Constraints to Accessing Micro Credit and Loan Scheme of Bank of Agriculture among Farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria Implications for Extension Service Delivery

The study examined constraints to accessing micro credit loan scheme of Bank of Agriculture BOA among farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria Implications for extension service delivery. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting one hundred 100 respondents for the study. Data were collected using structured interview schedule questionnaire and analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean scores and standard deviation. The study revealed that micro credit loan scheme 88.6 were the most patronized among the rural farmers. Others such as ECOWAS, IFAD project and ATHP programme were not patronized at all, probably because the type of projects sponsored by these credit loan scheme are not important to the respondents. The respondents farmers were highly constrained by late release of funds M= 1.27 , grace period too short M= 1. 17 , excessive bureaucracy M= 1. 14 , too short payback period M= 1. 13 , services not regular M= 1. 13 , among others. The Bank of Agriculture staff also noted that they were constrained by late release of approved funds by head quarters of the Bank of Agriculture M= 1.43 , loan diversion M= 1.27 , poor funding of field officers M= 1.20 , lack of awareness by borrowers M= 1.10 and insufficient staff M= 0.93 . The study recommends that adequate awareness campaign on the availability of micro credit loan scheme by Bank of Agriculture should be created in order for the beneficiaries to be knowledgeable about it. It highlights the need for approval of more funds under the scheme and timely release of funds when needed especially during planting season in order to enable the farmers to make judicious use of it for optimum productivity. Mbah Evangeline N | Jiriko, R | Agada, M.O. "Constraints to Accessing Micro-Credit and Loan Scheme of Bank of Agriculture among Farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria: Implications for Extension Service Delivery" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-1 | Issue-4 , June 201

Food Security and Coping Strategies among Ethnic Groups in North Central Nigeria

A study was conducted to identify the factors influencing food security and the coping strategies utilized during food shortage among ethnic groups in rural North Central Nigeria in 2011. A random sample of 120 Tiv, 108 Igala and 112 Eggon households were interviewed to find out the quantities of every food item consumed in the household in the past 24 hours and the coping strategies employed during food stress. The analysis was done using frequency, percentage, mean scores and logit regression. The findings indicated that while the majority (68%) of the Tiv households were food secure, only 45% of the Eggon and 42% of the Igala were food secure.  In all, 51.8% of the households were food secure. Socio-economic factors such as output from own production (t= 2.89; p ? 0.05), farm income (t= 2.21), annual income (t=2.79; p ? 0.05) and household size (t= -7.64; p ? 0.05) were found to be important correlates which affect food security. The study also showed that the mean coping strategy index for Igala, Eggon and Tiv ethnic groups were 44.8, 37.5 and 34.4 respectively and 38.5 for the entire population. The commonly adopted coping strategies for the entire population were reliance on less preferred food (95.8%) and limiting food portions at meal times (83.5%). Although slightly above half of the households were food secure, calorie consumption was just at the threshold of adequacy while the use of coping strategies is a reflection of the poor access to food by households. Thus, food remained an issue in North Central Nigeria. Therefore, it is imperative for policy makers to plan to improve food availability and to increase family income to enhance quality of rural life. Keywords: factors, food security, coping strategies, rural households, ethnic groups, North Central Nigeri

Squamous cell carcinoma of the middle ear: Case report and literature review

A 50 year-old man with squamous cell carcinoma of the right middle ear is presented. Treatment was by surgery and radiotherapy. The literature is reviewed. Key Words: Middle ear, carcinoma, squamous cell Annals of African Medicine Vol.3(2) 2004: 90-9

Catalytic efficiency of zerovalent iron compounds as paint driers compared with conventional substances: The use of ferrocene and other iron compounds as driers in autoxidative paint systems at ambient and elevated temperatures.

Novel paint driers based on iron co-ordination complexes were investigated for use as stoving finishes in oil-based coatings. Cis 9, cis 12-octadecadienoic acid was employed as a model vehicle because of its high drying capacity. Iron compounds generally have low catalytic efficiency at low temperatures which however improve with rises in temperature. The catalytic efficiency of some iron compounds was compared with those of some conventional driers at room temperature; 60 C, 80 C and 1200 C. To make the results comparative, equal weights of drier (0.05%) metal were employed in one series of experiments. In another series, a much higher concentration (0.25%) metal based on the weight of 9,12-octadecadienoic acid was employed. Equal weights of drier combination(s) and variable drier weights were examined to determine synergism or antagonism in the autoxidative systems. Maximum oxygen absorption, changes in iodine and peroxide values were monitored to determine a comparative catalytic performance of the driers at the reaction temperatures used. The reactivity of iron co-ordination complexes was found to be influenced by the organic compound with which the iron is chelated. Zerovalent iron complexes can be employed as high temperature driers. For convenience some common names have been used for major chemicals of importance in this work, e. g., Linoleic acid; cis 9, cis 12-octadecadienoic acid. Ferrocene; dicyclopentadienyl iron

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A LANGUAGE SCANNER GENERATOR (KnitAutoGen)

The need for fast, efficient and simple scanner generator that has the primary responsibility to perform efficiently gave rise to this paper. This is due to the fact that, on daily basis new technologies arise which brings a great improvement on the design of computer architecture. However, attention was given to speed, run time and resource availability of the design machine to be used since lexical analysis has an impact on how the compiler works. This paper seeks to develop a lexical analyzer (scanner generator) automatically by specifying the lexemes patterns to a lexical analyzer generator and compiling those patterns into a code that functions as a lexical analyzer. The scanner accepts characters as input and breaks them down to produce tokens by grouping the characters and not deviating from specifications. The project employs one of the different methods of lexical analyzer generator to perform pattern-matching on text using regular expression over a global character set. The paper shows how input is matched and specifies what to do when a pattern is matched. This was achieved with the use of regular expressions (RE) which were converted to non-deterministic finite automata (NFA) or deterministic finite automata (DFA). The regular expression and the regular grammar were thus joined together mathematically. Various results are presented and further work on micro compilers was proposed. Keyword: Scanner generator, Regular expression, KnitAutoGen, DFA, NFA. DOI: 10.7176/CTI/8-0

Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Middle Ear

A 50 year-old man with squamous cell carcinoma of the right middle ear is presented. Treatment was by surgery and radiotherapy. The literature is reviewed

Coccidioidomycosis in Chicken Pullets in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria: A Case Report

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Increasing cassava root yield on farmers’ fields in Nigeria through appropriate weed management

Open Access Article; Published online: 08 Sep 2021Weed competition is the major biological stress affecting cassava production in smallholder farms in West and Central Africa, where yields are low compared with those in Asia and Latin America. Options for improved weed management are crucial in increasing productivity. Selected pre- and post-emergence herbicides, integrated with appropriate tillage and plant spacing, were tested in 96 sites in four locations in Nigeria, 24 in 2016 and 72 in 2017. Trials were split plots with six pre-emergence herbicides and no post-emergence treatment as main plots. Subplot treatments were four post-emergence herbicides, weeding with a motorized rotary weeder, short- and long-handled hoes, and no post-emergence weed control, i.e., regardless of pre-emergence treatments. Indaziflam-based treatments, irrespective of post-emergence treatment, and flumioxazin + pyroxasulfone applied pre-emergence followed by one weeding with a long-handled hoe provided >80% control of major broadleaf and grass weeds. Compared with herbicide use, farmer control practices (53%) were not efficient in controlling weeds. The highest root yield was produced where (1) s-metolachlor was combined with atrazine, and one weeding with a long-handled hoe or clethodim with lactofen, and (2) indaziflam + isoxaflutole was combined with glyphosate. An increase in root yield from 3.41 to 14.2 t ha-1 and from 3.0 to 11.99 t ha-1 was obtained where herbicides were used compared with farmers’ practice and manual hoe weeding. Our results showed that integrating good agronomic practices with safe and effective use of appropriate herbicides can result in root yield >20 t ha−1. i.e., twice the national average root yield of 8–12 t ha−1, with >50% net profit. The use of appropriate herbicides can reduce the amount of manual labor required and improve livelihoods, specifically for women and children. Smallholder cassava farmers would require continuous training on the safe use and handling of herbicides to improve efficiency and prevent adverse effects on humans and the environment

Hepatitis C Virus infection in apparentenly healthy individuals with family history of diabetes in Vom, Plateau State Nigeria

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important public health problem worldwide. Its association with, and predisposing nature for diabetes mellitus (DM) has been long established. This research was carried out to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) amongst people with possible genetic predisposition to diabetes mellitus living in and around Vom, Plateau State, Nigeria. 188 subjects were screened after they filled a structured questionnaire to determine some of their demographic data, social habits and possible risk factors. 5 ml of blood was collected from each subject and sera separated out. Biotech's third generation ELISA Kit for HCV antibodies was used for the screening. Liver enzyme analysis was carried out on positive samples to determine their disease status. A prevalence of 14.36% was recorded with the highest seropositive group being those in the age bracket of 18 – 37 years. 13(13.40%) of males and 14(15.38%) of females were sero-positive. Liver enzyme analysis of sero-positive subjects showed increased levels which may imply early onset of liver damage. These result showed that these individuals could later suffer diabetes which may be triggered by their HCV infection if not treated. This is not over-looking the economic significance of their ill health, assuming they progress to cirrhotic HCV or develop hepatocelluar carcinoma due to HCV chronicity