AN ASSESSMENT OF LANDUSE PRACTICES INDUCING SEDIMENTATION

AN ASSESSMENT OF LANDUSE PRACTICES INDUCING SEDIMENTATION

Introduction

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an annual herbaceous, self-pollinating legume belonging to the family Leguminosae and sub-family Papilionaceae. It is native to South America and is one of the world's most popular and universal crops. It is grown in diverse environments in more than 100 countries on 6 different continents (Nwokolo, 1996; Sharma and Mathur, 2006).  Groundnuts are grown throughout the tropical and warm temperate climates of the world and the top ten producing countries are China (43.7 %), India (24.5 %), Nigeria (7.7 %), USA (4.9 %), Sudan (4.6 %), Burma (3.6 %), Indonesia (3.0 %), Argentina (2.6 %), Tanzania (2.0 %) and Senegal (1.8 %) where Nigeria ranks third (FAOSTAT, 2013). The estimated world production figure of unshelled groundnut as at 2013 was 45.3 million tonnes, with Nigeria producing 3 million tonnes from 2.36 million ha (FAOSTAT, 2013). Groundnut is the thirteenth most important food crop of the world, fourth most important source of edible oil and the third most important source of vegetable protein (Taru et al., 2008). It contains 48-50 % oil and 26-28 % protein, and it is a rich source of dietary fiber, minerals and vitamins (Ntare et al., 2008). It has a tremendous potential for mitigating the protein malnutrition in poverty ridden countries of the world. Groundnut has high economic and nutritional potential and is an important cash crop for peasant farmers in poor tropical countries including Nigeria. Industrially, the oil produced from the kernel is used in the manufacture of lubricants and other items ranging from shaving cream and soap to plastics. The seed cake is used as livestock feed and fertilizer, and shells are utilized as filler for wallboards and insulators (Onwueme and Sinha, 1991). Groundnuts also play an extremely important agronomic role in the traditional farming system as a nitrogen fixer in crop 15 rotation (Ustimenko-Bakumovsky, 1993). Being a leguminous crop, it can fix atmospheric nitrogen in soils through root nodule bacteria and thus improves soil fertility.

1.1 Justification and Objectives of the Study

The nutrients which play important role in the nutrition of groundnut are sulphur, phosphorus and calcium (Kumaran et al., 2000). Calcium is among the most critical elements in the growth and development of groundnut seeds and is the major limiting factor to groundnut production in many parts of the world. Perhaps it can be said that calcium is one of the most important and vital elements in groundnut production, especially in the Virginia large seeded types (Safarzadeh, 1999; Slak and Morrill, 1972). The insufficient soil calcium in the root zone has been associated with low productivity of some soils in Nigeria (Osemwola et al., 2003). Declining soil fertility, particularly calcium, has been implicated as possible cause of the low yield problem in groundnut; the deficiency results in lower yield and reduces percentage of sound mature kernel. Calcium requirement of groundnut plant is quite high and it is more during the pod filling stage and to get good quality groundnut pods, adequate amount of calcium should be present in the soil from early flowering of the crop onwards. Gypsum which is calcium sulphate is the cheapest source of calcium and sulphur and it is a by-product of fertilizer factories. Sulphur plays a role in the formation of chlorophyll and protein synthesis and it is also directly involved in the biosynthesis of oil. For these reasons, it will be of relevance if gypsum can be used to increase the quality of groundnut kernels and as such improving groundnut production. Most soils are experiencing decline in nitrogen (N) which results from its continual depletion from the soil pool by processes such as volatization, leaching and, perhaps most importantly, removal of nitrogen-containing residues from the land (Bohlool et al., 1992). Replenishment of nitrogen in agricultural soils has depended largely on the addition of inorganic fertilizers or by 16the activity of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) systems. The use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer has been useful such that today, land area under cultivation has shrunk by 4 % but production has increased by 32 % compared to 25 years ago (Smil, 2001). Unfortunately, this productivity increase has not been without consequences. The prolonged applications of large quantity of N inorganic fertilizers are manifesting themselves in environmental degradation such as leaching of nitrates into the ground water and development of soil acidity (Agbenin and Goladi, 1997; Ridley et al., 2004).

TOPIC: AN ASSESSMENT OF LANDUSE PRACTICES INDUCING SEDIMENTATION

Chapters: 1 - 5
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Number of Pages: 78

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