Demand-driven and Cost Effective Production: What the Farmers Ought to know. A case of Local Chicken Enterprise in Masindi District-Uganda

Most African communities depend on agriculture for both income generation and food security and yet farming has faced and is still confronted with a lot of production and market related hardships. Despite all these constraints, farmers are stuck on agriculture as it’s the only definite way of earning a living. The mistake farmers and other agricultural practitioners continuously make is to produce first and look for the market later. This is where buyers and the middle men in particular exploit and a conclusion is eventually made by the producer that,” there is no money in agriculture.” Farmers including those who want to reap from agriculture need to first change their attitudes towards it and secondly produce what the markets are demanding at particular point in time. This therefore calls for institutionally guided farmer market research, enterprise selection, experimentation and enterprise development. Farmers can only benefit from agricultural production after carefully understanding what the buyer wants as in the type of the commodity, size, quantity, quality, frequency of supply, conditions of supply and the price the buyer is willing to offer among others. Where the selected enterprise has very high costs of production, the farmer should minimize costs buy substituting some inputs with local materials and also negotiate for a premium price and sign contracts with the buyers. Two farmer research groups in Masindi district in Uganda went through the above processes and have got success stories to tell.Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Research Agenda for Helminth Diseases of Humans: Intervention for Control and Elimination

Recognising the burden helminth infections impose on human populations, and particularly the poor, major intervention programmes have been launched to control onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, schistosomiasis, and cysticercosis. The Disease Reference Group on Helminth Infections (DRG4), established in 2009 by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), was given the mandate to review helminthiases research and identify research priorities and gaps. A summary of current helminth control initiatives is presented and available tools are described. Most of these programmes are highly dependent on mass drug administration (MDA) of anthelmintic drugs (donated or available at low cost) and require annual or biannual treatment of large numbers of at-risk populations, over prolonged periods of time. The continuation of prolonged MDA with a limited number of anthelmintics greatly increases the probability that drug resistance will develop, which would raise serious problems for continuation of control and the achievement of elimination. Most initiatives have focussed on a single type of helminth infection, but recognition of co-endemicity and polyparasitism is leading to more integration of control. An understanding of the implications of control integration for implementation, treatment coverage, combination of pharmaceuticals, and monitoring is needed. To achieve the goals of morbidity reduction or elimination of infection, novel tools need to be developed, including more efficacious drugs, vaccines, and/or antivectorial agents, new diagnostics for infection and assessment of drug efficacy, and markers for possible anthelmintic resistance. In addition, there is a need for the development of new formulations of some existing anthelmintics (e.g., paediatric formulations). To achieve ultimate elimination of helminth parasites, treatments for the above mentioned helminthiases, and for taeniasis and food-borne trematodiases, will need to be integrated with monitoring, education, sanitation, access to health services, and where appropriate, vector control or reduction of the parasite reservoir in alternative hosts. Based on an analysis of current knowledge gaps and identification of priorities, a research and development agenda for intervention tools considered necessary for control and elimination of human helminthiases is presented, and the challenges to be confronted are discussed

Demand-driven and Cost Effective Production: What the Farmers Ought to know. A case of Local Chicken Enterprise in Masindi District-Uganda

Most African communities depend on agriculture for both income generation and food security and yet farming has faced and is still confronted with a lot of production and market related hardships. Despite all these constraints, farmers are stuck on agriculture as it’s the only definite way of earning a living. The mistake farmers and other agricultural practitioners continuously make is to produce first and look for the market later. This is where buyers and the middle men in particular exploit and a conclusion is eventually made by the producer that,” there is no money in agriculture.” Farmers including those who want to reap from agriculture need to first change their attitudes towards it and secondly produce what the markets are demanding at particular point in time. This therefore calls for institutionally guided farmer market research, enterprise selection, experimentation and enterprise development. Farmers can only benefit from agricultural production after carefully understanding what the buyer wants as in the type of the commodity, size, quantity, quality, frequency of supply, conditions of supply and the price the buyer is willing to offer among others. Where the selected enterprise has very high costs of production, the farmer should minimize costs buy substituting some inputs with local materials and also negotiate for a premium price and sign contracts with the buyers. Two farmer research groups in Masindi district in Uganda went through the above processes and have got success stories to tell

CHROMOSOME COUNTS IN SECTION SIMIOLUS OF THE GENUS MIMULUS (SCROPHULARIACEAE). IX. POLYPLOID AND ANEUPLOID PATTERNS OF EVOLUTION

Volume: 21Start Page: 417End Page: 42