Constituents of Leachate Generation and Migration in Ministry of Agriculture Forest Nursery Open Dumpsite in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria

The constituents of leachate generation and migration in ministry of agriculture nursery open dumpsite in Jos Plateau were determined. Leachate extraction from solid waste (SW) was carried out. Test dumpsite soil with different elevations. Elevations were with uniform density. Representative solid waste dumpsite soil sample were collected from one dumpsite. The collected SW soil subjected to column experimental test, results showed physicochemical parameters (pH, TSS,TDS and EC) range of descriptive value in terms of histogram values of 5.66 – 8.23(1.0m to 1.5m depth) pH, 90.65 – 1125.96mg/l (0.5 to 2.0m depth) TSS, 17.78 – 156mg/l (1.5 to 0.5m depth) TDS, 9.02 – 80.01 us/cm and principal component summary analysis. The histogram and principal component summary values increase. Alkalinity has highest concentration, followed by hardness which has least, BOD5 has lower values, followed by COD which has higher value, Cl−increasing, S04 2-, N03 values increases, P04 in waste decreases with increase time and depth. The Na+, increasing K+ second to Na+, increases, Mg2+ and Ca2+ in MSW increases as time and depth proceed. The results of Cu, Fe, Cd and Pb in histogram had moderate to high values. All were examined for physicochemical, alkalinity and hardness, BOD5, COD, anions, cations and heavy metals to study the seasonal variation of significant parameters. The results from the leachate analysis were used as a tool to identify the processes and mechanisms affecting the soil and water chemistry from the study area.

Mapping Crop Types and Cropping Systems in Nigeria with Sentinel-2 Imagery

Reliable crop type maps from satellite data are an essential prerequisite for quantifying crop growth, health, and yields. However, such maps do not exist for most parts of Africa, where smallholder farming is the dominant system. Prevalent cloud cover, small farm sizes, and mixed cropping systems pose substantial challenges when creating crop type maps for sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we provide a mapping scheme based on freely available Sentinel-2A/B (S2) time series and very high-resolution SkySat data to map the main crops—maize and potato—and intercropping systems including these two crops on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria. We analyzed the spectral-temporal behavior of mixed crop classes to improve our understanding of inter-class spectral mixing. Building on the Framework for Operational Radiometric Correction for Environmental monitoring (FORCE), we preprocessed S2 time series and derived spectral-temporal metrics from S2 spectral bands for the main temporal cropping windows. These STMs were used as input features in a hierarchical random forest classification. Our results provide the first wall-to-wall crop type map for this key agricultural region of Nigeria. Our cropland identification had an overall accuracy of 84%, while the crop type map achieved an average accuracy of 72% for the five relevant crop classes. Our crop type map shows distinctive regional variations in the distribution of crop types. Maize is the dominant crop, followed by mixed cropping systems, including maize–cereals and potato–maize cropping; potato was found to be the least prevalent class. Plot analyses based on a sample of 1166 fields revealed largely homogeneous mapping patterns, demonstrating the effectiveness of our classification system also for intercropped classes, which are temporally and spatially highly heterogeneous. Moreover, we found that small field sizes were dominant in all crop types, regardless of whether or not intercropping was used. Maize–legume and maize exhibited the largest plots, with an area of up to 3 ha and slightly more than 10 ha, respectively; potato was mainly cultivated on fields smaller than 0.5 ha and only a few plots were larger than 1 ha. Besides providing the first spatially explicit map of cropping practices in the core production area of the Jos Plateau, Nigeria, the study also offers guidance for the creation of crop type maps for smallholder-dominated systems with intercropping. Critical temporal windows for crop type differentiation will enable the creation of mapping approaches in support of future smart agricultural practices for aspects such as food security, early warning systems, policies, and extension services.

Proximate and Mineral Composition of Some Leafy Vegetables Sold in Farin Gadan Market in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to determine the mineral concentration and proximate composition of four different leafy vegetable collected in from Farin Gadan Market Jos Plateau State Nigeria and extracted using double acid extraction method. Heavy metals concentration was performed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer and proximate composition was determined by Association of, Official Analytical chemistry (AOAC,1999) method. Results showed that the highest level of lead was found in Jute (0.045 ±0.004) while Lettuce (0.001 ±0.007) had the lowest level of lead. The leafy vegetables in this study may have been polluted with lead through pollutants in irrigation water, farm soil or due to pollution from the highway traffic. Chromium and cadmium were observed to be low in all the leafy vegetables analyzed, which is still within the safe limit set by FAO/WHO. Zinc had the highest concentration (2.802± 0.012) in bitter leaf, proximate analysis indicated significant variability in the constituents contained in the leafy vegetables studied (Carbohydrate, Ash content, crude protein, crude fats, crude fibre and moisture content in descending order). The highest moisture content was found in Lettuce (7.791%) and the highest crude protein in Bitter leaf (12.88%). The concentrations of the toxic heavy metals are within the tolerable limits of some regulatory authorities. However, there is need for continuous monitoring of heavy metal and proximate analysis in leafy vegetables because, leafy vegetables are the main sources of food supplements for humans in many parts of the world and are considered as bio-indicators of environmental pollution.

AN INVESTIGATION OF STAKEHOLDERS’ STRATEGIES FOR EXTERNAL CRISIS PREPAREDNESS: PERSPECTIVES OF TOURISM INDUSTRY STAKEHOLDER IN JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.

Based on the collective realisation that destinations and organisations are becoming increasingly vulnerable to external crises which can negatively impact on the tourism sectors of economies, this article evaluated the strategies that stakeholders utilised towards effective preparedness for external crisis related incidents. The study employed a qualitative case study approach, using interviews and available documents in exploring the crisis preparedness strategies employed by stakeholders in the city of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria towards addressing the impact of external crisis incidents and threats on their destinations’ tourism industry and subsectors. The study’s field research was based on semi structured interview sessions, covering core questions and probes on the stakeholders’ preparedness for external crises that can affect their tourism sectors, and if there are factors that can affect their efforts towards preparedness for identified crises. The results from the interviews and discussion of findings based on emergent themes from the studies identified a range of recommendations for the study’s destination stakeholders, who were mostly found to be deficient in appropriate crisis preparedness measures, owing to in adequate resources from government, and in some instances, lack of efficient crisis preparedness plan. Of these recommendations, one of the key suggestions was for stakeholders of the city of Jos, Nigeria and similar destination(s) and organisations to adopt or develop a formal crisis preparedness plan, and complete risk assessment on their destination, and other places that could be vulnerable to external crises, for effective crisis preparedness.