Dairy farming in Uganda. Production Efficiency and Soil Nutrients under Different Farming Systems

Prior to the 1980s, milk production in Uganda occurred largely in two contrasting production systems. In the wetter parts of the country, especially in the southwest, there were a few large, mostly government-owned commercial dairy farms on which exotic and cross-bred dairy cattle were kept in paddocks and grazed on improved or natural pastures. In the drier eastern and northeastern parts of the country, pastoralists kept large numbers of local cattle breeds, notably the Small East African Zebu (SEAZ), under traditional extensive management systems. Although the pastoralists marketed some milk, most was consumed by the household. Cattle were also valued as an expression of cultural prestige and a means of accumulating capital and meeting planned and emergency expenses. Smallholders, who tended to keep a few low yielding indigenous cattle as well as growing crops, made little contribution to the nation’s marketed milk and were primarily subsistence-oriented

Implementation of a Large System-Wide Hepatitis C Virus Screening and Linkage to Care Program for Baby Boomers.

BackgroundWe implemented and evaluated a large health system-wide hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening and linkage to care program for persons born between 1945 and 1965 ("baby boomers").MethodsAn electronic health record (EHR) clinical decision support (CDS) tool for HCV screening for baby boomers was introduced in August 2015 for patients seen in the outpatient University of California, Los Angeles healthcare system setting. An HCV care coordinator was introduced in January 2016 to facilitate linkage to HCV care. We compared HCV testing in the year prior (August 2014-July 2015) to the year after (August 2015-July 2016) implementation of the CDS tool. Among patients with reactive HCV antibody testing, we compared outcomes related to the care cascade including HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) testing, HCV RNA positivity, and linkage to HCV specialty care.ResultsDuring the study period, 19606 participants were screened for HCV antibody. Hepatitis C virus antibody screening increased 145% (from 5676 patients tested to 13930 tested) after introduction of the CDS intervention. Screening increased across all demographic groups including age, sex, and race/ethnicity, with the greatest increases among those in the older age groups. The addition of an HCV care coordinator increased follow-up HCV RNA testing for HCV antibody positive patients from 83% to 95%. Ninety-four percent of HCV RNA positive patients were linked to care postimplementation.ConclusionsIntroduction of an EHR CDS tool and care coordination markedly increased the number of baby boomers screened for HCV, rates of follow-up HCV RNA testing, and linkage to specialty HCV care for patients with chronic HCV infection

Categorisation of dairy production systems: A strategy for targeting meaningful development of the systems in Uganda

Dairy production is a major contributor towards national economies and household food security and incomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Milk production in the region is estimated at 1.27 million metric tonnes year-1. However, this level of milk production is inadequate for the existing human population who would require 103 million metric tonnes year-1. In Uganda, milk production only meets approximately 20% of the population's nutritional requirements. As such, methods need to be sought to increase milk production in the region. Research efforts have made strides in identifying the causes of the production-demand gap in the SSA region and a spectrum of interventions to bolster the productivity. Unfortunately, these efforts have by far yielded insignificant results. First and foremost, for exploiting the full potential of the dairy cattle population in the region, among the critical elements often overlooked in research and development processes is the recognition of systematic parametric variations within the sector, which if considered could provide entry-points for targeting intervention efforts. One such high potential entry-point is the recognition of the existence of a dairy intensification "vector" across a country or region, along which exist sections with sequentially marked nuclei of fairly uniform socio-economic and biophysical dairy sub-systems features. To enhance the process of targeting research and development in the Ugandan dairy sector, dairy production systems in the country were categorised on basis of level of intensification of production. Data were collected from 300 households in Mbarara, Masaka and Jinja districts in Uganda. The major variables derived from the data for the categorisation process were those related with milk production, expenditure, income, land area and cattle herds. The data was subjected to a cluster analysis which although produced 16 groups only five had prominent membership (above 5% of the farms). The five major clusters were selected as representative of the dairy production systems. A ranking system was used to develop an intensification continuum for the 5 systems. Herding-on own and communal land (cluster 9) was the least intensive, this was followed by Herding-mainly on own land (cluster 12) and Fenced (cluster 8) respectively. Semi-Zero Grazing (cluster 15) and Zero Grazing (cluster 13) were the most intensive dairy production systems with the latter being at the highest end of the continuum

The continued value of disk diffusion for assessing antimicrobial susceptibility in clinical laboratories: Report from the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Methods Development and Standardization Working Group

Expedited pathways to antimicrobial agent approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have led to increased delays between drug approval and the availability of FDA-cleared antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) devices.</jats:p

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT USING INTEGRATED HOUSEHOLD AND GIS DATA FROM SMALLHOLDER KENYAN FARMS

Although soil fertility is recognized as a primary constraint to agricultural production in developing countries, use of fertilizer in Sub-Saharan Africa is declining. Smallholder farmers still rely heavily on livestock manure for soil fertility management. To explore the determinants of soil fertility management practices, including both the use of cattle manure and inorganic fertilizer, data are used from a sample of 3,330 geo-referenced farm households across Central and Western Kenya. A bivariate probit model is applied to jointly examine the use of the two technologies. Particular attention is given to measures of location related to market access and agroclimate, which in the adoption literature have typically been addressed using crude proxies. To avoid such proxies, GIS-derived variables are integrated into the household decision model. Their use also allows the spatial prediction of uptake based on parameter estimates. The results show clearly the derived-demand nature of soil fertility services, based on markets for farm outputs. They also illustrate that supply of manure for soil fertility amendments is conditioned by demand for livestock products, especially milk. The integration of GIS-derived variables is shown to better estimate the effects of location than the usual measures employed, and offers scope to wider use in technology adoption research.spatial analysis, soil fertility, market access, technology adoption., Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Q12, Q16,

Farmer Perception of Technology and its Impact on Technology Uptake: The Case of Fodder Legume in Central Kenya Highlands.

Technology adoption by farmers is crucial to increasing agricultural productivity hence meeting food and nutrition challenges in Africa. Economists investigating consumer demand have accumulated considerable evidence showing that consumers generally have subjective preferences for product attributes. However, when investigating adoption of new agricultural technologies, economists have lagged behind in analysing how farmers' (the consumer of agricultural technologies) subjective perceptions of technology characteristics affect their adoption decisions. Focusing on farmer perceptions of technologies may provide a better understanding of technology adoption since they deal with the technologies and probably perceive technologies differently from researchers and extension agents. The objective of this paper is to investigate farmers' perception of technology and its impact on adoption using a case study of legume forages in central Kenya highlands. Data from a random sample of 131 farm households in four districts in central Kenya was used. Using participatory techniques, four most important fodder legume attributes to farmers in their adoption decision were identified. These were then used in conjoint analysis. An ordered probit model was estimated to assess relative importance of each attribute to the farmer. A tobit model was also estimated to show the effect of farmers' perception of calliandra and desmodium on probability and intensity of adoption. Results showed that dry season tolerance and economy on land are most important characteristics of fodder legumes to the farmers. It was also found that Calliandra and desmodium were more relevant to the farmers in the area than other fodders. Farmers' perception of the two fodders had a significant impact on their adoption. Consequently, it was recommended that before introducing a technology in an area, it is necessary that the farmers' perception of the technology be analysed Conjoint analysis, ordered probit and tobit estimates, fodder legume adoption.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Radio Jet-Ambient Medium Interactions on Parsec Scales in the Blazar 1055+018

As part of our study of the magnetic fields of AGN we have recently observed a large sample of blazars with the Very Long Baseline Array. Here we report the discovery of a striking two-component jet in the source 1055+018, consisting of an inner spine with a transverse magnetic field, and a fragmentary but distinct boundary layer with a longitudinal magnetic field. The polarization distribution in the spine strongly supports shocked-jet models while that in the boundary layer suggests interaction with the surrounding medium. This behavior suggests a new way to understand the differing polarization properties of strong- and weak-lined blazars.Comment: LaTex; 10 pages; 6 figures; reference fix; to appear in ApJL, 518, 1999 June 2

Improved Livelihoods from Grasslands; the Case of Napier Grass in Smallholder Dairy Farms in Kenya

In Kenya, smallholder farmers produce about 80% of the marketed milk. The farming systems vary from mixed farms with up to 10 ha of land and \u3c 10 dairy cows (Gitau et al., 1994; Anon., 1985), to intensive smallholder dairy producers in the high human population central Kenya region with 0.9 to 2 ha of land and 3-4 dairy cows (Staal et al., 2001a). Milk production depends heavily on the cultivation of forages, with Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass) by far the most important. An estimated 350,000 of the 600,000 smallholder farms in Kenya grow and utilize P. purpureum on their farms. There are various published data indicating the level of dependence on sown forages. In a survey of 21 smallholder dairy farmers in the highlands of Kenya, Romney et al. (2004) found that P. purpureum supplied approximately 40 and 60% of the feed offered to dairy cows in the dry and wet months respectively, with the remaining feed provided by concentrates, crop residues (mainly Zea mays (maize) stover) and other cut and carry fodder such as roadside grass. In the more intensive cut and carry systems of production practiced in central Kenya, McLeod et al. (2003) found that P. purpureum was grown by over 70% of the smallholder farmers in their study area. In farm level characterisation surveys of over 3300 households conducted between 1996 and 2000 in central Kenya, 62% kept livestock and more than 50% were growing P. purpureum. Farmers were also growing fodder legumes such as Sesbania grandiflora (Sesbania), Leucaena leucocephala (Leucaena), Calliandra calothyrsus (Callindra), Desmodium intortum/uncinatum, (Desmodium) and Medicago sativa (Lucerne), but the frequency did not exceed 7.5% (Staal et al., 2001b)