Development projects embarked on by rural women involved in community development association in Imo State, Nigeria

No Abstract. ournal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol. 7 (1) 2007: pp. 82-8

Attitude Of Women In Community Development Associations Towards Participation In Community Development Projects

The study examined attitudes of women in community development associations towards participation in community development projects in Imo State, Nigeria. Data was obtained from 127 randomly selected respondents from the study area. Results showed that women have favourable attitude towards participating in community development association activities that are relevant to community development. It was found that age of respondents, occupation and population of members in association significantly influenced women's attitude towards participation in community development projects. Based on the findings of the study it is recommended that women should be encouraged by Government and Non-Governmental Organizations by assisting rural women in community development associations which embarking on development projects by providing counterpart funds to boost the women's efforts. In order to further make women to show more favourable attitude towards community development, they should be given positions of authority in the community and the local level which will give them the opportunity to mobilize other women for community development. Regular awareness campaign and membership canvassing should be embarked by women in other to make other women know the importance of belonging to community development associations. Keywords: attitude of women, community development associations Global Approaches to Extension Practice Vol. 3 (1) 2007: pp. 72-8

Burden of cardio-metabolic co-morbidities among geriatric Nigerians with essential hypertension in a primary care clinic of a tertiary hospital in a resource-limited setting of Eastern Nigeria

No Abstrac

Extent of Information and Communication Technology Usage among Agriculture Undergraduates, Implications for Agricultural Development

Agriculture undergraduates are the bedrock of future agricultural development. It is therefore pertinent examine how they are aligning with the wave of information and communication technology and communication technology in contemporary times in Nigeria. This study focused on determining the extent of information and Communication Technology usage among agriculture undergraduates and the implications for agricultural and rural transformation. Data were collectedwith the aid of structured questionnaire from 112 randomly selected undergraduates of the School of Agricultural technology of the federal University of technology, Owerri, Nigeria. Data analysis was by the use of descriptive statistics. Finding of the study revealed that usage level of ICT among respondents was high in E-mail {mean score =2.41}. The web {mean score = 2.34} and computer operation {mean score = 1.77}, but low in CD-ROM {mean score =1.09} and chartroom {mean score=1.41}. it was also found that respondents use ICT for handling assignments {mean score =2.61}, project work {mean score =2.27}, scholarship information {mean score {= 1.70}, project work {meanscore = 2.27}, general agricultural information {mean score =2.22}, seminar {mean score =1.55}. It was found that respondents use ICT tools in commercial business centres and a large proportion of the respondents spent 5 hours weekly on average on ICT and spent up to N200. it was alsorecommended that the university should provide agriculture  undergraduates with cyber café and some hours of grace should be given to them in order to reduce financial burden on them. The implications of the findings are that agriculture undergraduates are well informed aboutcontemporary agricultural information and are adequately prepared for transforming agricultural development in Nigeria. in view of this extension education policy should be developed to ensure that agriculture undergraduates are provided skills that will foster more interest in the use of information and communication technology. This will make them more relevant to national development

Malaria Morbidity and Mortality in Owerri Hospitals

Generally in a typical Nigerian setting, hospital visits for the treatment of malaria are usually cases of severe malaria where home remedies including over- the-counter drugs have failed. A descriptive epidemiological survey of malaria using hospital records was carried out in the three geopolitical zones (Local Government Areas) of Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria to give a picture of severe malaria in the city. Yearly regular survey for a period of six years (2000-2006) revealed an overall prevalence of 23.8% calculated over the years. In characterising the sample population, children aged between 0 and 5 years were observed to have recorded the highest incidence of malaria with 70.1% reported hospital cases, followed by pregnant mothers (35.0%) in descending order. Yearly prevalences of 17.4%, 14.9%, 23.9%, 23.4%, 33.0%, 22.2% and 32.9% respectively were recorded for the years 2000 to 2006. Chi- square analysis did not show any significant difference between the various prevalence rates (p=0.05). Gender-related rates of reported hospital cases showed a total prevalence of 22.5% and 25.4% for males and females respectively. Amongst the different Local Government Areas, Owerri West recorded the highest cases of hospital that treated malaria with (29.7%) followed by Owerri North (22.2%), with the least (21.6%) observed for Owerri Municipal. Malaria related cases in out-patient clinics and admission yielded prevalence of 3.1% and 8.9% respectively, for the total attendance. Overall malaria related mortality was observed as 1.2%. Most of the death (74 deaths) cases were observed within the age group of 0-14 years. On the clinical picture of malaria as recorded in the hospitals, Cerebral malaria, malaria in pregnancy, malaria in children, malaria relapse, and malaria with anaemia yielded total occurrence rates of 1.7%, 5.7%, 6.4%, 1.6%, and 4.4% respectively over the years. More cases of pregnant women with malaria was reported in the year 2002(45.0%) and there was a reduction trend from 2004, with the least reported rates (22.9%) in 2006. Similarly, more cases of malaria in children were recorded in the year 2002 (62.5%) while a reduction trend (29.1%) was observed in the year 2006. Chi- square analysis showed a significant difference among the various years (P=0.05).Keywords: malaria, morbidity, mortality, epidemiology, Owerri, hospital recordsNigerian Journal of Parasitology, Vol. 32 [2] September 2011, pp.175-18

Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Use and Policy

Energy is a basic necessity for survival and a key input to economic and social development. Inspite of large-scale expansions in energy service provision, more than two billion people across the world lack access to modern energy services. Lack of energy services is correlated with many of the elements of poverty, such as low education levels, inadequate health care, and limited employment possibilities. Gender issues have a key role in energy policies primarily because gender differences and inequalities have consequences for energy needs, use and priorities. In most cultures, women and men have differing roles and responsibilities, with women carrying out subsistence activities, including gathering and managing fuel and water. Women and men also have different degrees of access and control, especially with regard to biomass resources. Inspite of the fact that they are closely involved with obtaining resources from the surroundings, women rarely have control over them. As a result, limited access to energy resources is a problem that has a disproportionably greater effect on women, especially in rural areas. This paper therefore outlines possible policy directives and measures aimed at engendering energy interventions. Thus, greater attention to the needs and concerns of women could help governments promote overall development goals like poverty alleviation, employment, health, and education through improved energy policies

Development of a Plastics and Paper Waste Management System for a University Community

In Nigeria, poor waste management practices are evident in many urban centers. This study considered a University community as the model to explore the use of digital solutions in proper waste management. This study developed a web-based waste management system for the collection of plastics and paper in a University community. The framework developed utilized the use case and system block diagram. In this study, HTML, CSS, MySQL and Java programming language was used in the design of the web-based system. The result of this study was presented using screenshots. The web-based system had an interface to show profiles of the users, waste pickup information, incentive platform, and the admin dashboard to monitor and approve pickups and incentives. Past studies have indicated the success of using incentives to build sustainable behavioural change towards efficient waste disposal. Therefore, this study was able to introduce the incentive platform which converts weight of paper and plastics waste to points then to rewards for the users. The web-based waste management system for the collection of plastics and paper can be deployed for University communities to help reduce the number of paper and plastics that end up in landfills. Also, by picking the paper and plastics waste from source helps to prevent bin contamination