An Assessment of Institutional Importance of Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta River Basin of Northern Ghana

Climate change affects a lot of sectors including agriculture. Several measures are being adopted to avert the impacts associated with it. Water resources in semi-arid areas are not excluded. The study, conducted in Lawra District of Upper West region of Ghana was undertaken to identify and assess the adaptation strategies adopted by settlers along and in the Volta River Basin as well as to analyse the level of agreements among the institutions that are helping farmers to adapt to climate change impacts. This study used a mixed method including focus group discussion and a semi-structured questionnaire to obtain information from 160 farming households in 8 randomly selected communities in the Lawra district. Results revealed three classes of adaptation strategies which include environmental, cultural/agronomic and economic strategies. Majority (65%) of the settlers adopted the environmental practices, whiles 52% of the respondents also adopted the cultural/agronomic practices and less than half of the respondents (31%) adopted the economic practices. We viewed that adoption levels, though more than half of the respondents adopted the environmental and cultural strategies, are still not encouraging given the magnitude of interventions related to water management. The results also reveal that community watchdogs, climate change, agriculture and food security platforms and non-governmental organisations are the three most important institutions working to improve farmer resilience to climate change. Therefore the results could restimulate policy implementation with the overall aim of increasing adoption levels of the strategies. Only when this is done, will a significant step have been taken towards saving our water resources from climate change impacts

Non-invasive sex determination of guinea fowl keets (numida meleagris) by polymerase chain reaction

Early sex determination of birds is crucial for controlled breeding for both production andconservation. Amidst the potential of the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) industry for theeconomies of African countries and as a rich genetic resource to be conserved, inability toaccurately sex guinea fowl keets is a major constraint for breeding. In the present study sex of dayold guinea keets (n=132) and keets of 4 - 8 weeks (n=72) was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by amplifying a sequence homologous to Chicken EcoR1 fragment of 0.6 kb (EE0.6) using Universal Sex Primer 1(USP 1) and Universal Sex Primer 3 (USP 3) together with internal control primers using DNA extracted from feathers. Out of 72 keets, aged 4 - 8 weeks, 38 were identified as males and 34 were identified as females. Out of the 132, day-olds 69 and 63 were identified as female and male keets, respectively, were results from PCR were confirmed by the presence of respective gonads. The methods described can be used for accurate sex determination of guinea fowl keets from day-old with minimal stress and discomfort to the birds. The method can be used by researchers, breeders, conservationists directly or to develop farmer friendly methods in the future

In vivo digestibility of six selected fodder species by goats in northern Ghana

An in vivo digestibility trial was conducted to evaluate the digestibility of six forages. These were selected indigenous browse species and groundnut haulms in Lawra and Jirapa Districts of the UpperWest Region of Ghana. Groundnut haulms served as a control due to its known good digestibility in small ruminants. Thirty West African Dwarf (WAD) young castrated billy goats with a mean age of 8 months were used. The average live body weight was 8.9 ± 0.1 kg. The animals were randomly assigned to the six treatments and replicated five times in a completely randomized design. They were confined in metabolism cages. The adaptation period was 3 weeks after which data was taken for 10 days. The treatments were the leaves and tiny twigs of T1 Annona senegalensis, T2 Ficus gnaphalocarpa, T3 Pericopsis laxiflora, T4 Pterocarpus erinaceus, T5 Afzelia africana, and T6 (control) Arachis hypogaea. Feed intake, faecal matter and urine output were measured. The results indicated that dry matter (DM) contents of the feedstuffs were less than 50% but crude protein (CP) contents were higher than the minimum required for sustaining ruminants. Neutral and acid detergent fibre contents were high, and F. gnaphalocarpa, in particular, contained a higher level of phosphorus (P). The amounts of feed intakes were typical of most fodder species with the exception of P. laxiflora and P. erinaceus, which were lower (P < 0.05). The apparent digestibility values were also typical of most fodder species but the digestibility of A. africana fibre appeared to be lower. Nitrogen retention was positive for all test species with the exception of P. laxiflora, which was negative. Mortality was recorded in animals on P. laxiflora, and the rate was high. Pericopsis laxiflora leaves, even though morphologically similar to the leaves of P. erinaceus, were not a suitable fodder. Ficus gnaphalocarpa appeared to be the overall best fodder species in terms of nutrient uptake

Future flooding of the Volta Delta caused by sea level rise and land subsidence

The Volta Delta (Ghana, West Africa) is increasingly impacted by Sea Level Rise (SLR). SLR renders the Volta Delta mostly vulnerable to flooding, salinization of water resources and agricultural fields, and permanent loss of lands. This would potentially threaten its population, infrastructure and economy, and could be worsened by land subsidence (LS). Relative Sea Level Rise (RSLR) in this study is the rate of LS with respect to SLR. It is thus very important to precisely quantify LS rates together with SLR and plan and assess countermeasures. This study presents and discusses recent LS rates in the Volta Delta derived from satellite-based SAR-Interferometry and their impact on relative SLR. Sentinel-1 scenes acquired between 2015 and 2021 were used to quantify recent LS in the study area. The Persistent Scatter Interferometry (PS-InSAR) technique was applied, which allowed for estimating displacement rates of coherent backscatter targets with mm/yr precision. Separate analyses of time series for the Keta lagoon and Songor lagoon areas of the delta give insight into the vertical land movements, with irregularly distributed average rates of up to 4 mm/yr. LS in the Volta Delta is due to various causes, most prominently natural compaction of young deltaic sediments, but also aquifer over-exploitation and salt mining, and probably increasingly less compensated by a drop in sediment supply due to damming. Furthermore, projection of future elevation projections by RSLR was assessed by combining the observed LS rates with three IPCC representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios. The RSLR impact assessments computed revealed that by 2100, more than 20% of the Volta Delta districts could potentially be below MSL for all the addressed RCP scenarios, including the fragile but key sand barriers surrounded by water bodies. The study is, however, a preliminary investigation and recommends further local ground-based LS investigations to calibrate PS-InSAR outcome, thus improving our understanding of the areas driving critical present and future changes in the Volta Delta

Cardiovascular Efficacy and Safety of Bococizumab in High-Risk Patients

BACKGROUN

Cardiovascular Efficacy and Safety of Bococizumab in High-Risk Patients

Bococizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits proprotein convertase subtilisin- kexin type 9 (PCSK9) and reduces levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. We sought to evaluate the efficacy of bococizumab in patients at high cardiovascular risk. METHODS In two parallel, multinational trials with different entry criteria for LDL cholesterol levels, we randomly assigned the 27,438 patients in the combined trials to receive bococizumab (at a dose of 150 mg) subcutaneously every 2 weeks or placebo. The primary end point was nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina requiring urgent revascularization, or cardiovascular death; 93% of the patients were receiving statin therapy at baseline. The trials were stopped early after the sponsor elected to discontinue the development of bococizumab owing in part to the development of high rates of antidrug antibodies, as seen in data from other studies in the program. The median follow-up was 10 months. RESULTS At 14 weeks, patients in the combined trials had a mean change from baseline in LDL cholesterol levels of -56.0% in the bococizumab group and +2.9% in the placebo group, for a between-group difference of -59.0 percentage points (P<0.001) and a median reduction from baseline of 64.2% (P<0.001). In the lower-risk, shorter-duration trial (in which the patients had a baseline LDL cholesterol level of ≥70 mg per deciliter [1.8 mmol per liter] and the median follow-up was 7 months), major cardiovascular events occurred in 173 patients each in the bococizumab group and the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.22; P = 0.94). In the higher-risk, longer-duration trial (in which the patients had a baseline LDL cholesterol level of ≥100 mg per deciliter [2.6 mmol per liter] and the median follow-up was 12 months), major cardiovascular events occurred in 179 and 224 patients, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.97; P = 0.02). The hazard ratio for the primary end point in the combined trials was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.76 to 1.02; P = 0.08). Injection-site reactions were more common in the bococizumab group than in the placebo group (10.4% vs. 1.3%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS In two randomized trials comparing the PCSK9 inhibitor bococizumab with placebo, bococizumab had no benefit with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events in the trial involving lower-risk patients but did have a significant benefit in the trial involving higher-risk patients