4 research outputs found
Determinants of Land Holding Size among Rice Farmers in Southeast, Nigeria
This study identified determinants of land holding size of rice farmers in Anambra state, southeast Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used in sample selection. Six autonomous communities were chosen purposively based on the consideration of rice farming activities in these rural communities. The sample frame was 182 rice farmers. From this sample frame, twenty rice farmers were randomly selected from 6 rice farming communities giving a sample size of 120 but 99 were valid. Data were collected with structured questionnaire from 120 randomly selected rice farmers. Data were collected on the socio- economic variables, land sizes, land amendment practices.. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics; ordinary least squares multiple regression techniques. The results showed that rice farmers in the study area were predominantly male (78.79%) with a mean age of 44.2years and household size of 8persons.Their major method of land acquisition is through communal followed by inheritance, lease and purchase. The average land size cultivated on was 1.66ha.The multiple regression analysis showed that factors such as sex, farming experience, method of land acquisition, annual off farm income and lease price of rice farmers influenced their landholding size. It is therefore concluded that with government intervention farmers can have access to increased land sizes which will invariably improve technology use and the level of profit would increase
Determinants of Land Holding Size among Rice Farmers in Southeast, Nigeria
This study identified determinants of land holding size of rice farmers in Anambra state, southeast Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used in sample selection. Six autonomous communities were chosen purposively based on the consideration of rice farming activities in these rural communities. The sample frame was 182 rice farmers. From this sample frame, twenty rice farmers were randomly selected from 6 rice farming communities giving a sample size of 120 but 99 were valid. Data were collected with structured questionnaire from 120 randomly selected rice farmers. Data were collected on the socio- economic variables, land sizes, land amendment practices.. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics; ordinary least squares multiple regression techniques. The results showed that rice farmers in the study area were predominantly male (78.79%) with a mean age of 44.2years and household size of 8persons.Their major method of land acquisition is through communal followed by inheritance, lease and purchase. The average land size cultivated on was 1.66ha.The multiple regression analysis showed that factors such as sex, farming experience, method of land acquisition, annual off farm income and lease price of rice farmers influenced their landholding size. It is therefore concluded that with government intervention farmers can have access to increased land sizes which will invariably improve technology use and the level of profit would increase
Enhancement of mobile scissor lifting system for windy environments
This paper focuses on the enhancement of mobile scissor lifting system for windy environments. This study was necessitated in order to address the lack of support arm problem on the mobile scissor lifting system for the strong wind environment such as Minna in Niger State Nigeria. The outstation broadcasting operations in Minna metropolis are usually challenging during windy days as wind often affects the stability and efficiency of the outstation broad-casting platforms. This research employs electronic control circuit to control mechanical hydraulic actuated scissor lifting system in response to variations in wind speed. The mechanical components were designed using solidworks software. The control unit was remodeled using Proteus 8.0 software with the code written in Arduino integrated development environment (IDE). The model simulation results for both electronic and mechanical system reveal the possibility of achieving system stability with the resultant signal fidelity in outstation telecommunication broad-cast within windy areas. The experiment result shows that the system was capable of lifting the telecommunication platform 2 meters high within 20 seconds considering the load range of 500 to 1000 kg. An overload alert mechanism was incorporated to signal the operators of excessive loading. Then, the system automatically deploys its support arms to counter the attendant consequences of the strong wind thereby restoring the stability of the mobile scissor lift. Therefore, the authors conclude that the enhanced mobile scissor lifting system would be deployed in the windy environment for the maximum attainment of stability objectives while physical model from this design should be subsequently fabricated in the near future
Validation of antihypertensive drug requirement to measure the severity of hypertension and the efficacy of lifestyle intervention
Background/objective: The ongoing pandemic of non-communicable diseases, with systemic arterial hypertension at the forefront, mandates urgent attention to the aetiopathogenic mechanism rather than continuing to rely on suppressive drug therapies. Lifestyle interventions (such as diet, sleep and exercise) may have substantial impact on blood pressure control in hypertension. However this may not be evident in clinical trials of lifestyle intervention if the blood pressure was previously controlled by drugs. We therefore sought to develop an alternative method of measuring the impact of lifestyle intervention, rather than rely on blood pressure measurement alone.
Methods: The open trial of a personalized food avoidance dietary approach to stop hypertension was approved by the UNTH ethics committee. The Antihypertensive Drug Treatment Requirement (ADTR) score was calculated as the total number of defined unitary dosages of antihypertensive drugs times adherence +/- 0.1 accordingly for each mm Hg that average systolic pressure either exceeds 120 mm Hg (AOBP or home BP, whichever higher) or goes below 100 mm Hg Hg (AOBP or home BP, whichever lower). The dietary compliance score was based on the frequency of major/ minor dietary indiscretion (as per the PFADASH guidelines) i.e. less than (= GOOD) or more than (= POOR) once a month/ once a fortnight, respectively. Normality of data distribution was assessed by computing Shapiro-Wilk statistics. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient was used to assess internal consistency of ADTR measurements.
Results: Bi-quarterly Shapiro – Wilk statistics for AdhRx scores and ADTR scores showed more than 80% likelihood of being normally distributed at 5% significance level (i.e. 13 out of 16 data sets tested). Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient was 0.980. This confirmed consistency of the ADTR measurement scale. For three study participants who improved to Good compliance (after dietary counseling) and four participants who failed to improve, Good compliance was associated with lower ADTR scores, but the differences between Good (mean ADTR of 1.07+0.82) and Poor (3.81+3.15) were not statistically significant (p = 0.210). For the three study participants who transited from Poor to Good compliance (in response to counseling), there was a high degree of negative correlation (i.e. decline of drug requirement) which was statistically significant in two of them (p<0.05). However, in the study participants who failed to improve their dietary compliance, there was a relative lack of correlation (with higher p values). The overall pattern is consistent with a negative association between dietary compliance and ADTR score.
Conclusion: We conclude that ADTR scores are useful and valid tools to assess the impact of dietary interventions which address the aetiopathogenic mechanism in essential hypertension. This enables differentiation between blood pressure lowering by drugs and that due to dietary intervention