Exchange Rate Volatility and Sectoral Export of Nigeria: Case of Oil and Non-Oil Sectors

The study explored the effects of exchange rate volatility on the exports performance of both oil and non-oil sectors. The paper employed the econometrics method of GARCH in measuring volatility of exchange rate and seemingly unrelated regression method (SUR) in estimating the coefficient of the two system equation. ARCH and GARCH results suggested that the exchange rate is volatile , while SUR model shows that exchange rate has negative effect on the two sectors , though statistically not significant. Therefore, for the country export to improve, the country should adopt inward looking policy in order to enhance her capability to export and reduce the vulnerability of the country to the external shocks. This research will go a long way in addressing the behavior of Nigeria export in a correlated innovation and shocks system that goes along with international trade flow

Evaluation of Four ETo Models for IITA Stations in Ibadan, Onne and Kano, Nigeria.

Records of climatic variables (Solar radiation, Maximum and Minimum Temperature, Maximum and Minimum Relative Humidity and Wind speed) were collected from three International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Stations namely Ibadan, Kano and Onne in Nigeria. For Ibadan, a 36-year (1973 – 2008) record was obtained, for Kano, a 29-year (1980 - 2008) record was obtained and for Onne, a 31-year (1977 - 2006) record was obtained. Evapotranspiration rates for each of the stations were estimated using the FAO-56 approach. The performance of four ET models (Blaney-Morin-Nigeria (BMN), Hargreaves-Samani, Priestly-Taylor and Jensen-Haise models) were evaluated with reference to FAO 56 Model making use of ET estimated from these models. The BMN model was found out to be the best model that can be applied to estimate ET in each of these stations because it has a high correlation value with the values obtained from FAO56-PM model along with favourable statistic values and it requires a considerably less number of variables for its estimation with correlation (r) values of 0.7, 0.77 and 0.75 respectively for Ibadan, Onne and Kano. Key words: Evapotranspiration, FAO-56 Penman-Monteith, Blaney-Morin Nigeri

Web based fingerprint roll call attendance management system

Managing people and keeping adequate record of the attendance for most of the tertiary institutions are difficult task. Moreover, the manual taking of attendance adds to the difficulty of this task because it is strenuous, time intensive and can easily be falsified. Meanwhile, With the advent of new technology, a new world of authentication and security has been created via biometrics. This work aims at improving Covenant Universities paper-based attendance by using biometrics, specifically fingerprint technology. It is a web application that works with a fingerprint reader from which the features of the student’s fingerprint are extracted during enrolment. This is also needed during the authentication phase which occurs during the roll call attendance in the halls of residence. It is implemented using PHP and MySQL

Water resources management using the WRF-Hydro modelling system: Case-study of the Tono dam in West Africa

Water resources are a major source of economic development for most West African (WA) countries. There is, however inadequate information on these resources for the purposes of planning, decision-making and management. This paper explores the potential for using a state of the art hydrological model (WRF-Hydro) in a fully coupled (i.e. land surface hydrology-atmosphere) mode to assess these water resources, particularly the Tono basin in Ghana. WRF-Hydro model is an enhanced version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) which allows simulating river discharge. A 2-domain configuration is chosen: an outer domain at 25 km horizontal resolution encompassing the West African Region and an inner domain at 5 km horizontal resolution centered on the Tono basin. The infiltration partition parameter and Manning’s roughness parameter were calibrated to fit the WRF-Hydro simulated discharge with the observed data. The simulations were done from 1999 to 2003, using 1999 as a spin-up period. The results were compared with TRMM precipitation, CRU temperature and available observed hydrological data. The WRF-Hydro model captured the attributes of the “observed” streamflow estimate; with Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) of 0.78 and Pearson’s correlation of 0.89. Further validation of model results is based on using the output from the WRF-Hydro model as input into a water balance model to simulate the dam levels. WRF-Hydro has shown the potential for use in water resource planning (i.e. with respect to streamflow and dam level estimation). However, the model requires further improvement with respect to calibration of model parameters (e.g. baseflow and saturated hydraulic conductivity) considering the effect of the accumulation of model bias in dam level estimation

Characteristics of Different Systems for the Solar Drying of Crops

Solar dryers are used to enable the preservation of agricultural crops, food processing industries for dehydration of fruits and vegetables, fish and meat drying, dairy industries for production of milk powder, seasoning of wood and timber, textile industries for drying of textile materials. The fundamental concepts and contexts of their use to dry crops is discussed in the chapter. It is shown that solar drying is the outcome of complex interactions particular between the intensity and duration of solar energy, the prevailing ambient relative humidity and temperature, the characteristics of the particular crop and its pre-preparation and the design and operation of the solar dryer

Water resources management using the WRF-Hydro modelling system: Case-study of the Tono dam in West Africa

Water resources are a major source of economic development for most West African (WA) countries. There is, however inadequate information on these resources for the purposes of planning, decision-making and management. This paper explores the potential for using a state of the art hydrological model (WRF-Hydro) in a fully coupled (i.e. land surface hydrology-atmosphere) mode to assess these water resources, particularly the Tono basin in Ghana. The WRF-Hydro model is an enhanced version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) which allows simulating river discharge. A 2-domain configuration is chosen: an outer domain at 25 km horizontal resolution encompassing the West African Region and an inner domain at 5 km horizontal resolution centered on the Tono basin. The infiltration partition parameter and Manning’s roughness parameter were calibrated to fit the WRF-Hydro simulated discharge with the observed data. The simulations were done from 1999 to 2003, using 1999 as a spin-up period. The results were compared with TRMM precipitation, CRU temperature and available observed hydrological data. The WRF-Hydro model captured the attributes of the “observed” streamflow estimate; with Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) of 0.78 and Pearson’s correlation of 0.89. Further validation of model results is based on using the output from the WRF-Hydro model as input into a water balance model to simulate the dam levels. WRF-Hydro has shown the potential for use in water resource planning (i.e. with respect to streamflow and dam level estimation). However, the model requires further improvement with respect to calibration of model parameters (e.g. baseflow and saturated hydraulic conductivity) considering the effect of the accumulation of model bias in dam level estimation

Sorghum yield, water use and canopy temperatures under different levels of irrigation

This research was initiated to examine water use of differentially irrigated sorghum (sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and to evaluate the plant water stress using canopy temperature measurements. Field experiments were conducted for 3 years characterised by different weather conditions at Montpellier, France. The crop was subjected to 14 differentially irrigated traetments which included, each year, a full irrigated and a dry treatment. Plant and soil measurements monitored during the crop cycle included soil water content, leaf water potential canopy temperature. Mid-day measurement of crop canopy temperature (Tc) air temperature (Ta) difference reached a maximum of 7°C in the treatment and was maintained close to 0°C in full irrigated treatment. The relationships between (Tc -Ta) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD commonly referred to as baseline in the determination of crop water stress indicator (CWSI) were examined on function of wind speed and global solar radiation. Three approaches of estimating CWSI were compared. Summations of stress-degree-day (SDD) and temperature-stress-day (TSD) were related to both relative evapotranspiration and yeld (r²>0.70). / Cette étude a été entreprise pour préciser l'utilisation de l'eau du sorgho (sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) sous différents régimes d'irrigation et évaluer le niveau de stress de la culture en utilisant des mesures de températures de surface. Des études expérimentales ont été conduites pendant 3 ans avec des conditions climatiques contrastées à Montpellier (France). En fonction de l'irrigation, 14 traitements différents ont été appliqués à la culture avec, pour chaque année, deux traitements de référence, l'un irrigué de façon continue l'autre en sec. Les suivis, au niveau de la culture et du sol, concernaient l'humidité du sol, le potentiel foliaire et la température du couvert. Les différences du midi solaire entre la température de surface (Tc) du couvert et (Ta) de l'air ont atteint une valeur maximale de 7°C dans le traitement en sec mais sont restées proches de 0°C pour le traitement irrigué de manière continue. La relation entre Tc - Ta et le déficit de presssion de vapeur (VPD), communément utilisée dans le calcul du Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI), est analysées en fonction de la vitesse du vent et du rayonnement global. Trois modes de calcul du CWSI sont comparés. Les indices )Stress Degree Day cumulé (SDD) et Temperature Stress Day (TSD) sont étroitement corrélés à l'évapotranspiration relative et au rendement (r²>0.70)

Perceptions and Adaptation Practices of Agropastoralists to Rainfall and Temperature Changes in Mali

Many people in African countries derive their livelihoods from agriculture and livestock. Therefore, unfavourable environmental and climatic conditions render them more vulnerable to increasing food insecurity and poverty rates. However, few studies have investigated how farmers’ adaptation strategies affect farm productivity and household food security in the Sahelian region, notably Mali. This study aims to examine the impacts of climate change agro-pastoralists and to analyse the adaptation strategies in Mali. For this purpose, an analysis of daily rainfall and temperature data from 1960 to 2020 over Bamako, Ségou and Sikasso station was carried out using Instat+ v3.36, Rstudio, XLSTAT and Rclimdex software. Field surveys were conducted among 355 agropastoralists in three regions of Mali to assess the impacts and adaptation strategies of agropastoralists. The analysis of climate data showed a downward trend in overall rainfall. As for the temperature, it shows an upward trend over the series from 1960 to 2020 at the station of Ségou, Sikasso and Bamako. Agropatoralists use adaptation strategies such as organic fertilizers, changing planting dates and growing of short duration maize varieties to mitigate against the negative effects of climate change. The use of organic fertilizers and short-duration use of improved varieties promotes agricultural productivity and food security. We conclude that building agropastoralists adaptive capacity tends to reduce their vulnerability to climate change by increasing crop yields and food security

Effect of ambient conditions on calibration of hand-held infrared radiothermometers

Hand-held infrared radiothermometers are frequently used in water stress studies and in the management of irrigation water to measure soil and plant canopy temperatures. Different models of these instruments are available but manufacturers' calibration methods are not the same. Five models of radiothermometers were compared during field experiments on water stress studies on grain sorghum and soybeans at Montpellier, France. The in situ recalibration method advocated by Verbrugghe and Guyot (1992) was used in the field. It was confirmed that field and laboratory calibration equations were not the same. The effects of the main climatic parameters influencing the performance of radiothermometers were examined. Consequences of calibration methods on the calculation of certain stress indices, especially the stress degree day (SDD), were also examined.Effet des conditions de milieu sur l'étalonnage de radiothermomètres portatifs. Les radiothermomètres portatifs sont fréquemment utilisés pour étudier le stress hydrique et gérer l'irrigation en suivant les températures d'émission des sols et des plantes. Différents modèles de radiothermomètres sont disponibles mais les méthodes d'étalonnage des fabricants diffèrent entre elles. Cinq modèles de radiothermomètres ont été comparés entre eux dans des études au champ concernant des cultures de sorgho et de soja à Montpellier, France. La méthode d'étalonnage in situ préconisée par Verbrugghe et Guyot (1992) a été utilisée. Il a ainsi pu être confirmé que les équations des étalonnages réalisés au laboratoire et au champ sont différentes. Les effets des principaux facteurs du climat qui influencent la réponse des radiothermomètres sur le terrain sont examinés. Leurs conséquences pour l'application des coefficients de correction à plusieurs indices de stress, et particulièrement au stress degree day (SDD) sont examinées aussi