Analysis of the determinants of rural households’ adaptation to climate change in Ibarapa Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

It is a common belief that rural farmers’ livelihoods are susceptible to climate change. Literature has even suggested that locally driven adaptations are critical complementary strategies that can be targeted to reduce the negative effects of climate change in the short-term. This study examined the determinants of rural households’ adaptation to climate change in Ibarapa Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The paper also assessed farmers’ perceived effects of climate change on their livelihood and the strategies adopted by households to adapt to the effects of climate change, as well as the constraints to their adaptation to climate change. One hundred and twenty copies of questionnaire were administered to household heads out of which only one hundred and eighteen copies were found analysable and used for the study. The results showed that there were several effects of climate change perceived by the farmers. These include poor crop yields, which is the most noticeable effect by farmers. Others are a loss of livestock, environmental degradation, and even psychological trauma. The regression results revealed that several socioeconomic variables significantly influenced rural households’ decision to adapt to climate change. Some of these variables were farmers’ access to weather information, access to credit facilities, farming experience, household size. Some of the challenges rural households encountered in their bid to adapt to climate change were also identified. These were unpredictability of weather, high costs of farm inputs, lack of access to water during dry season and lack of access to timely weather information. It is therefore recommended that government through its agency, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, should provide timely weather information to farmers to help them plan their farming activities. In addition, irrigation facilities should be made available to farmers in the study area so that they can engage in dry season farming and make farm produce available all-year round. This will help boost food security status of farmers and by extension, the entire country.Keywords: Climate Change, Adaptation strategies, Ibarapa, Mitigation, Rural Household

Dimensionless response of underground pipes due to blast loads using finite Element Method

Underground pipes are used for water supply, drainage, oil and gas supply, irrigation, etc. Blast constituent comprises of the ground media, intervening layer, structures, and blast. This study is aimed at determining the response of simulated empty underground pipes due to blast loads using finite element method. In this study, blast load parameters were determined using Unified Facilities Criteria (2008). Time integration technique in Abaqus/Explicit was used to solve the equation of motion. The soil and pipes materials were considered as elastic, homogeneous and isotropic. The material properties as obtained from different researchers and pipe manufacturers were used. Dimensional analysis was used to present the results. From the result of the dimensionless parameters, it was observed that depth of burial of pipes play a significant role in the response of underground pipes due to surface and underground blasts while coefficient of friction has little effect due to underground blast. Dimensionless pressure and deflection of underground pipes reduce as embedment ratios increase in surface and open trench blasts while this is not so in underground blast. Finally guidelines thus established would help in the design of underground pipes to resist effects of blasts. Consequently, the environmental risk and hazards caused by blasts will be reduced

Effects of cassava starch supplementation on behavioural characteristics and oxidative status in Drosophila melanogaster

Studies have revealed that adaptive life-history behaviour and reproductive capacity of an organism are influenced by the amount and quality of nutrients. Furthermore, it has been established that the balance between energy production and utilization is crucial to the animal's survival and reproduction vis-a-vis the organism's ability to adjust their developmental, physiological or behavioural response to environmental conditions. In the present study an attempt was made to investigate the effect of cassava starch supplementation on chill-coma recovery, reproductive capacity and some metabolic�induced changes in oxidative status of Drosophila melanogaster, which was raised on a normal fly diet supplemented with 500, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500 and 2000 mg/mL starch extracted from three cassava cultivars (TMS 92/0326, TMS 30572 and Omu�Aran local sweet cassava). Data generated from this study showed that flies consuming starch-supplemented diet have a higher level of cold resistance, an increased survival rate as well as enhanced egg to adult viability. However, flies raised on starch�supplemented diet showed a significantly higher concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) with a compensatory significant increase in activities of antioxidant defense enzymes, and nitric oxide scavenging capacity compared to flies raised on the normal fly diet. In conclusion, data obtained from this study revealed that supplementation to the D. melanogaster diet with cassava starch enhances the organism's survival rate, and adaptive response to cold stress, with concomitant improvement in antioxidant status

Agricultural Pesticides: Children’s Health in Jeopardy – A Review

With increase in world population and industrialization coupled with the negative impacts of climate change, the use of agricultural pesticides has increased greatly. The extensive usage of pesticides in farming and residential areas has exposed millions of adults and children all over the world to the detrimental influence of the toxic chemicals. This has resulted into some devastating health challenges lasting the whole of a lifetime of the victims. Children are at a higher risk of exposure than adults. This is due to the fact that the majority of the pesticides usage globally is on fruits and veggies, hence, children are at risk of low-rate but continuous pesticide exposure. This study was therefore aimed at reviewing of the precarious impact of agricultural pesticides on the health of children. The reviews showed that neonatal exposure to agricultural pesticides is responsible for birth defects, cognitive deficits and childhood cancer in children. Also, postnatal exposure to agricultural pesticides has been implicated in children’s respiratory and nervous system diseases. The effect is more on the nervous system. Agricultural pesticides have also been linked to different types of cancer in children. Promotion of integrated farming will be a policy option in other to protect children from hazardous effects of agricultural pesticides

In vitro antioxidant properties and digestibility of chicken feather protein hydrolysates

The in vitro antioxidant property and digestibility of chicken feather protein hydrolysate (CFPH) were evaluated in this study. The antioxidant property of CFPH obtained following chemical treatment of chicken feather waste involving precipitation with various acids (H2SO4, HNO3, TCA and HCl) was determined via its scavenging action against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, iron reduction power and metal ion chelating activity. Data obtained showed that CFPHHNO3 had the highest DPPH scavenging activity while CFPHTCA exhibited the highest ferric (Fe3+) reduction potential. On the other hand, CFPHTCA, CFPHH2SO4 and CFPHHNO3 showed a similar capacity for Fe2+ -chelation compared to CFPHH2SO4 with the least chelating potential. The in vitro protein digestibility of the CFPH of the various acids ranged from 62.30±1.0% (CFPHHNO3) to 73.10±1.3% (CFPHTCA) and were significantly (p < 0.05) higher compared to the raw feather (23.80±0.5%). These results indicate that CFPH may be useful as antioxidants in animal feed formulations and also serve as additional source of essential nutrients in fee