scholarly journals Farmers' mental models of soil fertility in a semi-arid area of Kenya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshie Yageta ◽  
H Osbahr ◽  
Yasuyuki Morimoto ◽  
Joanna Clark
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Soil Processes ◽  
Soil Fertility Management ◽  
Extension Work ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Local Farmers

Effective knowledge exchange between farmers and other stakeholders, such as agricultural extensionists and soil scientists, is essential for increasing opportunities for sustainable soil fertility management. To achieve this, it is necessary to understand local farmers’ conceptualisation of soil fertility. This study visualizes farmers’ perceptions of soil fertility as mental models, in order to explore the expansion of their soil knowledge and the extent of their comprehension of the relationship between soil properties that are seen and measured and soil processes. Aggregated mental models of fertile and low fertility soils were created from data collected from 59 farmer interviews at two villages in Kitui County, Kenya. The share of respondents of each concept were shown to analyse the knowledge gaps among farmers and between villages. The mental models revealed that farmers recognize the important roles of soil texture, water availability and farm management in soil fertility. Their knowledge related to their lived experience of the actual productivity of soils, which resulted in a strongly different perspective of fertile and low fertility soil. The differences of perception between the villages were also recognized as the result of differences in land availability. Although the farmers who mentioned soil processes were very few, farmers had the potential to integrate further soil scientific knowledge. Consequently, using the mental model approach to visualize farmers’ perceptions produced benefits by clarifying understanding of farmers’ knowledge and identifying gaps where soil science and extension work could help to expand farmers’ knowledge.

K-MEANS CLUSTERING ALGORITHM BASED CLASSIFICATION OF SOIL FERTILITY IN NORTH WEST NIGERIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 780-787
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Hassan Hayatu ◽  
Abdullahi Mohammed ◽  
Barroon Ahmad Isma’eel ◽  
Sahabi Yusuf Ali
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Clustering Algorithm ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
North West ◽  
R Programming ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Northwest Region ◽  
The Relationship

Soil fertility determines a plant's development process that guarantees food sufficiency and the security of lives and properties through bumper harvests. The fertility of soil varies according to regions, thereby determining the type of crops to be planted. However, there is no repository or any source of information about the fertility of the soil in any region in Nigeria especially the Northwest of the country. The only available information is soil samples with their attributes which gives little or no information to the average farmer. This has affected crop yield in all the regions, more particularly the Northwest region, thus resulting in lower food production.  Therefore, this study is aimed at classifying soil data based on their fertility in the Northwest region of Nigeria using R programming. Data were obtained from the department of soil science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The data contain 400 soil samples containing 13 attributes. The relationship between soil attributes was observed based on the data. K-means clustering algorithm was employed in analyzing soil fertility clusters. Four clusters were identified with cluster 1 having the highest fertility, followed by 2 and the fertility decreases with an increasing number of clusters. The identification of the most fertile clusters will guide farmers on where best to concentrate on when planting their crops in order to improve productivity and crop yield.

scholarly journals Do Spousal Intimate Relationships Affect Fertility Intentions and Preferences?

2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2110160
Author(s):  
Amir Erfani ◽  
Roya Jahanbakhsh
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Mate Selection ◽  
Risk Profile ◽  
Fertility Intentions ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Ideal Number ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

The fertility influence of spousal intimate relationships is unknown. Drawing on the Giddens’s theory of transformation of intimacy, this study proposed a hypothesis that couples supporting egalitarian intimate relationships, with a greater risk profile attached to the relationship, and having less attachments to the external normative pressures shaping marital relations, are more likely to have low-fertility intentions and preferences. Using data from a self-administered pilot survey ( n = 375 prospective grooms and brides) designed by the authors, and employing multivariate regression models, we found that the lower attachment to external social forces in mate selection was associated with the lower ideal number of children, and those with a greater spousal relational egalitarianism and a higher risk profile attached to their relationships preferred lower number of children and were less likely to intend to have children after marriage. The study sheds new light on the determinants of low fertility.

scholarly journals Knowledge Network for Sustainable Local Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1124
Author(s):  
Freddy Marín-González ◽  
Alexa Senior-Naveda ◽  
Mercy Narváez Castro ◽  
Alicia Inciarte González ◽  
Ana Judith Paredes Chacín
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Knowledge Networks ◽  
Knowledge Network ◽  
Deductive Inference ◽  
The Government ◽  
Exchange Network ◽  
The Relationship

This article aims to build a network for the exchange of knowledge between the government and production, community and university sectors for sustainable local development. To achieve this, the authors relied on the concepts of sustainable local development, social capital, the relationship between sectors or intersectorality, networks and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge. Regarding the methodology, the abductive method was used. Under a documentary design, the research techniques were a content analysis of theoretical documents and the deductive inference technique. The construction of a knowledge exchange network for sustainable local development stands out as the result. It is concluded that knowledge networks for sustainable local development have positive implications in the establishment of alliances and links between the sectors that make up society.

Soil fertility management in indigenous homegardens of Central Amazonia, Brazil

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateus Vieira da Cunha Salim ◽  
Robert Pritchard Miller ◽  
César A. Ticona-Benavente ◽  
Johannes van Leeuwen ◽  
Sonia Sena Alfaia
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Soil Fertility Management ◽  
Fertility Management ◽  
Central Amazonia

The voice of others: Identity, alterity and gender normativity among gay men in Israel

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erez Levon
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Male Sexuality ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Voice

AbstractThis article presents an analysis of a slang variety, called oxtšit, as it is described and used by a cohort of gay men in Israel. Unlike many previous analyses of gay slang, I argue that the men described do not use the variety to help construct and affirm an alternative gay identity, but rather that they use it as a form of in-group mockery through which normative and nonnormative articulations of Israeli gay male sexuality are delineated. It is suggested that this discussion has implications for sociolinguistic understandings of “groupness” more broadly, and particularly the relationship between macro-level social categories (like “gay”) and individual lived experience. (Gay slang, Israel, vari-directional voicing, identity/alterity)*

scholarly journals Health(care) in the Crisis: Reflections in Science and Society on Opioid Addiction

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 341
Author(s):  
Roxana Damiescu ◽  
Mita Banerjee ◽  
David Y. W. Lee ◽  
Norbert W. Paul ◽  
Thomas Efferth
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Opioid Misuse ◽  
Post Surgery ◽  
Patient Narratives ◽  
The Relationship

Opioid abuse and misuse have led to an epidemic which is currently spreading worldwide. Since the number of opioid overdoses is still increasing, it is becoming obvious that current rather unsystematic approaches to tackle this health problem are not effective. This review suggests that fighting the opioid epidemic requires a structured public health approach. Therefore, it is important to consider not only scientific and biomedical perspectives, but societal implications and the lived experience of groups at risk as well. Hence, this review evaluates the risk factors associated with opioid overdoses and investigates the rates of chronic opioid misuse, particularly in the context of chronic pain as well as post-surgery treatments, as the entrance of opioids in people’s lives. Linking pharmaceutical biology to narrative analysis is essential to understand the modulations of the usual themes of addiction and abuse present in the opioid crisis. This paper shows that patient narratives can be an important resource in understanding the complexity of opioid abuse and addiction. In particular, the relationship between chronic pain and social inequality must be considered. The main goal of this review is to demonstrate how a deeper transdisciplinary-enriched understanding can lead to more precise strategies of prevention or treatment of opioid abuse.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document