Include bibliographical references

Ch 1: Introduction - -
1.0 Introduction - -
1.1 Background of the study - -
1.1.1 Historical and contextual background - -
1.1.2. Small holder farmer - -
1.1.3 Conservation agriculture (ca) and its principles - -
1.1.4. Soil weed seed bank - -
1.1.5 Integrated weed management in conservation agriculture - -
1.2 Statement of the problem - -
1.3 Justification of the study - -
1.4 Objectives of the study - -
1.4.1 Major objective - -
1.4.2 Specific objectives - -
1.5 Research hypothesis - -
1.6 Definition of key terms - -
1.6.1 Conservation agriculture - -
1.6.2 Soil cover - -
1.6.3 Soil seed bank or weed seed bank - -
1.6.4 Minimum tillage (mt) - -
1.6.5 Integrated weed management - -
1.6.6 Ecological weed management - -
1.6.7 Hand weeding - -
1.6.8 Hand hoeing - -
1.6.9 Intercropping - -
1.6.10 Mowing - -
1.6.11 Cutting - -
1.6.12 Dredging and chaining - -
1.7 Conceptual framework - -
1.8. Philosophical under pinning of this research - -
Ch 2: Literature review - -
2.0 Introduction - -
2.1 Climate change - -
2.2 Conservation agriculture for sustainability (energy use efficiency and soil health) - -
2.2.1 Relating conservation agriculture with the soil seed bank - -
2.2.2 Crop performance and yield under CA - -
2.2.3 Mechanization of conservation agriculture - -
2.2.4 CA policy and institutional support implications for developing countries - -
2.2.5 Effect of CA on soil health - -
2.2.6. Effect of CA on weeds - -
2.3 Weed ecology - -
2.4 Weed dynamics - -
2.5 Weed management - -
2.5.1 Mechanical and manual weed control - -
2.5.2 Cultural weed control - -
2.5.3 Chemical weed management - -
2.5.4 Preventive weed management - -
2.5.5. Herbicide tolerant crops (HTC) - -
2.5.6 Biological weed control - -
2.6 Integrated weed management in CA - -
2.7. Soil seed banks - -
2.8 Estimation of the soil seed bank - -
2.9.0 Effect of crop management practice on weeds and crop yield - -
2.9.1 Effect of tillage practice on weeds - -
2.9.2 Effect of soil cover on weeds - -
2.9.3 Effect of intercropping on crop yield and performance - -
2.9.4 Yield and weed response to diversified crop rotations - -
2.9.5 Integrated weed management in perspective - -
2.9.6 Conclusion and future prospect of ca for Uganda - -

Chapter three: research methodology - -
3.1 objective 1. To compare three seed bank estimation techniques for detecting treatment
Differences and determining seed density and species composition - -
3.1.1 Introduction - -
3.1.2 Study site - -
3.1.3 Materials - -
3.1.4 Experimental design and layout - -
3.1.5 Data collection - -
3.1.6 Statistical analysis - -
3.2 Objective 2: to determine the effect of tillage practice on weed density, diversity and
Crop performance - -
3.2.1 Materials - -
3.2.2 Methods: experimental design and crop management - -
3.2.3 Data collection - -
3.2.3.1 Weed density - -
3.2.3.2 Weed community - -
3.2.3.3 Leaf area index (lai) and plant height (cm) - -
3.2.3.4 Stand count - -
3.2.3.5 Days to 50% flowering - -
3.2.3.6 plant height - -
3.2.3.7 Pod number - -
3.2.3.8 Pod length - -
3.2.3.9 Disease and pest incidence - -
3.2.3.10 Grain yield - -
3.2.3.11 Rainfall (mm) and daily temperature (OC) - -
3.2.3.12 Data sheet - -
3.2.3.13 Global positioning system receiver (GPS receiver) - -
3.2.14 Statistical analysis - -
3.3 Objective 3: to determine the effect of soil cover on weed density, diversity and crop
Performance - -
3.3.1 Materials - -
3.3.2 Methods: experimental design and crop management - -
3.3.3 Data collection - -
3.3.4 Statistical analysis - -
3.4 Objective 4: to determine the effect of the intercrops on overall crop performance in
Conservation agricultural systems - -
3.4.1 Materials - -
3.4.2 Methods experimental design and crop management - -
3.4.3 Data collection - -
3.4.4 Data analysis - -
3.5 Ethical consideration - -
3.6 Limitation of the study - -
Ch:4 Result Presentations, analysis and discussion of findings - -
4.0 Comparison of three soil seed bank estimation techniques for detecting treatment
differences and determining seed density and species composition - -
4.1.1 Introduction - -
4.1.2 Comparison of the three soil seed bank estimation methods to measure soil seed
bank weed density - -
4.1.2 Comparison of the three soil seed bank estimation methods to measure weed
diversity - -
4.1.3 Effect of tillage and soil cover on soil seed bank - -
4.1.4 Effect of season on soil seed bank density - -
4.1.5 Effect of season on soil seed bank diversity - -
4.1.6 Discussion for the comparison of three soil seed bank estimation techniques for
detecting treatment differences and determining soil seed density and diversity - -
4.1.7 Conclusion - -
4.2 Effect of tillage practice on weed density, diversity and crop performance - -
4.2.1 Introduction - -
4.2.2. Effect of rainfall amount and number of rainy days on weed density and diversity - -
4.2.3 Effect of tillage practice on weed density - -
4.2.4 Effect of tillage practice on weed diversity using shannon weiner index - -
4.2.5 Effect of tillage practice on weed diversity using simpsons diversity index - -
4.2.6 Effect of tillage practice on yield - -
4.2.7 Effect of tillage practice x soil cover practice x season interaction on above ground
weed density - -
4.2.8 Effect of tillage practice x soil cover practice x season interaction on above ground
weed diversity - -
4.2.9 Discussion and conclusion objective 2 - -
4.3 Effect of soil cover practice on weed density, diversity and crop performance - -
4.3.1 Introduction - -
4.3.3 Effect of soil cover practice on above ground weed density - -
4.3.4 Effect of soil cover practice on weed diversity using shannon weiner index - -
4.3.5 Effect of soil cover practice on weed diversity using simpsons diversity index - -
4.3.6 Effect of soil cover practice on yield - -
4.3.7 Discussion objective 3 - -
4.3.8 Conclusion objective 3 - -
4.4 Effect of intercropping on overall crop performance under ca system - -
4.4.1 Introduction - -
4.4.2 Effect of intercropping on maize yield - -
4.4.3 Effect of intercropping on soybean yield - -
4.4.4 Land equivalence ratio (LER) - -
4.4.5 Effect of intercropping on key maize crop growth parameters - -
4.4.6 Discussion - -
4.4.7 Conclusion - -
Ch 5: Implication of the study - -
Ch 6: Conclusion and recommendation - -