Farmer perspectives on the use of indigenous fruit tree species in cocoa growing systems in Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar District of Ghana

AbstractIndigenous fruit trees are known to provide nutrition and income for rural households. Chrysophyllum albidum, which is used as a shade tree in cocoa farms in some parts of Ghana, is one of those multi-purpose trees.  The objective of the survey was to explore farmers’ knowledge and perceptions on the interactions between C. albidum and cocoa trees, its management and challenges faced.  The study was undertaken in the Eastern Region of Ghana in which a structured questionnaire was used and 70 farmers participated. The study demonstrated that the use of C. albidum as a shade tree for  cocoa is widespread in the area and that farm-owners were more likely to plant it than farm caretakers. The C. albidum trees provide economic gain to the farmer through the sale of fruits and so enable income diversification when cocoa yield is low.  The study revealed farmers’ perceptions on above- and below-ground interactions between cocoa and C. albidum trees.  Most farmers in the study had technical problems and needed assistance in their agroforestry practice, particularly in seed and vegetative propagation.  The results of the survey show the importance of a baseline study prior to drawing up a research programme to address the concerns of farmers.Original scientific paper. Received 23 Sep 14; revised 23 Apr 15

Evaluation of pre-sowing treatments for seed germination enhancement of Chrysophyllum albidum g. Don

Indigenous fruits are important for the many ecosystem benefits they provide. Chrysophyllum albidum G. Don is a fruit tree which provides many services including food and also used as shade tree in cocoa farms. Unfortunately, most farmers find it difficult to germinate the seeds. Various pre-sowing treatments were explored to find the best for the germination of seeds of C. albidum. Pre-sowing treatments employed were the immersion of seed in sulphuric acid for different time periods ranging from 5 to 30 min, fleshly sown, oven drying of seeds at 35oC, 40oC and 70oC for 6 and 24 h, cold treatment in a refrigerator at 16oC and 20oC and mechanical scarification. Results of the study showed that mechanical scarification had the highest germination percentage of 73.3 percent, and this was significantly higher than the other treatments (P < 0.001). It also showed the earliest germination time of 6 days with a significant mean germination time (MGT) of 10.2 (P = 0.003). Germination percentages in the other treatments were less than 20 percent indicating dormancy in most of the seeds of C. albidum. Mechanical scarification with its high and uniform germination was the best method for adoption by farmers

Vegetative propagation of Chrysophyllum albidum G. Don by leafy stem cuttings

Chrysophyllum albidum is a tree species that is commonly intercropped with cocoa and is valued for its edible fruits. Since the provision of clonally propagated superior genotypes of this species would be beneficial to farmers, investigations were conducted to optimize its vegetative propagation. In the study, the first experiment examining the effect of leaf area on propagation success involved cuttings with leaf areas of 0 (leafless), 20, 40, 80, 160 and 200 cm2. The results showed that cuttings with a leaf area of 40 cm2 gave the highest rooting percentage (77.8% after 10 weeks), which was significantly higher than the other treatments (P < 0.001). The second experiment demonstrated that the use of different IBA concentrations ( 25, 50, 100, 200 and 300 μg l-1 of water) did not give a higher rooting success than the control. The third experiment looked at the effect of four rooting media (fine sand, topsoil, sawdust and 1:1 mixture of topsoil and sawdust), and found that callusing was much lower for the latter treatment. It was concluded that C. albidum can be successfully propagated using stem cuttings with a leaf area of 40 cm2 in a propagating medium of sawdust or a 1:1 mixture of topsoil and sawdust

Gender and Access to Agricultural Resources by Smallholder Farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Men and women continue to have differential access to agricultural resources despite the seemingly equal roles they play in agriculture in many developing countries. The study sought to determine the relationship between gender and access to agricultural resources in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 400 farmers disaggregated into men and women from four districts in the region. Statistically significant differences were observed between gender and access to land, labour, inputs and radio, extension agents and input suppliers (p<0.05) while there was no significant difference between gender and access to credit (p>0.05) even though women also have more access to credit than men. It has been recommended that more aspects of the culture of the people be improved to pave way for more access to agricultural land in particular. Levels of credit support are very low in the region and financial institutions need to reduce some of the bottlenecks to allow easy access to credit. Also extension agents should endeavour to educate smallholders on how to access information through electronic platforms and also make them seek more information from input suppliers as the current situation demands. Key words: Gender, Inputs, Credit, ICT

Teachers’ perceptions about the medium of instruction in learning English as a second or foreign language in Ghanaian lower basic schools

Abstract. In teaching a second or foreign language, there is often a dilemma regarding the most suitable language to use as a medium of instruction or interaction. The study of English as a Second Language (ESL) in Ghana is most often than not characterized by this dilemma. This is where educators are conflicted on whether to follow the official language policy that advocates for the use of the mother tongue instruction or strictly use the target language (in this case English) or opt for bilingual education. Research has shown that factors that ensure practical Second Language Acquisition (SLA) are comprehension, interaction and affective elements (attitudes and emotions). These are achievable with the presence of other factors like context, knowledge of the world, and extra-linguistic information (Krashen, 1981). It is critical for educators to consider these in order to be able to select the most suitable medium of instruction (MoI) in an ESL classroom in Ghana. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using the target language (TL) and, or first language (L1) in an English language class by analyzing learners’ behaviours through classroom observations, coupled with teachers’ experiences and perceptions. The study uses the qualitative method and phenomenography to understand the perceived effectiveness of the use of the English Language as an MoI for the learning of the language, as compared to using the learners’ first language in teaching English and vice versa. Some Ghanaian ESL teachers in the lower basic school were purposefully selected for the study and interviews were conducted to obtain their thoughts regarding the language of instruction policy and teaching ESL. It was evident from the analysis that the teachers mostly used a bilingual medium of instruction rather than using the L1 as the dominant medium in the ESL classroom as they perceived bilingual education to be most effective in aching their teaching and learning outcomes. Teachers perceived that the L1 plays a significant role in ESL learning. It was suggested that the L1 translation offered learners an easy understanding of the English language, improved learners’ motivation to learn the language, and enhanced learners’ interaction as compared to the use of only the TL/L2. Interestingly, the teachers perceived that the language of instruction policy for suitable for the Ghanaian context, and they also suggested that there needs to be adequate Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) to make teaching and learning more effective. This is not a complete case study hence the results cannot be generalized as they are as subjective to the participant-teachers. Again, further research is needed to look at investigate the perception of other stakeholders in education such as headteachers, parents and students about the phenomenon

Chitosan-based films for the sustained release of peptides: a new era in buccal delivery?

[Editorial

Heterogeneous responses of dorsal root ganglion neurons in neuropathies induced by peripheral nerve trauma and the antiretroviral drug stavudine

© 2014 The Authors. European Journal of Pain published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Pain Federation - EFIC®. Funding sources E.K.B. was funded by a BBSRC PhD studentship. A.N., A.S.C.R. and T.P. were funded by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (London Pain Consortium; ref. 083259). A.S.C.R. and W.H. were funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking (Europain; grant agreement no. 115007). We thank Pfizer for providing stavudine. Conflicts of interest None declared. Funded by BBSRC PhD studentship Wellcome Trust Strategic Award. Grant Number: 083259 Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking. Grant Number: 115007Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Selection of Blast Design for Kofi C Pit of Endeavour Mining Corporation, Mali

The Kofi Gold Mine (KGM) of Endeavour Mining Corporation in Mali needed to select one of two alternative blast designs, Blast Design 1 (BD1) and Blast Design 2 (BD2), for the fresh rocks of the deposit, both ore and waste,  in their Kofi C Pit. BD1 has a burden of 3.2 m, a spacing of 3.5 m, a bench height of 5.0 m and a sub drill of 0.5 m. BD2 has a burden of 3.5 m, a spacing of 4.0 m, a bench height of 10.0 m and a sub drill of 0.8 m. Both designs have the same hole diameter of 115 mm and powder factor of  0.68 kg/m3. The Modified Kuz-Ram Fragmentation Model was used to estimate and compare the fragmentation of the two designs. The modelling results showed that the fragmentation of BD1 would be better than that of BD2 but cost analysis revealed that the drilling and blasting cost of BD2 would be lower than that of BD1. Consequently, BD2 was modified into Blast Design 3 (BD3) to improve the fragmentation without exceeding the drilling and blasting cost of BD1. The modification was done by increasing the powder factor of BD2 by 16.18 %. Subsequent fragmentation modelling and cost analysis revealed that BD3 and BD1 would now have the same fragmentation and the same drilling and blasting cost but BD3 would give a higher productivity. It was therefore recommended that KGM selects BD3 over BD1 and BD2 for ore drilling and blasting. BD2 could be considered for waste drilling and blasting because its lower fragmentation, which is not good enough when the rock is ore, is acceptable when the rock is waste. Keywords: Blast Design, Cost Analysis, Drilling and Blasting Productivity, Kuz-Ram Fragmentation Mode

Composite HPMC and sodium alginate based buccal formulations for nicotine replacement therapy

Smoking cessation is of current topical interest due to the significant negative health and economic impact in many countries. This study aimed to develop buccal films and wafers comprising HPMC and sodium alginate (SA) for potential use in nicotine replacement therapy via the buccal mucosa, as a cheap but effective alternative to currently used nicotine patch and chewing gum. The formulations were characterised using texture analyser (tensile and hardness, mucoadhesion), scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and swelling capacity. Drug loaded films and wafers were characterised for content uniformity (HPLC) whilst the drug loaded wafers only were further characterised for in vitro drug dissolution. SA modified and improved the functional properties of HPMC at optimum ratio of HPMC: SA of 1.25: 0.75. Generally, both films and wafers (blank and drug loaded) were amorphous in nature which impacted on swelling and mucoadhesive performance. HPMC-SA composite wafers showed a porous internal morphology with higher mucoadhesion, swelling index and drug loading capacity compared to the HPMC-SA composite films which were non-porous. The study demonstrates the potential use of composite HPMC-SA wafers in the buccal delivery nicotine

Nitrogen use efficiency of poultry manure by maize

Nitrogen use efficiency is a measure of the extent to which a crop transforms available N to economic yield. Poultry manure is often reported to have lower N use efficiency than mineral fertilizer in the first year of application. However, under certain conditions such as rate of application, N mineralization rate, type of soil and crop, the converse may be the case. Will a farmer be better off in applying poultry manure at a particular rate than mineral fertilizer? A study was conducted on a forest acrisol to determine the physiological and apparent N efficiencies of poultry manure (PM) applied at various rates and mineral fertilizer to maize. Poultry manure rates of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 x 2 t ha-1 (i.e. split application) showed higher physiological N use efficiencies than the mineral fertilizer rate of 60-40-40 kg NPK ha-1 and 2 t PM ha-1 + 30-20-20 kg NPK ha-1. However, the mineral fertilizers (including combined half rate plus 2 t poultry manure) had the highest apparent N use efficiencies of 58% and 40% respectively, but low physiological N use efficiency. Among the poultry manure treatments, 4 t ha-1 with the highest N content of 2.17% in the maize ear leaves and grain N content of 12.56 g kg-1, had the highest physiological N use efficiency of 60 kg ha-1 making it the most efficient rate in the transformation of N into grain yield. Journal of Science and Technology (Ghana) Vol. 27 (2) 2007: pp. 71-7