Economic Implications of Smallholders’ Collaborative Groupings on Household Income and Adaptability to Climate Change in Nigeria

This study assessed the impact of smallholders’ collaborative groupings on farm household income and their decision to adapt management strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change within their farming areas. A sample of 225 households’ farms from the participating 15 LGAs in Ondo State were randomly selected. However, only 200 questionnaires were properly filled and returned. The study deployed both descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test and regression models) to achieve its objectives. The study found that only 20% of the households have strategies to ensure a smooth succession of the management in the family farm. The results of the probit regression analysis showed that the membership of collaborative groupings significantly and positively influenced the per capita household farm income and households’ decision to adapt management strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change. In addition, findings from the study also empirically validated that farmers who adapted to the climate earned a higher farm income than non-adapters. On the strength of these findings, the study recommends that more farmers should be encouraged to form collaborative groupings where they can also share in the numerous benefits of being in such a network, including the access to more information on adaptation to climate change.

Is change worth it? The effects of adopting modern agricultural inputs on household welfare in Rwanda

This study investigates the driving factors that influence farmers’ decisions to adopt modern agricultural inputs (MAI) and how this affects farm household welfare in rural Rwanda. To account for heterogeneity in the MAI adoption decision and unobservable farm and household attributes, we estimate an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model. The findings reveal that size of land endowment, access to farm credit and awareness of farm advisory services are the main driving forces behind MAI adoption. The analysis further shows that MAI adoption increases household farm income, farm yield and equivalised consumption per capita. This implies that adopting MAI is the most consistent and potentially best pathway to reduce poverty among rural farmers. The study hence suggests that policymakers should align the effective dissemination of MAI information and farm advisory services, strengthen farm credit systems and improve market access – most crucially at affordable prices – among small-farmers throughout Rwanda.

Factors that determine the professional longevity of researchers

The study aims to assess the characteristics of health, psychological status, lifestyle, social and living conditions as factors affecting the professional success of researchers. We used content analysis of literary data and the method of expert assessments. The factors that have a high impact on the professional success of researchers include age, quality of life, premature aging, cognitive load and activity, emotional status, physical inactivity. Among the average significant factors are job satisfaction, childbearing, educational growth, stress resistance, career growth, work on the household farm, medical responsibility, material security, corporate and family health-saving environment, lifestyle, personal qualities, psycho-psychological, information and energy loads, emotional stress, academic title, intellectual activity cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, alternation of physical and mental work (change of mono-load to complex). It is necessary to study further the factors that determine the success of the professional activity of researchers. There is a significant number of problems and many negative aspects associated with scientific training. According to the agreed opinion of experts, there are priority ranking places by such problems as in the first place - a decrease in cognitive functions; in the second place - a reduction in the effectiveness of scientific activity and premature aging; in the third place - the presence of low medical responsibility; in the fourth place - a frequent decrease in physical activity; in the fifth-place - emotional burnout, the fact of low material security, the formation of violations of psychological characteristics, premature termination of scientific activity. The factors that have a high impact on the professional success of researchers include age, quality of life, premature aging, cognitive load and activity, emotional status, physical inactivity. Among the average significant factors are job satisfaction, childbearing, educational growth, stress resistance, career growth, work on the household farm, medical responsibility, material security, corporate and family health-saving environment, lifestyle, personal qualities, psycho-psychological, information and energy loads, emotional stress, academic title, intellectual activity cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, alternation of physical and mental work (change of mono-load to complex).

Agricultural production diversity and child nutrition in Ethiopia

This study investigates how two aspects of agricultural production diversity – farm production diversity and composition of production – relate to child height-for-age and weight-for-height in Ethiopia. We use longitudinal data on child anthropometric measurements, household farm production diversity and farm production composition from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey for 2011, 2013, and 2015 available through the World Bank. Using longitudinal fixed effects models, we show that an increase in farm production diversity reduces the risk of chronic food insecurity (child height-for-age) but has no impact on acute measures of food insecurity (child weight-for-height). Results also suggest that, in a context of poor rainfall, more diversity in farm production can adversely impact child height-for-age, although livestock sales might mitigate that detrimental effect. These findings highlight the importance of considering the relationship between farm-level food production and child nutrition in a context of climate change.

A National Overview of Youth andInjury Trends on U.S. Farms, 2001-2014

Highlights The total number of injuries to all youth on farms consistently declined during the 14-year period from 2001 to 2014. Injuries to household farm youth, after initial declines, increased in 2012 and 2014. Although progress in farm youth safety has been made, farms continue to be hazardous places for youth. Abstract. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted injury surveillance for youth on U.S. farms for two decades to measure childhood injury burden, track injury trends, and monitor hazardous injury exposures. The Childhood Agricultural Injury Survey (CAIS), a regionally stratified telephone survey, collected injury and demographic data for all youth less than 20 years of age on U.S. farms. Results from the 2014 survey are provided. Trend analyses for all survey years were conducted using a Poisson regression model with generalized estimating equations. Rate ratios with corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated from the model. In 2014, there were an estimated 11,942 youth farm injuries. Of these, 63% occurred to household youth. Youth between the ages of 10 and 15 incurred the most injuries, and 34% of the injuries were work-related. The total number of injuries to all youth on farms consistently declined during the 14-year period from 2001 to 2014, with annual injury rates ranging from 13.5 to 5.7 per 1,000 farms. The injury rates for household youth decreased through 2009 but increased slightly in 2012 and 2014. Farms continue to be hazardous environments for youth. Although there has been a significant decrease in the overall numbers and rates of youth farm injuries over the past decades, researchers should continue to monitor areas that remain a concern. One area that is specifically troublesome is the increase in injury rates observed for household youth in 2014. Keywords: Agriculture, Farm, Injury, Trends, Youth.

MIXED FARMING AMONG HERDER HOUSEHOLDS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

The notion that herder households only restrict their livelihood strategy to the rearing of livestock most often than not excludes the group from the right to access land for the agricultural activity they engage in. This study investigated the participation of herder households in sedentary agriculture (crop production) in Niger state, Nigeria. Findings from this study show that herder households in the study area are no longer strictly livestock keepers; they participate in crop production just like crop farmers who also combine the cultivation of crops with livestock keeping. The results also revealed that most herder households (66%) that engage in crop production cultivate cereals; other crops cultivated by herder households in the study area include tuber crops (22%) and vegetables. Regarding herder household farm outputs, most of the harvests are at the subsistence level, with the harvests ranging between 300 kg and 750 kg. Identified drivers of herder households’ participation in crop production include: duration of stay in a particular locality, increase in household size, economic motives (grain price), and reducing the dependence on crop farmers for food supply. Therefore, this study recommends that interest of herder households in cultivating crops be sustained and encouraged. The participation of herder households in crop production will enhance their own food security status in the first instance and throughout the area in general.

Clinical case report on nutritional dystrophy in goats at S. A. Quadary Veterinary Teaching Hospital, CVASU, Chittagong

Background: Nutritional fibrous osteodystrophy may be developed due to dietary deficiency of calcium or dietary excess of phosphorus. Fibrous osteodystrophy (FOD) provokes hyperostotic distortion of cancellous bones, conjunctive tissue proliferation, and poor mineralization of bone. The objectives of this study were to report the clinical characteristics and therapeutic management of FOD in goats. Materials and methods: Four out of 8 Jamnapari goats developed fibrous osteodystrophy in a small scale intensive household farm in Chittagong. The age range of the affected goats was 4-5 months. The feeding history of goats was primarily wheat bran, gram and pea husk. Blood sample from all affected and non-affected animals and feed sample from household farm were collected for laboratory analysis. Fibrous Osteo-dystrophy was primarily diagnosed by observing clinical signs of mandibular and maxillary enlargement, pain on pressure at the enlarged bone, protruded tongue and dyspnea which was then confirmed by high level of phosphorus in serum evaluation. Results: The calcium and phosphorus contents in the sampled gram, pea husk and bran were 0.5%, 0.3% and 0.5%, and 0.71%, 0.49% and 0.61%, respectively. Most of the affected animals had increased serum levels of phosphorus, glucose and alkaline phosphatase and decreased level of calcium. Based on the clinical findings and the laboratory report, the cases were diagnosed as fibrous osteodystrophy due to nutritional imbalance in diet. The owner was advised strictly to stop providing any bran to animals (affected and healthy). Affected animals were additionally treated with calcium preparation vitamin ADE, ketoprofen, protein, and penicillin-streptomycin combination. Conclusion: Treatment of fibrous osteodystrophy required a long time recovery along with balanced ration. A combined therapy of calcium and vitamin D and protein preparation is effective for treatment along with adequate green grass and balanced rations.

Farming, the Virtues, and Agrarian Philosophy

Food production can be viewed as one among many activities that produce goods in modern industrial societies, with ethical issues analogous to those of other sectors of the economy. Contrarily, agriculture and farming have historically been thought to have unique influence on the nature of social institutions, the reinforcement of moral virtues, and the reproduction of cultural forms. Mainstream approaches in consequentialist and deontological ethics implicitly adopt the first perspective: the industrial philosophy of agriculture. The chapter summarizes alternative agrarian viewpoints, emphasizing the role of the household farm in the thought of Aristotle and Xenophon, as well as the special role accorded to agriculture in early modern debates on property and political economy. It concludes with the emergence of contemporary agrarian philosophies that see farming and food systems as uniquely significant for environmental ethics and sustainability.