Subjective well-being, disability and adaptation: a case study from rural Ethiopia

In many developing countries poor infrastructure – including sanitation and health facilities – exposes the population to high risks of disability. Low standards of health and safety at work and at home, coupled with political, ethnic, and domestic violence, also contribute to raising the risk of becoming physically disabled. The effect of physical disability on people’s lives is likely to be worse than in developed economies because of the reliance on physical labour for income generation – for example, in farming. Higher levels of national income and technological capability may also enable societies to make the investments required to enable disabled individuals to be productively employed. Finally, since formal social insurance is usually lacking in developing countries, the effect of disability on welfare is expected to be higher as disabled people must rely on social networks that have limited capacity to pool risks

The Gender Perspective of Household Food Security in Meskan District of the Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Despite the considerable number of rural women in Ethiopia and theircontribution in food production, processing , preparation and provision,they are often neglected and deprived of services and amenities which leads to their vulnerability to poverty, food insecurity, gender bias and effects of environmental change. Accordingly, the principal objective of this study is to assess the food security situation and the type of coping strategies pursued by female and male- headed households in two kebeles of Meskan District of the Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. The findings of the study indicated that femaleheaded households compared to male-headed households are found at a low level of food security and are non- self sufficient in terms of the food requirement of their households and the amount they produce within a year. A number of factors cause the difference in food security status betweenfemale and male-headed households as discussed in detail in this paper. The paper winds up by concluding that granting a piece of land by itself could not end the food insecurity problem of female-headed households as these households are constrained by lack of access to important factors of production such as labor, plough oxen and credit and other agricultural inputs. Moreover, cultural and social constraints in a form of gender biased customs, stereotypes and misconceptions about women are the major challenges for female-headed households in the study area

Successes, lessons and challenges from grain legume sourcing and export marketing: Experiences from ACOS Ethiopia

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio

Contribution of heavy bosons and fermions to the action for a Robertson-Walker metric.

The contributions of heavy, spatially homogeneous, boson and fermion fields to the effective action for a Robertson-Walker space-time are calculated. For scale factors larger than the Compton wavelengths of the particles associated with these matter fields the equations of motion for this scale factor are the same as those for a matter-dominated universe. Some speculations about the forces driving the expansion of the very early Universe are presented. © 1992 The American Physical Society

AN ANALYSIS OF PRODUCERS' OPINIONS ON MANDATORY LABELING OF GM PRODUCTS

This study evaluates producers' perceptions on mandatory labeling of GM food products. The analysis is based on a sample of 1,887 farmers in 10 southern states who claimed to be "somewhat knowledgeable" about biotechnology. A logistic regression model was employed to isolate characteristics of farmers assumed to influence their opinions on mandatory labeling.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Design and Manufacturing of Essential oil Distillation Plant for rural poverty Alleviation in Ethiopia.

The paper presents economic value of the design and manufacturing of essential oil production plant as a strategy for rural poverty alleviation in rural Ethiopia. The level of technology for small scale essential oil industry is characterized for rural community in Ethiopia. The adaptation of oil distillation technology for essential oil production is proposed for small scale industrial entrepreneur. Steam distillation method is selected considering the constraints to meet the socio-economic level of the rural community. The distillation plant has been modelled based on local resources and the first prototype has been manufactured and tested. The study showed that the small scale manufacturing industry in the country do not have the capacity to manufacture the complete distillation plant system with the required precision for standard quality of oil at affordable cost. Thus, the design and the experiment in the use of a prototype small size distillation unit showed that the technology is appropriate for essential oil distillation with low cost and minimal decrease in oil quality. Keywords: Small scale essential oil industry, technology characterization, rural poverty alleviation, low cost manufacturing distillation unit. Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management Vol. 1 (1) 2008: pp. 84-9

Socio-demographic correlates of mental and behavioural disorders of children in Southern Ethiopia

Objective: To describe the magnitude and socio-demographic correlates of specific mental and behavioural disorders.Design: A cross-sectional survey.Setting: Butajira district, southern Ethiopia.Participants: The Amharic version of the Diagnostic Instrument for Children and Adolescents (DICA) was used to interview parents of 1,477 children.Main outcome measures: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Disruptive behaviour disorders, mood and anxiety disorders.Results: Using a multivariate logistic model, age was significantly associated with ADHD. Children between 10 and 14 years of age had more than three-fold increased risk of ADHD compared to younger children: adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (OR, 95%CI) = 3.17 (1.16, 8.67), p=0.02. Residence in urban area was also significantly associated with ADHD: adjusted OR (95% CI) = 2.84 (1.14-7.07), p=0.03. Disruptive behaviour disorders were significantly associated with increasing age: adjusted OR (95% CI)= 4.24 (1.43, 12.6). Mood and anxiety disorders were not significantly associated with any of the sociodemographic variable studied.Conclusion: The study shows that age and residence in urban areas are significant correlates of behavioural disorders in children

Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction Analysis of Coffee Germplasms from Southern Ethiopia

Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis is a recently recommended effective method to study the genotype by environment (GxE) interaction pattern of multi-environment varietal trials. This work deals with modeling and examining the GxE interaction pattern of the multi-environment trials of 43 genotypes and eight environments from Southern Ethiopia coffee (Coffea Arabica L.) collections using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. The work further attempts to predict yield based on the ammi model and evaluate and recommend high performing and adaptable varieties. The AMMI model with the first two interaction principal component axes (AMMI2) is found to be appropriate and parsimonious for the data. Environments e5, e6, e7, e8 and e3 are found to be high potential environments, where genotypes having high-yield (greater than 14 qt/ha) and resistant to Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) are associated. Among the 43 genotypes, 1, 9, 2, 3, 32, 12 and 25 are found to have the best performance with 3, 32, 12 and 25 being highly stable. Among the high-yielding genotypes, 33, 4, 23, 34 and 27 are found to be highly unstable and particularly adapted to environments 5, 6, 7 and 3, respectively