The role of cattle manure in enhancing on-farm productivity, macro- and micro-nutrient uptake, and profitability of maize in the Guinea savanna

An on-farm trial was conducted in the northern Guinea savanna of Nigeria, over a period of five years, with the objectives of quantifying the effects on maize of applying cattle manure in combination with synthetic fertilizer with regard to soil characteristics, yield, plant nutrition and profitability. Maize grain yield was significantly increased by the annual application of cattle manure, compared to maize receiving an equal amount of N through synthetic fertilizer, but only from the third year of the experiment. The application of manure resulted in higher soil Kjel N, Bray-I P and exchangeable K values, and an increased N utilization efficiency by maize, suggesting that yield-limiting factors other than N deficiencies were of lesser importance than in the treatment receiving sole inorganic fertilizer. Nutrients other than N applied via the manure, particularly P, K and/or B, may have contributed to the higher grain yields in treatments receiving manure. A partial budgeting analysis revealed that, over a 5-year period, investments in the application of manure, in combination with synthetic fertilizer, resulted in higher margins than the application of fertilizer alone. However, analyses of marginal rates of return of changes from low urea N to high urea N or additional manure applications suggested that it was more profitable to invest in additional urea than in organic manure in the first two years of the experiment. The results suggested that manure applications, even when applied at relatively high rates, did not serve as a quick fix to on-farm soil fertility problems, but over a longer period, manure applied in combination with synthetic fertilizers did provide a significant and profitable contribution to enhanced cereal production

A comparison between legume technologies and fallow, and their effects on maize and soil traits, in two distinct environments of the West African savannah

Legume¿maize rotation and maize nitrogen (N)-response trials were carried out simultaneously from 1998 to 2004 in two distinct agro-ecological environments of West Africa: the humid derived savannah (Ibadan) and the drier northern Guinea savannah (Zaria). In the N-response trial, maize was grown annually receiving urea N at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 kg N ha¿1. In Ibadan, maize production increased with N fertilization, but mean annual grain yield declined over the course of the trial. In Zaria, no response to N treatments was observed initially, and an increase in the phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S) fertilizer application rate was required to increase yield across treatments and obtain a response to N applications, stressing the importance of non-N fertilizers in the savannah. In the rotation trial, a 2-year natural fallow¿maize rotation was compared with maize rotated with different legume types: green manure, forage, dual-purpose, and grain legumes. The cultivation of some legume types resulted in a greater annual maize production relative to the fallow¿maize combination and corresponding treatments in the N-response trial, while there was no gain in maize yield with other legume types. Large differences in the residual effects from legumes and fallow were also observed between sites, indicting a need for site-specific land management recommendations. In Ibadan, cultivation of maize after the forage legume (Stylosanthes guianensis) achieved the highest yield. The natural fallow¿maize rotation had improved soil characteristics (Bray-I P, exchangeable potassium, calcium and magnesium) at the end of the trial relative to legume¿maize rotations, and natural fallow resulted in higher maize yields than the green manure legume (Pueraria phaseoloides). In Zaria, maize following dual-purpose soybean achieved the highest mean yield. At both sites, variation in aboveground N and P dynamics of the legume and fallow vegetation could only partly explain the different residual effects on maiz

ON EXTREME VALUE THEORY IN MODELING NIGERIA MARINE AND AVIATION INSURANCE CLASS OF BUSINESS

Extreme value theory is applied to model extreme occurrences, and it is applied in business and finance to measure tail risk. Marine and aviation class of insurance business is an important component of non-life business because it insures all risks relating to aviation and marine vessels which play a significant role in the economic development of Nigeria. Recent claims experience has necessitated the investigation of tail risks with a small probability of occurrence but with high potential impact on a company’s survival. The study employs the Extreme Value Theory (EVT) to estimate the minimum expected claims for the marine and aviation insurance business using historical claims data. Diagnostics plot like the mean excess plot suggest the threshold to choose, to fit a Generalized Pareto model based on EVT and the excess distributions were obtained over a chosen threshold. Linear Q-Q plots and tail plots reveal that the parametric model fits the data well. VaR estimate was finally obtained using the extreme value method at a 5% confidence interval and the empirical results show that Extreme VaR is most suitable to calculate VaR as against the Historical and Gaussian methods. This will guide proper underwriting process and loss reserving in this class of business

Analysis of Income Diversification Strategies among Farm Households in Oyo State

Diversification of income sources is considered as a desirable option to augments income among small scale farmers. This study evaluates the income diversification among farm households in Oyo State of Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 280 rural households. The data collected were analysed using diversity index and Tobit regression analysis. The results showed that all the respondents participated in arable farming and this accounts for 28.29 percent of the total income. 57.85 percent participated in tree crop income and this accounts for 11.95 percent of the total income, 60.36 percent of the households engaged in non-farm income and it accounts for 19.93 percent of the total income. The results of Tobit regression showed that education, household size, access to credit and extension contact were the factors increasing income diversification among the rural households in the study area. The study revealed that agriculture remains the major source of income among the respondents. Therefore, the study recommends improvement of agricultural activities through the distribution of agricultural inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers and better extension services delivery in order to boost agricultural production. Keywords: Income diversification, Diversity index, Rural Household, Tobit regression

The Effect of Age, Weight on Hypertensive Patients in State Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria

This project work examines the contribution of age, weight and height to the blood pressure of 50 randomly selected individuals from medical record unit of the State Hospital, Osogbo, Osun state. The fitted mathematical model that represents the relationship among the variables is  16Y">  = 73.222 + 0 .075X1 - 0.044X2 + 12.178X3 . This implies that the rate of change in Y (Blood Pressure) due to X1 (age) is 0.075units, X2 (weight) is -0.044units , X3 (height) is 12.178 units. The estimation regression equation indicates that the mean of Y’s are expected to increase by 0.075 when X1 increased by one unit holding X2 and X3 constant, the mean of Y’s are expected to decrease by 0.044 when X2 increased by one unit holding X1,X3 constant , the mean of Y’s are expected to increase by 12.178 when X3 increased by one holding X1 and X2 constant. The negative coefficient of X2 indicates that blood pressure decreases as weight increases and vice versa. The F- test was used to examine the adequacy of the fitted model. The F- calculated (0.394) is not large enough for the rejection of the null hypothesis and that implies that the model is significant and adequate for prediction. The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and tolerance values computed from the data were examined to determine the presence and severity of multicollinearity. The tolerance values are greater than 0.1 and simultaneously, the Variance Inflation factors are all below 15 which is an indication of no multicollinearity in the data. Based on the findings, people who are becoming taller with respect to age should watch their blood pressure as the blood pressure is found to increase with increase in height and age. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/95-09 Publication date: November 30th 202

Shelf Life Potential and Microbial Load of Varying Mixtures of Grass-Legume Pellets: A Dry Season Feed

The effects of storage duration (0, 6 and 12 weeks), storage medium (plastic container, polythene bag and jute sack) and varying mixture of grass-legume (60% Panicum maximum (6Pm); 30% Panicum maximum + 30% Lablab purpureus (3Pm3Lp); 40% Panicum maximum + 20% Lablab purpureus (4Pm2Lp); 40% Panicum maximum + 20% Stylosanthes hamata (4Pm2Sh) and 30% Panicum maximum + 30% Stylosanthes hamata (3Pm3Sh)) on shelf life and microbial load of grass-legume pellets were examined in the derived savanna zone of Nigeria (Latitude 80N, Longitude 40E) using a 3 x 3 x 5 factorial arrangement using completely randomized design with Microbial concentrations were significantly affected (p \u3c 0.05) with plastic container having the lowest counts of total coliform (0.73 x 104cfu/l), total bacteria (2.05 x 104cfu/g), total fungi (1.12 x 104cfu/g) and total microbial concentration (4.07 x 104cfu/g). The study revealed that grass-legume pellet has good storage value and can be fed to ruminants as dry season feed

A Java Simulation-Based Performance Evaluation of Mobile Agent Platforms.

Mobile agents are emerging as a promising paradigm for the design and implementations of distributed applications .Manyof these Mobile Agent platforms have been developed, new one, and new versions of old agents, kept on appearing everyyear, so choosing the right or most suitable platform for a particular application area; based on their performance is achallenge for both the developers and the users. This paper carried out a qualitative comparison across three selected, Javabased Mobile Agent System, Aglet Tracy, and JADE. Two of them (Aglets and JADE) were selected for quantitativeevaluation on their time of transfer/retrieval of compressed data files. In our implementation, Aglet version 2.02 and JADE3.4.1 were used. A java simulation program was developed and used in measuring the performance of the two mobileagents, using transmission time and compressed time as performance metrics. In this paper work, a unique portnumber(2080) was chosen for the loading of classes and mobility of agents. Ten dummy data files (also refer to as Load orMessage) were created with sizes ranges from 100Kb to 1 Mb. A gzip compression tool was used to compress each of thesefiles and sent through the Aglet and JADE enabled network. The transmission time (in milliseconds) for each correspondingfiles size (in Bytes) in the two Mobile agents were recorded. We deduced from our qualitative results that, Tracy plug-infeatures give users room for reusability and extension. Aglets provide weak security and poorly scalable. JADE has astrong security, scalable and its multi agent feature will enrich its usage on the internet. Our quantitative results show thattransferring/retrieving of compressed data file is faster in JADE than in Aglets. The integrity of the files are also kept safe, inboth mobile agents, that is after decompressions they can still be reused.Keywords: Aglet, Gzip, JADE, Compression ratio, Mobile Agent Networ

MARKETING OF FERMENTED CASSAVA FLOUR IN AKINYELE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE

The study was carried out in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State on marketing of fermented cassava flour (lafun) with the objective of examining the socio-economic characteristics of cassava marketers, determining the profit margin, ascertaining effect of some variables influencing the supply of cassava flour and identifying associated constraints. Primary data used for the study was collected from 80 respondents using simple random sampling technique. The empirical evidence from the analy- sis shows that the traders are predominantly female (70%) and mostly married (62.5%). The study further reveals that the marketing of lafun is a profitable venture at both the wholesale and retail levels with a profit of N6,890.32 per month. The quantity of cassava supplied was significantly determined by transportation cost (P0.01), marketing experience (P0.05), years of education (P0.10) and cost of storage (P0.05).The markets were observed to face transportation, storage and packaging problems. As trans- portation cost increased, the quantity of lafun supplied to market was also found to increase. The study recommends the assistance of government in the provision of infrastructural facilities

Effect of Smoking Method on Quality Attributes of Traditional Smoked Silver Catfish (Chrysichthys Nigrodigitatus) from Lagos State, Nigeria

Effect of smoking methods on quality and safety of traditional smoked silver catfish from Lagos State, Nigeria was carried out with a focus on investigating the quality indices of traditional smoked silver catfish in twenty different fish processing centres.  Fresh unsmoked silver catfish and smoked silver catfish samples were collected from different processing centres and and control samples were smoked with convectional smoke kiln. Proximate and quality analyses revealed that moisture content of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples ranged from 71.66% – 74.92% and that of smoked silver catfish samples and control samples ranged from 11.18% - 14.77% and 8.48% – 10.43% respectively. Protein content of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples ranged from 15.70% – 17.96% and that of smoked silver catfish samples and control samples ranged from 52.96% – 58.36% and 56.81% – 61.42%. Fat content of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples ranged from 7.58% – 9.86% and that of smoked silver catfish samples and control samples ranged from 16.52% – 20.41% and 17.52% – 20.57%. The pH value of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples ranged from 6.78 – 7.42 and that of smoked silver catfish samples and control samples ranged from 6.27 – 6.73 and 6.51 – 6.86. The TBA values of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples ranged from 0.90 - 1.18mgMol/kg and that of smoked silver catfish samples and control samples ranged from 1.01 - 1.15mgMol/kg and 1.00 – 1.12 mgMol/kg. The TVB-N of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples ranged from 13.15 - 15.40mgN/kg and that of smoked silver catfish samples and control samples ranged from 17.59 - 19.69mgN/kg and 15.63 - 17.86mgN/kg. The TMA of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples was 2.04 – 2.61mgN/kg and 2.36 – 2.96mgN/kg and 2.11 – 2.72mgN/kg for smoked silver catfish samples. This study revealed PV of 6.13 – 8.85 mgEq.peroxide/kg for fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples and 8.24 - 9.39mgEq.peroxide/kg and 7.13 - 8.67mgEq.peroxide/kg for smoked silver catfish samples. FFA of fresh unsmoked silver catfish samples was 1.00 – 1.16% while that of smoked silver catfish samples ranged from 1.03 – 1.26% and 1.00 – 1.24%. Convention smoke kiln (used for control samples) did not significantly affect pH and composition of smoked silver catfish. The study concluded that smoking method affect quality as convention smoke kiln significantly reduced the moisture content of smoked silver catfish and the quality indices such as FFA, TBA and PV. Keywords: silver catfish, smoking, traditional, quality, smoking metho

Karyomorphotypic variation in Eriospermum abyssinicum Baker

The karyomorphology of the cotton seed lily, Eriospermum abyssinicum Baker (family Eriospermaceae) was investigated through mitotic and meiotic studies. The chromosome complement was karyotypically analysed based on chromosome arm ratio and centromeric indices. The somatic chromosome complement of 2n = 24 recorded at metaphase I and the 12 bivalents at prophase I of meiosis suggested x = 6 basic chromosome number and paleopolyploidization process in the evolution of this species. There was no evidence of B chromosome or nucleolar-organizer in the complements. Variation in position of centromere ranged from the median to sub-median and sub-terminal. We found slight variation between some homologues in terms of lengths which suggest hybrid origin (allopolyploidy) of the genome. The microspore mother cell had normal meiosis with subsequent formation of 4 daughter nuclei and normal spores suggesting that the changes in chromosome behaviour occurred at very low frequency and these changes were transient with no evidence of phenotypic and genomic instability (aneuploidy) consequences. It was therefore inferred that the population of E. abyssinicum studied might have evolved through changes in chromosome structure or through natural hybridisation between closely related populations.Key words: Eriospermum abyssinicum, lily, chromosome, karyotype