Question

Vegetable crops growing on a commercial farm are damged by an unkown disease or pest with a 70 to 90 percent mortailty rate. The farmer claims the he has not changed his procedures for watering anfd fertilizer application. Formulate a hypotheses about the caustice agent, given the observatiosn above. What type of experiments should be used to help support or falsify the hypothesis

Answer 1

Answer:

Hypothesis : If Crop rotation is the employed then the risk of having a 70 - 90% mortality rate of vegetation is drastically reduced by 10%.

Explanation:

Mortality rate is the number of deaths per given unit of population over a given period of time.

The hypothesis should provide the possible answers to the questions formulated from this situation.

Hypothesis : If Crop rotation is the employed then the risk of having a 70 - 90% mortality rate of vegetation is drastically reduced by 10%.

Crop rotation, is a farming practice in which the same land is used to grow different crops in successive seasons or years (when once the land would have been left fallow); used to prevent erosion and increase fertility.

Action points:

Adopt: If after 3 month of planting monocot like maize (crop rotation) and then planting the vegetables the mortality rate reduces by 10%.

Reject: if after crop rotation the mortality rate is the same.

Answer 2

Answer:

soil and vegetative matter screening for soil structure integrity and invasive pathogens

Explanation:

Repeated use of fertilizer causes the soil to break down and lose it nutrient capacity. This in turn will affect the integrity of the plants, now in a nutrient deficit environment. In addition to this, soil micro-biome environment may also be compromised once soil structure and nutrient is lost. Some of the bacteria, fungi and protozoan in the soil plays a role in defense against invasive pathogens. When this is lost the possibility for infection and increased risk of unknown pest and disease is imminent.