Physical development of infants, children of different socio-health environment in Abidjan

The physical development of the infant, the child would depend, among other things, onlife situations that are offered to him. These possibilities of existence could, thus, differ fromone country to another. The effect of those proposed to those living in Côte d'Ivoire on theirphysical acquisitions is far from being sufficiently examined. This study compares the physicaldevelopment of infants and children from less favorable socio-health settings to that of theirpeers with a more equipped health and social environment.It concerned 191 children aged 6 to 59 months, including 104 from disadvantaged socialand health backgrounds and 87 selected from a relatively privileged socio-health environment.The physical development level of the two groups of children was examined by considering thebody weight, body size and head circumference presented by the two groups of children. Thevalues relating to these physical dimensions have been expressed in standard deviation unitswith respect to the average reference value of each bodily parameter considered, that is to sayin z-scores. The information obtained from this operation was presented in the form of normalor abnormal weight frequencies, stature and cephalic perimeter. The electronic scale and thetape measure were used to measure the evoked body parameters.The results show, after comparing of body parameters, that infants and children wholive in a poor socio-health environment have a physical development that coincides with that oftheir peers from socio-medical backgrounds favored. These results, even if they do not confirmthe hypothesis that the socio-economic structuring of the living environment creates differencesin children's physical development, appear specific to the ethno-geographical area. Thisconstitutes an element that can singularize the living environment and the physicaldevelopment of the child

Comparaison de deux techniques de replantation cacaoyère sur antécédents culturaux non-forestiers en Côte d’Ivoire

Le verger de cacaoyers de la Côte d’Ivoire, premier producteur mondial de cacao, est vieillissant et doit être régénéré pour assurer une production durable de cacao. Mais, les réserves de forêt utilisées autrefois pour l’extension des plantations sont épuisées. Les terres cultivables disponibles sont les jachères et les cacaoyères dégradées. Malheureusement, la plupart des tentatives de plantation sur ces antécédents culturaux dégradés échouent. En vue de proposer aux producteurs des itinéraires techniques adaptés, deux techniques de replantation ont été comparées sur 40 parcelles replantées dont 20 après des vieux cacaoyers âgés de plus de 30 ans avec moins de 700 arbres ha-1 et 20 autres après des jachères de durée inférieure à 10 ans. Ces parcelles ont été installées entre 2004 et 2006 dans 10 régions productrices de cacao. Les résultats ont montré que la replantation sous vieux cacaoyers est plus efficace. L’efficacité de cette technique est liée à la fertilité des sols relativement meilleure et au niveau d’enherbement plus faible sous les vieux cacaoyers par rapport aux jachères. Il est cependant nécessaire de bien gérer l’ombrage des vieux cacaoyers, en effectuant des éclaircies avant 6 et 24 mois après la mise en place des jeunes cacaoyers.Mots Clés: Cacao, itinéraires techniques, jachère, régénérationEnglish AbstractCocoa farms of Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer, are getting older and must be regenerated for sustainable cocoa production. However, forest reserves formerly used for the expansion of plantations are finished. Available cultivable land parcels are fallows with poor soil and degraded cocoa farms. Unfortunately, most attempts of replanting on these poor lands fail. In order to provide producers with appropriate replanting techniques, two replanting techniques were compared on a 40 replanted plots, including 20 plots after more than 30 years-old cocoa farms with less than 700 trees ha-1 and 20 other plots after fallows of less than 10 years. These plots were installed between 2004 and 2006 in 10 cocoa producing areas. Replanting under the old cocoa trees is more effective. The effectiveness of this practice is related to the relatively better soil fertility and lower level of the weeds proliferation under the old cocoa trees as compared to the fallows. It is, however, necessary to reduce the shade of the old cocoa trees before 6 and 24 months after the establishment of the young cocoa trees.Keywords: Cocoa, fallow, previous land, regeneratio

Drivers of diversification and pluriactivity among smallholder farmers—evidence from Nigeria

Diversification and pluriactivity have become a norm among farm business owners (FBOs) due to persistent low farm income. This study applies the resource-based theory to examine drivers of diversification and livelihood income-oriented towards a sustainable livelihood. Our framework develops hypotheses about the impact of internal and external resources on livelihood choices at the household level. We use a survey of 480 rural Nigerian farmers (agripreneurs), applying a Multivariate Tobit to test our framework. We find that education plays the most significant role in all types of employment options. The more FBOs are educated, the more the likelihood that they will choose non-farm or wage employment. This study revealed that while the agriculture sector’s share of rural employment is declining, non-farm is on the increase. More so, there is a decline in farming among the young generation, marital status bias and gender influence in resource allocation. The socioeconomic (income and food security) and socio-cultural (employment and rural-urban migration) implications of rural sustainability linked to UN Development Goals have been highlighted and analysed in this article

Dynamique d'infestation de la forêt classée de Sanaimbo par les adventices à partir des agro-écosystèmes environnants

Dynamics of Infestation in the Sanaimbo Protected Forest by Weeds from Surrounding Agro-ecosystems. The infestation dynamics of the Sanaimbo Protected Forest by weeds was evaluated with the aim to quantify the impact of weeds on the original flora of this locality. Floristic and phytosociological surveys samples were carried out on plots located inside and outside the forest. The frequency and proportion of biological types is different in plots located outside and within the classified forest. Chromolaena odorata (L.) King & H.E. Robins has a high degree of infestation whatever the plot location. Euphorbia heterophylla L., Ageratum conyzoides L. and Panicum laxum Sw. show high levels of infestation in the plots out of the forest and start invading slowly the plots within the forest

Caractérisation des discontinuités-images par l\'approche de vecteur de texture: application à des images RSO d\'ERS 2

L\'objectif de ce travail est le traitement d\'images radar à synthèse d\'ouverture (RSO) d\'ERS pour l\'identification et l\'extraction des discontinuités-images en s\'appuyant sur le concept de vecteur de texture dans une classification supervisée. Les paramètres de texture retenus sont reformulés aux ordres n>2, à partir de leurs différentes formulations mathématiques classiques à l\'ordre 2, basées sur les matrices de co-occurrences des niveaux de gris. La particularité de cette approche réside dans le fait que chaque pixel est entièrement caractérisé par son vecteur de texture. En effet, le vecteur de texture renseigne mieux sur le pixel, car il tient compte du voisinage du pixel considéré. Cette méthode est appliquée à deux images RSO : la première dans la région semi-montagneuse de Man (à l\'Ouest de la Côte d\'Ivoire) et la seconde dans la zone littorale Camerounaise. Le tronçon hydrographique du Sassandra (principal fleuve de l\'Ouest de la Côte d\'Ivoire) et des linéaments morphostructuraux ont été extraits sur la première image et le trait de côte du littoral Camerounais a été extrait sur la seconde. The main objective of this work is the processing of ERS SAR images for identification and extraction of image-discontinuities, using the concept of texture vector in a supervised classification. Using the classical formulation of order 2 texture parameters and based on the Neighboring Gray-Level Dependence Matrix, the formulation of these parameters has been extended to orders n>2. The originality of this method lies in the fact that each image pixel is fully characterized by its texture vector. This texture vector gives more information about the pixel since it is based on the neighbourhood. This methodology has been applied on two ERS SAR images, the first in the semi-mountainous region of Man in Côte d\'Ivoire, and the second in the Cameroonian littoral region. The Sassandra River (the main river of western Côte d\'Ivoire) and others morphostructural lineaments are extracted from the first image and the Cameroonian littoral coast is extracted from the second image. Keywords: Image RSO, vecteur de texture, classification, Cameroun, Côte d\'Ivoire.SAR image, texture vector, classification, Cameroon, Côte d\'Ivoire. Journal des Sciences Pour l\'Ingénieur. Vol. 7 2006: pp. 20-2