The role of non-farm activities in sustaining rural livelihood: The Case of Enderta wereda

The research was conducted with the objective of examining and studying the role of non-farm activities in sustaining the livelihood of respondents in Enderta Woreda .In order to achieve this objective a primary data was collected from 190(one hundred ninety) systematically selected households using structured and unstructured questionnaires. Moreover; key informants and focus group discussion had been also used to obtain detailed information .For the data analysis purpose; descriptive statistics including mean, frequency and percentages were used to describe the livelihood resources/assets of Enderta woreda, non-farm rural diversification. It was identified and analyzed the key constraints and opportunities as well as the contribution of nonfarm activities existing in the study area. Generally, the study showed that rural households in the study Tabias have diversified incomes engaged in diversified activities importantly nonfarm livelihood diversification‟s a result the livelihood of the rural household have been changed. They have also Lack of access to sufficient fixed and working capital which is a major constraint to undertake high-return non-farm activities. Here, the skill and knowledge are the key inhibitors of diversification, infrastructure and market imperfection due to brokers that are found to constrain diversification. Finally, farm households should be aware to nonfarm diversification; further more efforts should be made to improve skill and knowledge of farmers through provision of training. Furthermore, it should be work intensely in access to credit service and increase the amount of money saved. Key words: Sustainable rural livelihoods, livelihood asset, livelihood strategy, nonfar

Buyer power in U.K. food retailing: a 'first-pass' test

Habtu Weldegebriel, University of Warwick Abstract The potential existence of buyer power in U.K. food retailing has attracted the scrutiny of the U.K.'s anti-trust authorities, culminating in the second of two comprehensive regulatory inquiries in recent years. Such inquiries are authoritative but correspondingly time-consuming and costly. Moreover, detection of buyer power has been dogged by the paucity of reliable evidence of its existence. In this paper, we present a simple theoretical model of oligopsony which delivers quasi-reduced form retailer-producer pricing equations with which the null of perfect competition can be tested using readily available market data. Using a cointegrated vector autoregression, we find empirical results that show the null of perfect competition can be rejected in seven of the nine food products investigated. Though not conclusive on the existence of buyer power, the proposed test offers a means via which the behaviour of the retail-producer price spread is consistent with it. At the very least, it can corroborate the concerns of the anti-trust authorities as to whether buyer power is potentially one source of concern

Especies productores de resina y gomas naturales en Etiopía y la aplicación potencial de sus productos

Ethiopia is one of the countries well endowed with various species of Acacia, Boswellia and Commiphora that are known to produce gum arabic, frankincense and myrrh, respectively. Over 60 gum and resin bearing species are found in the country. The total area of oleo-gum resin bearing woodlands cover about 2.9 million ha of land in the country, with over 300,000 metric tons of natural gum production potential. Boswellia papyrifera is a chief gum resin producing tree species in Ethiopia. The total area covered by the species is estimated to be more than 1.5 million ha. Frankincense and myrrh are used in medicines, beverages and liqueurs, cosmetics, detergents, creams and perfumery, paints, adhesives and dyes manufacturing. Gum Arabic is used as stabilizing, in food and drink industries; in pharmaceuticals, in printing and textile industries. Despite the enormous socio-economic importance of these natural products, the species are declining at an alarming rate due to degradation resulted from agricultural expansion, overgrazing, fire, poor incense harvesting practices, etc. Therefore, research and development efforts and international collaborations could have strong potentials to the conservation, production and commercialization for the benefits of the local, national as well as the international communities.Etiopía es uno de los países que tiene varias especies de de Acacia, Boswellia y Commiphora que son utilizados para la producción de goma arábiga, resina y mirra respectivamente, y en el país se encuentran más de 60 especies productoras de resinas naturales. El área total cubierto por especies productoras de resinas naturales se estima en 2,9 millones de hectáreas en todo el país, con una producción potencial de 300.000 toneladas métricas. Boswellia papyrifera es la especies gran productora de resina en Etiopia. El área total cubierta por esta especie se estima por encima de 1,5 millones de ha. La resina y la mirra se usan en la preparación de medicinas, bebidas y licores, cosméticos, detergentes, cremas y perfumerías, pinturas y adhesivos. La goma arábiga se usa como estabilizador en las industrias alimentarías; y en las industrias farmacéuticas, imprentas y textiles. Aunque las resinas natural tienes enormes importancias socioeconómicas, las especies están disminuyendo alarmantemente debido a las degradaciones por la expansión de agricultura, sobre pastoreo, fuego, mala práctica de resinación etc. Esfuerzos en investigación y desarrollo y colaboraciones internacionales podrían tener fuertes potencias en la conservación, producción y comercialización para el beneficio de las comunidades locales, nacionales e internacionales

Multivariate diversity, heritability and genetic advance in Tef Landraces in Ethiopia

Characterisation of exiting genetic variability is a prerequisite for further crop improvement activity. This study was designed to assess genetic variability among randomly selected Eragrostis tef, Zucc.Trotter (Tef) genotypes from five administrative zones in the Amhara region in Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted in 2010 main cropping season at Adet Agricultural Research Center. All traits, except first inter-node length showed highly significant differences among the 37 lines. Number of productive tillers per plant, grain yield per plant, and biomass yield per plant showed high phenotypic coefficients of variation; 18.9, 17.5 and 16.9% in that order. Harvest index (15.1%) showed the highest genotypic coefficient of variation while the lowest (3.5%) was for days to maturity. Heritability in broad sense was highest for days to heading (80.7%), followed by culm length (72.4%). Grain yield and shoot biomass yield showed heritability values of 54.6 and 57.3%, and GAM values of 18.9 and 20.6%, respectively. The first three principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues greater than one explained 75% of the observed variation. Four PCs were effective in explaining 93% of the variation among zones. Cluster analysis grouped the 37 lines into five real clusters, while zones of collection were grouped into three major clusters. These data are useful for future tef breeding/crop improvement programmes and undertakings

Bryophyte extracts with activity against plant pathogenic fungi

The effects of extracts from 17 different bryophyte species were investigated against economically important plant pathogenic fungi. In vitro experiments showed that ethanol extracts of bryophytes inhibited mycelial growth of Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani. Extracts from Bazzania trilobata, Diplophyllum albicans, Sphagnum quinquefarium, Dicranodontium denudatum, and Hylocomium splendens inhibited fungal development by over 50%. Green pepper plants sprayed with the extracts from 17 bryophytes (at 1% mv-1), with the fungicide dichlofluanide (50 ppm), and untreated plants were compared. Treatments were applied 4 hours prior to inoculation with conidial suspension of the grey mould (B. cinerea). Significant variations between treatments were detected. Extract treatments reduced the grey mould severity ranging from 15 to 23%, whereas dichlofluanide showed efficacy up to 92%. Three dose levels of five candidate extracts sprayed at three pre-infectional time intervals were compared under low and high inoculum pressures of the late blight, Phytophthora infestans, of tomatoes and powdery mildew, Blumeria graminis, of wheat. In general, extracts from B. trilobata and D. albicans showed better efficient disease protection than that of S. quinquefarium, D. denudatum, and H. splendens. The direct mode-of-action of treatments on the surface of leaves gave inefficient disease protection, evidenced on treated plants at 4 hours before the inoculation. However, plants treated by the same extracts at least 2 days before inoculation exhibited less than 90% disease severity. Therefore, products of bryophytes deserved to be reliable sources as biocontrol agents and may play significant roles for future practical applications in a socially and ecologically healthy crop management system. Key words/phrases: Alternaria solani, Blumeria graminis, Botrytis cinerea, Bryophyte extracts, Phytophthora infestans SINET: Ethiop. J. Sci Vol.26(1) 2003: 55-6

Comparison of multidrug resistant Salmonella between intensively - and extensively-reared antimicrobial - free (ABF) swine herds

This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella species in swine reared in the intensive (indoor) and extensive (outdoor) ABF production systems at farm and slaughter in North Carolina, U.S.A. We sampled a total of 279 pigs at farm (Extensive 107; Intensive 172) and collected 274 carcass swabs (Extensive 124; Intensive 150) at slaughter. Salmonella species were tested for their susceptibility against 12 antimicrobial agents using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Serogrouping was done using polyvalent and group specific antisera. A total of 400 salmonellae were isolated in this study with a significantly higher Salmonella prevalence from the Intensive (30%) than the extensive farms (0.9%) (P \u3c 0.001 ). At slaughter, significantly higher Salmonella was isolated at the pre and post-evisceration stages from extensively (29 % pre-evisceration and 33.3 % post-evisceration) than the intensively (2 % pre-ev1sceration and 6 % post-evisceration) reared swine (P \u3c 0.001 ). The isolates were clustered in six serogroups including B, C, E1, E4, G and R. Highest frequency of antimicrobial resistance was observed against tetracycline (78.5%) and streptomycin (31 .5%). A total of 13 antimicrobial resistance patterns were observed including the pentaresistant strains with ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline resistance pattern observed only among isolates from the intensive farms (n=28) and all belonged to serogroup B. This study shows that multidrug resistant Salmonella are prevalent in ABF production systems despite the absence of antimicrobial selection pressure

Recent advances and application of doubled haploids in wheat breeding

Genetic improvement to develop varieties with high yield potential and resistance/tolerance to abiotic and  biotic stresses with acceptable end use qualities is the most viable and environment friendly option to increase wheat yield in a sustainable fashion. In vitro haploid production followed by chromosome doubling greatly  enhances the production of complete homozygous wheat lines in a single generation and increases the  precision and efficiency of selection process in wheat breeding. It also enables the detection of linkage and  gene interactions, estimate genetic variance and the number of genes for quantitative characteristics, produce genetic translocations, substitutions and chromosome addition lines, and facilitate genetic transformation and mutation studies. Wheat cultivars developed from doubled haploids using anther-culture and maize induction systems have been released for cultivation in both developed and developing countries. In this review, the  origin and production of haploids, techniques in anther-culture and wheat x maize wide crosses, and their  application in wheat breeding are summarized.Key words: Doubled haploid, wheat breeding, wheat yield

Magnetic Connectivity between Active Regions 10987, 10988, and 10989 by Means of Nonlinear Force-Free Field Extrapolation

Extrapolation codes for modelling the magnetic field in the corona in cartesian geometry do not take the curvature of the Sun's surface into account and can only be applied to relatively small areas, \textit{e.g.}, a single active region. We apply a method for nonlinear force-free coronal magnetic field modelling of photospheric vector magnetograms in spherical geometry which allows us to study the connectivity between multi-active regions. We use vector magnetograph data from the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun survey (SOLIS)/Vector Spectromagnetograph(VSM) to model the coronal magnetic field, where we study three neighbouring magnetically connected active regions (ARs: 10987, 10988, 10989) observed on 28, 29, and 30 March 2008, respectively. We compare the magnetic field topologies and the magnetic energy densities and study the connectivities between the active regions(ARs). We have studied the time evolution of magnetic field over the period of three days and found no major changes in topologies as there was no major eruption event. From this study we have concluded that active regions are much more connected magnetically than the electric current.Comment: Solar Physic