Does use of ICT-based market information services (MIS) improve welfare of smallholder farm households: Evidence from Kenya

The need to provide agricultural information to farmers has led to emergence of numerous ICT-based MIS projects in developing country. These projects aim at promoting commercialization of smallholder agriculture and subsequently their welfare. This study examines the welfare effects of one such project in western Kenya. It uses household food security and access to medical health services as proxies of welfare. The study finds that farmers that use ICT-based market information are more food secure and have better access to medical health services than their counterpart. It highlights policy implications of these findings.Smallholder farmers, market information service, mobile phones, well-being, Kenya, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Marketing,

PET studies on disease progression and treatment efficacy in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional state between normal ageing and dementia. Positron emission tomography (PET) can detect the metabolic and neuro-chemical changes that occur in MCI and dementia. The aim of this thesis was to assess the use of PET as an in vivo biomarker for early disease detection, prognosis, and proof of treatment efficacy in AD and MCI. In study I, the prevalence of increased beta-amyloid deposition (assessed by 11C-PIB PET) and microglial activation (assessed by 11C-PK11195 PET) was studied in amnestic MCI (aMCI) subjects. 50% had raised amyloid deposition and 38% evidence of microglial activation. Subjects with increased PIB retention had significantly higher cortical PK11195 binding. In study II, rates at which aMCI subjects with and without increased amyloid load converted to AD were compared over one to three years of follow-up. 55% of aMCI subjects had significantly increased PIB retention at baseline and 82% of these converted to AD compared to 7% of aMCI cases with normal PIB uptake. Faster AD converters had higher PIB retention than slower converters. In study III, changes in regional cerebral Aβ deposition (assessed with 11C-PIB PET) and regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCMRGlc) (assessed with 18F-FDG PET) were followed over three years in MCI and AD subjects. The MCI subjects demonstrated small but significant increases in 11C-PIB retention and parallel decreases in rCMRGlc. 11C-PIB retention in AD subjects remained unchanged, despite decreases in rCMRGlc and a decline in their MMSE. In study IV, the effects of passive immunisation with infusions of the anti-Aβ monoclonal antibody bapineuzumab on amyloid plaque load was assessed in AD subjects. After 78 weeks, subjects receiving bapineuzumab had reduced cortical 11C-PIB retention compared with their baseline and with placebo treated subjects. Through its detection of fibrillar Aβ, PET can detect the presence of Alzheimer pathology and provides a prognostic indicator of future progression of MCI to AD. However, PIB PET is not a marker of AD progression as the amyloid load remains relatively stable. 18F-FDG PET, a marker of synaptic activity, more closely mirrors cognitive decline as neurodegeneration progresses. Finally, PET allows the changes in glial activation in MCI to be monitored and provides a rationale for therapeutic trials of anti-inflammatory agents

An evaluation of 605 endoscopic examination in a rural setting, Lacor Hospital in Northern Uganda

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the profile of esophagogastroduodenal (EGDS) diseases diagnosed by upper endoscopy in a rural area of Uganda in a retro-protective study of 605 patients. Results: The mean age of patients with digestive symptoms was 39.7yrs (SD +/-16.11) and female gender predominated by 60% compared to the male (P value 0.000). Peasant farmers were the commonest group with GI symptoms requiring EGDS compared to the rest 72.1% v 27.9%. Epigastric pain was the commonest indication (58%) for EGDS, followed by chest pain (11%), abdominal pain (8.8%), dyspahgia (7.6%) and hematemesis (7.3%). The commonest endoscopy finding was gastritis (47.9%) followed by esophagitis (14.4%), cancer esophagus (5.1%), esophageal varicose (4%), PUD (2.3%), gastric cancer (1%). However 19.5% of patients had normal EGDS. There was a significant correlation between the outpatient diagnosis and endoscopy finding (P value 0.01, r = 0.144) and between endoscopy finding and histology findings (P value 0.001, r = 0.236). H. pylori was positive in 53% of patients with gastritis. Conclusion: Gastritis is the commonest lesion (47.9%) of which 53% have H pylori and Cance

Does the environment in which ICT-based market information services (MIS) projects operate affect their performance? Experiences from Kenya

The need to provide agricultural information to farmers has led to emergence of numerous ICTbased MIS projects in developing country. These projects aim at promoting commercialization of smallholder agriculture and subsequently their welfare. This study examines the how the environment in which such ICT-based MIS affect their performance. It specifically uses the DrumNet project, an ICT-based MIS, to assess how the socio-economic, physical, political and physical environment in the project areas affected its performance. The study finds that those transaction-related problems, especially strategic default, deriving from these environmental factors greatly undermined the performance of DrumNet forcing it to relocate severally. It discusses policy implications of these findings.ICT-based MIS projects, the DrumNet model, operational environment, performance, Kenya, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

The Effect of Developed-Country Pesticide Standards on Health and Pesticide-Induced Morbidity of Kenya's Green Bean Family Farmers

This paper examines the effects of compliance with developed country pesticide standards (DC-PS) on pesticide-related health costs and morbidity of developing country fresh vegetable growers. DC-PS require that farmers i) only use approved pesticides (usually less toxic to humans than ones used before), ii) apply pesticides only when pest scouting reveals the need to do so, and iii) handle, use, store and dispose off pesticides in ways that do not pose health threats to farm workers and farm family members. This paper uses survey regression to estimate a model of health costs of pesticide exposure (based on cost of illness approach) and survey poisson regression to estimate a model for use of protective devices. It finds that compliance with DC-PS reduces health costs of pesticide exposure and increases the use of protective devices. The findings imply that DC-PS have health benefits to developed country fresh export vegetable growers beyond acknowledged premium market access and therefore provide an opportunity for governments to partner with fresh produce exporters to promote safe use, storage and disposal of pesticides.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Food safety requirements in African green bean exports and their impact on small farmers:

"Many African countries have moved into the production of non-traditional agricultural products, in an effort to diversify their exports and increase foreign currency earnings. However, in order to access developed country markets and urban domestic markets, these products must meet food safety requirements, including protocols relating to pesticide residues, field and pack house operations, and traceability. Faced with stringent food safety requirements, companies that establish production centers in low-income countries might exclude poor farmers, thus negatively impacting the poor. We herein study this issue in the case of the green bean export sectors in three African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia. In the short-term, stringent food safety standards have screened out smallholders in all these countries, excluding them from the green bean export chain. However, some institutional arrangements have helped support the smallholders who continue to function in the export-oriented green bean supply chains. In particular, public-private partnerships have played a key role in creating farm-to-fork linkages that can satisfy market demands for food safety while retaining smallholders in the supply chain. Furthermore, organized producer groups capable of monitoring their own food safety requirements through collective action have become attractive to buyers who are looking for ways to ensure traceability and reduce transaction costs." from Authors' AbstractInternational food safety standards, Small farmers, Supply chains, Agricultural trade, Public-private partnerships,

Barriers and factors affecting personal protective equipment usage in St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in Northern Uganda

Background: To protect health workers (HCWs) from risky occupation exposure, CDC developed the universal precautions (Ups) including Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). However compliance to it by HCWs has remained poor even in high-risk clinical situation. The objective of this study was to identify and describe the factors that influence a HCWs’ decision to wear PPEs and the barriers that exist in preventing their use Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in all the wards to collected quantitative information as well as qualitative and observational data on PPE use Results: Out of the total 59 respondents, 2% do not know the purpose of PPE, 23.7% do not know how to don and doff PPEs, 13.6% do not use PPE even when indicated and 10% are not using an appropriate PPE. The main barriers relates to poor fitting and weak domestic gloves, few of aprons, frequent stock out and inadequate PPE as well as lack of training in PPE Conclusion: This study provides a baseline for measuring the effectiveness of interventions to improve compliance

Can the Implementation of Social Protection Policies and Programme Reducing Households and Community Vulnerability to Poverty in Uganda?

The existence of disconnected and overlapping research findings on who are the vulnerable groups in post-conflict communities of Uganda continues to mingle around the mind of scholarly researchers, policy and decision makers. Most of these groups have had specific research studies conducted and strategic policies designed to address the findings. This article tries to provide an approach to understanding of the concept of vulnerability from social protection perspective. In this regards, the paper looks at and reviews available text on who are vulnerable group in Ugandan context and then focus on more general issues of poverty and vulnerability at household and community level. It further examines the causes of household and community vulnerability to poverty and suggests what social protection interventions provided by the state and non-state actors in reducing their vulnerability to poverty can do. The vulnerable communities reviewed are those households and communities members emerging from inter-intra-conflicts in northern and eastern Uganda. The article begins with an overview of poverty trends and distribution and identifies who are the vulnerable poor in the context of Uganda. For this paper, we define or identify vulnerable households as those persons living in one roof of a home and are always susceptible to shocks and risks such as limited access to education, health facilities, shelter, safe and clean drinking waters, while the paper identifies vulnerable communities as those communities with no or existing poor social infrastructures such as medical facilities, bad roads and old building school structures. Keywords: poverty, vulnerability, vulnerable households and communitie

Institutional Innovations for Smallholder Compliance with International Food Safety Standards: Experiences from Kenya, Ethiopian and Zambian Green Bean Growers

Many African countries have moved into the production of non-traditional agricultural products to diversify their exports and increase foreign currency earnings. Accessing developed country markets requires meeting food safety standards brought about by several demand and supply side factors. Food retailers in the EU, the major destination market, have developed protocols relating to pesticide residue limits, field and packinghouse hygiene, and traceability. In this changing scenario where food safety requirements are getting increasingly stringent, there are worries that companies that establish production centers in LDCs might exclude smallholder farmers. In this paper, we study the cases of green beans production in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia for export to high value European markets. Though the immediate effect of the imposition of stringent food safety standards has been to screen away smallholders, there has been continued participation of smallholders in some cases. This paper finds that emergence of new institutional arrangements have enabled the smallholders to maintain their participation in high value European markets. In particular, public-private partnerships have played a key role in helping smallholder farmers acquire training on and certification against European food safety standards. Collective action in form of producer organizations has enabled smallholders to jointly invest in costly facilities and take advantage of economies of scale to remain competitive. Producer organizations also allow for cheaper means for buyers to ensure traceability and are critical in reducing transaction costs of linking up with smallholders.international food safety standards, compliance, smallholder farmers, institutional arrangements, collective action, producer organizations, public-private partnerships, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital, Marketing, Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Can the Implementation of Social Protection Policies and Programme Reducing Households and Community Vulnerability to Poverty in Uganda?

The existence of disconnected and overlapping research findings on who are the vulnerable groups in post-conflict communities of Uganda continues to mingle around the mind of scholarly researchers, policy and decision makers. Most of these groups have had specific research studies conducted and strategic policies designed to address the findings. This article tries to provide an approach to understanding of the concept of vulnerability from social protection perspective. In this regards, the paper looks at and reviews available text on who are vulnerable group in Ugandan context and then focus on more general issues of poverty and vulnerability at household and community level. It further examines the causes of household and community vulnerability to poverty and suggests what social protection interventions provided by the state and non-state actors in reducing their vulnerability to poverty can do. The vulnerable communities reviewed are those households and communities members emerging from inter-intra-conflicts in northern and eastern Uganda. The article begins with an overview of poverty trends and distribution and identifies who are the vulnerable poor in the context of Uganda. For this paper, we define or identify vulnerable households as those persons living in one roof of a home and are always susceptible to shocks and risks such as limited access to education, health facilities, shelter, safe and clean drinking waters, while the paper identifies vulnerable communities as those communities with no or existing poor social infrastructures such as medical facilities, bad roads and old building school structures. Keywords: poverty, vulnerability, vulnerable households and communitie