163 10.4155/BFS.09.11 © 2010 Future Science Ltd Limitations in the current availability of bioenergy feedstocks are a major problem in next-generation biofuels. There are global economic, political and environmental pressures to increase biofuel production and utilization, to offset gasoline and diesel fuel use, especially in the transportation sector. Many countries, such as the USA and China,...

nickel (ni) is one of the essential micronutrients for higher plants and its known function is beingthe metal component of urease. the effects of various ni levels on urease activity in maize (zea maize l.)plants grown in two nutrient media containing urea or ammonium nitrate as two separate nitrogen sourceswere investigated. the experiments were performed as completely randomized blocks with t...

Despite the resurgence of parastatal marketing boards and strategic grain reserves over the last decade in eastern and southern Africa, there is little empirical evidence about how their activities affect smallholder input use and cropping decisions. This paper uses panel survey data from 1997-2007 on Kenyan smallholders to investigate the effect of Kenya’s National Cereal Produce Board activit...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important crop among Brazilian smallholder farmers,who are also responsible for 40% of the poultry and egg production in the country.Although poultry litter is considered a potential pollutant, if properly stabilized anddistributed in the field it can be used as a source of nitrogen for maize production.In this study, the response of maize to mineral fertilizer and pou...

Intercropping systems compared to monoculture systems can more efficiently use the existing resources which ultimately will lead to increased plant performance. Therefore, to evaluate the benefits of intercropping maize and beans and assess its impact on yield and yield’s component, an experiment was conducted in factorial design with randomized complete block design in three replication, in 20...

Maize streak virus (MSV; family Geminiviridae, genus Mastrevirus), the causal agent of maize streak disease, ranks amongst the most serious biological threats to food security in subSaharan Africa. Although five distinct MSV strains have been currently described, only one of these - MSV-A - causes severe disease in maize. Due primarily to their not being an obvious threat to agriculture, very l...

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation is an effective method for introducing genes into maize. In this chapter, we describe a detailed protocol for genetic transformation of the maize genotype Hi II. Our starting plant material is immature embryos cocultivated with an Agrobacterium strain carrying a standard binary vector. In addition to step-by-step laboratory transformation proced...

Intercropping is an ancient agricultural practice that provides a possible pathway for sustainable increases in crop yields. Here, we determine how competition with wheat affects nutrient uptake (nitrogen and phosphorus) and leaf traits, such as photosynthetic rate, in maize. In a field experiment, maize was planted as a sole crop, in three different intercrop configurations with wheat (a repla...

Low yield of maize continues to affect the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the Zabzugu-Tatale area despite the introduction of a high yielding Obatanpa maize variety. The study used a cross-sectional survey design with 240 randomly sampled household heads growing maize to examine determinants of adoption of Obatampa varieties (IMVs) by farmers in the Zabzugu-Tatale area in the Northern Reg...