Accuracy of physicians in diagnosing HIV and AIDS-related death in the adult population of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: The lack of cause of death information is the main challenge in monitoring the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing HIV and AIDS-related deaths in countries where the majority of deaths occur at home. Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of physician reviewers of verbal autopsies in diagnosing HIV and AIDS-related deaths in the adult population of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Methods: This study was done within the context of a burial surveillance system in Addis Ababa. Trained interviewers completed a standard verbal autopsy questionnaire and an independent panel of physicians reviewed the completed form to assign cause of death. Physicians’ review was compared to a reference standard constructed based on prospectively collected HIV-serostatus and patients’ hospital record. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated to validate the physicians’ verbal autopsy diagnoses against reference standards. Results: Physicians accurately identified AIDS-related deaths with sensitivity and specificity of 0.88 (95% CI: 0.80 - 0.93) and 0.77 (95% CI: 0.64 - 0.87), respectively. Generally, there was high level of agreement (Cohen’s Kappa Statistic (K > 0.6) between the first two physicians with some yearly variations. In 2008 and 2009 there was an almost perfect agreement (K > 0.80). Conclusion: This study demonstrated the agreement level between two independent physicians in diagnosing AIDS-related death is very high and thus using a single verbal autopsy coder is practical for programmatic purposes in countries where there is critical shortage of doctors

Honey Value Chain Analysis and Producers Financing in Damot Gale District, Southern Ethiopia

Honey value chain played a significant role in the economy of the country by engaging around two million farm households and other different actors. However, these actors and their function are not literally identified. In  a  given  value  chain,  financial service is an important instrument in improving the welfare of a poor through enhancing their productive capacity and motivating further value adding activities. Despite its importance, its supply for improved apiculture is limited in Ethiopia. This prevented farmers from buying high yielding equipment and undertaking modern colony management. This study was conducted with the aim of identifying different major actors and their respective functions who are engaged in honey value chain. It also identified the sources of finances for bee keepers, and their opportunities and challenges. The study was conducted in 120 households who were selected by using two stage sampling from Damot Gale District. The study identified seven major actors: producers, collectors, wholesalers, retailers, cooperatives, processors and consumers; and their functions were transporting, sorting and packing, filtering and processing. Producers get either in cash or in kind credit both as external and internal value chain financing where the major external sources were Omo micro finance institution and WARDO while the internal financial sources were cooperatives and self-supply. The study also revealed that, Shortage of input supply, Lack of skill to make locally made transitional hive, Shortage bee forage and Lack of strong internal value chain financing system challenged the effectiveness of honey value chain in the study area. Keywords: Honey, Value chain, Value chain financing, Actors, Marketing, Damot Gal

Livestock Production Constraints and Opportunities and its Determinant in Assosa District, Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, Western Ethiopia

The study was carried out in 4 selected kebeles of Assosa district with the objectives of identifying the major constraints and opportunities of livestock production and analyzing the determinants of livestock production of smallholder farmers’ in the study area. A total of 99 household heads were selected through random sampling techniques. Both primary and secondary sources of data collection was applied. The primary data was collected through interviewing the selected farmers and field observation supported with secondary data sources. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive and cobb-douglas econometric model. Both SPSS and STATA software were used. The result of the study showed that the average age of sampled farmers was 47.34%. 7.1% and 92.9% of farm household head were female and male headed households, respectively with mean educational schooling of 4.25 years. The study revealed that the average grazing land size was 1.62 hectares with mean 1.64 km and 2.44 km of distance traveled by livestock to water source and sampled household head to the livestock market, respectively. the major livestock constraints identified in the study area were: disease, shortage of grazing land, lack of capital and improved breed, water scarcity during the dry season and lack of artificial insemination, respectively with the livestock production opportunities of availability of veterinary supply, input access, mixed crop production system, access to credit service and feed availability. The econometric result showed that from the hypothesized 14 explanatory variables, only 6 variables (labor, Extension contact service, capital, grazing land, veterinary service, breeding type) were found to be statistically significant at 1 and 5% significance level in affecting household livestock production. The study recommends that provision of extension service, supply of improved breed and capital along with a combined effort expansion is needed to increase livestock production. Keywords: Assosa district, livestock, Cobb-Douglas

Causal Relationship between Government Revenue Growth and Economic Growth in Ethiopia

The main aim of this study is to demystify the mystery surrounding the belief that, high government revenue growth rates engineered through the government multiplier process. The relationship between government revenue growth and economic growth is investigated for Ethiopia during the period 1974/75-2013/14. Theoretically and empirically it has been shown that revenue especially generated from taxes affect the allocation of resources and often distort economic growth. While, analyzing the long run and short run relationship between government revenue growth and economic growth the study applied Johansen’s cointegration test, VAR, granger causality test, and VECM. Government revenue growth in general and with its component though affect economic growth found to have no causal relationship with economic growth in the long run. This implies there is fiscal independence between tax revenue and economic growth. Furthermore, in the short run the finding showed that there is independence relationship and the speed of adjustment is slow; only 27% and 7% for the components and total revenue growth with economic growth models, respectively. However, compared with post tax reform periods the latter has high speed of adjustment; meaning the speed of disturbances corrected each year in the short run become fast. Based on the findings the study highlighted some major issues that policymakers should consider for effective taxation policy formulation and implementation in line with the dynamic nature of the Ethiopian economy. Keywords: Economic Growth, Total revenue growth, Causality.

Identification of Major Crop Production Constraints in Bena-Tsemay District, South Omo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

A survey was carried out during 2016 at Bena-Tsemay district, South Omo zone, SNNPRS, Ethiopia to identify the major crop production constraints. Before the inception of the study, the team made short meeting at JARC for the way of interview and given direction on the sampling method and the data to be collected. Then the whole multidisciplinary team was started the work by collecting secondary data from zonal and woreda respective offices. Discussion was made with woreda respective offices to get information with regard to the important preliminary conditions for the study such as selection of the representative kebele for the district, accessibility of the kebele’s and the general background of the district. Primary data were collected through discussion between the disciplinary based sub-groups and the corresponding farmers’ sub-groups. For the purpose of discussion, the farmers were grouped in to three interviewee sub-groups of plant breeders, agronomists and protection researchers each containing females, youths and male elders with proportionate number and participated in the discussion. The discussion was guided by the checklist prepared by multidisciplinary team at regional level and issues raised during discussion were incorporated. Visual observations were also made at farm level. Upon completion of the sub-group level discussion, information particularly agricultural production and production related constraints identified by each sub-groups of farmers were summarized together. Then, all informant farmers were gathered as one group and summarized series of constraints had been briefed to them and then they ranked the problems by consensus in order of their importance. Based on the study, in Benatsemay woreda there is no improved crop variety and package use, not used improved agronomic practice, serious disease and pests, no market institution, information, linkage, accessibility and weak processing of end product and lack of post-harvest handling and food processing technology on fruit, root and tuber crops. Keywords: Major crop production constraints, Insect pests, Farming system

Identification of Major Crop Production Constraints in Debub Ari district, South Omo zone, Southern Ethiopia

A survey was carried out during 2016 at Debub Ari, South Omo zone, SNNPRS, Ethiopia to identify the major crop production constraints. Before the inception of the study, the team made short meeting at JARC for the way of interview and given direction on the sampling method and the data to be collected. Then the whole multidisciplinary team was started the work by collecting secondary data from zonal and woreda respective offices. Discussion was made with woreda respective offices to get information with regard to the important preliminary conditions for the study such as selection of the representative kebele for the district, accessibility of the kebele’s and the general background of the district. Primary data were collected through discussion between the disciplinary based sub-groups and the corresponding farmers’ sub-groups. For the purpose of discussion, the farmers were grouped in to three interviewee sub-groups of plant breeders, agronomists and protection researcherseach containing females, youths and male elders with proportionate number and participated in the discussion. The discussion was guided by the checklist prepared by multidisciplinary team at regional level and issues raised during discussion were incorporated. Visual observations were also made at farm level. Upon completion of the sub-group level discussion, information particularly agricultural production and production related constraints identified by each sub-groups of farmers were summarized together. Then, all informant farmers were gathered as one group and summarized series of constraints had been briefed to them and then they ranked the problems by consensus in order of their importance. Based on the study, in Debub Ari woreda there is no improved crop variety and package use, not used improved agronomic practice, serious disease andpests, no market institution, information, linkage, accessibility and weak processing of end product and lack of post-harvest handling and food processing technology on fruit, root and tuber crops. Keywords: Major crop production constraints, Insect pests, Farming system

Effect of Compost, Lime and P on Selected Properties of Acidic Soils of Assosa

A three-factor-experiment was conducted in the acidic soil of Assosa for two main growing seasons (2014-2015) to identify the effect of integrated application of compost, lime and phosphorus on selected chemical and physical properties of soil using maize as a test crop. The treatments consisted of compost (0 and 5 t ha-1), lime (0, 1.5 and 3 t ha-1) and phosphorus (0, 20 and 40 kg P ha-1). Randomized complete block design with three replications was used. The analysis showed that there was significant (p<0.01) difference due to main and interaction effects of treatments on soil pH, OC, CEC and available P, total N, exchangeable acidity and exchangeable Al. Thus, the first season compost applied at 5 t ha-1 increased the soil pH to 6.23, while the main effect of lime at 3 t ha-1 increased the pH to 5.95. The interactions of the first season compost at 5 t ha-1, lime at 1.5 t ha-1 and P at 40 kg P ha-1 showed the highest available P (15.04 cmolc kg-1). The interactions of the first season lime (1.5 t ha-1) with P at (40 kg P ha-1) reduced the exchangeable acidity (0.36 cmolc kg-1) the highest, while the exchangeable Al was highly reduced by the main effect of compost at 5 t ha-1 (0.32 cmolc kg-1) and interaction of first season with lime at 3 t ha-1 (0.05 cmolc kg-1). The study suggested compost was as important as lime in increasing the soil pH and reducing exchangeable Al. Keywords: soil pH, available P, exchangeable acidity exchangeable A

Poster Abstract: Modeling an Electronically Switchable Directional Antenna for Low-power Wireless Networks

WISENET (NES

Constraints, Opportunities and Determinants of Livestock Production in Assosa District, Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, Western Ethiopia

The study was carried out in three selected PA’s of Assosa district, western Ethiopia with the objectives of identifying the major constraints and opportunities of livestock production and analyzing the determinants of livestock production of sampled households. Both primary and secondary data were used. The collected data was analyzed through descriptive and cobb-douglas econometric model by using both SPSS and STATA software. For this purpose, a multi stage purposive and simple random sampling technique was used and a total of 99 sampled household heads were selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The study result showed that the average age of sampled farmers was 47.34%. 7.1% and 92.9% of selected farmers were female and male headed households, respectively with mean educational schooling of 4.25 years. The study revealed that the average grazing land size was 1.62 hectares with mean 1.64 km and 2.44 km of distance traveled by livestock to water source and sampled household head to the livestock market, respectively. The major livestock constraints identified in the study area were disease, shortage of grazing land, lack of capital and improved breed, water scarcity during the dry season and lack of artificial insemination, respectively with the livestock production opportunities of availability of veterinary supply, input access, mixed crop production system, access to credit service and feed availability. The econometric result showed that from the hypothesized 14 explanatory variables, only six variables (labor, Extension contact service, capital, grazing land, veterinary service, breeding type) were found to be statistically significant at 1 and 5% significance level in determining household livestock production. The study recommends that provision of extension service, supply of improved breed and capital along with upgrading marketing infrastructure (health and sanitary conditions) will increase the livestock production and welfare of smallholder farmers. Keywords: Assosa district, Challenges, Opportunities, Cobb-Douglas

Marketing Channel and Margin Analysis of Ware Potato: A Case Study of Ware Potato Marketing at Ambo and Dendi Districts in Central Ethiopia

The study was conducted at Ambo and Dendi districts, Central Ethiopia to identify ware potato marketing channels, assess margins of the market and examine the role of various marketing actors involved in the chain. Related data from primary and secondary sources were collected and analyzed with descriptive statistics using SPSS. Simple random sampling method was used for the study. From the total volume produced in the study area, a total of 1,366 and 938 tons of ware potato, accounting 76.28% and 68.68% from the total produced, were sold in Ambo and Dendi districts, respectively, during study period. Seven marketing channels were identified. There is wide gap in market margin and found to be inefficient; with the highest market margin goes for collectors (32.8%) with the lowest shared by (40%). Likewise, the highest and lowest profit margins were taken by wholesaler (13.55 birr/qt) and collectors (48.65 birr/qt). In order to benefit the major participants of the market chain, farmers have to linked with the need of consumers by working closely suppliers and processors to produce the specific goods required by consumers.   Keywords: - Ambo and Dendi districts, margin, market channel