Farmer Assurance Centres (FAC) also called Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) have been transforming the agriculture sector in Andhra Pradesh by catering to the needs of the farmers, from supplying the needed inputs to product procurement and it called “one-stop shops” that provide solutions to farmers from “seed to sale”. They provide a range of services like Agri-input shops, Farmer knowledge centers, kiosks, Community Hiring Centers (CHC), etc., and are equipped with experts from various disciplines of agriculture and allied sectors to assist the farmers. The present study was conducted in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh to analyze the extent of utilization of Rythu Bharosa Kendra (RBK) services by the farmers. The data was collected from a total of 80 beneficiary farmers under four RBKs from the selected villages. A simple random sampling technique and descriptive research design were used for the study. The majority of the respondents had a medium level of utilization of RBK services and technologies. Regarding the extent of utilization of services of RBK by the farmers, among the five categories of different services provided by RBKs, marketing services were most utilized by the farmers with the highest mean score values ranging from 2.10 followed by capacity building services and consultancy services with the mean score range of 2.07. Similarly input and veterinary services with the mean score range of 2.07.

Background: Manufacturing processed cheese has many advantages compared to natural cheese because the cost of refrigeration is lower during storage and transportation, and maintaining improved quality with minimal changes in the characteristics of the cheese during storage. It is possible to produce cheese with different intensity in flavor, functionality, and characteristics for different applications. Methods: This study was carried out in the laboratories of the College of Food Sciences, department of dairy science and technology at Al-Qasim green university, where full-fat cheddar cheese was mixed with full-fat soft cheese and used in the manufacture of cooked cheese treated with positive control + C, as well as mixing full-fat cheddar cheese with low-fat soft cheese to manufacture low-fat processed cheese, the negative control treatment was treated C-. Full-fat cheddar cheese was mixed with soft, low-fat cheese, with the addition of chickpea proteins as a fat replacers, with addition rates of 1.5, 3, and 4.5%, represented by treatments T3, T2, and T1, respectively. Results: The chemical tests included estimating the percentage of moisture, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrates, and total acidity, in addition to estimating the pH, while the rheological tests included hardness, adhesion, and springiness. A sensory evaluation of processed cheese parameters was also conducted. The results showed that the replacement treatments were characterized by a lower moisture content and protein percentage than the negative control treatment and close to the positive control treatment. The percentages of carbohydrates, ash, and acidity also increased in the replacement treatments, but the percentage of fats and pH decreased.

The study was conducted at the University of Southern Mindanao Agricultural Research Center (USMARC), Kabacan, Cotabato Philippines from November 2018 to March 2019 employing a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) layout and analysis. Nine media treatments replicated three times with ten samples each treatment were considered for statistical analysis. The result of the study revealed that the germination of magnolia jackfruit is unaffected by the different growing media. A 100% germination was revealed in all treatment used. In terms of plant height and diameter, vermicompost performed better compared to all other treatments. On the number of leaves, its ordinary garden soil that gave higher count. The graftability percentage success using conventional method reported that vermicompost and combination of ordinary garden soil (OGS), compost soil (CS), find sand (FS), vermicompost (VS), and vermicast (V) showed significant influence on the grafting success of the magnolia jackfruit stocks. This findings concluded that success of conventional grafting methods is dependent on the growing media.

This study examines on the adoption and intensity of soybean production technology in the Kondala district. A two-stage sampling procedure was followed to select the sample households for the study. The study is based on primary data collected from 185 sample-selected households. Four rural kebeles were selected by using simple random sampling. The semi-structured interview schedule was developed, for collecting the essential quantitative data for the study and secondary data were used as additional data sources. Descriptive statistics and the Tobit model were used to analyse the data. This study also identifies soybean production technologies such as recommended seeding rate, recommended fertilizer applications, land allocation. The result of the descriptive statistics showed that the majority of farmers 57.3% were adopters and the remaining 42.7% were non adopters. In terms of land allocation and use of technologies there was a statistical significance difference in technology usage between adopters and non-adopters. The Tobit model results indicated that household ages, education level, farm experience, membership in cooperatives, access to agricultural inputs, participation in non-farm activities, and frequency of extension contact positively and significantly influenced the adoption and intensity of the use of soybean technologies. Whereas, distance from the market centre showed, a negative relationship with the adoption and intensity of adoption of soybeans production technology. The overall finding of the study underlined the high importance of institutional support in the areas of extension; membership in cooperatives and market to enhance the adoption of an improved soybean production package. Therefore, policy and development interventions should give emphasis to the improvement of such institutional support so as to achieve wider adoption which increases the productivity and income of smallholder farmers.

Maize is an important cereal crop in Ethiopia due to its use as a source of food security. However, its productivity is limited by insufficient application of the NPS fertilizer and inappropriate plant density. A field experiment was conducted during 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons at Liban Jawi and Toke Kutaye districts of West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia to study the effect of plant density and NPS fertilizer rates on growth, yield, and yield components of maize. The experiment consisted of three plant populations (53,300, 66,600 and 88,800 plants ha-1) and five NPS fertilizer rates (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 kg NPS ha-1) laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that plant height, ear height and biological yield increased with increasing plant density. On the contrary ear length, number of grains per row, grain yield and harvest index decreased with increasing plant density. Plant density of 53,300 plants ha-1 produced the higher grain yield (5969 kgha-1) compared to that of 88,800 plants ha-1 (5175 kg ha-1). However, grain yield at 53,300 plants ha-1 did not show a significant difference with that of 66,600 plants ha-1 (5746 kg ha-1). In case of NPS fertilizer rates the results showed that plant height, ear height, ear length, number of grains per row, 1000 seed weight, biological yield, grain yield and harvest index increased with increasing NPS fertilizer rates up to optimum rate. Fertilizer application of 200kg NPS ha-1 produced a higher grain yield (6710 kg ha-1). The highest economic (126,423 Birr ha-1) and a higher MRR (2630%) resulted from the application of 200 kg NPS ha-1 with a plant population of 53,300 plants ha-1. Therefore a Plant density of 53,300 plants ha-1 and a blended fertilizer application with 200 kg NPS ha-1 was the most appropriate for highland maize in the study area.

Pollution is one of the major threats with potential risks to humans, animals and plants, especially pollution with heavy metals, which are characterized by their significant ability to accumulate in environmental systems and induce toxicity to living organisms, even at low concentrations and quantities. This study was conducted on some calcareous soils selected from the province s of Babylon and Diwaniyah. Soil samples were collected from ten sites, five sites from each province , from a depth of 0-30 cm, to determine the concentration of cobalt in its chemical forms (available, bound to calcium carbonate, bound to organic matter and oxides, and residual) and total concentration, in addition to knowing the effect of different soil characteristics on these chemical forms. The results showed that there was a relatively wide range in the total cobalt concentration in the study sites (16.58 - 86.76 mg kg-1), and the percentages of the available chemical phase of the metal ranged from 0.44% - 6.88%, and in the form associated with carbonates from 19.30% - 34.54%, and in the form associated with organic matter and oxides from 28.82% - 55.94%, and in the form associated with the residual fraction from 3.46% - 51.44%. Because the metals in these fractions might dissolve depending on environmental conditions, notably pH values, higher mobility levels of accessible metal ions and those partly bonded to calcium carbonate may suggest environmental contamination and a risk of toxicity in soils.

Calf morbidity and mortality resulted from diarrhea hinder the replacement of older cows by calves and lower economic benefit from the secretor in Ethiopia. Bacterial and Protozoal infectious disease were the main causes of calves’ diarrhea in dairy farms. The aim of the current study was conducted to isolate calf’s diarrhea causing Bacterial and Protozoal infection and asses the risk factors associated with it in and around the Assela town. Accordingly, 26 small, medium, and large-scale dairy farms were purposively selected for collection of faecal and serum samples and risk factors related information diarrhoeic calves. From 108 calves, 2 × 10 g of feces and 10 mL of jugular blood from each calf were collected. Bacterial culturing and serodiagnosis and protozoal microscopic examination were conducted. From 26 small, medium, and large dairy farms in the Assela region were investigated for the percentage of significant enteropathogens in diarrhoeal calves over six months. They contained proportions of E. coli, Eimeria, Cryptosporidium, Giardia and Salmonella Typhimurium of 55 (50.9%), 42 (38.9%), 23, 8 (7.4%) and 3‘(2.8%), respectively. All risk factors assessed had equal impact on the occurrence of Enteropathogen hence there was no significant difference among them (P-value > 0.05). the high calf Diarrhea causing Enteropathogen rates established in this study together with the alarming predictors of calf morbidity entail attention by the concerning bodies on proper management and improved health care to reduce the incidence of Calves diarrhea.