Fishermen cooperatives in the Green Revolution Programme

The aim of this study was to examine areas in which fishermen cooperatives can become involved and then suggest operational guidelines in order to increase fishermen income and also to make the Green Revolution Programme a success through increased production of fish. The paper enumerated different areas in which fishermen cooperatives can participate. These include: thrift and credits, thrift and savings, consumers and building cooperative societies. It is the belief of the author that the expansion of fishermen cooperatives into the areas mentioned in this paper can enable members to process and market their products more economically, buy supplies and equipment in large quantities and obtain lower cost credi

Impact of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) on Rural Poverty Alleviation in Southwestern Nigeria

The incidence, depth and severity of poverty of rural people and influencing rural poverty were investigated in the Southwestern Nigeria. Multi-stage stratified random sampling procedure was used tocollect data from 200 clients and 200 non-clients of NGOs in the study area. Linear multiple regression was used to determine the magnitude of contribution of variables affecting poverty in Southwester Nigeria.Results of the Forster-Greer-Thorbecke indices showed that at annual poverty line of-N54, 776. 77, incidence (45.50%), depth (20.17%) and severity (10.98%) of poverty among the non-clients were higherthan among the clients (29.50, 9.02 and 3.68% respectively). Relative poverty line among clients was above N141.60 ($1) per day while it was lower among the non-clients. The F-values indicated that the povertymodel Itad good fit (p < 0.01) and the Chow's test-values established significant difference in poverty model between the clients and non-clients (p < 0.01). The study revealed that gender and poverty indicators weredeterminants of poverty among non-clients but not among clients. Socio-cultural spending was a positive and significant variable in the poverty models (p <0.01). It also showed that belonging to the clients' groupalleviated poverty as well as enhanced savings of respondents. The study concludes that microfinance delivery efforts of the NGOs enhanced poverty alleviation among clients in the area

The power of fish trader associations in the marketing of fish in Lagos State

This paper focusses on the activities of trade associations in the marketing of fish in Lagos State. The study covers 6 different markets in Lagos State of Nigeria. Analysis indicates that 86% of the traders are members of the associations. The ages of the traders range from 21 to over 55 years. However, majority are between the ages of 31 and 45 years. Traders secure their initial capital mostly from trade associations and Esusu/Ajo. Most traders have no working capital to maintain a regular series of outlets, so wholesalers turn to associations for funds, while retailers turn to wholesalers. They eventually pay back when they sell to consumers. The fish industry is found to be imperfectly competitive mostly because of the actions of fish trader associations. The fish marketing system is highly personalised and loyality exists between wholesalers and retailers and their customer

Academic mobility and the experiences of foreign staff at South African higher education institutions

This article analyses the patterns of international academic mobility in higher education with particular focus on academic staff. Using the ‘pull and push factors’ as a conceptual framework, it argues that the patterns of international academic staff mobility follow the pattern of international cross-border migrants. These are driven mainly by the pull factors which include quest for better opportunities in life including education. The article uses three sources of data namely documentary analysis, statistical data from the Department of Education’s Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS), and data from questionnaires that were distributed to international academic staff at the three South African universities; namely, the University of Pretoria, University of South Africa, and University of the Witwatersrand.   For the international academic staff working in South Africa, it was demonstrated that they have both positive and negative experiences. The negative experiences seem to be related to the major nation building project to overcome racism and xenophobia. The principles of non-racialism and, non-discrimination need to be promoted in order to build an inclusive and socially coherent society.

Detection Of Pendimethalin and Cypermetrin Residues in Locally Produced Tomato Using QuEChERS-HPLC Analysis

This study investigated the levels of pendimethalin and cypermetrin residues in tomato sold in Malete market, Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State. Tomatoes were randomly collected from five different vendors in Malete market and analysis was performed using the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method followed by chromatographic analysis using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to ultra-violet (UV) detector. Method validation of the study showed a linearity of the analytes which ranges from 5 – 500 μg/kg, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.999. The average recovery ranges from 75.6 to 111 % with relative standard deviation (RSD) from 2.74 to 9.03 %. The results indicated the presence of cypermethrin in analyzed samples at concentrations lower than the permissible maximum residue levels Keywords: Sample preparation, Pesticide residues, HPLC-UV, QuEChERS

Effect of Dietary Biscuit Waste on Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Broilers

A study was conducted for 8 weeks to investigate the effect of dietary biscuit waste (BW) replacing maize (M) on performance and carcass characteristic of broilers. A total of 175 day old marshal broiler chicks were used for this study. They were completely randomized and divided into five treatments. Each treatment had five replicates of seven birds per replicate. Five experimental diets were formulated as follows; A: (100%M : 0%BW), B: (75% M: 25%BW), C: (50%M: 50%BW), D: (25%M: 75%BW), E: (0%M: 100%BW) at both starter and finisher phases. Performance indices measured were feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio.  The feed intake (F.I.) was affected with increasing level of biscuit waste. There were significant differences (p<0.05) across the treatments with treatment A having the highest value of 2.92kg for F.I  and treatment E having the least value of 2.51kg while treatments B, C and D followed the same trend having the following values of 2.73kg, 2.70kg and 2.61kg respectively. Average weight gain showed that there were no significant differences (p>0.05) across the treatments, the values obtained were 1.13kg, 1.09kg, 1.10kg, 1.12kg and 1.10kg for treatments A, B, C, D and E respectively. Feed conversion ratio showed significant differences (p?0.05) as birds in treatments C, D and E recorded lower values of 2.47%, 2.37% and 2.33% respectively while birds on treatment A had highest value of 2.60%. The carcass weights expressed as percentages of live weights (LW) did not show any significant differences (p>0.05). The result for breast weights showed significant differences (p?0.05) as birds on treatments four (25% M: 75% (BW) and five (0%M: 100% BW) had lower values of 10.05% (LW) and 11.20% (LW) respectively. Surprisingly, birds on treatment two (75% M 25% BW) had the highest breast meat value of 16.75%. The percentage organ weights showed no significant differences (p>0.05) between liver, heart and spleen but the gizzard weights were significantly different among the treatments with the control having the highest value of 2.88% (LW). It was concluded that biscuit waste could be used as feed for broilers up to 50% replacement levels for maize at the starter and finisher phases without compromising performance and carcass value of broilers. Keywords: Biscuit waste (BW), Maize (M), Broiler Performance and Carcass Characteristics

Evaluation of the Activity Concentration of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in Soil and Associated Radiological Parameters of Shanono and Bagwai Artisanal Gold Mining Areas, Kano State, Nigeria

No Abstract

MANDATORY ADOPTION OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS (IFRS) BY NIGERIAN LISTED BANKS: ANY IMPLICATION FOR VALUE RELEVANCE?

In January 2012 Nigeria adopted IFRS. Sequel to that adoption, the pressing question agitating the minds of researchers as well as other stakeholders in financial reporting is whether the mandatory adoption of IFRS has given rise to an enhanced value relevance (or quality) of financial information in Nigerian banks. To address this, we relied on the fundamental Ohlson (1995) model which has also been severally employed in prior researches. By means of criterion based sampling technique, we selected 13 out of the 21 listed commercial banks in Nigeria for our study. Our findings revealed that Book Value of Equity (BVE) and Earnings per Share (EPS) are positively associated with share price. We also observed that BVE is less associated with share price than EPS. We recommended inter alia that sustainable development of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) can be boosted through credible financial information. When the integrity of the Financial Report is being threatened, investors (both local and international) are likely to shun or shrink from investing adequately in Nigerian Capital Marke

Decoding of MSTd Population Activity Accounts for Variations in the Precision of Heading Perception

SummaryHumans and monkeys use both vestibular and visual motion (optic flow) cues to discriminate their direction of self-motion during navigation. A striking property of heading perception from optic flow is that discrimination is most precise when subjects judge small variations in heading around straight ahead, whereas thresholds rise precipitously when subjects judge heading around an eccentric reference. We show that vestibular heading discrimination thresholds in both humans and macaques also show a consistent, but modest, dependence on reference direction. We used computational methods (Fisher information, maximum likelihood estimation, and population vector decoding) to show that population activity in area MSTd predicts the dependence of heading thresholds on reference eccentricity. This dependence arises because the tuning functions for most neurons have a steep slope for directions near straight forward. Our findings support the notion that population activity in extrastriate cortex limits the precision of both visual and vestibular heading perception