Stakeholder linkages for sustainable land management in Dangila woreda, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

This paper presents stakeholder types involved in sustainable land management (SLM), their interests and interactions in Dangila woreda (district), Amhara Region, as a case study site. Data were collected from April to June 2011 and in October 2012 from a questionnaire survey of 201 rural households and 19 agricultural experts, through observation, and from formal and informal discussions. Results indicate that landholder and landless farmers, women, development agents (DAs), and Rural Kebele Administration (RKA) offices were major stakeholders involved in SLM activities in the study areas. These stakeholders were found having different interests regarding SLM issues. The linkages of farmers with DAs and RKA offices were observed to be strong but farmers’ participation in new technology selection was found to be low. Farmer interactions with Woreda, Zone and Region level experts were observed to be weak focused on top-down planning and upward reporting. Over 47% of experts interviewed in the woreda agriculture office were assigned to perform duties outside of their expertise profession and nearly 36% of them reported that their working environment was not very good and motivating. Greater than 94% of experts assessed indicated their incentives for work to be low. It is argued that enhancing farmer participation in SLM decisions and establishing good and motivating incentives and working environments could improve stakeholder interactions for SLM in the study areas.Key words: Stakeholders; farmer-expert linkages; resource management; Ethiopi

Determinants of manual control of water hyacinth expansion over the Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Water hyacinth is an exotic freshwater weed damaging wetland resources over the Lake Tana basin, Ethiopia. Different measures, including manual labour and harvesting machinery are in use to reduce its damage and expansion. Yet, the invasion of the weed appears expanding its scope across the wetlands of the Lake. This paper presented the study made to identify determinant factors affecting manual control of water hyacinth expansion over the Lake wetlands. It tried to analyse the expansion trend of the water hyacinth and community efforts to control its extension. Data were gathered from questionnaire surveys, group discussions, interviews and field observations. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used for data analysis. The study revealed that the water hyacinth cover in the Lake’s wetland increased from ≤10, 000 ha in 2011 to over 50, 000 ha in 2017. Wetland terrain, water depth, food availability, farming time, employment and government support were found significantly influencing the manual control practices of households. Hence, government support must increase to motivate people involvement in manual weed removal campaigns. Micro-relief maps and floating boats need be readily available to help participants easily identify risky terrains and expand the physical weed removal into the deeper waters.Key Words: Water hyacinth, Invasive weeds, Manual control, Wetlands, Lake Tana, Ethiopi

Analysis of Grain Traders’ Performance in Ethiopia: The Case of Contribution of Social Capital

This article examines the performance of 206 grain traders in 20 markets found in Amhara, Tigray, Oromiya and SNNPR of Ethiopia. The study adopts Fafchamps and Minten (1999) approach and used multiple regression model. The study identified that financial capital (working capital), social capital (using intermediary at the time of sale and customer relationship), human capital (farming experience) and transaction cost (having mobile, Oromiya and SNNPR) affected traders’ performance. The findings suggested adding working capital through different means (like access to credit through micro finance institutes, banks, etc.) with planned and market assessment, establishing licensed and well organized brokerage strengthen traders business relationship with regular customers in a formal or informal way, farmer-trader linkages are recommended through the dissemination of information (e.g. workshops) and training on quality and production management, establish and strengthen, a reliable, permanent,  public domain market information and other infrastructure are important to enhance traders performance, in turn encourage farmers to produce more and maximize benefit from grain market. Keywords: Ethiopia, social-capital, performance, customer-relationship, marketing-margi

IMPROVEMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL SPECIALISTS DURING THE PERIOD OF REFORMING MEDICINE AND PHARMACY IN UKRAINE

The article describes the need to determine the main directions and priorities of the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Ukraine, which is conditioned by real political and socioeconomic processes. The main element here is the introduction and development of a formular system - a complex of management methods for the application of rational, organizational and cost-effective methods of supplying and using drugs to ensure, in specific conditions, high quality medical care and optimal use of available resources.Key words: pharmaceutical industry, pharmacist, pharmacist, higher education

Epidemiology of low back pain among nurses working in public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Low back pain (LBP) related to Nursing Profession, is a very common public health problem throughout the world. Various risk factors have been implicated in the etiology and LBP is assumed to be of multi-factorial origin as individual, work-related and psychosocial factors can contribute to its development. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and to identify the risk factors of LBP among Nurses working in Addis Ababa City Public Hospitals, Ethiopia, in the year 2015. Addis Ababa University, Black-Lion (‘Tikur Anbessa’) Hospital-BLH, is the country’s highest tertiary level referral and teaching Hospital. The three departments in connection with this study: Radiology, Pathology and Orthopedics, run undergraduate and residency programs and receive referred patients from all over the country.Methods: A cross-sectional study with internal comparison was conducted throughout the period October-December, 2015. Sample was chosen by simple random sampling technique by taken the lists of Nurses from human resource departments as a sampling frame. A well-structured, pre-tested and selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect quantifiable information. The questionnaire included socio-demographic, back pain features, consequences of back pain, work-related and psychosocial factors. The collected data was entered in to epiinfo version 3.5.4 and was analyzed by SPSS. A probability level of 0.05 or less and 95% confidence level was used to indicate statistical significance. Ethical clearance was obtained from all respected administrative bodies, Hospitals and study participants.Results: The study included 395 Nurses and gave a response rate of 91.9%. The mean age was 30.6 (±8.4) years. Majority of the respondents were female (285, 72.2%). Nearly half of the participants (n=181, 45.8% (95% CI (40.8%- 50.6%))) were complained Low Back Pain. There were statistical significant association between Low Back Pain and working shift, physical activities at work; sleep disturbance and felt little pleasure by doing things.Conclusion: A high prevalence of Low Back Pain was found among Nurses working in Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Recognition & Preventive measures like providing resting periods should be taken to reduce the risk of Low Back Pain in Nurses working in Public hospitalsKeywords: LBP Risk factors, Low back pain, Nurses, Work-Shift, and Public Hospital

Design of Passive down Draft Cool Tower for 100 m2 Auditorium

A passive down draft evaporative cooling (PDEC) tower is design to capture the wind at high temperature typically at 40ο C and above the top of tower and cool the outdoor air using water which is allowed to flow through shower and due to evaporation of water out door air gets cooled. Many different types of PDEC exist. This paper explains design of PDEC tower. It is a parallel flow heat exchanger with hot and cold fluid are in direct contact with each other. The wet bulb temperature of air is the lowest possible temperature of the air leaving the tower and entering in air conditioned space. It is suitable in hot dry climate due to large difference between dry and wet bulb temperatures. The mathematical model predicted with the variation of wind speed from 1 m/s to 6 m/s with outside air temperature 35 ο C and relative humidity 20 %, a tower height of 6 m is required