Modeling of Urban Water Supply and Water Loss in Distribution System of Adwa Town Using Hydraulic Simulation, Ethiopia

The main objective of this Research is to modeling of urban water supply and water loss in the distribution system of Adwa town under its major water supply source of Midmar Dam. This Research is conducted in Adwa town to model the water supply distribution system, the existing water distribution system of the town is both pump and gravity system. the water from the treatment plant of Adiabun to the storage reservoir by the pump. Then, the stored water is distributed by DCI, PVC, and GI pipe materials to the town by gravity. The research also depends on secondary data from the CSA Census report, and the meter reading reports at the District offices of Adwa town. In this study the data is entered, coded and analyzed using Bentley water GEMS V8i (SELECT series5.The analysis result shows the domestic and non-domestic water supply coverage of the town is 56.13%. The hydraulic Simulation in the existing water system to satisfy the Adwa town has been approved for hydraulic parameters such as head, pressure, and flow rate. The collected data on the number of water losses, causes of water losses, to reduce losses, and the challenges ahead have been collected and analyzed taking international the association best practice of water loss strategies. Keywords: Water Distribution, Network, Model Calibration, Hydraulic simulation water GEMS modeling, Water loss, Leakage Management, Adwa town, Tigray region, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-7-01 Publication date: August 31st 201

Perspectives on Food Crop Production for Combating Famine in Ethiopia

Feeding the ever-growing Ethiopian population with the continuously shrinking land holdings and nutrient depleted soils is going to be very difficult to say the least. The realistic option under the current Ethiopian scenario is to increase the food productivity per unit of land. The science and the technological options available to realize higher productivity than what the average Ethiopian farmer gets are widely available both locally and internationally. Assuming that all of the non-technical institutional and policy issues bearing on solving the famine problem in Ethiopia are addressed adequately, my perspective focuses on the technological options to curtail famine and malnutrition in the country

Impact of Government Capital Expenditure on Growth of Private Sector Investment: The Case of Ethiopia

The paper is entitling with impact of government expenditure on growth of private sector investment the case of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s public sector led development strategy has delivered strong growth and rising living standards. To sustain growth and employment creation, there is a need to carefully consider the balance between public and private sectors in the economy. The main object of this study is focused on the impact of government capital expenditure on growth of private sectors investment. Currently Ethiopian economy is goes sustainable growth with the program of millennium development goals, as result improving private investment also one of this program and the researcher wants to see the gap between the government capital expenditure and private sector investment means weather crowd in  or crowd out. The study used secondary time series data Annual from 1981 to 2014 and the multiple regression analysis and co-integration methods are used in estimating the parameters of the model. The result from the analysis indicates capital expenditure in the long run model output is significant and positive effect on the private investment and the positive value shows capital expenditure is crowed in private investment. This result also concludes different scholars. Accordingly, Serven (1998), He argued that an increase in public infrastructure raises the long run private capital stock by reducing the cost of capital to the private sector. Keywords:  government expenditure, private sector investmen

Impacts of Resettlement on Land Use Land Cover Changes and Natural Vegetation Conservation Practices of Resettlers in Abobo Woreda, Gambella, Ethiopia

This study was conducted to explore extent, trends, and identifies causes of land use land cover (LULC) changes over the period, 1987 to 2009 along with inspecting resettlers’ involvements in natural vegetation conservation in Abobo Woreda. The design followed in this study was sequential explanatory strategy, a mixed research method. To this end, primarily maximum likelihood supervised classification detection techniques were applied to Landsat images acquired in 1987, 2002 and 2009 to produce three maps with field trip verification. Software used for this aspect was Arc GIS 9.3and ERDAS Imagine 10. Secondly, among 6 resettlers’ menders in the Woreda, 4 menders were involved in the study; thereby data were collected from a total of 68 households (HHs) using semi structured questionnaire, focus group discussion, key informant interview and field observation. Software used for this part was SPSS Ver-20. Accordingly, results of this study revealed that seven LULC types were recognized namely: forestland, wetland, woodland, farmland, bare land, water body and grassland which account about 361324.42 hectares (ha). The trends observed from 1987 to 2002 indicated decreases at rates of 0.51ha of forestland, 1.467ha of grassland and 2.837ha of woodland per year; meanwhile, 37.3ha of farmland and 9.50haof bare land increments were also observed. Correspondingly, from 2002 to 2009, bare land and farmland continued to escalate with mean annual rate of 859.43ha and 9.88ha per year respectively; while forestland and grassland were decreasing at the rates of 1.27 and 10 ha each year respectively. Besides, the causes of LULC changes were identified as farmland expansion, fuel wood extraction and wildfire; being the former a major cause. Moreover, this study disclosed that majority of sampled HHs were involved in tree planting as conservation practice. Therefore, the government should limit further expansion of extensive farmland and implement rehabilitation practice of degraded land. Eventually, to ensure results of this study additional research is required that covers wide area of the study Woreda. Keywords: Landsat images, LULC changes, natural vegetation and resettlement

A Review on: Effect of Phosphorus Fertilizer on Crop Production in Ethiopia

Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient which involves in all physiological activities of the crop production. A researches review was made on the effect of phosphorus fertilizer on wheat, maize, barley and teff production in Ethiopia. In all of these areas the research findings indicated that application of phosphorus fertilizer increases growth and yield of the crops. But the optimum rate of P fertilizer at which highest yield recorded was different for each crop types and research area's environmental conditions. In many parts of northwestern and northern Ethiopia applying P fertilizer at the highest rate has significantly enhanced yield and yield components of wheat, maize, barley and teff. Generally these various findings on P fertilization indicated us many promising results on yield and yield components of wheat and maize, barley and teff but there is still a research gaps on phosphorus that may need more attention for increasing crop production. So detail investigation of phorus fertilizer rate as it interacts with  Macro and micro nutrients like potassium and others for specific crop type, soil type, soil moisture content and agro ecology are important . Keywords:  Phosphorus, wheat, maize, Barley,Teff, Ethipia.

On-Farm Productive and Reproductive Performance of Local, Exotic and Crossbred Chickens in Southern Tigray, North Ethiopia

On-farm productive and reproductive performance of local, exotic and crossbred chickens in Southern Tigray, North Ethiopia was conducted to generate base line data that could be potentially used in the chicken selection, improvement program and strategy under typical farmers' management condition. For this purpose, semi-structured questionnaires, participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and field observation were employed. One hundred and eighty household chicken owner respondents (60 per district) were considered for semi-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and General Linear Model (GLM) of SPSS version 20 (2011) were used to analyze the data. Mean number of egg production was higher for exotic breed (235.86±3.02 egg/hen/year) than that of crossbred (51.09±1.97 egg/hen/year) and local breeds (44.71±0.87 egg/hen/year). Moreover, Significant difference (p<0.05) were observed for local and exotic chickens egg production performances among the agro-ecological zones. The overall survival rate of exotic, cross and local chicken breeds were 45.96%, 43.52% and 46.26%, respectively (p>0.05). On the other hand, hatchability rate of local and crossbred chickens were (86.97%) and (80.46%) (p>0.05), respectively. Higher egg production and better reproductive life span is obtained from exotic chickens than local and crossbred ones. Moreover, overall survival rate of exotic and crossbred chickens are found comparable to local chicken. Therefore, introducing Bovans Brown chickens having better productive and reproductive performance is important to enhance productivity. Non-genetic factors should also be considered to improve the performance of existing local chicken population. Keywords: Productive performance, reproductive performance, local chicken, crossbred chickens, exotic chicken

Effect of Potasium Fertilizer on Crop Production

Potassium is one of the three Macro primary nutrients which is necessary for plant growth. A researches review was made on the effect of  potassium fertilizer on  wheat,rice and sugar beet production conducted in Egypt,Turkey, Romania, pakistan ,Saudi arabia  and  India . In All of these areas the  research findings indicated that  yield and yield components of the subjected crop type is increased with the application of potassium fertilizer, nevertheless the optimum rate of K  fertilizer  at which highest yield  recorded was different for each crop types and  research areas. In Egypt,Turkey and Romania applying potassium fertilizer at the rate of 72,60 and 70 kg K2O/ha significantly enhanced  yield and yield components of sugar beet respectively,Whereas in pakistan ,Saudi Arabia and India  the maximum yield of wheat was recorded at the level of   60, 200 kg K2O/ha and  50 kg ha−1 K2SO4 respectively. More over In Pakistan and NewEngland the highest yield of rice was recorded at 60 and 40 kg K2O ha-1 respectively. On the other hand potassium fertilization has showed positive contribution on biotic and aboitic stress as well as improving water use efficiency of crops.So doing more researcher on the importance of K on crop production, nutritional quality and human and animal health as well as detail investigation on the level of soil K with respect to K application on specific crop production under different environmental conditions is important. Keywords:  Potassium, Wheat,Rice, Sugar beet, Fertilizer