Mitigating the water footprint of export cut flowers from the Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya

Kenya’s cut-flower industry has been praised as an economic success as it\ud contributed an annual average of US$141 million foreign exchange (7$ 352 million in 2005 alone. The industry also provides employment, income and infrastructure such as schools and hospitals for a large population around Lake Naivasha. On the other hand, the commercial farms have been blamed for causing a drop in the lake level, polluting the lake and for possibly affecting the lake’s biodiversity. The objective of this study is to quantify the water footprint within the Lake Naivasha Basin related to cut flowers and analyse the possibility to mitigate this footprint by involving cut-flower traders, retailers and consumers overseas. The water footprint of one rose flower is estimated to be 7–13 litres. The total virtual water export related to export of cut flowers from the Lake Naivasha Basin was 16 Mm3/yr during the period 1996–2005 (22 % green water; 45 % blue water; 33 % grey water). Our findings show that, although the decline in the lake level can be attributed mainly to the commercial farms around the lake, both the commercial farms and the smallholder farms in the upper catchment are responsible for the lake pollution due to nutrient load. The observed decline in the lake level and deterioration of the lake’s biodiversity calls for sustainable management of the basin through pricing water at its full cost and other regulatory measures. Pricing water at full marginal cost is important, but the conditions in Kenya are unlikely to result in serious steps to full-cost pricing, since many farmers resist even modest water price increases and government is lacking means of enforcement. We propose an alternative in this study that can be implemented with a focus on sustainable water use in flower farming around Lake Naivasha alone. The proposal involves a water-sustainability agreement between major agents along the cut-flower supply chain and includes a premium to the final product at the retailer end of the supply chain. Such a ‘water sustainability premium’ will raise awareness among flower consumers and—when channelled back to the farmers—facilitate the flower farms to install the necessary equipment and implement the right measures to use water in a sustainable manner. The collected premiums will generate a fund that can be used for financing measures to reduce the water footprint and to improve watershed managemen

Effects of Isoacids on Ruminal Metabolism and Milk Production

The digestion of cellulose in the rumen requires the interaction of both cellulolytic and noncellulolytic bacteria, as well as protozoa.! Even when the energy source is entirely roughage material, the cellulase-producing bacteria comprise only about one-fourth of the total bacterial population. Major cellulolytic species include: Fuminococcus albus, Ruminococcus flavzfaciens, Bacteroides succinogenes, and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. Of these, Bacteroides succinogenes is the most active in digestion of cellulose, especially the more resistant forms

Hydrological analysis as a technical tool to support strategic and economic development : a case study of Lake Naivasha, Kenya

Effective integrated water resources management requires reliable estimation of an overall basin water budget and of hydrologic fluctuations between groundwater and surface-water resources. Seasonal variability of groundwater-surface water exchange fluxes impacts on the water balance. The long term lake water balance was calculated by Modflow using the stage-volume rating curve of Lake Package LAK3. The long term average storage volume change is 8.4 × 108 m3/month. The lake water balances suggests that the lake is not in equilibrium with the inflow and outflow terms. Using field abstraction data analysis and model simulation, the combined volume of lake-groundwater used for industrial abstraction since the last three decades was estimated. This requires an average abstraction amount of 7.0 × 106 m3/month with a long term trend of abstraction ratio 30% (groundwater) and 70% (lake water) since 1980. The amount resulted in a lake which might have been 4.8 m higher than was observed in the last stress period (2010).A long term regional groundwater budget is calculated reflecting all water flow in to and out of the regional aquifer. The model water balance suggests that lake Navaisha basin is in equilibrium with a net outflow about 1% greater than the inflow over the calibrated period of time (1932–2010). The regional model is best used for broad-scale predictions and can be used to provide a general sense of groundwater to surface water and groundwater to groundwater impacts in the basin. A basin wide water resource management strategy can be designed by integrating the lake/wetland within the regional groundwater model to increase the level of sustainable production and good stewardship in Lake Navaisha. Such hydrological analysis is crucial in making the model serve as simulator of the response of lake stage to hydraulic stresses applied to the aquifer and variation in climatic conditio

The solid state reaction between Cu3P and silicon or germanium

The phase relations in low-phosphorus parts of the ternary systems Cu-Si-P and Cu-Ge-P have been determined for alloys annealed in evacuated capsules at 500°C. The reaction of Cu3P with silicon in diffusion couples that have been annealed in vacuum, is never faster than the reaction between copper and silicon. Cu3Si and phosphorus vapour are formed during the reaction. A peculiar morphology, that of isolated Cu3Si columns separated by large gaps, develops when the reaction is hindered. When a diffusion couple is annealed in a closed capsule, Cu3Si and presumably SiP are formed. The reaction between Cu3P and germanium takes place at a rate comparable with that of the copper-germanium reaction and leads to the formation of Cu3Ge and phosphorus vapour. Because of plastic deformation of Cu3Ge no peculiar morphology of the reaction layer was observed

Returns to Hedge Fund Activism: An International Study

This paper provides evidence on the incidence, characteristics, and performance of activist engagements across countries. We find that the incidence of activism is greatest with high institutional ownership, particularly for U.S. institutions. We use a sample of 1,740 activist engagements across 23 countries and find that almost one-quarter of engagements are by multi-activists engaging the same target. These engagements perform strikingly better than single activist engagements. Engagement outcomes, such as board changes and takeovers, vary across countries and significantly contribute to the returns to activism. Japan is an exception, with high initial expectations and low outcomes

Ion impact induced Interatomic Coulombic Decay in neon and argon dimers

We investigate the contribution of Interatomic Coulombic Decay induced by ion impact in neon and argon dimers (Ne$_2$ and Ar$_2$) to the production of low energy electrons. Our experiments cover a broad range of perturbation strengths and reaction channels. We use 11.37 MeV/u S$^{14+}$, 0.125 MeV/u He$^{1+}$, 0.1625 MeV/u He$^{1+}$ and 0.150 MeV/u He$^{2+}$ as projectiles and study ionization, single and double electron transfer to the projectile as well as projectile electron loss processes. The application of a COLTRIMS reaction microscope enables us to retrieve the three-dimensional momentum vectors of the ion pairs of the fragmenting dimer into Ne$^{q+}$/Ne$^{1+}$ and Ar$^{q+}$/Ar$^{1+}$ (q = 1, 2, 3) in coincidence with at least one emitted electron