Food Insecurity and Mental Distress among Mothers in Rural Tigray and SNNP Regions, Ethiopia.

Access to safe and adequate food is a basic human right under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Globally, more than 870 million people consume less calories than they require, which can lead to disabling physical and mental health outcomes. This study was designed to investigate the association between household food insecurity and mental distress among mothers in the Tigray and SNNP regions of Ethiopia. A community based cross-sectional survey was completed on a total of 2,992 households. A linear multiple regression model was used to study the association between food insecurity and mental distress. More than half of the study participants, 57.9%, were experiencing food insecurity. The prevalence of mental distress among the mothers was 39%. Food insecurity was significantly associated with mental distress after controlling for socioeconomic covariates. Integrating screening and management of mental distress would result in a better health status of the mothers and those under their care

Determinants of Dairy Farmers’ Market Participation in the Major Dairy Producing Towns of Jimma Zone of Southwest Ethiopia

The study was initiated with the objectives of analyzing factors affecting dairy farmers’ market participation in major milk producing towns of southwest Ethiopia. Milk and butter were the two most important dairy products marketed in the areas. Data came from 238 dairy producing households, 17 traders, and 50 consumers. Heckman two stages procedures were used to analyze factors affecting milk market participation and level of participation in the study area. The first step of the Heckman two stages procedures results showed that dairy household milk market entry decision was strongly and significantly affected by  family size,  number of cross breed and local breed  milking cows owned, access to credit and distance from milk market center. In addition, the second stage estimation result revealed that marketable milk volume was found to be strongly and significantly affected by the number of cross breed and local breed milking cows owned, family size, and monthly non-dairy income source of sampled dairy household.  69.7% were market participants as they were found to sell raw milk at the time of the survey, while the rest (30.3%) did not sell at the time of survey. Keywords: Milk, market participation, Heckman model, southwest Ethiopi

Effect of Temporary Shade Tree Species on Growth Performance of Newly Transplanted Arabica Coffee Seedlings at Jimma

A field experiment was conducted at Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) with an objective to investigate the effect of various temporary shade tree species on survival rate, early growth performance and field establishment of Arabica coffee seedlings between 2008 and 2014 cropping season. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications was used. The treatment consisted of temporary shade tree species vis. Pigeon pea (Cajanus Cajan (L.) Millsp)Tephrosia sp. Caster bean,Leucaena sp., Sesbania sesbane, grass hat (‘’Gojo’’) and open plot as a control. Coffee seedlings were raised using a CBD resistant coffee cultivar, 74110 following the recommended nursery management practices. Each experimental plot constituted of 12 coffee seedlings planted at 2m by 2m spacing. Seeds of pigeon pea,Tephrosia, Caster bean,Luecnea and Sesbania sesbanewhich were collected and prepared have been sown between coffee rows in east and west directions so as to protect seedlings from morning and afternoon sun injury. Significant (P ≤ 0.05) variations were detected among treatments for nearly all growth parameters studied. Accordingly, almost all distractive and non-distractive growth parameters were considerably affected by temporary shade treatment. In general grass hat treatment followed by Sesbania sesban showed best growth performance of coffee seedlings. Thus areas with ample rainfall or soil moisture Sesbania sesban and Pigeon pea can be used as temporary shade for coffee seedlings if planted under wider spacing (4 m x 4 m) sesbania sesban and (2 m x 2 m) pigeon pea so as to reduce their competition effect with young coffee tree for climatic and soil resources. Keywords: - inter row, intra row, temporary shade tree and transplanted seedling

Combining Ability of Lowland Adapted Ethiopian Sorghum Hybrids for Yield

AbstractThis study was conducted with the objective to assess the performances of hybridsdeveloped from early and medium maturing lowland adapted Ethiopian sorghuminbred lines. A total of 95 hybrids and three checks were tested using alpha lettucedesign with two replications at Meiso and Sheraro. All agronomic practices weredone on time as recommended. Based on the results obtained from the analysispositive and significant GCA values among the female lines were recorded byICSV96143, ICSR93034, IESV92168-DC and ETSL101565. Likewise, testerTX623A were identified as most promising parents having good generalcombining ability for grain yield and almost all its major yield components.Similarly, for grain yield, 15 hybrid combinations had significant advantage overtheir respective standard check Melkam. Among these hybrids the highest wasobtained from MARC6A x IESV23010DL (78%) followed by TX623A xETSL101859 (71%) and TX623A x ETSL100684 (67%). The information generatedfrom the present study can be used for breeders who want to improve yield andyield-contributing traits of sorghum by understanding the genetic relationshipamong inbred lines

Genetic Diversity among Lowland Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L) Gaertn) Accessions

አህፅሮትዳጉሳ ብዙ ጥቅም ያሇው ስብል ሆኖ ሳሇ ምርታማነቱ በተሇያዩ ችግሮች ምክንያት እጅግ ዝቅተኛ ነው፡፡ የተሇያዩ የዳጉሳ ዝርያዎችን ብዝሃነትና ተሇያይነት ማጥናት እና የምርት ማነቆ የሆኑትን ችግሮች ማወቅ የተሻሇ ምርት ሉያስገኙ የሚችለ ዝርያዎችን ሇመምርጥ ያስችሊል፡፡ የጥናቱ ዋና ዓሊማ ከኢተዮጲያ ብዝሀ ህይውት ኢንስቲትዩት እና አዴት ግብርና ምርምር ማዕከል የተገኙ 225 የዳጉሳ ዝርያዎችን በቆጋ የመስኖ ምርምር ጣቢያ በሲምፕል ሊቲስ ዲዛይን በሁሇት ድግግሞሽ ተዘርተው የተገመገሙ ሲሆን ያሊቸውን የዝርያ ተሇያይነት፣ ብዝሃነት እና ስብጥር ምን እንዯሚመስል ሇማውቅ ነበር፡፡ መረጃዎችን ሇመተንተን ጥቅም ሊይ የዋለት አኖቫ፣ ፊኖታይፒክ እና ጅኖቲፒክ ቫሪያንስ፤ ሄሪታቢሉቲ፤ ጄነቲክ አድቫንስ፤ ክሊስተር እና ፕሪንሲፓል ኮምፖንነት የትንተና አይነቶች ናቸው፡፡ ውጤቱ ከሁሇት ባህሪያት ውጪ በሁለም ባህሪያት በዝርያዎች መካከል ከፍተኛ የሆነ ልዩነት መኖሩን ያሳያል፡፡ በተጨማሪ ሄሪታቢሉቲ (95.35-3.04)፤ ጄኔቲክ አድቫንስ (16.09-0.03)፤ ፊኖቲፒክ (69.28-0.0003) እና ጂኖቲፒክ ቫሪያንስ (61.09-0.0002) የትንተና ውጤት ልዩንት መኖሩን ያመሊክታል፡፡ እንዲሁም የክሊስተር እና የፕሪንሲፓል ኮምፖኔንት ትንተና ውጤት 225 የዳጉሳ ዝርያዎችን ወዯ አምስት እና ስድስት ቡድኖች ወይም ምድቦች ከፍሏቿዋል፡፡ በአጠቃሊይ የጥናቱ ውጤት ሇወዯፊት በዳጉሳ ምርምር ማሻሻያ ውስጥ ልንገሇገልባቸዉ የምንችሊቸው ዝርያዎች ሰፊ የሆነ ልዩነት እንዳሊቸው ያሳያል፡፡AbstractTwo-hundred and twenty-five finger millet germplasm accessions obtained from the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity and Adet Agricultural Research Center were evaluated in 15×15 simple lattice design with two replications at Koga Irrigation trials site during the 2016/17 dry season. The objective of the study was to assess the genetic diversity of finger millet genotypes based on morpho-agronomic traits. Data were collected on 16 morpho-agronomic traits. Analysis of variance, and cluster and principal component analysis were carried out, and estimates of genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variability, broad sense heritability, and expected genetic advance were made. The analysis of variance revealed that finger millet accessions were significantly different for all of the traits except to days to emergence and number of fingers/ear-head. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were highest for numbers of ear-heads/plant with values of 27.11% and 25.03%, respectively. Estimates of broad sense heritability were highest for clum diameter (95.35%) and the lowest for number of ear-heads/plant (3.04%). The expected genetic advance from selection of the top 5% of the accessions ranged from 18.4% for grain yield/plot to 51.46% for ear-heads/plant. The first six PCs explained about 65% of the entire genetic variations with 17.9%, 13.7%, 11.1%, 8.8%, 7% and 6.5% of the total variation accounted by the first to the sixth PCs respectively. Cluster analysis based on the 16 morpho-agronomic traits revealed five distinct clusters comprising 13 to 64 accessions. Culm diameter, numbers of ear-heads/plant, ear-head width, and grain yield/plant could be used as selection criteria due to high GCV, heritability and genetic advance. Overall, the results of the study depicted the presence of sufficient genetic diversity among finger millet accessions for further use in breeding program

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Source of Cooperation or Contention?

This paper discusses the challenges and benefits of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is under construction and expected to be operational on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia in a few years. Like many large-scale projects on transboundary rivers, the GERD has been criticized for potentially jeopardizing downstream water security and livelihoods through upstream unilateral decision making. In spite of the contentious nature of the project, the authors argue that this project can provide substantial benefits for regional development. The GERD, like any major river infrastructure project, will undeniably bring about social, environmental, and economic change, and in this unique case has, on balance, the potential to achieve success on all fronts. It must be stressed, however, that strong partnerships between riparian countries are essential. National success is contingent on regional cooperation

In vitro evaluation of marker assisted conversion of adapted sorghum varieties into Striga hermonthica resistant versions

Striga has long been recognized to infest staple food crops like sorghum in Ethiopia. This study was designed to introgress Striga-resistance genes into popular and farmer-preferred varieties through marker-assisted backcrossing and to assess resistance based on Striga germination stimulant activity inagar-gel assay (aga). The experiment was arranged in completely randomized design with four replications. Genotypes performance, heritability and genetic advance were analyzed and Germination rate was measured. The progeny showed significant genetic variation for maximum germination distance (mgd), germination rate (gr), and germination index (gi). The mean mgd ranged from 0.0 mm to 29.45 mm and gr ranged from 0.0% to 72.38%.Of the 118 backcrossed lines, 22.9% showed less than 10 mm of mgd and gr of <30%, revealing provision of low germination stimulant/strigolactones production (lgs). There were significant positive (r = 0.4-0.81) correlations showing the roles of these parameters as selection criteria in breeding for resistance. The existence of higher heritability (h2b = 77-83%) and genetic advance (ga = 62-93%) for the germination parameters indicated possibilities for improving resistance against Striga through selection. Genotypes that carry different qtls showed different capacity of producing Striga germination stimulants in the aga. The combined effect of two qtls (lgs2_SBI-05_60404021 and lgs_3_60629027) at a time showed lower Striga germination stimulant activity and better field resistance indicating existence of possible cumulative effects. Thus, the study showed that marker-assisted backcrossing for transfer of lgs qtls from donor into popular and farmers preferred cultivars has the potential to enhance tolerance/resistance to Striga in sorghum

The reaction of secondary school and university students toward COVID-19-induced lockdown

Background: The Coronavirus pandemic triggered a worldwide partial lockdown. The lockdown instigated the school’s shutdown making the students follow their courses in the virtual modalities while staying at home. Methods: The data were collected using an online survey using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study involved anonymous as well as voluntary 77 secondary schools (Grades 9th to 12th) and 132 university students (class standing 1st to 5th year). Results: The lockdown introduced excruciating experiences for most of the students; however, it also created unanticipated opportunities to learn new skills and develop insights on how to mitigate unforeseen crises while remaining reasonably productive. The steps taken to reduce exposure to the coronavirus infection showed a gender discrepancy. Accordingly, males were disproportionately taken risks regardless of the curfew imposed, while females were deeply concerned about the lockdown-induced break of social connections. Students who were attending public schools, presumably from low-income families were found to be more productive during the lockdown compared to their private school counterparts. This shows that, in some instances, the Coronavirus pandemic is a blessing in disguise. The lockdown created mixed feelings; accordingly, the students reported significantly varied responses towards it. This also introduced some inconsistencies in the response of the students. Perceptions about the lockdown and its impact in most instances significantly varied among students, which unlocked the opportunities to learn new lessons on how to manage unprecedented crises. Conclusion: Policymakers need to take into account gender and living standard while developing strategies to mitigate unprecedented challenges

An Exploration of the Utilization of Supervision Feedbacks: The Case of Some Secondary Schools in Jimma Zone

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore how secondary schools use the feedback they receive from the supervisors. Qualitative approach is holistic, contextual and focuses on design, and procedures to gain real, rich and deep data to have a wide understanding of the entire situation which is also applicable to this study. With this understanding therefore, qualitative approach was employed for this study. Accordingly, data were collected from Woreda education offices, school administration board, principals, vice-principals, supervisors, department heads, and senior teachers through in depth interview, FGD and document analysis. Then, the data were analyzed qualitatively theme by theme through narrative descriptions. The finding revealed that, there no difference among the schools concerning the importance of utilizing supervision feedbacks in improving teaching learning activities in schools. On the contrary, the actual utilization of supervision feedback is not as per the intended in all the schools under the study which indicates supervision feedback utilization is under challenge. Thus, majority of the schools have mentioned the followings as problems. These are supervision roles are simplified by the respective offices, low readiness of teachers to positively see the comments of supervisor, supervisor\u2019s lack of supervision skills to supervise teachers in giving objective feedback, lack of close cooperation from the side of Woreda education offices. They are criticizing the school being at a distance rather than arranging conditions to work in collaboration. Finally, measures to be taken by the concerned bodies to alleviate the problems were suggested both by research participants and researchers