There are limited diversified dairy products manufactured in dairy industries, and an increased demand for diversified dairy products in Ethiopia. To this end, there is un-met demand for nutrient rich dairy diversified products. This research was conducted with the aim to perform product development and quality assessment of yogurt with some cereals and legumes with the implication for diversification of nutrient dense yoghurt products in order to explore market potential. Yoghurt enriched with cereals and legumes was investigated for nutritional, microbial, texture and viscosity analyses as well as sensory quality attributes. Yogurts were processed through inoculation of milk with Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophiles. Finger millet yogurt was significantly better in protein and minerals composition. Furthermore, fat and ash values were high in finger millet yogurt: 3.47 and 2.36 g 102g-1; respectively. Common bean (Redwolaita variety) yoghurt had abundant concertation of calcium next to finger millet-yoghurt. The aerobic plate count (2.3x102 cfu ml-1), coliform (<1x101 cfu ml-1), yeasts and mold (<1x101 cfu ml-1) of yoghurt comply with the microbiological standard requirements. Pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, S.aureus, Shigella spp and B.cereus were absent in all the yogurt samples. The processed yogurt products possessed complementary effect of nutrient enhancement which is driven from cereals and legumes. The product has very good acceptability by panelists and revealed excellent nutritional composition. The processing technology also provided high nutrient dense, acceptable in quality and microbiologically safe products. The results from the proximate, physico-chemical, microbiological, and texture and viscosity analyses indicate that yogurt with cereals and pulses possess good nutritional composition. The processing technology provided microbiologically non-hazardous end products, and the results from the sensory evaluation of revealed that value added products can be a potential dairy product that fit to the lifestyle of consumers and get accepted. These findings further suggest investors currently involved in the dairy sector can produce products that fit into consumers’ lifestyle by pioneering technology transfer of this research output in order to capture the un-met consumer demand for safe, nutritious, affordable and proprietary nutrient dense yogurt production.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an economically, nutritionally and industrially important cereal crop worldwide. Ethiopia is believed to be the center of origin and diversity of the cultivated barley crop. The crop has been cultivated in the country since time immemorial. The midlands and highlands of Ethiopia are suitable for barley cultivation. However, there are many biotic and abiotic factors that reduce production and productivity of the crop in Ethiopia and elsewhere. Of the various fungal plant diseases limiting barley productivity, loose smut (Ustilago nuda) is one of the major cosmopolitan and destructive seedborne pathogen in many barley-producing countries in the world. This piece of work was undertaken to: 1) review the economic importance and ecological requirements of barley and extent of grain loss due to barley loose smut; 2) review the biology and ecological requirements of the pathogen leading to epidemics; and 3) compile the management options for sustainable barley production and productivity. To achieve these objectives, data and information were gleaned from scientific journal publications, PhD dissertations, Master’s theses, research reports, books and book chapters, proceedings and symposia papers, relevant compendia, internet resources, personal communications, and similar other resources. From the reviews made, it could be deduced that barley loose smut on average causes estimated grain yield losses that range from 25 to 30% in the world. The systemic pathogen is embedded in the scutellum part of the embryo and easily transmitted to the next cropping season. The pathogen sori commonly replace the spike during anthesis and healthy ears are infected at flowering through the teliospores blown by wind. Warm soil when seedlings emerge is more conducive to loose smut than cold soil; however, moderate temperature (15 to 22 oC) and damp cloudy weather or heavy rainfall at flowering time are the preconditions required by the pathogen for heavy infection because of elongated or extended period of open flowers. Barley loose smut can be better managed through the use of proper cultural practices in integration with hot water and solar heat seed treatment, use of resistant varieties, and effective systemic fungicides, like Azoxystrobin, Carboxin, Difenoconazole, Mancozeb, Propiconazole, Tebuconazole, Triadimenol, and Triticonazole. It could, thus, be concluded that barley loose smut is a very important disease that seriously affects barley production and productivity worldwide, but can be reasonably managed through the use of smut-free seed, certified seed, host resistance, and hot water/solar heat or systemic fungicidal seed treatment or their integration.

To know and identify the traditional practices and generate relevant information on egg storage methods, a survey work was conducted in the East Wollega Zone of Ethiopia. The survey was carried out with a stratified sampling technique and a structured questionnaire using a total of 315 households (225 from rural and 90 from urban owning chickens) were purposefully selected. Two experiments, of similar experimental materials, procedures and designs were conducted at different time of the year (May and August) to evaluate these traditional storage methods at Haramaya University poultry farm. A factorial experiment of 2 by 5 with completely randomized design using storage containers and storage time as treatment was used. The storage times were 4, 6, 8, 12 and 20 days. Five most common egg storage containers were identified in the rural and urban areas of East Wollega. These storage methods include cartons, polyethen bags, baskets, clay pots and teff grain. The result further indicated that depending on the availability of the storage materials in the locality, 87 percent of the urban households (n = 90) store eggs in cartons and polyethene bags in order of availability. Seventy nine percent of the rural households (n = 225) ranked teff as the most common storage materials used followed by the basket and clay pots. Among the quality parameters considered, weight loss (%) and daily weight loss (%) of eggs were highly affected (P < 0.001) by storage containers, durations and their interactions during both experiments. The maximum weight loss was observed after storage period of 16 days for all containers. Polythene bags storage maintained minimum weight loss Vs the baskets at all stages of storage duration. Only storage durations had significant effects (P < 0.05) on the egg shell thickness during experiment I. Inconsistent but significant effect of storage durations was observed on the shell weight during experiment I, and weights of yolk and albumen during experiment II. Storage containers during experiment I, and storage durations during experiment II showed significant effects on albumen height and haugh unit values. Except polythene bags which had higher albumen height and haugh unit values, the other containers did not show significant variations for both parameters. The effect of storage duration on these parameters was linear with increasing storage duration; and higher beyond the 16 days of storage. Thus, it was concluded that using polyethylene bags and 16 days of storage could give the best result to store eggs among the traditional methods compared in this experiment. Keywords: Traditional Egg Storage; Changes in Egg Quality; Optimum Egg Storage Duration

Low soil fertility and poor soil fertility management practices constrain crop production in Ethiopia. Diagnosing soil fertility problems and characterizing soils are a prerequisite for formulating appropriate soil fertility management practices. However, most soil fertility problems in Ethiopia are not diagnosed, and the soils are not characterized. This invariably leads to lack of documented information for judicious application of soil ameliorative measures to increase crop yields. This study was, therefore, aimed at characterizing soil of Jijiga Plain in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia on which wheat is commonly grown. The study was conducted during the main cropping season of 2012/2013. The study area was stratified in to three altitude categories 1650 - 1700, 1750 - 1800, 1850 - 1900 meters above sea level prior to sampling. Then, a total of 3 x 2 x 30 x 3 = 540 disturbed soil samples were collected from the surface (0-15 cm) and subsurface (15-30 cm) layers across the altitude categories. The samples were composited treatment-wise to 3 x 6 = 18 sub-samples. The composite soil sub-samples were analyzed for selected soil physico-chemical properties. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that both the surface and subsurface soils are clayey in texture. The pH of the soil at the layer of 0 - 30 cm ranged from 8.37 to 8.82 and is rated as strongly alkaline. The exchangeable Ca 2+ contents of the soil at the surface and subsurface soil layers were 24.52 and 30.52 cmol+/kg, respectively, which is rated as very high in both soil layers; the exchangeable Mg 2+ content is 7.36 cmol+/kg in the surface soil layer, which is rated as high, but 10.21 cmol+/kg in the sub-surface soil layers, which is rated as very high. The exchangeable Na+ content of the soil ranges from 0.33 to 2.16 cmol+/kg, which is rated as medium to high. The exchangeable K+ contents of the surface and subsurface soil layers are 1.1 and 1.4 cmol+/kg, respectively, which are rated as high and very high in the surface and sub-surface soil layers. The cation exchange capacity of the soil ranges from 37.17 to 40.49 cmol+/kg, which is rated as high to very high. The percent base saturation in the surface soil is 89.63% whereas that in the sub-surface soil is 109.23%, which is rated as very high. The contents of soil organic carbon (1.81%) and total nitrogen (0.13%) in the surface soil layer were found to be medium whereas those of the sub-surface soil layer were found to be low. However, the available phosphorus contents of both the surface (2.4 mg kg -1 soil) and sub-surface (1.87 mg kg -1 soil) soil layers were found to be very low. It could, thus, be concluded that, the soil of the study area is characterized by strong alkalinity with high contents soluble calcium carbonate, very low content of plant-available phosphorus, and medium contents of soil organic matter as well as total nitrogen. However, the texture and other chemical properties of the soil do not appear to limit crop production. Therefore, there is a need to take ameliorative measures aimed at lowering the pH and increasing availability of soil phosphorus, soil organic carbon, and total nitrogen to improve wheat and other crop yields in the study area. Keywords: Available phosphorus; Cation exchange capacity; Soil organic carbon; Soil organic matter; Soil texture; Soil pH

Potato variety development for tuber yield and disease resistance has been conducted in Ethiopia uninterrupted since the first variety was released in 1987.  However, there is an information gap about the genetic progress made over time which needs a periodic evaluation of the varieties. This study was conducted to determine the rate and magnitude of progress in tuber yield and resistance to late blight of 16 potato varieties released between 1987 and 2011 and two farmers’ varieties. The varieties were planted in randomized complete block design with three replications at Haramaya, Hirna and Arberkete in eastern Ethiopia. The analysis of variance for each location revealed the presence of significant differences among the varieties in tuber yield and resistance to late blight. The mean total and marketable tuber yields increased over locations at the rate of 0.14 and 0.18 t ha -1 , respectively, and late blight severity score reduced at the rate of 0.31%  per year over the 25 years  of variety development in the country. However, the increased tuber yield varied across the locations. Late blight severity score explained total tuber yield variations between 31.39 to 80.1% across the locations. It could be concluded that most of the varieties became susceptible to late blight in favourable environments for the pathogen at Haramaya and only a few varieties (Bulle, Bubu, Belete and Gera) performed better for tuber yield and late blight resistance across all locations. What is more, the varieties released recently by different centres showed higher disease severity scores than the older varieties.

Fermented foods play an important role in human nutrition and protecting against infectious diseases. Understanding the properties of traditionally fermented dairy products as well as a proper analysis of the indigenous processing steps are important in order to recommend appropriate manufacturing protocol and procedures for commercialization. Little information is available on the general characteristics and processing practices of traditional dairy products of Ethiopia. Therefore, the objective of this review was to critically assess and summarize information on indigenous fermented dairy products of the country. The traditional dairy products included in this review are ergo (spontaneously fermented milk), ititu (spontaneously fermented milk curd), kibe (traditional butter), neter kibe (ghee), dhanaan (Ethiopian fermented camel milk), ayib (Ethiopian cottage cheese), hazo (spiced fermented buttermilk), arera (defatted sour milk) and aguat (acid whey). The indigenous dairy products have good nutritional and functional potential to scale up to commercial production. However, detailed investigation on the characterization of the products and standardization of the manufacturing steps should be undertaken. The huge potential of microbial biodiversity related with the long storage stability of the traditional dairy products especially dhanaan and ititu shows promising potential for development of technologically important indigenous starter cultures.

Abstract: The risk of milk contamination with spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms is high for milk produced in developing countries like Ethiopia especially in lowland region as their milk production practices is traditional type which lack appropriate hygienic control. To protect the raw cow milk from spoilage loss and consumers from milk born public health risk, the availability of documented information on the microbiological quality of raw milk across the milk supply chain is critically important as such information may be important for different organization to undertake relevant development intervention on hygienic practices essential for safe milk production and handling . This study was, therefore, conducted to determine the microbiological quality of informally marketed raw cow milk across the milk supply chain in eastern Ethiopia. A total of 360 pooled raw cow milk samples (each with a volume of 450 mL) were collected from udders and milk handling equipment of producers in rural areas of Babile district; from the equipment of collectors/transporters in Harar and Dire Dawa towns as well as from the equipment of vendors and consumer at Babile, Harar and Dire Dawa towns during February 2014 to January 2015. The milk samples were subjected to laboratory analyses to evaluate total aerobic mesophilic bacteria count (TAMBC), total coliform count (TCC), yeast count (YC) and mold count (MC) in the laboratory to determine the microbiological quality of the milk. Mean TAMBC, TCC, YC and MC for raw cow milk samples collected directly from the udders were 6.02±0.14, 4.23±0.12, 2.57±0.10 and 2.67±0.10 log 10 cfu mL -1 , respectively. The values for the samples collected from the equipment of producers upon arrival at their selling points were 7.17±0.14, 5.86±0.12, 3.46±0.10 and 3.70±0.10 log 10 cfu mL -1 for TAMBC, TCC, YC and MC, respectively. Mean TAMBC, TCC, YC and MC for samples collected from the equipment of collectors/transporters were 7.96±0.10, 6.49±0.07, 3.99±0.07 and 4.37±0.07 log 10 cfu mL -1 , respectively. The microbial counts for samples collected from the equipment of vendors were 8.78±0.08, 7.32±0.07, 4.98±0.06 and 5.04±0.07 log 10 cfu mL -1 for TAMBC, TCC, YC and MC, respectively. The values for samples collected from equipment of consumers were 8.82±0.08, 7.37±0.07, 5.10±0.06 and 5.11±0.07 log 10 cfu mL -1 for TAMBC, TCC, YC and MC, respectively. It could be concluded that raw cow milk samples collected from all towns and milk source were severely contaminated with aerobic mesophilic and coliform bacteria, yeast and molds, with loads exceeding the respective acceptable limits. Keywords : Dairy production system; Herd size; Microbiological quality; Milk supply chain, Raw cow milk

Abstract : Due to increasing price of conventional feeds, alternative locally available non-conventional feed ingredient is required for layers’ production. Rumen contents are abundantly available as slaughterhouse by-product and mainly considered as waste material creating environmental pollution. Therefore, a study was conducted for 90 days to evaluate effects of sun-dried rumen content (SDRC) inclusion in layer rations on egg laying performance, egg quality parameters, fertility, and hatchability, chick quality and blood parameters. Treatment diets contained T1, T2, T3, and T4 at 0, 5, 10, and 15 percent SDRC, respectively. On chemical analysis, the rumen content contained 11.18% crude protein, 1.22% ether extract, 22.99% crude fibre, 21.54% ash and 1099.32 cal/kg of DM of metabolizable energy. The daily DM intake value increased (P < 0.05) with the increase in level of rumen content. The bird fed with 10 percent SDRC diet had a high DM intake. The weight gain and egg production of the laying hens reduced significantly (P < 0.05) as the level of rumen content increased. The average egg weight increased significantly (P < 0.05) with the increase in the level of rumen content. The feed to gain ratio increased as the level of rumen content increased in the diet. The hen fed T2 (5 percent SDRC) had the best feed to gain ratio. Most external and internal egg quality parameters, especially yolk color, were improved when the diet contained sun-dried rumen content (SDRC). Fertility, hatchability, early and mid embryonic mortality showed no significant differences among treatments. However, chick quality parameters increased (P < 0.05) with the increase in the level of rumen content. Mortality rate was not influenced by treatments. All blood parameters studied were within the normal range. It is concluded that under the condition of this experiment, diets up to 10% SDRC in the ration did not affect DMI, daily weight gain, egg production performances and blood parameters in white leghorn layers. Keywords: White leghorns; SDRC; Egg mass; Egg quality; Fertility; Hatchability

Abstract : Alternative sustainable agriculture under the pressing impacts of climate variability on crop production is a primary concern in the Ethiopian development agenda towards sustained food security. Use of integrated crop management through climate resilient cultural practices that target diversity of produce, yield stability, losses due to pests, and reduction in economic and environmental risks is an appropriate strategy for sustainability of agricultural production. Field studies were conducted in Hararghe highlands, specifically at Haramaya during the 2012 and 2013 and at Arbarakate in the 2013 main cropping seasons to assess effects of integrated climate change resilient cultural practices on faba bean productivity. Three on-farm-based climate change resilient cultural practices: intercropping, compost application and furrow planting alone and in integration with the other practices were evaluated using Dagaga and Bulga-70 faba bean varieties and Melkassa-IV maize variety. The results showed that furrow planting with compost application in row intercropping increased soil moisture by up to 3.23% and cooled the soil temperature by up to 1.06 o C compared to sole cropping at Haramaya in 2013. Furrow planting with application of compost led to production of the highest (3.47 t ha -1 in 2012 and 4.25 t ha -1 in 2013) faba bean grain yields at Haramaya. The same treatment at Arbarakate produced the maximum (5.29 t ha -1 ) faba bean grain yield in 2013. This was closely followed by the yield obtained in response to the application of compost at both locations in 2013 and by the yield obtained in response to furrow and sole cropping at Haramaya in 2012. Compost fertilization with or without furrow planting led to the production of consistently heavier grains. The total Land Equivalent Ratio (1.01 to 1.76) indicated a higher grain yield advantages of faba bean-maize intercropping over sole faba bean cropping at both locations over the two years. The overall results demonstrated that integrated climate resilient cultural practices significantly increased productivity of the crop as a result of enhancing contents of soil nutrients, soil moisture, soil organic carbon, and regulating soil and canopy temperatures as well as through buffering the root environment. Keywords : Compost; Furrow planting; Grain yield; Land Equivalent Ratio; Row intercropping; Soil moisture and temperature; Sole cropping

Abstract : Barley occupies 10.72, 7.23 and 5.78% of the total land allocated for cereal crops in South Gondar, West Gojam and Awi Zones, respectively. This contributes to 9.19, 5.29 and 3.58% of the total cereal crop production in each zone, respectively. However, barley production has been constrained by different biotic and abiotic factors, of which loose smut [ Ustilago nuda (Jensen) Rostrup] is the major biotic factor in the study areas. This piece of work was carried out to assess the level of loose smut incidence at field and on farmers’ saved barley seeds. The field survey was done by randomly taking barley fields to determine the loose smut incidence level in the three zones of western Amhara Region (Awi, South Gondar and West Gojam) during the 2014 main cropping season. The seed health test on randomly taken farmers’ saved barley seeds was conducted following the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) 2014 rules. It was found that a minimum incidence of 1.17 to 2.00% and maximum incidence ranging from 4.04 to 10.64% occurred at field level, whereas seeds collected from these zones for embryo test in the laboratory showed the minimum seed infection of 8.35% and maximum infection of 25.65%. It can be concluded that loose smut infection rates in the surveyed areas were high. Hence, selecting disease-free barley seeds and screening resistant varieties together with seed treatments with selected fungicides need to be promoted to tackle loose smut and to sustain barley production. Keywords: Barley; Hordeum vulgare ; Loose Smut ; Seed Treatment; Ustilago nuda