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Returns to investment in postharvest loss reduction technologies among mango farmers in Embu County, Kenya
No full textHorticultural production is a source of livelihood for many smallholder farmers in Kenya. However, the potential is hampered by high postharvest losses estimated at 40%–50% in fruit and vegetables. The losses are attributed to various factors including postharvest handling, lack of storage technologies, lack of processing facilities, and poor market access. Consequently, some farmer groups have resorted to aggregation of their mangoes and engagement in small scale processing of mangoes into shelf stable products that cannot be marketed widely. In order to bridge the lack of capacity of smallholder farmers, the University of Nairobi's postharvest project with support from the Rockefeller Foundation's YieldWise Initiative seeks to upgrade two fruit aggregation centers by creating awareness and providing existing, applicable, and proven postharvest loss reduction technologies such as tunnel solar driers, brick coolers, charcoal, and CoolbotTM cold storage technologies. However, the potential economic impact of the proposed investment is not known. Hence, this study aimed at assessing the potential economic returns to investment in postharvest loss reduction technologies among smallholder mango farmers in Embu County of Kenya. A critical overview on methods employed in analyzing returns to investment in agricultural technologies has been provided. The economic surplus model was used to estimate the potential benefits of the investment. Using the cost–benefit analysis (CBA) approach, a maximum adoption rate of 10% over 10 years, and a 10% discount rate, it was found that the investment was worthwhile. The NPV was US $ 1.3 billion. The IRR and BCR were 28% and 4.29, respectively. Sensitivity analyses showed that the investment is viable at higher adoption and lower discount rates indicating the need to promote the technologies even under more difficult macroeconomic condition
Infrastructure Growth, Household Vulnerability and Response to Shocks in Kenya
Full text linkHouseholds in most rural areas of developing countries are likely to suffer shocks contributed by their livelihoods’ dependence on natural resources as well as due to their physical isolation from the mainstream economy Using pooled cross-sectional data from Kenya, this paper investigates the association between changes in physical infrastructure stocks and access levels on one hand, and household vulnerability to shocks as well as the response strategies to shocks as markets for risk sharing develop and transaction costs are reduced over time through physical infrastructure growth. Results reveal that between 2005/06 and 2015/16, there was a reduction in household vulnerability to the general shocks with the reduction being higher for urban households; rural households’ vulnerability to food shocks reduced more compared to urban households; and finally, both rural and urban households increased their use of infrastructure-supported ex-post coping strategies such as savings and borrowing to respond to food-security shocks, with the adoption being higher by five percentage points among rural households. The study finds a plausible association between physical infrastructure changes and household vulnerability and coping strategies to shocks. The findings imply the importance of developing physical infrastructure as a strategy for reducing vulnerability to livelihood shocks
Factors affecting HBV vaccination in a Medical training College in Kenya: A mixed methods Study
No full textAbstract
Background: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is highly endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa with 70 to 90% of the population
becoming infected before the age of 40 years. Healthcare workers (HCWs) including healthcare students (HCSs) are
at an increased risk of contracting HBV due to occupational exposure. HCSs are especially at a high risk because of
their inexperience with infection control procedures and insufficient knowledge about the level of risk when
dealing with patients. Despite the availability of an effective vaccine, and its recommendation by Kenya’s Ministry of
Health, few HCW and students are vaccinated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of awareness,
attitude, practices, and access factors on hepatitis B vaccination uptake by HCSs at Kenya Medical Training College
(KMTC).
Methods: This was a concurrent mixed methods study. For the quantitative arm, a structured questionnaire was
used to assess the awareness, knowledge, attitudes and practices towards HBV disease and vaccination. Accessibility
of the HBV vaccine in the participating campuses was also assessed. Two FGDs were carried out: one comprised of
student representatives of the participating campuses while the second comprised of members of staff.
Quantitative data was analysed using STATA (version 15) while NVIVO (version 11) was used for qualitative data.
Results: Out of 634 students invited to participate in the study, 487 participated (response rate 76.8%). Majority of
the respondents were from Nairobi Campus (44.2%) and from the Department of Nursing (31.2%). HBV vaccine
uptake rate was 85.8% while the non-vaccination rate was 14.3%. Full vaccination was reported by only 20.2% of
respondents. The major reason for not receiving the recommended doses was the unavailability of the vaccine
when students went for it. The qualitative study revealed challenges in the implementation of the vaccination
program at KMTC.
Conclusions: Full vaccination rates remained low despite good knowledge of HBV infection and positive attitude
towards vaccination. There is therefore need to streamline vaccination programs in medical colleges to ensure
availability and accessibility of the vaccine to healthcare students
Bioprospecting Staphylococcus Phages with Therapeutic and Bio-Control Potential
No full textAbstract: Emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a serious threat to the public health. This is also
true for Staphylococcus aureus and other staphylococci. Staphylococcus phages Stab20, Stab21, Stab22, and
Stab23, were isolated in Albania. Based on genomic and phylogenetic analysis, they were classified to
genus Kayvirus of the subfamily Twortvirinae. In this work, we describe the in-depth characterization of
the phages that electron microscopy confirmed to be myoviruses. These phages showed tolerance to
pH range of 5.4 to 9.4, to maximum UV radiation energy of 25 µJ/cm2
, to temperatures up to 45 ◦C,
and to ethanol concentrations up to 25%, and complete resistance to chloroform. The adsorption rate
constants of the phages ranged between 1.0 × 10−9 mL/min and 4.7 × 10−9 mL/min, and the burst size
was from 42 to 130 plaque-forming units. The phages Stab20, 21, 22, and 23, originally isolated using
Staphylococcus xylosus as a host, demonstrated varied host ranges among different Staphylococcus strains
suggesting that they could be included in cocktail formulations for therapeutic or bio-control purpose.
Phage particle proteomes, consisting on average of ca 60–70 gene products, revealed, in addition to
straight-forward structural proteins, also the presence of enzymes such DNA polymerase, helicases,
recombinases, exonucleases, and RNA ligase polymer. They are likely to be injected into the bacteria
along with the genomic DNA to take over the host metabolism as soon as possible after infection
Farmer demand for clean planting material of biofortified and non-biofortified vegetatively propagated crop varieties: The case of sweetpotato
No full textBiofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), rich in beta carotene, is currently being promoted due to its role in fighting vitamin A deficiency. To promote farmer access to OFSP planting material (i.e., vines) projects establish vine multipliers who are expected to operate commercially. However, most sweetpotato farmers are used to getting vines from social networks free of cost. In this study, we compare farmers’ willingness to pay for clean (i.e., pest and disease free) vines of biofortified and popular non-biofortified sweetpotato varieties. The study thus holds vine “health” constant while assessing the influence of vitamin A biofortification on demand. We then use seemingly unrelated regression technique and data from 481 farmers to assess factors affecting the demand for both types of vines. We find higher willingness to pay for clean non-biofortified sweetpotato vines than biofortified sweetpotato vines of similar health, because of the higher nutritional value, good taste, and firmness of the roots of the former. Factors affecting demand for clean vines include the number of children a farmer has, farmer's age, tastes, preferences, sweetpotato yield and income. These effects differ between biofortified and non-biofortified varieties. We conclude that demand for clean OFSP vines is high, but still lower than for white-fleshed varieties, and discuss implications of the findings