8 research outputs found
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
Relations entre le comportement de sols lateritiques et les roches dont ils derivent, dans la region d'Akure, Nigeria
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