Examining the Incidence, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity among rural Households in Nigeria

A nationally representative sample of 3380 rural households from General Household Survey-panel data that adopt the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) technique was used for this study.  Based on 2120 kcal Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) recommended per adult equivalent and USD 0.87 purchasing power parity (PPP), an annual food poverty threshold of (N50, 331.67) equivalent to USD 317.55 per annum was derived for Nigeria. This threshold is the cost for purchasing recommended daily food allowances (RDA) of an adult equivalent for healthy life in rural Nigeria estimated at N138. Despite the fact that agricultural sector employed over 70% of the country’s population overwhelmingly large segment of Nigerians especially farming families in rural areas are the most food insecure. The food security situation in Nigeria was examined using the Foster Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) class of decomposable food poverty measures that satisfy both monotonicity and transfer axioms. The food insecurity indices at national level was reported as (?=0, 46.36, ?=1, 0.43 and ?=2, 1.11 for and ?=0, 42.78, ?=1, 0.348 and ?=2, 7.45) for post-harvest seasons respectively. This implies that almost half of the rural households in Nigeria are food insecure subsisting on less the RDAs, however, depth and severity of food insecurity also differ.  Disaggregating the households based geo-political zones and some key socio-economic characteristics, further indicates a significant differences based on the relative size of the coefficient of ?. We conjecture that, the higher incidence of food security during post harvesting season might likely be due to inability of smallholder farmers to utilize their time into non-farm income generating activities due to high demand for labour for farm operations. The study recommends public policies that ensure provision of infrastructure such as roads and boosting farming among rural households. Keywords: Food Insecurity, FGT Index, Rural Households and Nigeri

The effect of torrefaction on oil palm empty fruit bunch properties using microwave irradiation

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Effect of torrefaction on oil palm empty fruit bunch pelletization

This paper focuses on the properties of raw and torrified pellet from EFB by varying different parameters including energy consumption, moisture adsorption, Meyer  hardness test and pellet density. To save storage space and transport costs, it can be compressed into fuel pellets of high physical and energetic density. The pelletizing  properties were determined using single pellet press and pellet stability was determined by compression testing. Pelletization of raw and torrified empty fruit bunch (EFB) from compression single pellet press (SPP) was investigated to quantify the energy consumption and pellet properties including moisture adsorption, pellet density and Meyer hardness. Energy consumption for torrified EFB pellet were significantly higher than those for raw EFB pellet, while the moisture adsorption rate of torrified EFB pellets increased with increasing the severity of torrefaction.Keywords: oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) torrefaction; pelletization

Geospatial water quality assessment system for the Sg. Buloh river basin in Malaysia

Assessment of pollution risk requires the assimilation of spatiotemporally variable data on water quality parameters. This paper describes a GIS user-interface program coupled with a water quality index (WQI) model that was developed and built to assess water quality in the Sg. Buloh river basin. Fifty-two water sampling stations were selected for this study, and the WQI model considers parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids and ammonia nitrogen, as used by the Department of Environment in Malaysia. The spatial pattern of each parameter was analysed, and WQI values were calculated, ranging from 4.48 to 76.8 on a scale with 100 representing the highest pristine quality. A map of WQI is provided, which will help planners and decision makers to develop water pollution control strategies, and the model is capable of extension with further data to address pollution risk

Applications of GIS and Remote Sensing In The Hydrological Study Of The Upper Bernam River Basin, Malaysia

Rising concern over the degradation of the environment, such as erosion and sediment loads, warrants the integration of the complex and dispersed geographical data sets. This paper describes the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing for assessing the impact of land use changes to water turbidity in multiple watersheds. In this study, necessary data sets representing land uses, hydrology, weather, soils, elevation, and surface characteristics were integrated in a GIS in tabular, vector and grid formats. The land use maps that were derived from Landsat-5 TM imagery using a combination of different classification strategies gave an average accuracy of 95 %. Results from data analysis had shown that there exists a close relationship existed between the extent of open area and sedimentation loading rate. However, the sediment loading rates were found to be non-linear ranging from 1.47 to 2.13 tonnes per millimeter of rainfall for each kilometer-square increase of open areas, depending on their location of open areas with respect to factors such as availability of sediment, soil type, slope length, and slope steepness etc

Dual Axis Solar Tracking System in Perlis, Malaysia

Sunlight is an abundant source of energy and this energy can be harnessed successfully using solar photovoltaic panels and convert it into electrical energy. However, the conversion efficiency of a normal PV panel is low. One of the main reasons is the power output of a PV panel is dependent directly on the light intensity. As the position of the sun is changing continuously from time to time, the absorption efficiency of an immobile solar panel would be significantly less at a certain time of the day and year. Therefore, to maximize the energy generation and improve the efficiency, a solar tracker comes into play. This paper presents the design and construction of an inexpensive active dual axis solar tracking system for tracking the movement of the sun to get the maximum power from the solar panels. It uses Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) to sense the position of the sun which is communicated to an Arduino Uno microcontroller. An algorithm is implemented to control DC geared motor’s movements which maintaining the solar PV panel position so that it will perpendicularly facing towards the sun at all the effective time. Performance for both fixed and dual-axis solar tracker was compared. Evaluation results show that the dual-axis solar tracking system performs 44.7% better than the fixed solar tracking system

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

Mesh material feasibility tests for maximum water collection by using white PE plastic sheet, black polyolefin meshes and HDPE green mesh

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