Vegetables are widely grown by the farmers of Eritrea. They are infested by different insect pests and infections by diseases right from the seedling stage to along all growth stages up to harvest. Less yield of vegetables occurs due to crop devastation by pests and diseases which result in high economic losses. Hence, the vegetable growers’ discussion was taken into consideration to analyze the infections, infestations, husbandry practices and management. Group discussions were conducted with 30 key informants in three sub-zobas with 33 farmers to collect quantitative information on various practices and managements. The early, mid and late pests were early blight, late blight, unknown viral diseases, leaf curling and blossom end rots; and leaf miner, boll worm, spider mites, Tuta, whiteflies, aphids and nematode. Zolpho and ash were used to control the diseases and insect pests as well, in Hamelmalo. Drusban/chloropyrifos 45%EC, malathion 57% EC, dimethoate 40%EC, Focus, cypermethrin 25% EC, redomil and mancozeb were used in Hagaz. On the other hand, in Adi-Teklezian, only dimethoate and sulphur dust were applied for controlling the diseases and insect pests. Farmers are not aware of the ways of application of the chemical as per the directions given on the product packing, but some of the farmers measured the chemical with one lid/cap (20cc) of the bottle per 20 l water. In Adi-Teklezian, 10cc of chemical mixed with 20liters of water and applied to one tsimidi(0.25ha). General and major problems the farmers face are non-availability of pure seed, fertilizers and tractors for ploughing and fertilizers.

A field experiment was conducted to assess the salt distribution under drip irrigation by varying frequency of irrigation and amount of water supply. The experiment was laid out in strip plot design with three replications. Four irrigation frequencies and three irrigation quantities were adopted. The low value of Coefficient of variation (0.0395), the Christiansen uniformity of 96.85 per cent and the statistical uniformity of 96.05 per cent obtained for the discharge values recorded at various emitter positions revealed that the entire field was supplied with uniform distribution of water. The salt distribution was observed by analyzing the pH and EC values of the soil samples collected from number of points around the emitter positions. The soil reaction (pH) values of the treatment twice a day irrigation with 140 per cent crop water need (CWN) shown higher value of pH (8.5) found to be with low salinity environment than the pH value of 8.28 obtained in the treatment once in three days irrigation with 100 per cent CWN irrigation treatment. The lower EC value of 0.44 dS m-1 was recorded in the treatment twice day irrigation with 140 per cent CWN. In this treatment the effect of frequency of irrigation and application of excess water leached the salts beyond root zone depth. The higher EC value of 0.71 dS m-1 recorded once in three days with 100 per cent CWN treatment shown the progressive accumulation of salts in the root zone. The highest yield of bhendi (12.07 t ha-1) was recorded in the treatment twice a day irrigation with 140 percent CWN which recorded lower salt accumulation. Maximum water use efficiency of 448.61 kg ha-1 cm-1 was observed in this treatment. The higher benefit cost of 2.05 was recorded in the treatment twice a day irrigation with 140 percent CWN. Drip irrigation twice a day with 140 per cent CWN was found to be the best combination of frequency and quantity of irrigation by maintaining less salt accumulation in the root zone.

The major uncertainty in soil erosion assessment studies is derived from LS factor constituting both slope length and slope steepness factor. Empirical soil erosion models employing different algorithms for estimation of LS factor using raster based DEMs. The present study compares two algorithms-Specific Contributing area (SCA) method and Cumulative Slope Length method (CSL), for estimation of slope length factor in a gently sloping terrain. The results showed that SCA method is the best performing method in gently sloping terrain since the effect of contour length exponent get minimized due to less influence from diagonal flow direction. The pixel to pixel based slope length exponent may result in more appropriate estimation of slope length factor in gently sloping terrains. The results from the study may be helpful in appropriate prediction of soil erosion in gently sloping terrains.

A study was conducted to test the root parameters of Bhendi under saline environment. Roots are the directly affected parts of crop, which has intimate contact with surrounding saline environment. Effect of different irrigation frequency and varied quantity of saline water on root distribution of bhendi crop was studied. The highest tap root length of 30.4 cm was recorded in F3Q3 treatment. Increased wetted depth of once in three days irrigation increased the length of tap root in F3Q3 treatment largest root spread diameter of 42.3 cm and highest number of roots 40 were observed in twice a day irrigation with 140 per cent CWN (F4Q3). Higher diameter of root spread and more number of roots help to absorb more water and nutrients for plant growth. Hence drip irrigation of twice a day with 140 per cent CWN was found to be the best combination of frequency and quantity of irrigation as it is maintaining lower salinity in the root zone for better root development which directly affects the growth and yield parameters of bhendi crop.

Land races are important sources of traits required for adaptation to low-input agricultural production systems. Hence, the apriori selected multiple-trait-specific germplasm accessions were evaluated over four locations to identify those with specific/wide adaptation to different locations using AMMI model and GGL biplot for use in breeding dolichos bean pure-line varieties adapted to target production environments. The AMMI analysis of variance showed that all eight productivity traits were significantly (p< 0.01) affected by genotype, location and GLI. The genotype, location and GLI, respectively contributing 43.02%, 36.42% and 18.20% of variation in fresh seed yield plant-1. Proximate positioning of GKVK, Mandya and Chinthamani locations together in the GGL biplot indicated their similarity with respect to the expression of days to 50% flowering, primary branches plant-1, racemes plant-1 and fresh pods plant-1. The accessions, GL 250, GL 12 and GL 66 were regarded as widely adaptable based on the GGL bi-plot and lower estimates of IPC1 score, ASV and SI. The genotypes, KA, FPB 35, GL 12 and GL 250 with a fairly high fresh seed yield and reasonably good adaptability could be extensively used in breeding dolichos bean pure-line varieties with wide adaptability and high productivity.