The characteristics of the moonfish, Citharinus citharus (Eoffroy–St Hilaire, 1809) of Lake Oguta, Nigeria

Aquaculture holds the highest prospect for increased fish production in Nigeria and can only thrive if proven culturable fishes are available and diversified. This has necessitated the characterization of non-conventional culturable species, which abound in the wild. An example of such fish with very high potential for culture purposes is Citharinus citharus of Lake Oguta. The present study therefore investigates the identity of the fish using the morpho-meristic analysis method. All the important diagnostic features evaluated conformed to the values recorded and features described for C. Citharus of the region (Upper Niger). Of particular importance for field identification of fingerlings for culture purposes are the number of scales between the lateral line and the pelvic fin (lower transverse series), which was 17-20 and number of scales in the longitudinal (lateral line) series, 81-92; fin ray counts are as fellows: Div-vi, 14-15 and A iii – iv, 23-27. It is hoped that the resulting information will assist fish farmers in procuring seed of this fish from the wild and will serve for the general development of aquaculture in Nigeria

Perceived Effects Of Information Communication Technology Among Researchers, Extension Agents And Farmers In Nigeria

The agricultural macro production system consists of researchers, extension agents or sometimes described as technology transfer workers, and the farmers. This description implies that there is need for proper coordination and linkage among them and the linking commodity is information. The breakthrough in the information communication technology reveals the digital face of farming and thus making the practice of farming to be precision agriculture. In this way the use of sensors, digital application controllers, communication links, the global positioning system, computers and innovative software solutions to automatically match agricultural inputs and practices to variable local conditions within afield. A triangulation approach was used to determine the perceived effects of Information Communication Technology among researchers, extension agents and farmers in Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the different sets of respondents and information elicited through a structured questionnaire based on the existing level ofawareness of Information Communication Technology tools. The result shows that the use of Information Communication Technology was perceived to be of positive effect. This is based on the fact that digital tools could make farming more productive and environmentallybenign. However the constraints to the realization of this potential lie in the infrastructure availability, manpower development and the policy frame work for the implementatio