulpow 1.5g/L, Sulpow 1g/L, Sulpow 0.5g/L, Ascosulfur (positive check and commonly used fungicide) and Non-treated plots (negative check). The analysis of variance showed significant differences (p < 0.05) for grain yield, scab severity, incidence, and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) among treatments, seasons, and for treatment by season’s interactions. The meant grain yield of 865.16 kg/ha was recorded across all treatments. Sulpow 1.5g/L was ranked as the best performing with the grain yield of 1766.9 kg/ ha followed by Sulpow 1g/L with grain yield of 1757.9 kg/ha and 18.00g 100- seed weight, Ascosulfur with grain yield of 345.7 kg/ha and 15.82g 00- seed weight, Sulpow 0.5g/L with grain yield of 302kg/ha and 14.73g 100- seed weight while the negative control was the lowest performing with grain yield of 152kg/ha and 14.32g 100 seed weight. The season’s performance was as follows: the grain yield of 853 kg/ha was recorded in the first season and 877.6 kg/ha was recorded in the second season. The highest grain yield of 1746 kg/ha followed by 1730 kg/ha were recorded in Sulpow 1.5g/L and Sulpow 1g/L treatments respectively in the first season while the second season, the highest grain yield of 1787.8 kg/ha and 1785.2 kg/ha were recorded in sulpow 1.5g/L and Sulpow 1g/L treatments. I recommend the use of Sulpow as another fungicide for controlling scab disease of cowpea plants and to make economic sense and avoid wastage, the fungicide should be applied at 1g/L because it performed the same with 1.5g/l and was as well showed a significant difference in its performance with the already existing fungicide (Ascosulfur). Dissertation.

Performance evaluation of sorghum (sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) genotypes for grain yield and yield related traits

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Performance evaluation of sorghum (sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) genotypes for grain yield and yield related traits Adongo, Catherine Sorghum is the third most important cereal crop after maize and rice. The area under sorghum production in Uganda is at 398,050 ha accounting for 314,553 tons total annual production. This places Uganda as the fourth leading sorghum producer in East Africa, after South Sudan, Tanzania and Ethiopia, (Andiku et al., 2021). However, low yield is one of the things which frustrates the farmer’s efforts and in most cases farmers are left with no choice but to accept the loses as there has not been a permanent solution to this problem, except for farmers untested indigenous knowledge. This research study therefore, proposes to determine the performance evaluation of (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) genotypes for grain yield and yield related traits. This experiment was carried out in Arapai campus field in alpha lattice design where 60 genotypes were randomly assigned to plots within blocks. Panicle length, panicle width, plant height, 50% days to flowering, 75% maturity, 100 seed weight, panicle weight, etc. are the parameters measured and Data collection, was done using excel and data was analyzed using GenStat 15th edition by running the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to obtain the Means, Least significant Differences (LSD), Coefficients of Variation (CV) and F-probability. The analysis of variance was highly significant for yield and harvest index (P<0.001), 100 seed weight, biological yield, panicle weight, panicle width, panicle length, plant height were significantly low P<0.05) across the genotypes, the mean grain yield of 891.9kg/ha was recorded across the sorghum genotypes, sapkab22b_019 having the highest grain yield of 4963kg/ha, Most of the best yielding sorghum genotypes were medium maturing and The bottom five genotypes had grain yield ranging from 526.3kg/ha to 451.4kg/ha, the lowest grain yield among the bottom five genotypes was recorded in genotype sapkab22b_118, and sapkab22b_095.based on season performance, the harvest index had a strong positive correlation with yield (r = 0.82, p<0.001). Conclusively, the sorghum genotypes showed different levels of yield indicating wide variability for sorghum yield among the selected sorghum genotypes, high yield was noticed in all the seasons but it was significantly higher in second season of 2022B than the first rainy season of 2023A.The selected high yielding sorghum genotypes could be used as breeding lines for development of cultivar with farmer preferred traits. Dissertation

Resistance response of cowpea genotypes to scab disease

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Resistance response of cowpea genotypes to scab disease Gwali, Rogers Cowpea is among the ancient crops known to man globally. After cereals, grain legumes are the most important family of agricultural crop species worldwide. The crop has been attributed to several production limitations such as pests and diseases, soil infertility, drought and water logging. Cowpea scab is one of the major serious fungal diseases in cowpea production, capable of causing yield losses of up to 100%. The research study directed to determine the resistance response of fifty one (51) cowpea genotypes assessed for two rain seasons at Busitema University Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (Arapai Campus), in Soroti district using a 5 by 11 alpha Lattice design with three replications. The analysis of variance showed significant differences (P<0.001) for grain yield, scab severity, scab incidence, and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) across genotypes, season and genotype by season interaction except scab incidence for genotype by season interaction. The mean grain yield of 563.4 Kg ha was recorded across the cowpea genotypes with genotype, Par47*LGC074/30 having the highest grain yield of 911.1Kg ha-1. Most of the cowpea genotypes with cowpea scab resistance had low grain yield, with the lowest grain yield recorded by genotype MUAL19-143, Par47*LCG074/29, NAROCOWPEA5, MUALMP-17, MUAL19-118-4, MUALMP-12, MUALMP-42, NAROCOWPEA 2. Correspondingly the cowpea genotypes had low scab incidence except in genotypes MUALDT-05, MUALCP-21, Bruc2019B-470, and Eblate*NE51 respectively. The area under disease progress curve was equally low except in genotypes MUAL19-119, Bruc2019B-17, MUALDT-05, MUALCP-21, Bruc2019B-470 and Eblate*NE51 respectively. The Scab resistant cowpea genotypes can be used as parental breeding lines for development of scab resistant cultivar with farmer preferred traits. Grain yield had a significant positive correlation damage index on the pods (r = 0.336, p<0.001), scab incidence on pods (r = 0.347, p<0.001), scab severity on pods (r = 0.330, p<0.001). The identified cowpea genotype such as Eblate*NE5, NAROCOWPEA 2, NAROCOWPEA 4, MUAL19-118-4, Par47*LGC074/29, NAROCOWPEA 3, and others (Table 6) with scab resistance capability as parental lines in the cowpea breeding program to develop cultivars with improved yield and extensive horizontal resistance to the scab disease. Key words: Response, resistance, cowpea scab disease, incidence, severity Dissertation