An analysis of factors influencing access to credit by poultry egg farmers in Southwestern, Nigeria

Poultry occupies a pivotal position because of its enormous potential to bring about rapid economic growth. Agricultural credit is considered  essential to the process of improving agriculture and transformation of the rural economy. This study was conducted among 343 poultry egg farmers in Southwestern, Nigeria. Muiti-stage sampling procedure was employed was employed in selecting the poultry egg farmers in the study area while descriptive statistics and binary logit were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that majority (74.3%) of the  poultry egg farmers were male with an average age 42 ± 8.9 years. More than half (57.8%) of the farmers were educated above secondary  education. More than half (63.6%) of the farmers had between 5-10 years of layers rearing experience with the mean years of experience being 9.0 ± 5.4 years. Majority (98.0%) of the poultry egg farmers had access to credit while only (2%) of the farmers insured their poultry farms. Factors that influenced the poultry farmers’ access to credit include gender, years of education, stock size and biosecurity level. The study recommends that the government should formulate a policy that will be assisting the poultry farmers to get more funds at the lowest rate of interest. Key words: Poultry, Egg, Credit, Logit, Nigeri

Evaluation of the relationship between participation in agricultural insurance scheme and income of poultry farmers in Osogbo ADP zone, Osun State

Poultry production is affected by disease outbreak, weather-related perils, market risk, financial risk, and technological failure of the production.This study examined relationship between the farm income and participation in agricultural insurance on poultry layers farmers in Osogbo Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) of Osun State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 120 poultry layers farmers with the aid of structured questionnaire using multi-stage sampling procedures. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Majority (80.0%) of the poultry farmers were below the age of 50 years and more than half (64.2%) of them were male. Majority (83.3%) of the poultry farmers had poultry farming experience of more than five years with mean years of farming experience of 12 years. The crucial constraint that limits the poultry farmers in participating in agricultural insurance scheme in the study area is lack of adequate information on the benefits of agricultural insurance scheme. Mean farm income of those poultry farmers that insured their farm was higher than those that did not participate which imply that agricultural insurance scheme has a positive relationship on the farm income on farmers who participated in the insurance scheme. Adequate dissemination of knowledge on the benefits of agricultural insurance by extension agents is crucial to increase the level of participation of poultry farmers

Assessment ofcommercial importance and determinant factors influencing collection of non timber forest products in adjoining communities of lanlate Forest Reserve of Oyo State, Nigeria

The study focused on the assessment of commercial importance and determinant factors influencing collection of non timber forest products in  adjoining communities of Lanlate. Purposive sampling was used to select four villages Alapa, Opo Ogede, Afayasoro, and Panlati which are closed to  the forest reserve with protected population of 640,290,540 and250 respectively. Furthermore Diaw et,al (2002)was used to select respondent for the study,113 questionnaire were administered out of which 106 were retrieved..Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency distribution and inferential statistics. Majority of the respondents were within the age brackets of 42-60 years (30.2%) and mostly male (81.1%); 62.3% of the respondents had secondary education. Results further showed that81.2% of the respondents were married, 57.5% were engaged in farming as occupations and 53.8% had spent 10-20 years in the area. Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) collected in the area were34.9% of bush-meats, (45.3%) collected NTFPs between 3 - 5 days in a week and some of challenges faced were unattractive price, poor road network and inadequate credit accessibility. The study recommended that government should encourage development of participative programme involving local people for the evaluation of NTFPs resources for sustainable production, harvesting and use of NTFPs. Keywords: Assessment, Communities, Factors, Forest Reserve, NTFPs, Respondents

Quality of sleep and psychological morbidity among paramedical and medical students in Southwest Nigeria

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the quality of sleep and psychological morbidity between medical students and paramedical students.Methods: A cross sectional survey of one hundred and eighty-six students of the College of Medicine, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, Nigeria, were surveyed using socio-demographic questionnaires, Pittsburgh Sleep Questionnaire and General Health questionnaire.Results: The mean ages among paramedical students was 20.63±1.6 and medical students was 22.80±2.93 respectively. Medical Students had a higher percentage of those who had poor sleep quality (86.7% ,≥ 5, n=85) than the paramedical students (38.6%, n=34) and higher mean scores on General Health Questionnaire, M(SD) = 8.75(5.01) than the Paramedical group, M(SD) = 6.53(2.97) respectively.Conclusion: The findings in our study showed that medical students had poorer sleep quality and higher psychological morbidity in comparison to paramedical students, efforts should be made to reduce academic stress and improving sleep quality.Keywords: Sleep, Psychological Morbidity, Medical Students, Paramedical Students, Medical Educatio

Sickness and agricultural productivity: evidence from arable-crop farmers in Southwest, Nigeria

Literature argued that investments in the health programs for labour to prevent sickness in farming operations enhances agricultural productivity. This paper estimates a stochastic production function using 240 primary data to analyze the relationship between farmers’ dietary-pattern, health-status and agricultural production efficiency. Study indicated that workdays lost to sickness influenced poor farm-income and productivity and the effect is considerable. Sound dietary-patterns and health status enhances human productivity and farm-profit levels. Moreover, the incapacitating effects of sickness on farm-labour leads to diminishing effects on farmer’s efficiency level. Average value of technical efficiency per-unit of input tends to be higher for healthy farmers than for those affected by sickness. About 79.1% of the respondents spent 85.6% of their farm-proceeds on medical expenses, while 66.8% of the respondents were unable to meet medical expenses from farm-proceeds. Hence, expenditures on health upsets affect the availability of disposable cash income as household financial resources are diverted to pay for medical treatment. Thus, deny farmers inability to procure agricultural inputs that can improve agricultural productivity. Regression results confirm the negative effect of health barriers on farmers’ agricultural production-efficiency. Results suggest that one workday lost to sickness increase farmers’ inefficiency by 0.4%

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Perception of library staff on the preservation and conservation of library resources in the Federal University of Agriculture Library, Abeokuta

Maintaining and managing resources in the library will add not only to its value but preserve it for its future use. This study focused on the perceived usefulness and general practices of preservation and conservation of library resources at the Federal university of Agriculture library, Abeokuta, Nigeria. All the staffs both in university library and college libraries were involved in the study. A questionnaire and observation methods was used for data collection. The result of the study showed that the library stored both printed and electronic materials and for preservation of electronic resources, information technology was adopted as preservative method in the library, while physical factors contributing to the deterioration of printed materials was ‘poor handling of books on the shelf and mutilation and vandalism of books. The result also indicated high useful on the perceived usefulness of preservation of printed materials in the library. Availability of fire extinguisher in each unit was rated high as one of the preservative measure in place in the library. The challenges faced were lack of preservation policy as well as lack of funding to purchase preservation equipment in the library. The study recommends that the library management should organise seminar or workshop to train all library staff on the importance of preservation and conservation of library resources and promote awareness within the organisation.Keywords: preservation and conservation, library materials, perceived usefulness, university of Agriculture and library staf

Sickness and agricultural productivity: evidence from arable-crop farmers in Southwest, Nigeria

Literature argued that investments in the health programs for labour to prevent sickness in farming operations enhances agricultural productivity. This paper estimates a stochastic production function using 240 primary data to analyze the relationship between farmers’ dietary-pattern, health-status and agricultural production efficiency. Study indicated that workdays lost to sickness influenced poor farm-income and productivity and the effect is considerable. Sound dietary-patterns and health status enhances human productivity and farm-profit levels. Moreover, the incapacitating effects of sickness on farm-labour leads to diminishing effects on farmer’s efficiency level. Average value of technical efficiency per-unit of input tends to be higher for healthy farmers than for those affected by sickness. About 79.1% of the respondents spent 85.6% of their farm-proceeds on medical expenses, while 66.8% of the respondents were unable to meet medical expenses from farm-proceeds. Hence, expenditures on health upsets affect the availability of disposable cash income as household financial resources are diverted to pay for medical treatment. Thus, deny farmers inability to procure agricultural inputs that can improve agricultural productivity. Regression results confirm the negative effect of health barriers on farmers’ agricultural production-efficiency. Results suggest that one workday lost to sickness increase farmers’ inefficiency by 0.4%

Shelf life of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) seed stored under humid tropical conditions

Successful crop production depends initially on the availability of high-quality seed. Seed viability and vigour of four kenaf varieties during storage were investigated. Seeds of each variety were packed inside thick polythene bags and kept in Seed Stores under ambient conditions in two storage locations (Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) (29.8°C, 59.10 RH%) and Institute of Agricultural Research and Train- ing, Ibadan (27.5°C, 64.68 RH%) for 240 days (8 months).  Seeds were sampled during storage at 0, 60, 120, 180 and 240 days and tested for seed viability and seedling vigour index. Data collected on seed viability and seedling vigour were analyzed using ANOVA, mean separation using Duncan Multiple Range Test at 5% probability level and PROBIT analysis. The results showed differential responses in the two quality traits due to differences in storage location and varieties. Ibadan storage location provided more favourable conditions for higher seed quality compared to Abeokuta location while Ifeken 400 and Tianung had the best storage potential. The study showed that under ambient humid tropical conditions, storage period should not exceed 180 days (6 months) in order to maintain higher physiological quality with little or no cost. The PROBIT result revealed that the highest seed shelf life (longevity) of kenaf seeds of 8 to 9 months was derived for seeds of Ifeken 400 and Tianung stored in Ibadan and Abeokuta. The shortest shelf life of 6 months was esti- mated for Ifeken 100 stored in both locations.