Analysis of Determinant Factors to Loan Repayment among Rice Farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria
Abstract— Analysis of loan repayment among rice farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria was studied using one hundred and eighty respondents. These respondents were selected using multi stage sampling procedure and purposive selection procedure. The objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the broiler farmers, identify the various broiler management practices the farmers put their credit into, assess the determinant factors influencin loan repayments among the farmers and identify the constraints to loan repayment by the farmers in the study area. Structured questionnaire was used to collect information for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive such as frequency distribution table and percentage responses, inferential statistics such as Logit model and factor analysis. The results of the study indicated that the sampled farmers were youthful, females, married, and had large household size and farming experience of above 11 years. Also, microfinance and commercial banks were the major sources of credit to the farmers. In addition, the major uses the credit was put into by the farmers were in purchasing feeds and buying of drugs and vaccines. The determinant factors to rice farmers’ loan repayment ability were household size, extension services, membership of organization, farming experience, educational level and off-farm income. The constraints to the farmers’ ability to repay their loan were high interest rate, low productivity, high collateral, poor loan assessment and changes in bank policy changes. The need to enhance the farmers’ access to training, off- farm income and the need to give rebate to farmers that repay their loans at appropriate time were recommended.
Keywords— Analysis, Loan, Repayment, Broiler, Farmers, Enugu State, Nigeria.
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Analysis of the Environmental Effect of Pig Production in Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria
Abstract— The research was aimed at accessing environmental effect of pig production in Okigwe local Government Area of Imo state, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the socio economic characteristics of the respondents; identify the environmental effect of pig farming on the environs; identify the method of pig management and waste disposal methods among the respondents, determine the factors affecting the choice of waste disposal methods by respondents; and identify the constraints to wastes managements pig production in the study area. A total of 60 farmers were selected using purposive and multi stage random sampling techniques. The data were collected using questionnaire and secondary source. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical such as percentage and frequency distribution table for objectives i, ii and iv. The objective iii was captured using multi nominal logit model. The results showed that most of the respondents were aged, males, educated and had large household size. More so, on the method of pig management, intensive method was the most popular. Additionally, open lagoon, dumping in the farm and store in the bag were the major methods for waste disposal in pig production. In addition, the result of the multinomial regression model on the choice of methods of wastes disposal showed that age of the respondents, farming experience and membership of cooperative organization were positive and significant. The major constraints to wastes management in pig production in the study area were poor access to credit, poor road network, water problem and high costs of labour. There is need to ensure farmers’ access to credit, good road net work and water availability.
Keywords— Analysis, Environmental effect, Pig production, Okigwe Local Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria.
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Effect of Operation Variables of Potato Digger with Double Chain Conveyors on Crop Handling and Machine Performance
Abstract— The experiments were conducted at Al- Gimma Agricultural Scheme in the Tragma area- Shendi locality, River Nile State during April – 2017, to study the effect of some operational factors related to harvesting machine such as tractor forward speed (4.4, 5.6 and 6.7km/hr, harvesting depth (16, 18 and 21cm) and the conveyer inclination (15° and 20°) on some of potato crop handling such as lifting potatoes, cut of potatoes, Bruised and Total bruised (Damage) index potato and some of machine performance such as travel reduction (wheel slippage), effective field capacity and fuel consumption. The results showed that, there were significant influences of forward speed, harvesting depth and conveyer inclination on tubers lifting, cut of potatoes while the effect of different forward speed showed no significant effect on potatoes damage, further no significant on the percentage of scuffed damage tubers, peeler damage tubers, severe damage tubers, total damage index as effecting by conveyer inclination. As the digging depth of digger increased from 16 to 18, the lifting potatoes increased from 93.42 to 94.42%, while decreased from 94.42% to 87.72% when the digging depth decreased from 21cm to 18cm. Significant and consistent increase in tubers lifting percentage was recorded due to increase in conveyer inclination. Less percentage of scuffed, peeler, severe damage tubers and total damage index of 0.2%, 0.0%, 1.6% and 21.9, respectively were recorded at speed of 6.7km/hr, while the highest percentage of scuffed, peeler and severe damage tubers of 2.1%, 0.3% and 2.7% respectively were recorded at Speed of 4.3km/hr.
Statistical analysis (P<0.05) showed that increasing the forward speed, increased effective field capacity and fuel consumption significantly while there was no significance effect on wheel slippage. Furthermore, increasing the digging depth increased the wheel slippage and fuel consumption significantly where the effective field capacity significantly decreased. The conveyer inclination showed no significant effect on machine performance.
Keywords— potato digger machine, lifting potatoes, cut of potatoes, bruised potato, and Total Damage index and machine performance.
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Predicting of Field Working Days of Planting and Harvesting Operations for Sorghum Crops Damazeen Area (Sudan)
Abstract— Prediction model was developed to predict suitable field workdays for planting and harvesting operations in South Central Sudan (Damazeen). Predictions were made from a computer model which simulates daily soil moisture in the top 30 cm of soil depth using 11 years of daily meteorological records. The model was tested and validated by comparing its output with the observed workdays during the 2004 farming season on Clay soil types. Results show that there was good agreement between the observed and predicted values using established tractability criteria. A study was conducted to determine the appropriate number of working days in mechanized planting and semi-mechanized harvesting of Sorghum in Damazeen, Sudan in 2010. The number of working days for mechanized planting was estimated about 20 days, and for harvesting was about 23 days with 99% confidence. The allowed limit of soil moisture in clay-loam texture, for having the capability of running field operations was determined to be 14.5% of the weight. In this limit, soil has acceptability of 6.34 mm of water (rainfall) for sowing and 10.62 mm for harvesting at the depth of operation in each turn of rainfall or irrigation. At sowing and harvesting times, 19.3% and 7.5% of the rainfall is converted to runoff. Therefore, the maximum allowable rainfall in a situation that doesn’t change the soil condition from the proper situation for mechanized sowing and harvesting operation is 7.6 and 11.41 mm, respectively, in each rainfall turn. For the drainage of excess moisture after rainfall, in sowing and harvesting operations, five and seven days are required, respectively.
Keywords— simulation model, drainage, proper working days, runoff, soil profile tractability.
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Use of Triple Bagging Systems and Lippia Multilora Leaves for the Protein-Energy Quality Preservation of Cowpea Seeds (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp).
Abstract— Cowpea is a food legume highly appreciated in the traditional diet of the populations in Ivory Coast. It is confronted with storage and / or preservation problems which prevent his production in large quantity. This experiment carried out in Ivory Coast, made it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the triple bagging systems combined or not with the use of Lippia multiflora leaves on maintaining the cowpea seeds protein-energy quality during preservation. Thus, a 6×6 factorial design was considered to evaluate the cowpea seeds protein-energy quality. The first factor consisted to six types of packaging namely: one control with polypropylene bag (TST), one triple bagging batch (composed of 2 internal layers in independent high density polyethylene 80 mm thick and a woven bag polypropylene) without biopesticide (H0), and four batches (H1, H2, H3 and H4) containing respectively (0.7%; 2.5; 4.3%; and 5%) biopesticide. And second factor storage time, it included six periods of observation (0; 1; 2; 4.5; 7 and 8 months). Results showed significant influence of the interaction between types of treatments and storage time upon protein-energy quality of cowpea. Indeed, the polypropylene control was destocked at 4.5 months and very significant changes were recorded in the protein-energy quality of the cowpea seeds. Also, in the triple bagging systems without biopesticide significant changes were observed to seven months of storage in the contents of moisture (10.03% to 12.55%); ash (2.73% to 2.40%); fiber (5.15% to 4.37%); lipids (1.86% to 1.40%); proteins (22.75% to 15.21%); starch (53.80% to 42.27%); total carbohydrates (62.62% to 68.44%); total sugars (15.89% to 8.15%); reducing sugars (3.12% to 2.20%) and energy value (358% to 347.20%). However, cowpea seeds stored in triple bagging systems with biopesticide retain protein energy characteristic better for eight months period. The average values of analysis tests remained around: 12.06% humidity; 2.60% ash; 4.98% fiber; 18.50% proteins; 1.73% lipids; 52.13% starch; 65.13% total carbohydrates; 14.10% total sugars; 3.00% reducing sugars and finally 350.05% energy value. The results of the multivariate analysis indicate that the 0.7% biopesticide concentration is effective and maintains the protein-energy quality of the cowpea seeds for up to 8 months.
Keywords— Cowpea, preservation, triples bagging, biopesticide, protein energy characteristics.
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Environmental study of the role of anthropogenic factors on the possible pollution of coastal marine waters in Dakhla Bay – Morocco
Abstract— The sites used for breeding and the beaches are ranked in descending order of health in 4 categories A, B, C and D according to the estimate of the microbiological quality and evaluation of the chemical contamination (circular 15.08.12 d ‘August 2012). After classification, the target areas are subject to regular health surveillance, intended to verify the durability of the characteristics that have based their classification and to detect possible episodes of contamination. This monitoring covers the measurement of microbiological, chemical (heavy metal) and marine biotoxin parameters in bivalve molluscs, as well as phytoplankton pests in seawater.
The Main objective of the present survey is to make a diagnosis of the state of health of the principal beaches of the region of Dakhla Oued Eddahaba bay in years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Our sampling focused on 4 beaches: Foum Lbouir, El Moussafir, Lakeira, and Tourist Area. Bacteriological analyzes were conducted to identify the microorganisms that are indicative of faecal pollution including faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci and Escherichia coli and their enumeration by the filter membrane method on nutrient media Tergitol7 Agar, Litsky, Slanetz & Bartley.
In addition to microbiological monitoring of seawaters, the air temperature was measured “in situ” using a mercury thermometer, the temperature of the water using a pH meter, the tide (high or low) and finally the estimate of the number of bathers.
The Main results obtained made it possible to classify the four beaches in 3 categories according to the Moroccan standard for monitoring bathing water quality NM 03.7.200. The beaches of the Al Moussafir and Tourist PK25 are classified A. The beaches of Foum Lebouir with medium quality waters is classified A or B. Only the beach of Lakheira is very polluted and classified in category C.
Keywords— Coast, Beaches, Swimming, Pollution, Microbiology, Coliforms, Streptococci, Dakhla, Morocco.
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Evaluation of the CropSyst Model on Soybean (Glycine max L.) in the Tropics
Abstract— South Sulawesi is one of the soybean producer provinces in Indonesia. As in other tropical areas, South Sulawesi season comprises is dry and rainy seasons, so modeling of crops such as CropSyst can be very helpful in predicting planting time, providing irrigation, and applying the right fertilizer to get maximum soybean productivity. To apply the CropSyst model in the tropics such as South Sulawesi, calibration and validation of several plant parameters are required. Further calibration and validation results need to be tested to see the accuracy of predicting models. The results of soybean evaluation in South Sulawesi showed that RMSE (0.09 and 0.11), MBE (-0.01 and 0.11), MAE (0.08 and 0.11), and d (0.92 and 0.81) had values showing that CropSyst model accurately to predict grain yield of soybean in South Sulawesi.
Keywords— soybean, CropSyst, calibration, validation, evaluation.
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Hydrogeochemical of Oued Ouerrha and Oued Sra, Taounate (Rif, Morocco)
Abstract—The superficial waters of Taounate district are particularly affected by the pollution problem that threatens their physicochemical quality. The city of Taounate, because of its growing demography, these superficial watercourses are currently threatened by wastewaters discharges. In order to establish a diagnosis of their state of pollution, water samples were taken at two stations on OuedOuerrha and two others on its tributary OuedSra, to make a comparison between these two watercourses.
The physicochemical characterization of downstream stations, especially in OuedSra, shows high levels in terms of BOD5 (180 mg/L), COD (288 mg/L), and MES (152 mg/L), with a pH of 8,00 and a decrease in dissolved oxygen levels (4,8 mg/L) due essentially to urban discharges from the city of Taounate.
Otherwise, the influences of liquid discharges would certainly lead to the degradation of the quality of these waters. This situation may be aggravated by climate change, whose consequences could have adverse effects on the potential of water resources, both in terms of quantity and quality.
Keywords—Morocco, OuedOuerrha, OuedSra, Taounate, Wastewater.
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Detection of Paramyxovirus, Reovirus and Adenovirus Infection in King Snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum spp.) by Transmission Electron Microscopy and Histopathology Techniques.
Abstract— Viruses diverse occur worldwide in reptilian. Paramyxoviruses that infect reptiles belong to Paramyxoviridae family and Ferlavirus genus and are one of the major agents responsible for causing pneumonia in snakes. Reptilian adenovirus has already been documented in various species of snakes, associated with liver, gastrointestinal, respiratory and central nervous system disease. Reptilian orthoreovirus has been demonstrated in several species of reptiles associated with sudden death, central nervous system disorders, skin lesions and pneumonia. In this study 3 kingsnakes (Lampropeltis triangulum spp), from a breeding in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, presented a variable clinical picture and death. Feces and organ fragments were processed by the transmission electron microcopy (negative staining) and histopathology (H & E) techniques. By the negative staining, paramyxovirus-like particles, pleomorphic roughly spherical or filamentous, ranging in diameter from 100 to 500 nm, containing internal “herring-borne” nucleocapsid and an outer envelope covered by spikes, were visualized in all samples of the feces and fragments of organs examined. In samples of the small intestine, stomach, pancreas and spleen fragments, adenovirus-like particles, isometric, nonenveloped, containing icosahedral symmetry capsid, measuring 70-90 nm in diameter, were visualized. Reovirus-like particles, isometric, nonenveloped, spherical, characterized as “complete” or “empty”, measuring between 65 and 70 nm in diameter, were also visualized in samples of the feces and small intestine. By the H & E, they were observed in the spleen numerous heterophiles, hypoplastic lymphoid follicles and hyperplastic red pulp. The lung presented hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the alveolar walls, alveoli with cellular debris and mucus; numerous heterophiles and monolymphocytic inflammatory cells. The liver had a marked macro and microgoticular steatosis, with a multifocal presence of nodules in the parenchyma. Monolymphocytic hepatitis and large nuclear basophilic inclusion bodies were also observed in hepatocytes, Kupffer cells and occasionally in endothelial cells. The large intestine presented monolymphocytic enteritis with hyperplasia of enteric lymph nodes and marked proliferation of eosinophils. Some areas showed flattened villi. The skin presented areas with hyperkeratosis, foci with ballooniform degeneration and presence of eosinophilic inclusion corpuscles. In these areas a large number of eosinophils were observed. The kidneys presented monolymphocytic glomerulonephritis. The evaluation of the techniques employed allowed the rapid diagnosis of the viruses in the snakes.
Keywords— Transmission electron microscopy, Histopathology, Snakes, Viruses.
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Typology of Constraints and Recommended Solutions for the Agroforestry in the Cascades Region of Burkina Faso
Abstract— The tree-crop and / or animal association is a source of many ecological and socio-economic benefits, but it’s facing various constraints. The main objective of this work is to identify constraints and solutions to improve the agroforestry level in the Cascades region. Specifically, it aims to identify the units of management; list the agroforestry techniques used; identify the levels and types of constraints and recommended solutions. Interviews were conducted with the supervisors of agroforestry activities from technical public offices, researchers, partners and producers from 10 villages selected according to their specificities. They focused on agroforestry practices, constraints and solutions in the management of tree-crop fields, riverbanks, nurseries, plantations and direct seedings with forest tree seeds. A typology of the constraints was made and consisted in listing them, classifying them in different types and levels. These results highlighted six kinds of units on which eight agroforestry practices were found; 41 constraints were listed, classified in three (03) levels then in 10 types. Finally, 14 solutions are recommended by the interviewed actors to remove these constraints. A synergy of actions between the actors will allow better development of agroforestry in this region.
Keywords— Agroforestry, Parklands, Constraints, Solutions, Cascades Region.