Morphological Diversity Assessment of Nigeria Sorghum Landraces for Utilization in Hybrid Parent Development

Challenge in hybrid sorghum development for the Nigerian environment remains the identification of suitable seed parents, constrained most particularly by non-appropriate indigenous sources of stable male-sterility maintenance on the female parents. To achieve this goal, defined “functional” heterotic parental-pools is required to create new and diverse hybrid parents for sustainable hybrid development. To explore availability of male–sterility inducing cytoplasm, an exploratory landrace Sorghum collection across some states of Nigeria 2014 and 2015 were carried out and evaluated for target hybrid parent traits. 388 testcrosses generated from 40 randomly selected landraces collections using 2 male sterile lines (ICS38A and ICS24005A), were evaluated for sterility maintainer to identify lines that are suitable for conversion to male sterile lines and restorers. Preliminary characterization during 2014 cropping season evaluation showed that most of the sorghum landraces grown in the Sudan Savannah are white or yellow grain with compact elliptic panicle forms (caudatum type) accounting for 46% as compared to those in Guinea Savannah cultivating white or red grain with loose dropping panicle forms (guinea type). Result from the genomic analysis revealed wide genetic diversity with 5 major distinct clusters at 0.2 Euclidian distances. The genetic materials used as parents in the testcrosses showed high potential of genetic male sterility maintainers and were diverse, where 3 of the landrace parents were mapped to cluster 1, 13 to cluster 2, 1 to cluster 3 and 3 to cluster 5. Given that the collection areas are diverse with heterogeneous agro-ecologies, the landraces observed could be used as important sources of novel alleles for developing hybrid parents

Influence of socio-demographic variables on the choice of contraceptives among women attending ANC unit at specialist hospital Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria

Background: A contraceptive choice that couples make is a key component of the Sustainable Development Goal agenda and a major contributor to national health. In spite of the importance of increased contraceptive uptake among couples of reproductive ages, meeting the reproductive health rights of women remains an issue due to multi-faceted obstacles within complex environments. The issues which impact women’s reproductive health rights in relation to contraception relate to availability, accessibility, affordability, literacy, tradition, and culture. This study explores the influence of socio-demographic data on the choice of contraceptives among women who are accessing family planning services at a Specialist hospital, Sokoto-Nigeria.Methods: A cross sectional study was used in this quantitative research to generate data on contraceptive choices of women within the reproductive age (18-49 years) who are accessing family planning services at Specialist hospital, Sokoto. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 352 respondents who were randomly sampled at a Specialist hospital, Sokoto-Nigeria. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses were used in the data analyses.Results: The findings of this study established age, occupation and level of education to be related with the usage and choice of contraceptives among women attending family planning unit at a Specialist hospital in Sokoto.Conclusions: The result of the study indicated that the socio–demographic data of the respondent, has a significant role in the choice of contraceptives among the women attending family planning unit of Specialist Hospital Sokoto

Consumer preferences for Baobab products and implication for conservation and improvement policies of forest food resources in Niger (West Africa)

Adansonia digitata L. (African baobab) provides a wide range of market products in Niger. These products are highly important in the traditional dishes and are also a cultural asset for the Nigerien households. The main objective of this study is to assess the local consumers’ preferences for marketed baobab products and to infer key elements in order to design conservation strategies at local and national levels. A total of 432 consumers were surveyed in eight rural and four urban markets in Niger. Results from a contingent valuation application show that 61% of the consumers are willing to pay a mean of 24.7% above the current market prices. These funds would favor the implementation of a conservation and improvement program for assuring the availability of baobab products in the market and conserving the baobab resources. Promoting health and food security based on the development of these products will likely also play a role in favoring the conservation of the species

Pression anthropique et dynamique paysagère en zone rurale semi-aride: Cas de la commune de Tibiri, région de Maradi (Niger)

In the Sahel (West Africa), climatic and socioeconomic factors are the main causes of the current landscape structure. In this context, this study aimed to determine the influence of human activities on the dynamics of a semi-arid landscape by analyzing land use in the Tibiri Commune. To do this, we analyzed the changing trends at various spatial and temporal scales as well as the processes behing this landscape dynamics. The mapping approach and the application of landscape ecology principles between 1972 and 2010 revealed a continuous transformation of Tibiri commune landscape through different processes. The most dominant transformations are fragmentation and suppression. These are highly related to the agriculture (rainfed and irrigated crops) intensification and the urbanization which impact natural formations (savannas) and grazing areas (fallow/pasture mosaic). This land tendency to land saturation should lead in long run to full landscape anthropisation

Protection internationale du climat et souveraineté étatique

La protection internationale du climat, de par ses enjeux de dimension mondiale, interroge inévitablement la capacité de la communauté internationale à s’en saisir, les méthodes et sources du droit international ainsi que son effectivité et plus largement notre conception de l’ordre juridique international. Alors que le droit international est un droit encore jeune et donc parfois contesté dans son objet et bien sur dans ses résultats, il doit répondre à des enjeux considérables qui dépassent largement ce pour quoi il a été historiquement conçu : un droit de la guerre puis un droit de la coexistence pacifique et à présent un droit favorisant l’harmonie dans les relations internationales pour poursuivre – éventuellement – un intérêt supérieur aux États qui pourrait être l’intérêt général de l’humanité. Il demeure cependant, dans ses origines et ses fondements, intrinsèquement, génétiquement même, interétatique