Impact of soaring food price in Ethiopia: Does location matter?

"Previous studies implicitly assume uniform price-effects across regions or provinces within countries. They also do not address the issue of integration between the world food market and local markets. Instead, they assume a complete transmission of changes in world food prices to local food prices. In this paper, we first establish evidence of regional price heterogeneity across Ethiopia. We also applied the Johansen test for market integration over 95 local maize markets and found that none of the Ethiopian regional markets for maize is integrated to the world market. However, there is significant short-term price effects between the world maize market and some Ethiopian regional markets. Using the Almost Ideal Demand System, we estimate loss in household consumption and calorie intake as induced by food price increases. The results suggest a great deal of heterogeneity across regions as well as between rural and urban areas. Studies that fail to account for the characteristics of household demand across locations are more likely to induce misleading policy recommendations. " from authors' abstractPrice, Integration, Demand, Elasticity, Poverty, Food prices, maize,

The influence of the combined microwave power and hot air ventilation on the drying kinetics and colour quality of tomato slices

Tomato is one of the most important fruit used as an ingredient in different foods in food processing and preparation. Fresh tomato consists of about 91% of moisture. Tomato has to pass through all three rates of drying (constant, first and second falling rate period) during drying, using hot air ventilation, and requires prolonged time with much of quality changes. In this study, microwave assisted hot air ventilation drying of tomato slices had been considered. Microwave oven working at 2450 MHz, using different power densities (1, 2 and 3 W g-1) was combined with hot air ventilation at 50°C and hot air ventilation drying without microwave power at 40, 50, 70 and 80°C to dry tomato slices down to 10% moisture content. The drying characteristic curve was analyzed to determine the drying time. The tomato slice sample dried faster when subjected to microwave heating, coupled with hot air ventilation at 50°C. The drying times required for tomato slices to reach 10% moisture content were found to be 3.2, 2.5 and 1.3 h, using 1, 2 and 3 W g-1 microwave power densities, coupled with 50°C hot air ventilation, respectively. On the other hand, the drying time of tomato slices to 10% moisture content required 20.5, 13.1, 9.6, 6.8 h for drying at 40, 50, 70 and 80°C, using hot air ventilation without supplementing heating with microwave power. Microwave drying maintained the superior colour of tomato slices after drying period, compared to the other treatments.Key words: Microwave, tomato slice, drying equation, colour, drying rate, moisture content

DIURNAL ACTIVITY PATTERNS AND TIME BUDGET OF GRANT’S GAZELLE (NANGER GRANTI) IN NECHISAR NATIONAL PARK, ETHIOPIA

Information on behavior patterns of animals is important to plan wildlife management programs in conservation areas. The Grant’s gazelle (Nanger granti) is one of the major larger mammals in the plains of Nechisar National Park. As behavior patterns of this species were not studied earlier, the present investigation was aimed to study the diurnal activity patterns and time budget of its major activities. Observations on activity patterns were carried out on randomly selected herds during day time and recorded for units of five minutes at intervals of 10 minutes. Major activities such as feeding, movement (walking and running), resting and social behaviors of herds consisting of adult male, adult female, juvenile and young were recorded during 2304 unit observations. The percentage of feeding, movement, resting and social behaviors in which they were engaged during the study period was 43.7, 24.2, 23 and 8.2, respectively. There was variation in the percentage of activities of gazelles during morning, noon and in the afternoon. There was a significant difference in the percentage of different activities among individuals (p<0.05). The overall diurnal activities of gazelles showed a bimodal pattern of intensive foraging in the morning and afternoon hours. There was no marked seasonal variation in their activity levels. This might be related to the drought tolerant behavioral adaptation of the Grant’s gazelle

A review on the integrated agro-technology of papaya fruit

The aim of this review was first to explore the effect of different pre-harvest factors affecting the quality of papaya including genetic factors, climatic conditions, cultural practices on post-harvest quality of the papaya fruit. Post-harvest physiology of papaya in terms of its respiration, ethylene production and sensitivity and transpiration was reviewed. Post-harvest handling and factors affecting quality of papaya were also examined. Post-harvest biochemistry of papaya including enzyme activity, carbohydrates, organic acids, pigments and volatiles in papaya fruit were assessed. A review on post-harvest handling of papaya fruit including packaging and storage environments (temperature and relative humidity) were presented. On the other hand, the post-harvest microbiology of papaya was reviewed. Papaya supply chain is much limited to local destinations with quite few exceptions mainly due to lack of integrated post-harvest handling technologies. Pre- and post-harvest treatments were found to have a significant effect on post-harvest quality of papaya and the fruit storage stability under dry and hot climatic conditions of Africa. An integrated agro-technology research and development approach aimed at improved yield and quality at harvest as well as the maintenance of qualities of papaya fruit in order to encourage farmers to produce and for marketing of the papaya fruit under African local supply chain conditions and for export market is recommended.Key words: Papaya fruit, post-harvest, agro-technology, pre-harvest

Evaluation of a seed storage facility in relation to preserving seed moisture, vigour and germination

The performance of a solar energy-assisted seed storage room was evaluated through an ordinary 22-m3 room that was retrofitted with a solar  collector, inlets and chimney. The structure was made of a solar collector to heat the ambient air before entering the chimney. The chimney  circulated the air inside the structure and inlets. To compare the performance of the modified storage room, a room with a similar capacity and  without the retrofitted components (control storage room) was used. Twelve 8 kg bags of maize were stored in each storage room for a period of  three months. Samples were taken every two weeks to determine germination rate, moisture content and seed vigour. The temperature and relative  humidity (RH) was measured during storage. The RH in the control storage was significantly higher (P≤0.05) (60.6 ± 5.87%) than in the  modified storage (40.1 ± 3.21%) during the day. However, at night, the RH in the control storage room was significantly lower (P≤0.05) (58.5 ± 7.32%)  than in the modified storage (63.7 ± 6.28%). The RH in the modified storage room increased from 40.1% during the day to 63.7% at night. The RH in  the control storage room decreased slightly from 60.6% to 58.5% during the day and night. The seed moisture content in the modified storage  facility was significantly lower (P≤0.05) (12.6 ± 0.21%) than in the control storage room (13.3 ± 0.52%). The moisture content in the modified storage  room decreased from 12.6% to 12.4%, whereas in the control room, moisture content increased from 12.6% to 13.8% in three months. The seed  germination rate obtained after three months of storage in the modified storage room was significantly higher (P≤0.05) (98.5 ± 0.85%) than in the  control storage room (96.8 ± 1.49%).The seed igour obtained in the modified storage room was significantly higher (93.6 ± 0.35%) than in the control  room (91.7 ± 2.08%) (P≤0.05). Seed stored in the control storage lost vigour at a faster rate, compared to the seeds stored in the modified storage room. Therefore, the modified naturally-ventilated seed storage room maintained seed quality better than the control storage room

Economic evaluation of smallholder subsistence livestock production: Lessons from an Ethiopian goat development program

Conventional productivity evaluation criteria are inadequate to evaluate subsistence livestock production, because 1) they fail to capture non-marketable benefits of the livestock, and 2) the core concept of a single limiting input is inappropriate to subsistence production, as multiple limiting inputs (livestock, labour, and land) are involved in the production process. As many of the livestock functions as possible (physical and socio-economic) should be aggregated into monetary values and related to the resources used, irrespective of whether these "products" are marketed, home-consumed or maintained for later use. A broad evaluation model involving three complementary flock-level productivity indices was applied to evaluate subsistence goat production in eastern Ethiopian highlands. The results showed that indigenous goat flocks generated significantly higher net benefits under improved than under traditional management, which challenges the prevailing notion in countries like Ethiopia that indigenous livestock do not adequately respond to improvements in the level of management. It is then concluded that the evaluation model not only allows a broad aggregation of benefits from subsistence livestock, but also provides a more realistic platform to propose sound improvement interventions

Effect of varieties on physicochemical and pasting characteristics of water yam flours and starches

Water yam (Dioscorea alata) flour and starch of ten varieties were processed using standard wet-milling procedure prior to the determination of their physico-chemical and pasting properties. The swelling power of the samples was characterized in the category of high restricted-swelling starch (9.21 to 11.03% for flours; 9.49 to 13.80% for starches). This characteristic is desirable for the manufacture of value-added products such as noodles and composite blends with cereals. The pasting temperature (78.05 to 86.13°C, for flours; 80.38 to 86.15°C for starches) and time (4.44 to 5.17 min for flours; 4.53 to 5.17 min for starches) of test varieties indicate higher gelatinization temperature and longer cooking time. Results of analyses of physico-chemical and pasting properties indicated significant differences (P < 0.05) among the varieties. All the varieties studied gave the potentials for the manufacture of these value-added products and non-food applications of starch such as in paper and textile industries. Moreover, the results obtained in this study also show that potential exists for selecting nutritionally superior varieties of D. alata (TDa 297 and TDa 00/00194 for flour, TDa 297 and TDa 98/01183 for starch) and these varieties could be good sources of diets to its consumers and serve as food security in developing countries.Key words: Water yam, physico-chemical, pasting, flour, starch