Global utilisation of cereals: sustainability and environmental issues

Over the years, cereals have been the major food consumed by humans and have also been used in animal diet and therefore highly commendable for playing a major role in the preservation of human race. Studies have shown that half of the total percentage of calories consumed in the world is from cereals while it is also the most traded agricultural crop at the international market. This motivates the need to assess its utilisation in the past, present and future. This review shows that much driven by the use of cereals are factors like consumption and dietary pattern of a person or country, technological advancement in adding value to it, income status, market forces of demand and supply, level of affluence and policy. The trend in global cereals utilisation since its domestication has indicated an upward one with bulk of it being consumed as food in developing countries while majority of it goes into feeding livestock in developed countries. Evidence from this study also shows that the per capita utilisation of cereals directly for food is exceedingly great in developing countries than developed countries which is an indicator of malnutrition when not balance with other nutrients as it was observed in Bangladesh where calorie intake of an adult is about 90% from cereals. While there is a steady increase in global cereals utilisation due to its discovered industrial use as fuel, increased population and other factors, it will be expedient to focus on its sustainability and environmental issues that are likely to come up as a limitation to meet future demands

Analysis of profitability and operational efficiencies of fresh tomato marketing: empirical evidence from Oyo State Nigeria

Although marketing is considered a very important aspect of agricultural production, it has been a neglected aspect of agricultural development plans and this has led to a situation where marketers of fresh tomatoes are not able to track their level of profitability and which invariably makes it difficult to attract prospective investor to the business. This study examines empirically profitability and operational efficiencies of fresh tomato marketing in South Western Nigeria. The study employed primary data using structured questionnaires to collect information from 100 randomly selected fresh tomato marketers in the study area. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics; gross margin and marketing efficiency analytical techniques. The result of the analysis revealed that for every ₦100 invested in fresh tomato trading in the study area, wholesalers, retailers and wholesalers/retailerrealized profit of ₦28.00, ₦18.00 and ₦ 258.00 respectively while the average operational efficiencies of wholesalers, retailers and wholesalers/retailer are 60.85%, 74.00% and 80.50% respectively. These positive and size of profits obtained for each fresh tomato marketing institutions is an indication that these institutions were able to recover their operating expenses; hence, marketing fresh tomato in the study area isprofitable and efficient

Development and evaluation of honey extracting machine.

Traditional method of extracting honey leads to reduction in nutritional value and quality thus, a honey extractor; a mechanical device that extracts honey from its comb was designed and constructed using easily available materials. The main objective of this study is the development and performance evaluation of a honey extractor. The main functional parts of the machine are net frame, wire mesh (perforation size 5mm, constructed using 1.5mm thick stainless steel of dimension 180 x 225mm), driving shaft (20 x 50mm), driving gear (diameter 21 x 17mm), control lever or operating handle (made of iron rod coated with rubber material at the point of handling to facilitate the winding process) and basket (designed to hold and spin two honeycomb frames, constructed using 1.5mm thick stainless steel, dimension 180 x 255mm placed vertically into the extractor). The honey extractor is cylindrical in shape and operated by manually turning the control lever. The time taken for honey extraction had significant effect on the performance of the honey extractor; the machine capacity, efficiency and weight of honey extracted decreases as the time taken for extraction increases, optimum values of 91.2%, 8.68 kg/hr and 456g was obtained at 32 seconds of honey extraction for machine efficiency, capacity and weight of honey extracted respectively. The average values of weight of honey extracted, weight of honeycomb remaining after honey extraction, time taken, machine efficiency and capacity of the honey extractor after a set of five experimental runs were 416.2g (+ 32), 83.8g (+ 31.8), 44s (+ 8.5), 83.3% (+ 6.4) and 6.52 kg/hr (+ 1.4) respectively. The machine is portable and can be operated without any special training or technical-know-how, the machine also has the ability to reserve and leave the honeycomb undamaged after honey extraction

Climate change adaptation through conservation agriculture: evidence from smallholder farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

This study identifies the factors influencing the adoption of CA among smallholder farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria. To determine the factors influencing the adoption of CA among smallholder farmers, Tobit regression model was used. From the regression results, minimum tillage, crop rotation, mulching, cost of planting materials, cost of equipment’s are all positively significant at 1% and a unit increase in them will increase the adoption of CA practices in the study area. The primary occupation of the respondents is positively significant at 5% and a unit increase in primary occupation of the respondentsincreases the rate of adopting CA practices by 0.0570868. Age of the respondents is negatively significant at 10% and this implies that a unit increase in age decreases the rate of adopting CA by 0.0018808. Also, household size is positively significant at 10% and a unit increase in households’ size increase the level of adoption of conservation agriculture by 0.0079891. This paper therefore recommends that policies addressing the 3 core principles of CA practices (minimum tillage, crop rotation and mulching) should be re-emphasized so as to improve the food production involve in agricultural value chain activities. Young ones should be encouraged to involve in farming practices especially CA activities. And lastly, cost of equipment and planting materials should be subsidized for farmers so as to foster improved farming, increased food production and hence aid commercialization among smallholder farmers.Keywords: Conservation agriculture, agricultural value chain and smallholder farmer

Factors Influencing the Dis-adoption of Moringa oleifera among Farming Households in Oyo State, Nigeria

This study was conducted to determine the factors influencing the disadoption of Moringa oleifera among farming households in Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires for this study. Descriptive and quantitative techniques were used for the analysis of survey data. Result revealed that the level of disadoption of Moringa in the study area was high whereas those that are still cultivating moringa still realizes income it. Also, the respondents indicated that low return on investment on moringa oleifera, low demand of moringa oleifera products such as leaf and seeds, low sale of moringa products, inadequate processing equipment, and inadequate marketing channels and over hyped health benefit of moringa products were factors contributing to the disadoption of moringa oleifera cultivation.The study revealed that age,membership of farmers’ association, non-farm income, and access to extension and involvement of the farmers in other agroforestry practices were significant factors influencing the disadoption of moringa in the study area. However, membership of farmers’ association and access to extension services significantly influence the probability of disadoption of moringa cultivation negatively. This study therefore recommends that there shouldbe further awareness on the benefits of moringa in order to increase demand for moringa and its product and that farmers should be encouraged to join Moringa farmers group in order to network with other farmers and to access information. Keywords: Dis-Adoption, Moringa oleifera, Probit and Oyo State

Construction and comparative evaluation of a fired briquette and mold oven.

Biomass; the plant matter for generating heat or electricity via direct combustion or gasification was used in the construction of a briquette and mold oven, this was done locally to substitute fuel scarcity and reduce the threat of global warming in Nigeria. The performance evaluation was carried out using water boiling test (WBT). The results obtained from the tests carried out on the biomass briquette oven (BBO) were compared with the mold oven. The result of the test indicates that the briquette oven (BBO) used an average of 69g of wood to boil 1 liter of water in about 8 min (5 liters in 38 min) as against 326g of wood to boil the same 1 liter of water in about 25 min(5 liters in 126 min) using the mold oven. The thermal efficiency of the BBO (67%) was better than the mold oven (16%). The firepower of the mold oven (3422 kW) was higher than the BBO(2192 kW) which is in agreement with the burning rate as the mold oven fire consumed more wood per unit time for the same task. In most aspects of oven performance, the BBO was better than the mold and thus, it is recommended for use

Developing emotionally competent engineers for the ever-changing built environment

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-08-2022-0806As the world experiences a rapid rise in technological advances, the engineering profession will be required to become even more socially responsible and emotionally stable to be able to display higher levels of empathy towards the society they serve. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the key emotional competencies (ECs) that engineers need to possess to thrive in the construction industry after graduation. A quantitative research approach was conducted with close-ended questionnaires developed and administered to built environment professionals such as architects, construction managers, construction project managers, engineers and quantity surveyors. The results showed that the ability to display a positive outlook on life, understand one’s emotional triggers, ability to display resilience in hard times, control one’s emotions and ability to show compassion to others were the highest-ranked ECs. Further analysis revealed four clusters such as self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation and self-motivation. Practical guidance for higher education institutions is offered in terms of revamping and revisiting their engineering education curricula to develop these ECs to produce emotionally sound engineers for the ever-changing world of work. As the world of work becomes increasingly dynamic and diverse, engineers will be required to possess empathy, social skills and high levels of ECs to be able to seamlessly interact with fellow professionals as well as the society they serve

Computer-aided batch process design, techno-economic and uncertainty analyses of bio-clarified water recovery from south-eastern Nigerian brewery wastewater

Biocoagulation-flocculation-sedimentation (bioclarification) is one of the main wastewater treatment techniques. Despite its effectiveness in treating brewery wastewater for water reuse, the scale-up process for the reclaimed brewery water from wastewater has rarely been documented in the literature. This study presents the computer-aided process design, techno-economic and uncertainty analyses of bioclarified water production from brewery wastewater. The base-case simulation model, process scale-up design and economics were performed in Aspen Batch Process Developer. Process profitability indices (Net Present Value: (NPV), Internal Rate of Return: (IRR) and Payback Time: PBT) were evaluated in a user-defined developed Microsoft-excel version 2018. Monte-Carlo-Simulation in Crystal-Ball-Oracle software was used to perform the sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. The process scale-up simulation results gave annual production capacity (45,000,000 L/year), batch size (9800 L/batch) and annual number of batches produced (4564 batches/year). Base case capacity results showed that the total capital investment, NPV, IRR and PBT are $2,416,358.62,$2,790,608, 36% and 3.27years respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that production capacity and product selling price have the highest contribution for both NPV and IRR respectively. Certainties of base-case model were 90.27% for the IRR and 99.51% for the NPV. This study showed that brewery wastewater bioclarification scale-up design is feasible