GIS Based Surface Irrigation Suitability Assessment and Development of Map for the Low Land Gilo Sub-Basin of Gambella, Ethiopia

Ethiopia has an important opportunity in water-led development, but it needs to address critical challenges in the planning, design, delivery, and maintenance of its irrigation systems. Gambella has an abundant water and land resources, but due to lack of information related to cultivable and irrigation suitability of the land, its agricultural system does not yet fully productive. This study was initiated to assess the land resources potential of the low land Gilo sub-basin for irrigation and providing geo-referenced map of these resources using Geographic Information System (GIS). By delineating the boundary of the study area, irrigation suitability of each physical land parameters was classified based on the FAO guideline for land evaluation in to S1, S2, S3 and N suitability classes independently, where the final existing and potentially irrigable land was identified by weighting the factors of suitability. The main suitability factors using to identify the existing and potential irrigable land were slope, soil texture, depth, drainage characteristics, soil type and land use/cover. The suitability analysis of the parameters indicates that 89.7% slope, 87.2% soil, 92.9% land use/cover of the study area were classified as potentially suitable for irrigation development in the study area. By weighting analysis of all parameters 9.1% of the study area was found to be existed suitable whereas about 1.3% was restricted for irrigation developments. Keywords: GIS, land suitability, irrigation, Gilo sub basin, weighted overlay

Awareness of Breast Cancer and Its Early Detection Measures Among Female Students, Northern Ethiopia

Globally breast cancer is the most common of all cancers. Since risk reduction strategies cannot eliminate the majority of breast cancers, early detection remains the cornerstone of breast cancer control. This paper, therefore, attempts to assess the awareness of breast cancer and its early detection measures among female students in Mekelle University, Ethiopia. An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected female students. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select the participants. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 16. In this study, 760 students participated making a response rate of 96 percent. Respondents with good knowledge score for risk factors, early detections measures and warning signs of breast cancer were 1.4 percent, 3.6 percent and 22.1 percent respectively. The majority 477 (62.8 percent) of participants practiced self-breast examination. In conclusion the participants had poor knowledge of risk factors, early detection measures and early warning signs of breast cancer.Therefore, the Ministry of health of Ethiopia together with its stalk holders should strengthen providing IEC targeting women to increase their awareness about breast cancer and its early detection measure

Non farm livelihood diversification as an alternative livelihood strategy of rural households in drought prone areas of Tigray region. The case of kilte-awlaelo woreda

The Ethiopian government has been putting more emphasis to the agriculture sector as a strategy to resolve the challenges in food security. However, crop and livestock production is no longer the only sources of rural households´ income. Solely depending on agriculture is unlikely to improve food security because of the increase in population pressure and recurrent drought. Farmers themselves have realized that farming is not enough for meeting their consumption and cash income needs. Thus, many policy makers have an intense interest in promoting income-generating activities via non-farm livelihood diversification at household level. This study was conducted in drought prone area of Tigray region with particular reference to Kilte-Awlaelo Woreda. It attempts to identify how diversification is perceived and the type of non-farm activities, explore the major factors that affect non-farm income and diversification and constraints confronting rural household from diversifying, and assess the implication of adopting non-farm livelihood as alternative livelihood strategy. Both the quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed. As part of quantitative and qualitative research methods, primary data were collected by means of household survey questionnaire and focus group discussions respectively. Descriptive analysis and linear regression model were used as tools of analysis. In the study area, a number of non-farm activities have been identified from which sand and stone quarrying, is the major one followed by livestock trading, pottery making and petty trading etc. Taking wealth status in to account, 35.3 % of the poor, 25% of the medium and 17.6 % of the better of wealth category have participated in non-farm activities. Implying that the greatest extent of diversification is among the poor and medium households, however, diversification among the better off group is less. The research result from the econometrics analysis indicates that sex of the household head, family size, credit access, livestock holding, oxen ownership, land holding, farm income have significant influence in non farm income and diversification in the study area. Insufficient start up capital, absence of local infrastructure services, and lack of appropriate entrepreneurial skills are the major constraints that prevent households from participating in non-farm livelihood diversification. Therefore, rural development policy should give more emphasis to the non-farm sector to diversify the sources of rural households income to supplement their farm income by improving access to credit, schooling, infrastructures and marketing as part of poverty reduction strategy

Effect of Branch Expansion on Cost Efficiency of Ethiopian Commercial BANKS. (Stochastic Cost frontier Approach)

Banks are a vital parts of a nation’s economy that catalyzed Economic growth through facilitate spending and investment in the economy.Bank institutionis one and the top from the major financial institutions in Ethiopia.The number of all branches of the industry including public banks increased from year to year aggressively.Thus, the overall objective of this study was to investigate effect of branch expansion on cot efficiency Ethiopian commercial banks.Accordingly, from the population, Commercial banks operating in the country a total of 18, among these, 2 public and 16 private commercial banks (a total of 14 commercial banks) were included in the study period 2010/11-2018/19 based on non-probability, purposefully sampling method. The research used theprice of labor, prices of capital,Number of branches, annual inflation rate, real GDP growth, Total loan output, management performances, market share, capital adequacy ratio,liquidity risk, prices of deposit and total securities variables to measure cost efficiency. To this end, the study used secondary data from the NBE, balance sheets and income statements of individual commercial banks obtained from the period from to 2010/11 to 2018/9. Then nine years’ panel data of bank levelvariables has been collected and analyzed using stochastic cost frontier regression analysis. As a resultthe researcher concluded that stochastic frontier model as appropriate to represent inefficient operation among the commercial banks of Ethiopia .The Ethiopian commercial banks expanded their branches throughout the country’s territory; most of the bank branches were opened.Despite the various challenges, banks preferred to go ahead with its plan to open more branches to reach customers. However their cost efficiency had been decreased as of aggressively opened branches in the study years.Accordingly the analysis result Zemen bank was the most cost efficiency and become the best practiced bank and CBE the most inefficiency bank and in reverses also characterizes in branch expansion profile.The researcher recommended thatEthiopianbanking institutions should continue to innovate so as to reduce their cost inefficiencies. Moreover, NBE and government stand towards policy that forbids foreign banks entry, the Reserve required ratio amount, and competition environment and policy in opening branches must revised. Keywords: Branch expansion, cost efficiency, Ethiopian commercial banks DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/12-9-04 Publication date:May 31st 202

Note On: The adverse effects of polygamy on the rights of women: a case study in Gedeo and Sidama Zones

A variety of researches conducted in diverse contexts of Ethiopia found that polygamy type of family relationship hinders the realization of the rights of women in many respects. This research inquires whether the polygamous life style practiced in Gedeo and Sidama Zones adversely affects the rights of women in the same way. To deal with this question, the research has reviewed the legal status of polygamy under the international human rights instruments ratified by Ethiopia and the Ethiopian legal system. It also scrutinizes how polygamous marriages affect the rights of women in Gedeo and Sidama Zones using interview and focus group discussions. The study finds that while the prohibition against polygamy is presumed in the constitutional provisions, there is leniency in the subsidiary laws in Ethiopia. This practice is found to affect the social, economic, and civil rights of women in the study areas. Based on these findings, this article recommends that the Federal and SNNPR governments should revisit their respective laws to outlaw polygamy. Besides, to enhance voluntary compliance of the laws, educational campaigns have to be conducted revealing the adverse effects of polygamy on women and the society as a whole.Keywords: adverse effect, cultural practice, polygamy, rights of wome

Reforming the Ethiopian electoral system: looking for the best alternative

Electoral systems are set of rules and procedures which determine how voters cast their votes and how the votes are converted into representative seats.1 Beyond this, each electoral system has its own impact on how the political system functions. From this perspective, the author has tested the discontents of the Ethiopian electoral system, the first-past-the-post (FPTP) taking the election data of 2005, 2010 and 2015. The research finding showed that the FPTP electoral system is ill devised to the Ethiopian current needs and realities.2 In view of such discontents, there should be a genuine concern of reforming the Ethiopian electoral system. The question remains, however, which electoral system best suits the Ethiopian situation from the bulk of alternatives? In choosing the best alternative electoral system, first, a list of criteria are set which sum up what we want to achieve and what we want to avoid or in a broader sense what we want our political system to look like. The possible alternative electoral systems are evaluated against the specific criteria designed. Finally, the evaluation revealed decisively that the mixed electoral system with compensatory seats which maintains the strong attributes of FPTP and PR electoral systems while avoiding at the same time their negative sides is found to be the best to the Ethiopian multicultural federation. This system which combines FPTP and PR systems would produce proportional results, encourage inter-party conciliation, reduce the number of ignored votes, enable geographic representation, ensure fair results for all political parties and the voters behind them, and above all creates cohesive government than the PR system would do alone.Keywords: electoral system, the FPTP, the mixed electoral system, proportional electoral system, and Ethiopi

Autonomic Management of Performance in FastFlow Stream parallel patterns

The thesis introduces autonomic managers in Fasflow pipeline and Farm skeletons optimizing service times and efficiency. Implementation details are discussed and experimental results are shown that validate the the approach.Simple policies are implemented aiming at optimizing service time and efficiency by merging/splitting stages in pipelines and by adding/removing workers in Farm skeletons

Patient Safety Culture Status and Its Predictors among Healthcare Workers

Good patient safety culture of healthcare professionals brings about fine consequences for patients. This study, therefore, aimed in evaluating the current status and predictors of safety culture among healthcare workers in Mekelle Zone hospitals, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 325 healthcare workers in three hospitals of Mekelle city from February to May, 2017. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select study subjects. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of patient safety culture among healthcare workers at 95% confidence level and 5% level of significance. Statistical significance was set at p <0.05. Of the 325 Healthcare workers, 21.6% rated the culture of patient safety as satisfactory and 78.4% rated as unsatisfactory. Old aged healthcare workers (AOR=21.9, 95% of CI: 2.51-61.69) and ‘hospital management support for patient safety’ (AOR=2.68, 95% CI=1.06-6.79) were strong predictor of satisfactory patient safety culture. Satisfactory patient safety culture grade obtained was only 21.6%, indicating that health care professionals are not delivering patient centered service and there is a lot of work to be done in the hospitals to improve culture of patient safety among healthcare workers.

Energy consumption performance analysis of electrical mitad at Mekelle City

The Injera baking electrical mitad is the most energy-consuming device in every household in Ethiopia. This research presents a detail engineering study on the energy-consumption performance of existing electrical mitad in Mekelle city. The research work considered thirty-one electrical mitad from different workshops in Mekelle. Depending on the number of clay used, there are three types of electrical mitad; the single clay, the double clay and the rotating type mitad. In this research, it was found out that the average power consumption of existing mitad is in the range of 3.5 KW to 3.9 KW. The specific average baking energy is 0.82, 0.73 and 0.54 kWh/kg of injera for double clay, single clay and rotating type mitad respectively while the thermal efficiency by considering baking of 6kg of Injera on each mitad is 38%, 47% and 61% respectively. In all designs, the baking temperature is in the range of 130-140 0C. Although the rotating type mitad is more energy efficient, it has technical limitations. Due to that, the single and the double clay mitad are widely used by households hence share all the market penetration of injera baking electrical mitad. These commonly used electrical mitad have an energy loss from 50-60% of the input energy.Keywords: Electrical mitad, Injera baking energy, Thermal efficiency, Baking temperature, Ethioopi