Livestock ownership, commercial off-take rates and their determinants in Ethiopia

Also available in the ILRI Repository on Livestock Research at http://hdl.handle.net/10568/237Livestock Production/Industries,

The Response of Ethiopian Grain Markets to Liberalization

The objective of this paper is to determine how liberalization of Ethiopia’s grain marketing system in March 1990 has affected the level and volatility of wholesale prices and price spreads between major regional cereal markets. The paper also identifies issues and problems needing attention to guide future policy decisions with the aim of reducing costs in the food system and thereby promoting the welfare of grain producers and consumers in Ethiopia.food security, food policy, Ethiopia, grain markets, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Q18,

Long-term water mass and redox potential dynamics in large weighable fen lysimeter

The water mass and redox potentials dynamics were intensively studied in peat soils. However, most of these studies were conducted either in the laboratory or in situ for the short-term period that does not reflect the actual long-term field conditions. Although sustainable management of peat soils needs to understand long-term water and redox potentials dynamics, there is little information on undisturbed peat soils. To address this problem, a large weighable fen lysimeter (LWFL) was installed at Lysimeter Station Falkenberg in 2003. The LWFL was filled with undisturbed 6 m3 (4 m length, 1 m width and 1.5 m depth) fen monolith. The lysimeter vessel had four electronic load cells at the four supporting points which are sensitive to detect and measure mass changes because of rain and evapotranspiration. Platinum redox electrodes were also horizontally installed in 20, 50 and 120 cm soil depth in three replications. The mass changes and redox potentials were automatically measured every hour interval for 13 years. The preliminary evaluation of the 13 years’ data showed that the mass change was strongly and positively associated with the rainfall distribution pattern. The lowest and highest annual masses were 7092 and 9768 kg that was recorded in 2009 and 2016, respectively. Both the average and individual years of monthly and daily mass changes were also the reflection of seasonal changes that affect the rainfall amount and distribution. However, the hourly mass change was not significant within a year, but among the most years. The change in redox potentials showed similar trends to that of the mass change but in the opposite directions. The redox potentials increased as mass decreased and vice versa. The results indicate that the lysimeter can be used to study long-term water and redox potentials dynamics to understand the biogeochemistry of peat soils

Market institutions

This paper examines how market institutions can affect links between urban and rural areas with specific emphasis on goods market integration in the national context.Traditionally, development researchers and practitioners have focused either on rural market development or on urban market development without considering the interdependencies and synergies between the two. However, more than ever before, emerging local and global patterns such as the modern food value-chain led by supermarkets and food processors, rapid urbanization, changes in dietary composition, and enhanced information and communication technologies point to the need to pay close attention to the role of markets both in linking rural areas with intermediate cities and market towns and promotion of economic development and poverty reduction. This paper begins with a presentation of a conceptual framework of market integration and then identifies five major factors that increase the transfer costs that subsequently hinder market integration between rural and urban areas: information asymmetry, transaction costs, transport and communication costs, policy induced barriers, and social and noneconomic factors. Five specific cases in five developing countries are examined in this study to demonstrate the primary sources of transfer costs and the aspects of market institutions that are important to market integration and promotion of rural-urban linkages.Rural-urban linkages ,

Ethiopian students' achievement challenges in science education: implications to policy formulation

The purpose of this study was to investigate challenges on students’ academic achievement in science education across selected preparatory schools of Ethiopia. The participants were students, teachers and principals from three regions and nine schools. The participants of the study were 801 students and 118 science teachers from preparatory schools. A mixed case study research and multiple case research method were employed. Purposive and stratified sampling methods were used. The study examined the data generated through questionnaires, academic achievement tests, interviews and document analysis. Regression, Pathanalysis, ANOVA, T-test, correlation, standard deviation and other statistical tools were used for data analysis. The results showed that strong relationship existed between science achievement and school resource, family income, family occupation, family education, and teachers’ factors. Moreover, this study showed that the teaching-learning process of science education in Ethiopian schools failed to meet the requirements of policy expectation. It is recommended that due consideration should be paid to improving school conditions, teachers’ capacity, and studentrelated factors for effective implementation of science curriculum

Assessment of the Water Quality of Chole River, Ethiopia using Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Selected Physicochemical Parameters

The water quality of Chole River was assessed based oninsitu measurements and laboratory analyses of water and benthic macroinvertebrates samples collected for three rounds from January - April, 2017 once every two months from three sites coded S1, S2 and S3 using standard procedures. Laboratory analyses of benthic macroinvertebrates samples yielded5712 specimens belonging to 26 families and 9 Orders. Percentage of sensitive taxa (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) (%EPT), Shannon diversity (H’), ETHbios score, Average Score Per Taxon and family richness decreased with increasing level of impacts from S1 through S3 to S2 in contrast to percentage of the tolerant Chironomidae (%Chiro.), percentage of dominant taxon (%DT) and Hilsonhoff’s Family Biotic Index (H-FBI).Mean %EPT was maximum at S1 (77.7%), followed by S3 (16.4%) and lowest at S2 (9.3%) whereas red Chironomidae dominated at S2 (84.6%) and S3 (91.8%). Family richness was maximum at S1 (25) and minimum at S2 (22). The lowest dissolved oxygen (4.29±1.85 mg/l) and maximum total phosphorus (6.09 ± 0.09) were determined at S2indicating organic and detergent pollutions, respectively. Electrical conductivity (609 ±169), Ammonium Nitrogen (0.091 ±0.067mg/l), Nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) and (2.02 ± 0.141mg/l) picked at S3and remained relatively higher at S2.The heavy solid and liquid wastes loaded from Ambo University campus at S2 and common stressors at S3 including solid waste disposal, cattle watering, bathing, washing clothes and car washing might be responsible for the spatial variation in benthic macroinvertebrates indices/metrics and physicochemical parameterswhich indicateddeterioration in the water quality of Chole River at downstream sites. Keywords: Biomonitoring, Ethiopia, macroinvertebrates, physicochemical parameters, Water Quality DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/73-02 Publication date: February 28th 202

Evaluation of Biogas Production by Anaerobic Digestion of Duckweed (Lemna minor) and Cattle Manure

This study entailed evaluation of biogas production by anaerobic digestion of duckweed (Lemna minor) a plant that can be made easily available as much cheaper feedstock and cattle manure. Total solids, volatile solids, and organic carbon content of duckweed and cattle manure and pH of the slurries were determined using standard procedures. Three sets of plastic bottles were interconnected through connecting tube method.  Digestion of duckweed to cattle manure in different percentage ratio (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100) was performed respectively each in triplicates at 380C temperature for 30 daysatAmbo University plant Science Department laboratory. The cumulative biogas production in milliliters from 100% duckweed, 75% duckweed and 25% cattle manure; 50% duckweed and 50% cattle manure; 25% duckweed and 75% cattle manure, and 100% cattle manure was found to be 1015.5, 1040, 1159, 1206, and 862, respectively. Statistical analyses indicated significant differences between means of the physico-chemical parameters determined before and after anaerobic digestion (P<0.05) in all samples. The result revealed the attractive potential of duckweed as a feedstock in biogas production which peaked when the plant was co-digested with cattle manure at ratio of 25% to75%. Keywords: Biogas, Renewable Energy, Cow Manure, Duckweed, Rumen Fluid DOI: 10.7176/JETP/11-2-01 Publication date:March 31st 202

Effect of Discrete Trial Training Intervention on Social Skills Development of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The present study examined the effect of Discreet Trail Training (DTT) intervention on improving social skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Autism Social Skill Profile (ASSP) was adapted and used as an instrument for identifying the children and a DTT based intervention package was developed. The study participants consisted of six children with ASD aged 11-17 year. All the children received pre-test and post-test to examine the effect of the intervention. The results showed a statistically significant difference at the level of significance (.004) between the pre-test and post-test scores in social skills profile. The finding showed that DTT based intervention can improve social skills (self-control, communication and playing or working with others) of children with ASD.  The DTT based intervention programs need to be used in the schools, this will maximize the benefits for children with ASD Finally, the study suggested the importance of large-scale intervention studies with larger sample size and diverse settings. Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Discrete Trial Training; Pre-test, Post-test experimental design, Social Skills DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-13-02 Publication date:August 31st 202

Grain marketing policy changes and spatial efficiency of maize and wheat markets in Ethiopia

"In the context of on-going market reform in developing countries, there is a need for an improvement in the existing methods of spatial market efficiency analysis in order to better inform the debate toward designing and implementing new grain marketing policies, institutions, and infrastructure that facilitate the emergence of a well developed and competitive grain marketing system. The standard parity bounds model (PBM), while it overcomes many weaknesses of the conventional methods of spatial market efficiency analysis, it does not allow for the test of structural changes in spatial market efficiency as a result of policy changes. In this paper, building on the standard PBM, we develop an extended parity bounds model (EPBM). The EPBM is a stochastic gradual switching model with three trade regimes. The EPBM is estimated by maximum likelihood procedure and allows for tracing the time path and structural change in spatial market efficiency conditions due to the policy changes. We applied the EPBM to analyze the effect of grain marketing policy changes on spatial efficiency of maize and wheat markets in Ethiopia. The results show that the effect of policy changes on spatial market efficiency is not significant statistically in many cases; there is high probability of spatial inefficiency in maize and wheat markets before and after the policy changes. The implication of these results is that maize and wheat markets are characterized by periodic gluts and shortages, which can undermine the welfare of producers, grain traders and consumers. It is also observed that the nature of spatial inefficiency for maize and wheat markets is different implying that the two commodities might require different policy responses in order to improve spatial market efficiency. Maize traders made losses most of the time while wheat traders made excess profits most of the time covered by the study." Authors' AbstractStochastic analysis ,structural change ,

Neighborhood Variation in Rate of Revascularization among Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients in New York City

Objective. To identify modifiable neighborhood factors and quantify their effect on the rate of revascularization among acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. Method. Using the New York City hospital discharge records during 1998–2002, we employed a hierarchical regression model that integrates patient-level risk factors and neighborhood-level factors to retrospectively examine revascularization patterns among AMI patients. Results. Access to revascularization varied substantially (27%–88%) among neighborhoods. Ready access to a hospital with on-site capacity of revascularization increased the likelihood of receiving the procedure after adjusting for individual-level sociodemographic factors and comorbidity. More than 64% of the variation in rate of revascularization is explained by access to revascularization. Conclusion. Optimizing the AMI patients' delivery system to hospitals with on-site capacity of revascularization might enhance access to needed care thereby help to alleviate the prevailing variation in the rate of revascularization among New York City neighborhoods