Analysis of the Role of Women in Seed Security in Lamurde Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

The study analyzed the role of women in seed security (seed availability and seed access) in Lamurde Local Government of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Multistage random sampling procedure was employed in the selection of the respondents. A total of 5 wards were randomly selected at the first stage out of the ten existing wards. In the second stage, two villages were selected from each ward. This therefore, brings the total villages used for this study to ten. The third stage was the selection of ten respondents from each of these ten villages, which gave a total of 100 respondents. Structured interview schedule was employed as means for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.  The descriptive statistical tools used were frequencies and percentages, while the inferential statistical tool employed was Pearson Correlation. Major findings were that women play a very prominent role in preserving and propagating seed security; majority of the women had serious difficulty in accessing seed and that certified seed is not readily available to them; lack of capital was a major constraint to seed security; lack of adequate farm lands for crop cultivation was also a serious limiting factor. It was also found that there was a high and positive correlation between involvement of respondents and their accessibility to certified seed with ‘r’ value of 0.842. It was recommended, among others that concerned governments, agricultural policy makers and agricultural development agencies should come to the aid of the women in these areas of identified problems. This could be done through the removal of strong bank loan conditions and replacing them with favourable ones. Construction of good roads and establishment of government-approved certified seed distribution centres should be embarked upon. Key words: Women, Seed Security, Lamurde, Adamawa, Nigeria

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

A study of spatial price efficiency of food grain marketing in northeastern Nigeria

The study examined spatial aspects of marketing efficiency in urban marketing system for maize, sorghum and cowpea in north eastern Nigeria. The data for the study were obtained from both secondary and primary sources. Primary data was obtained through the use of structured questionnaires, interviews and market surveys on transportation/handling cost. Four markets (Maiduguri, Damaturu, Gombe and Yola) known for marketing of cereal grains and pulses were selected purposely for the study