An Assessment of Risk Management And Coping Strategies Of Farm Families In Southern Borno

This work assessed the behaviour of farm families in anticipation of a shock and after its occurrence.The study utilized primary data obtained through the use of questionnaire administered on the respon-dent. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) respondents were sampled and interviewe through a multistage random sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Re- sult of the analysis revealed that farmers in the area suffered from crop failure, flood, drought, price fluctuation, bush fires and pests infestation. Management strategie identified include farm migration, savings and diversification. Coping strategies identified include remittances, extended working hours and diversification. A large number of the respondents reported no management strategy (60.8%) or coping strategy (77.4%), ignorance, fear to acknowledge the presence of risk, and beliefs were found to be the reasons why majority of the farmers have no risk management or coping strategy. This find- ing revealed that the vulnerability of the farm families to adverse effects of shocks is high. It was rec-ommended that extension should educate farm families on risk, its management and coping strategies to help place them at a vantage point against shocks.        &nbsp

PT-supersymmetric partner of a short-range square well

In a box of size $L$, a spatially antisymmetric square-well potential of a purely imaginary strength ${\rm i}g$ and size $l < L$ is interpreted as an initial element of the SUSY hierarchy of solvable Hamiltonians, the energies of which are all real for $g < g_c(l)$. The first partner potential is constructed in closed form and discussed.Comment: 8 pages, no figure, presented at PHHQP3, Istanbul, June 20-22, 2005, to be published in Czech. J. Phy

Women’s Accessibility to Resources of Agricultural Productivity in Borno State, Nigeria

This study set out to investigate the extent of women’s accessibility to resources of agricultural productivity in Borno state, Nigeria. Data for the study were obtained from primary sources by the use of structured questionnaire. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 266 women farmers. The data obtained from the study was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics. The results showed that the respondents had mean age of 39.5 years, mean farming experience of 17.2 years, while mean family size was 10 persons. Over 80% of the respondents were married. Furthermore, the findings showed that the respondents had the highest access to farm income, farm management decision making powers, farm land and off farm income. However, their access to extension services, education, cooperatives, production inputs and credit were limited. It was recommended among others that agricultural input distribution should be gender sensitive to afford women increased access to resources. Keywords: Women, Access, Productive resources, Productivity

Women’s accessibility to resources of agricultural productivity in Borno state, Nigeria

This study set out to investigate the extent of women’s accessibility to resources of agricultural productivity in Borno state, Nigeria. Data for the study were obtained from primary sources by the use of structured questionnaire. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 266 women farmers. The data obtained from the study was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics. The results showed that the respondents had mean age of 39.5 years, mean farming experience of 17.2 years, while mean family size was 10 persons. Over 80% of the respondents were married. Furthermore, the findings showed that the respondents had the highest access to farm income, farm management decision making powers, farm land and off farm income. However, their access to extension services, education, cooperatives, production inputs and credit were limited. It was recommended among others that agricultural input distribution should be gender sensitive to afford women increased access to resources. Key Words: Women, Access, Productive resources, Productivit

Analysis of the Impact of Deforestation on Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria: An Error Correction Modeling Approach

This study analyzed the impacts of deforestation on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to assess the trend of deforestation and the impact of deforestation on agricultural productivity. Time series data on all the variables in the study spanning from 1975 to 2010 were used.  Descriptive statistic and Error Correction Model were the analytical techniques used for the study. The Unit root test results reveal that all the variables of deforestation, agricultural productivity, average rainfall and number of tractors were found to be non-stationary at 5% level but stationary at first difference, which give way for long-run co-integration. Analysis of Error Correction Model (ECM) results indicated an inverse long- run relationship between deforestation and agricultural productivity. The result reveals that 1% increase in deforestation will result in 1.7% decrease in agricultural productivity. Average rainfall and number of tractors show a long-run positive relationship with agricultural productivity. With 1% increase in average rainfall and number of tractors, agricultural productivity will increase by 0.5% and 2.4%, respectively. The result of the short- run analysis shows positive relationship between previous year’s agricultural productivity and rainfall on current agricultural productivity with elasticity of 0.9 and 0.2, while deforestation portrayed a negative effect on agricultural productivity with elasticity of -0.7. Error Correction Model shows a permanent impact of deforestation and agricultural productivity. Policies should gear up towards finding alternative sources of energy, while unnecessary clearing of forests should be legislated against to minimized causes of deforestation and its impacts on agricultural productivity. Keywords: Deforestation, Productivity, Error- correction and Nigeri

African fan palm (Borassus aethiopum) and oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) are alternate hosts of coconut lethal yellowing phytoplasma in Mozambique

In this study, potential alternate hosts of the phytoplasma causing coconut lethal yellowing disease (CLYD) in Mozambique were investigated based on 16S rRNA and secA genes. The results reveal that the naturalized palm species, Elaeis guineensis and Borassus aethiopum are alternate hosts of CLYD phytoplasma in Mozambique. Based on the iPhyClassifier online software, the phytoplasma detected in B. aethiopum belongs to the 16Sr group XXII-A, which include ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma palmicola’ and ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cocosnigeriae’. This is the first report associating ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma palmicola’ with wild naturalized palm species in the world. Key words: Alternate hosts, Borassus aethiopum, „Candidatus Phytoplasma palmicola‟, Elaeis guineensis, Mozambique, palm lethal phytoplasma phylogeny

Identification of Factors that Influence Technical Efficiency of Food Crop Production in West Africa: Empirical Evidence from Borno State, Nigeria

The objective of this study was to examine the determinants of food crop production and technical efficiency in the guinea savannas of Borno State, Nigeria. A stochastic frontier production function, using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) technique was applied in the analysis of data collected from 1086 sample farmers in 2004. The MLE results reveal that farm size; fertilizer and hired labour are the major factors that are associated with changes in the output of food crops. The effect of land area on output is positive and the coefficient found to be significant (p = 0.01). Fertilizer and hired labour have positive effects on output and their coefficients are significant (p = 0.01). Mean farmers’ technical efficiency index was found to be 0.68. Farmer-specific efficiency factors, which comprise age, education, credit, extension and crop diversification, were found to be the significant factors that account for the observed variation in efficiency among the farmers. The implication of the study is that technical efficiency in food crop production could be increased by 32 percent through better use of available resources, given the current state of technology

View-based Owicki-Gries reasoning for persistent x86-TSO

The rise of persistent memory is disrupting computing to its core. Our work aims to help programmers navigate this brave new world by providing a program logic for reasoning about x86 code that uses low-level operations such as memory accesses and fences, as well as persistency primitives such as flushes. Our logic, Pierogi, benefits from a simple underlying operational semantics based on views, is able to handle optimised flush operations, and is mechanised in the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant. We detail the proof rules of Pierogi and prove them sound. We also show how Pierogi can be used to reason about a range of challenging single- and multi-threaded persistent program

Contamination by aflatoxins in different food matrices produced andconsumed in Mozambique

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by various moulds that frequently contaminate food worldwide, being significant contributors to food losses in developing countries. In Mozambique, there is no comprehensive knowledge of the risk of mycotoxins in the country, nor structured actions to reduce the impacts of mycotoxins and promote health and food security in disadvantaged populations. This research aimed to analyse the level of contamination by aflatoxins in different food matrices produced and consumed in southern Mozambique. Ten samples were collected from each matrix (maize, rice, and peanut) in each of the 3 districts (Chongoene, Manjacaze and Chókwe) of Gaza province, and 10 peanut samples in each of the 3 districts (Massinga, Inhambane and Inharrime) of Inhambane province, in a total of 120 samples. Samples were collected between January and June 2023 from local markets and producers. Samples were analysed for total aflatoxins using the lateral flow strip, AgraStrip® Pro WATEX® (Romer Labs) method. Results showed that, from all matrices, the highest levels of aflatoxins were found in maize, with averages ranging from 369.2 (in Manjacaze) to 1,972.6 g/kg (in Chokwe). Average aflatoxin levels in rice ranged between 1.2 (Chongoene) and 63.08 g/kg (Manjacaze). Peanuts from the province of Inhambane were more contaminated than those from Gaza, with averages ranging from 5.6 (Manjacaze, Gaza) to 95 g/kg (Inhambane). Considering that the maximum admissible levels for total aflatoxins recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission for cereals and pulses is 15 g/kg, the level of aflatoxin contamination in food produced and consumed in southern Mozambique is high and constitutes a public health risk for the population. Therefore, risk mitigation strategies are urgently needed.Fundação para a Ciência e TecnologiaAga Khan Development NetworkAcknowledgements. The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and to the Aga Khan Development Network for the financial support to the project Ref. FCT AGA-KHAN / 541590696 / 2019 MYCOTOX-PALOP Multi-actor partnership for the risk assessment of mycotoxins along the food chain in African Portuguese-speaking countries (PALOP), and to FCT for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020), SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020), CITAB (UID/AGR/04033/2020), CEB (UIDB/04469/2020), LABBELS (LA/P/0029/2020), and Inov4Agro (LA/P/0126/2020). Cláudio Matusse thanks FCT for the PhD grant PRT/BD/15483/2022.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio