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MAKING A SOIL PROFILE IN AN OIL PALM PLANTATION.

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What is a Soil Profile? On the surface, soils look pretty much the same… dirt. The soil profile is where the secrets of the soil and landscape around it are hidden. The soil profile is defined as a vertical section of the soil that is exposed by a soil pit. A soil pit is a hole that is dug from the surface of the soil to the underlying bedrock. Digging of the Profile The Soil Profile Because of the way soils develop, most soil profiles are composed of a series of horizons , or layers of soil stacked on top of one another like layers of a cake. These horizons can tell us a lot about how the soil formed and what was going on around the soil in the past, much like a diary of the landscape. How Does the Soil Profile Develop? Let's pretend we're looking at a brand-new landscape surface. It could be a bed of lava that just cooled, some rocks and minerals exposed by a receding glacier, debris laid down by a flooding river, or many other th...

PICTORIAL EXPLANATION OF CHARCOAL MAKING PROCESS

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Bagging of Charcoal Removal of Charcoal after formation Charcoal carbonation process Covering of wooden arrangement with grasses Arranged log of wood to be used for Charcoal Making Fallen Trees for Charcoal Making

Nigeria-China Agricultural Mechanization Implementation Committees Inaugurated

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The programme which has Zamfara, Adamawa, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Katsina, Niger, Taraba and Sokoto as participating states is designed to increase Nigeria’s stock of tractors and improve on mechanization through the supply of tractors to be assembled in Nigeria and in credit partnership with farmers to obtain and pay over a period of 7 to 8years at a single digit interest rate. Inaugurating the Committee, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development – Chief Audu Ogbeh stated: This is a very important programme that has been on the drawing board. Nigeria is very low on tractors. There are less than 30,000 tractors in Nigeria and we should at least as at today have a million. This partnership with CAMACO is an attempt to catch up with our shortfalls in tractors and increase our mechanization to make it easier for agriculture to take place. Increased mechanization is even more important now that we are trying to encourage the youth to embrace agriculture.” The Minister of Ag...

FG Signs MoU on Dairy Production and Development

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The Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development of the dairy sector in Nigeria. Signing the MoU with one of the world’s largest dairy companies – Arla Foods in Abuja, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development – Chief Audu Ogbeh stated that the Nigerian Government in line with its plan on food security, welcomes companies and initiatives that would help in the development of the agricultural sector. According to the Minister, “the population of the country is growing so fast with an increasing population of children malnourished. With the Federal Government’s school feeding programme, we dream of a day, where every Nigerian child has a pack of milk per day to improve their health. We are creating an enabling environment in the cattle breeding programme, where a poor widow in the village can own four or five cows to milk and have the facility to preserve them for local consumption. If a family has three or four cows, this can ke...

SAGAMU-ABEOKUTA EXPRESS WAY CONSTRUCTION BY OGUN STATE GOVERNMENT, NIGERIA

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Quick Facts on Ogun State Road Works Justification for a 10-lane Sagamu-Abeokuta Road 1. There is the need to build the road because as a government we are aware of the number of international conglomerates that have or are in the process of acquiring lands along the road for the purpose of siting their factories in Ogun State. Two Examples are Coca Cola and SAB Miller, the world’s biggest brewer, there are several others, each investing not less than $100m. 2. There is the need to think ahead, put the road infrastructure in place now that there is still space to do that rather than wait until the corridor is fully built and demolishing structures for expansion. 3. A good example of such forward thinking is the present day Ikorodu Road, Lagos. When it was built as a six lane expressway over 40 years ago, a lot of people then felt there was no need for such but today, government would pay anything to be able to expand Ikorodu road! 4. Besides that, almost 40 years after it was ...

Ebonyi Harvests 350 Metric Tons Of Rice

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The Ebonyi Government says it anticipates bumper harvest of 350 metric tons of rice in the 2016 farming season. Governor David Umahi expressed the hope at the inaugural National Agricultural Summit organised by the Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo Local Government Area of the State on Thursday. The governor, represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Uchenna Orji, said government invested massively in rice production in 2016. “We were determined to revolutionalise rice production in the state due to our comparative advantage over other states and make it reclaim its position of highest rice producer in West Africa. ricee.jpe “We currently have the biggest rice mill cluster in the sub region with over 20 metric-tons capacity of rice processing facilities. “The rice we cultivate internally is insufficient for processing in our mills and we seek rice paddy from Akwa Ibom, Cross River, among others, to meet internal and external needs”, he ...

GMOs: Three agricultural crops under trial in Nigeria

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Three genetically modified agricultural crops are currently under confined field trials in Nigeria, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, the Director-General, National Bio-safety Management Agency, has said. Ebegba disclosed this when he featured at a News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja on Thursday. He said that the crops are cowpea, sorghum and rice. The director-general said the trials commenced in 2009 and 2013 respectively at the Institute of Agricultural Research, Zaria, Kaduna State and National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi, Niger State. Ebegba said: “Presently we have about three crops on confined field trails but before now, we have six, some of them have been completed. “Presently, we have the insect resistant beans known as cowpea at the Institute of Agricultural Research Zaria. “We also have in Zaria, Africa Bio-fortified Sorghum modified in a way that it can now produce iron, zinc and protein and also has the ability to produce vitamin A. The essence is to increase the nutrit...