Water productivity improvement of cereals and foods legumes in the Atbara Basin of Eritrea

The project ‘Water Productivity Improvement of Cereals and Food Legumes in the Atbara Basin of Eritrea’ is an example of organization and implementation of farmers’ participatory research, conducted utilizing the available indigenous knowledge while empowering farming communities. Farmers have been partners in technology development with extension and research, with full decision-making power in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The project produced, in partnership with farmers, new varieties of cereals and food legumes which have proven farmer acceptability; established seed systems which supply farmers with quality seed in a sustainable manner; enhanced farmers’ skills in participatory research and in community based seed production; strengthened the capacity of National Institutions to carry out participatory research and technology transfer, and strengthened linkages between research, seed, and extension departments by working together in cooperation with farmers and farmers’ communities. Working conditions, during the course of the project were not always easy and became challenging towards the end of the project, but to work with farmers and learn from them has been an extremely rewarding experience

Parental use of the Internet to seek health information and primary care utilisation for their child: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Using the Internet to seek health information is becoming more common. Its consequences on health care utilisation are hardly known in the general population, in particular among children whose parents seek health information on the Internet. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between parental use of the Internet to seek health information and primary care utilisation for their child.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This cross-sectional survey has been carried out in a population of parents of pre-school children in France. The main outcome measure was the self-reported number of primary care consultations for the child, according to parental use of the Internet to seek health information, adjusted for the characteristics of the parents and their child respectively, and parental use of other health information sources.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 1 068 out of 2 197 questionnaires were returned (response rate of 49%). No association was found between parental use of the Internet to seek health information and the number of consultations within the last 12 months for their child. Variables related to the number of primary care consultations were characteristics of the child (age, medical conditions, homeopathic treatment), parental characteristics (occupation, income, stress level) and consultation of other health information sources (advice from pharmacist, relatives).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We did not find any relationship between parental use of the Internet to seek health information and primary care utilisation for children. The Internet seems to be used as a supplement to health services rather than as a replacement.</p

Distribution of expansive shrubs under climate change scenarios and their socio-economic impacts in a dry Afromontane Forest

Native plants that expanded into new geographical areas after human-induced disturbances and climate change are referred to as expansive species. This study aimed to model the current and future distribution of Cadia purpurea and Tarchonanthus camphoratus, two expansive shrubs in the Desa'a dry Afromontane Forest in northern Ethiopia, and analyze their socio-economic impacts. Using ArcGIS and MaxEnt, the distributions were modeled under two shared socio-economic pathways (SSP2.6 and SSP8.5) of climate change scenarios for three time periods: 1970–2000 (current), 2050s, and 2070s (future). About 124 records of species occurrence, elevation, aspect, slope, and 19 bioclimatic variables were used to determine the current and future distribution. The socio-economic impacts of the two expansive shrubs were assessed through household surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews with key informants. We used a t-test for continuous variables and a chi-square for categorical variables to test the significance of differences in means between invaded and uninvaded areas by the expansive shrubs using R software. The result showed that the mean area under the curves (AUC) for the replicate runs were 0.901 and 0.903 for Cadia purpurea and Tarchonanthus camphoratus, respectively, indicating that the model's predicted result was very accurate and reliable. Precipitation was determined to be the most significant bioclimatic variable, accounting for 82.6% and 79.5% of the variability in the distribution of Tarchonanthus camphoratus and Cadia purpurea, respectively, in the study area. The socio-economic result indicated that human activities such as illegal cutting, settlement expansion, road construction, agricultural expansion, and free grazing were found to facilitate the spread of these species. The expansive species provide a number of services, such as firewood, charcoal production, construction material, shading, erosion control, bee forage, medicine, and fencing. However, they also have adverse impacts, such as biodiversity loss, reduced crop yields, reduced water sources, suppressed grass growth, and reduced tourism income. Local communities recommended physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms to manage and control the expansion of these species in the Desa'a forest, as their negative impacts outweigh their positive impacts