SOS Sahel Ethiopia

Application of organic nutrient sources ONS for soil amendment may have an enormous advantage that improve nutrient cycling in soil–plant relations. The amount and rate of nutrient release from plant residues depend on their quality characteristics and biochemical composition of the ONS. An Aerobic Mineralization study was conducted in green house experiment to determine the N release dynamics of Erythrina abyssinica (EA), Erythrina brucei (EB) and Ensete ventricosum (EV) (ONS) were randomly collected from Wolaita and Sidama zone of Southern Ethiopia. Surface soil samples (0-20 cm) depths were also collected from Cambisol of Wolaita. Physicochemical properties of the composite soil were analyzed following standard analytical methods. For the greenhouse aerobic mineralization pot experiment, four treatments were designed for EA, EB and EV and control in Cambisols. The incubation was carried out for five consecutive weeks. The treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The results of mineralization revealed that the NH4+ concentration was highest in the first week and became almost equal to the concentration of NO3- in the second week, and then it became low and constant at the third to fifth week. While the concentration of NO3- was low in the first week, it became equivalent to the concentration of NH4+ in the second week, and became higher and constant at the third to fourth week after which it started declining. The organic carbon and total nitrogen were also following the same trend. In general, these ONS had medium to high TN content and they decomposed easily. Thus, they can be used as alternative or supportive organic sources. In their first week of decomposition they furnished NH4+ and from third week on wards they are good for NO3- loving crops, while the second week of mineralization is good for crops loving both inorganic forms of nitrogen. The present study indicates incorporation of EA, EB and EV modifies the fertility of cambisols and shall be taken into account to synchronize between net N mineralization and crop demand. However, more detailed research and field experimentations are needed on decomposition in some other soil types to draw sound conclusions. Key words: Ammonium, incubation, mineralization, nitrate.

The present study was designed to quantitatively measure and compare the levels and variations of total protein, individual amino acids, and computed protein efficiency ratio (C-PER) in raw and traditionally processed products of one recently released quality protein maize (QPM BH542) with four high-yield maize hybrids, namely flint BH660, semi-dent BH140, Pioneer 30H83, and Pioneer 30G97, as well as one local maize cultivar. The total protein content was variable among the cultivars ranging from 7% for BH660 to 8.6% for Pioneer 30H83, 8.9% for BH140, 9.8% for QPM BH542, 10.1% for local maize cultivar, and 11.8% for Pioneer 30G97, respectively. However, the QPM BH542 maize protein proved to be higher in nutritional quality than common maize proteins because it contained 30% to 82% more lysine, higher levels of arginine, tryptophan, histidine, threonine, cysteine, and valine. As a result, the QPM BH542 amino acid profile gives a good balance of total essential amino acids, limited only in lysine, and has a C-PER ratio of 2.2 compared to 1.14, 1.2, 1.4, 1.66, and 1.67 for Pioneer 30G97, local, BH-140, BH660, and Pioneer 30H83, respectively. The various traditional processes of maize have no significant effect on the protein nutritional quality of the new quality protein maize. Hence, the widely dissemination of it in agricultural cultivation as well as consumption by the general population is recommended.