Intersectoral linkages and Agricultural growth in Swaziland for the period 1971-2011

Agriculture plays an important role in the Swazi economy as it is the primary source of employment, livelihood and food security. The future success of the contribution of agriculture to economic growth depends largely on how agriculture stimulates growth of the other sectors and especially how the other sectors growth spills over and stimulates agricultural growth. Using bound test approach to cointergration, Granger causality and Impulse Response framework, the study therefore examined the interrelationships between agriculture and the rest of the sectors of the economy and their impact on economic growth over the period of 1971 to 2011 in Swaziland. The empirical results indicated that a long run relation exists among agriculture, the rest of the economy and overall economic growth. Granger causality analysis indicated that there is bidirectional causality between agriculture and economic growth, unidirectional causality between agriculture and services, running from services to agriculture and independence between agriculture and industry. The Impulse Response showed that contribution to GDP forecast error by the industry sector is the highest, followed by agriculture and service sectors. This study recommended that agriculture should be given more priority in order to grow the economy. Keywords: Agriculture growth, ARDL, Granger causality tests, Inter-sectoral linkages, UECM, Variance decomposition

THE IMPACT OF MACROECONOMIC POLICIES ON AGRICULTURE IN SWAZILAND: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS (1980-2012)

Policymakers in Swaziland view agriculture as an engine to foster economic growth, reduce poverty and eradicate inequality among the populace when the right policies are formulated and implemented within their rightful institutional framework. This study is an empirical investigation of the effect of macroeconomic policies on the agricultural sector in Swaziland using annual time-series data for the period 1980 to 2012. The study used the bound test approach to cointegration to analyse the data. The cointegration results revealed that there was long run relationship amongst the variables of agriculture GDP and export. The results also revealed that real money supply, real exchange rate, real GDP, and real government expenditure had a significant long run impact on agriculture GDP with elasticity coefficients of 0.07, 0.24, 0.88 and -0.3 respectively, while short run coefficients were -0.002,0.23,-0,94 and -0.4 respectively.  In the case of agriculture exports, the results further revealed that real money supply, real government expenditure, discount rate, real exchange rate and real GDP had a significant impact on the sector`s exports with long run elasticity coefficients of 0.13,-0.32,-0.01,0.5 and 2.53 respectively, while short run elasticities were 0.06,0.35,0.01,0.46 and -1.34 respectively.The Central Bank of Swaziland needs to adopt policies aimed at providing affordable credit to agriculture. In terms of the low response of the agricultural sector to macro-policy variables the study recommends that policymakers should intensify the promotion of finished or processed agriculture exports and create a disincentive to imports. Keywords: Agriculture, exports, prices, macroeconomic policy, cointegration, autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), Swaziland

Economic Analysis of Beekeeping in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria

The study was carried out to analyze the economics of beekeeping in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. Data were obtained using structured questionnaire. Three (3) wards (extension blocks) were purposely selected out of the eleven (11) wards to reflect areas where beekeeping is predominantly found. A total of 100 respondents were randomly and proportionately selected from the three (3) wards and used for the study. Descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and multiple regression were used as analytical tools. The result indicates that majority (90%) were male, most of them (56%) had between 20 – 40 colonies, 44% had primary education and 40% had between 16 – 20 years beekeeping experience in the study area. The results of multiple regression analysis indicate that the coefficients of age, number of colony owned and gender were positive and significant at 5% and 10%, respectively. Costs and returns analysis indicates that gross revenue, total cost and net farm income were N14,234.17, N5,260.65 and N8,973.74 per colony, respectively. Inadequate credit, theft, bush burning, absconding of bees and inadequate improved technologies were some of the major problems militating against beekeeping in the study area. It was recommended that extension agents in the state should be property trained and provided with all the necessary technological packages required to teach and guide farmers on improved beekeeping to reduce cost of production, farmers engaged in beekeeping should form cooperative groups that will enable them obtain credit from government and financial institutions and non-governmental organisations in collaboration with farmers cooperative groups should provide improved beekeeping technologies at subsidized rate to the farmers.Keywords: Beekeeping, Economic analysis, Borno StateNigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Science (2011), 19(2): 285-29

Assessment of impact of climatic change on groundwater quality around Igbokoda Coastal area, southwestern Nigeria

Hydrochemical assessment of 39 groundwater samples within Igbokoda coastal zone are presented and discussed in terms of impact of coastal saltwater on the quality and subsequent hydrochemical evolution. The pH range from 6.8 to 9.8, temperature from 28.3 to 33.5oC, EC from 67 to 2440µS/cm and TH from 66.36 to 369.22mg/L. Hydrochemical results showed higher concentrations of Na+ (3.56 – 624.14mg/L) compared to Ca2+ (19.21 – 104.32mg/L), K+ (1.49 – 62.94mg/L) compared to Mg2+ (3.36 – 75.01mg/L) and Cl- (72.0 – 2592.00mg/L) compared to HCO3- (15.25 – 152.50mg/L). This hydrochemical profile reflects a Na-Cl dominated water type suggesting impact of salt water on the groundwater system. Nonetheless, with the exception of higher Cl- values, the major ions concentrations are within recommended WHO standard for drinking water while the concentrations of Fe (0.01-13.4mg/L) and Mn (0.00-1.00mg/L) above the WHO guideline values in about 88% and 35% of the samples respectively call for concern. Estimated major ionic ratios such as Mg/Ca (0.13 – 3.09), Cl/HCO3 (1.18 – 25.50) signify brackish water in most of the locations due to impact of saltwater mixing. This is clearly reflected in the water characterization that revealed largely Na-(K)-Cl-SO4 water type as brackish water and minor occurrence of Ca-(Mg)-HCO3 water type as freshwater sources

Microkinetic modelling and reaction pathway analysis of the steam reforming of ethanol over Ni/SiO2

Funding for this work was provided by the University of Aberdeen and Curtin University under the ‘Aberdeen-Curtin Alliance’.Peer reviewedPostprin

Kinetic features of ethanol steam reforming and decomposition using a biochar-supported Ni catalyst

Acknowledgements: This research received funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project number: DP180101788) and through ARENA’s Emerging Renewables Program. This work was also supported by the Aberdeen-Curtin Alliance. We wish to thank Li Dong, Shu Zhang and Yao Song for providing raw biochar, and Richard Gunawan and Zhitao Wang for assistance during rig set-up.Peer reviewedPostprin

Origin and residence time of groundwater in the shallow coastal aquifer of eastern Dahomey Basin, Southwestern Nigeria, using δ18O and δD isotopes

This study employed stable isotopes of δ18O and δ2H in conjunction with other hydrological parameters to understand the origin, inferred residence time, and seasonal effect of groundwater in the shallow aquifers of the eastern Dahomey Basin. A total of 230 groundwater samples (97 in the wet season and 133 in the dry season) were collected from the borehole and shallow aquifer between May 2017 and April 2018. Groundwater analysis included major ions and δ18O and δ2H, isotopes data in precipitation from three selected Global Network of Isotope in Precipitation (GNIP) stations across West Africa, Douala in Cameroon, Cotonou in Republic of Benin, and Kano in Nigeria were used in comparative analysis. Results of the hydrochemical model revealed Ca-HCO3 and Na-Cl as dominant water types with other mixing water types such as Ca–SO4, Ca–Cl, Na–SO4, and K–Mg–HCO3, which characterised early stage of groundwater transformation as it infiltrates through vadose zone into the aquifer. δ18O and δ2H precipitation data from the three stations plotted along with the groundwater samples indicate recent meteoric water origin, with little effect of evaporation during the dry season. The plot of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) against δ18O showed clustering of the water samples between the recharge and the evaporation zone with dry season samples trending towards increased TDS, which is an indication of the subtle effect of evaporation during this period. Tracing groundwater types along the flow paths within the basin is problematic and attributed to the heterogeneity of the aquifer with anthropogenic influences. Moreover, a comparison of the δ18O and δ2H isotopic compositions of groundwater and precipitation in the three selected stations, with their respective deuterium excess (D-excess) values established low evapotranspiration induced isotope enrichment, which could be due to higher precipitation and humidity in the region resulting in low isotope fractionation; hence, little effect of seasonal variations. The study, therefore, suggested groundwater recharge in the shallow aquifer in the eastern Dahomey Basin is of meteoric origin with a short residence time of water flows from soils through the vadose zone to the aquifers

Response of Guinea Grass (\u3cem\u3ePanicum maximum\u3c/em\u3e Jacq) to Application of Cow Dung in South West Nigeria

The yield of forage species from the world\u27s grazing land is limited by poor soil and unproductive species (Jones & Wild, 1975; Cooke, 1982). The use of manure on pasture land not only represents a low cost disposal method but also a means of recycling nutrients for plant growth and counteracting the decreasing organic matter content in most agricultural soils. In agro-pastoral production systems, the interaction between crops and livestock is important. Manures are used mainly to complement inorganic fertiliser in the production of food crops. There is a dearth of information on the response of pasture grass to application of cow dung and so the response of two Panicum maximum ecotypes to cow dung was evaluate