1,720,969 research outputs found
Estimation of Soil Loss Using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation and Determinants of Soil Loss in Tiro Afeta and Dedo Districts of Jimma Zone, Oromiya National Regional State, Ethiopia
No full textSoil erosion is the principal cause of land degradation and a major constraint to agricultural development in developing countries like
Ethiopia. Tackling the problem of soil erosion requires understanding of the rates of soil loss. In this study, an attempt is made to quantify
soil loss due to water erosion at plot level in Dedo and Tiro Afeta district areas. The amount of soil loss was predicted using RUSLE model
and adapted to Ethiopian conditions. Primary data were collected from 150 randomly selected farm households, managing about
750 plots through individual interviews using semi-structured questionnaires. The result of the study revealed that, the lowest soil loss
is estimated on flat plains (<2% slope) to be about 1.59 t haG1
yearG1
, which is less than the minimum tolerable soil loss (2 t haG1
yearG1
)
for the country. However, the highest soil loss is from steep slopes (up to 35%) at about 31.7 t haG1
yearG1
, about twice the maximum
tolerable soil loss (18 t haG1
yearG1
). The average soil loss rates at cut-off point ranges on average from 1.59-31.7 t haG1
yearG1
. In order to
reverse the soil loss into fertile soil, the farm households need to have a minimum of formal education for using soil and water
conservation technologies and guaranteeing the sustainability of soil loss for enhancement of productivity of each plot. The study results
suggest that selecting priority intervention areas and rehabilitating soil loss management strategies should consider the socio-economic
characteristics and plot specific characteristics of the farm households
Identifying the Extent of Household Food Poverty Status in Tiro Afata and Dedo Districts of Jimma Zone, Oromia Regional National State, Ethiopia
No full textThis study predicts an empirical study aimed at investigating household food insecurity in the study area using
household data. Data for the study was generated from a survey of the 150 randomly selected farm households in
Dedo and Tiro Afata districts of Jimma administrative zone of Oromiya Regional State in Ethiopia from May up
to October 2007 through critical observation, individual interviews and semi-structured questionnaires.
In the study of household socio-demographic structure, we incorporated twelve independent variables
(namely age, education, family size, plots of land operated, livestock owned and number of oxen, total income
and total expenditure, percept income, access to market and transportation) to distinguish whether these variables
affect household food in security status or not only six of the twelve variables have significant relationship with
household food security status. The binary logit model results make known that among twelve explanatory
variables included in the model, six were found to be significant, and all exhibited the expected signs.. These
significant variables, that affected food insecurity include: family size, number of plots operated, household
income and expenditure, per capita income and distance to transport. The evidences suggest that the study area is
highly food insecure and survival mechanisms are traditional. Along with food availability and entitlement,
attitudinal variables also influence food insecurity.
To estimate the extent of food insecurity FGT index was used. Results of this study have shown that the
incidence of inability to meet the minimum subsistence requirement food insecure without hunger, food
insecure with moderate hunger, food insecure with severe hunger were found to be 16.7 percent, 28.7 percent
and 26.4 percent , respectively. To substantiate its claim the thesis has tried to disclose a better substantial
approach that food security production is directly related to the ability of land quality to support the population
of the country. My final conclusion is that efforts should be made to improve different socioeconomic factors in
general and demographic factors in particular to reduce rural poverty and enhance food security in study
districts. The study findings suggest that Policy measures directed towards the provision of better family
planning should be given adequate attention and priority by the Government in addition to improved access to
education, new technology facility and agricultural extension services by rural household
Analysis on Determinants of Adaptation Options to Climate Change of Maize Smallholder Farmers in the South Eastern part of Ethiopia
No full textThis study focused on identification of perception level and determinant factors that influence some selected
adaptation options to climate change on maize growing smallholder farmers in the South Eastern part of Ethiopia.
Analysis of the study was based on cross sectional data collected through household survey data. Representative
samples of 233 households were interviewed. Descriptive statistics and Multinomial logit equation model were
employed to evaluate the level of perception of households on climate change, to identify types of adaptation
options given priority by the local community, to examine determinant factors that influence the choice of
farmers to employ adaptation options to climate change and to provide suitable policy implications on adaptation
options to climate change. Results show that that about 86% of interviewed farm households perceived climate
change as rise and hot in temperature and changing of the rainfall in quantity and timing. Econometric analysis
result also reveals that; education level, age and gender of the household head, household size, land holding size
and access to information have significant and positive influences on households’ decision on employment of
various adaptation options to climate change. The study also identified the most prioritized adaptation options by
the households which include: soil conservation, off-farm works, fertilizers application, agro-forestry and use of
improved seeds. Based on the findings, policies and strategies that encourage participation of farmers in planning
and application of adaptation options with bottom-up approach is required for better climate change anticipation
instead of focusing on reacting the impacts. This can be achieved through increasing access to credit facilities,
comprising climate change in education policy, access to crop insurance schemes, improving agricultural
extension system in view of climate change, enhancing farmers’ organization for experiences sharing to strength
public adaptation capacity, improving institutional capacity to generate climate information at local level
Determinants of Market Participation and Financial Profitability of Smallholder Dairy Farming: The Case of Bako Tibe, West Showa, Ethiopia
No full textEthiopiaʼs economy primarily depends on agriculture. The sector is dominantly run by smallholder farmers and contributes to about 50%
of GDP and provides employment for about 83% of the total population. Dairy farming agriculture is considered important for stimulating
growth, economic development, food security and poverty reduction. As a remedy, this study was initiated with the objectives of
determining factors affecting dairy market participation and financial profitability of dairy farmers in Bako Tibe. Data came from the survey
of dairy producing households and from secondary sources such as District Agricultural Office, Bako Agricultural and Mechanization
Research Centres and the like. Maximum likelihood estimation procedure such as logit model was employed in identifying factors affecting
decision to sell dairy products, tobit model was used in investigating factors affecting decision on volume of dairy sales. Total revenue
less total variable costs and OLS were used in examining financial profitability of the dairy farmers. Results show that farm householdʼs
market participation decision is affected by household demographic and socio-economic characteristics and transaction costs represented
by distance to market and urban centers. Volume sale of dairy is affected by intellectual capital, transaction cost represented by distance
to district capital and markets. Financial profitability is affected by distance from market, extension visit, education level of the household
head, number of milking cows owned and family size. The results suggest that production and marketable surplus should be improved
through introduction of improved technologies and adequate marketing infrastructure like roads and transport facilities should be
established between rural and urban areas in the district to support enhanced market participation. With the aim of reducing transactions
cost adequate marketing link should be established between the rural producer and urban consumer through institutional arrangements
such as dairy cooperatives. Relaxing the criteria required in obtaining bank and micro credit and forming a well functioning urban and
rural financial system would enable resource poor farm households to participate in dairy market and improve its supply of dairy products
to the urban consumers
Analysis of Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers’ Access to Formal Credit in Jibat District, West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia
No full textIn Ethiopia, among other things, lack of finance is one of the fundamental problems hampering production,
productivity and income of rural farm households. Since access to institutional finance is very limited, the
majority of the poor are forced to search financial services through informal channels. This study is concerned
with analysis of factors affecting smallholder farmers’ access to formal credit. As credit is one of the most
important factors required for smallholders input utilization, it is important to have sustainable agricultural
development. A two stage sampling method was employed. A total of 148 farm households were selected
randomly using probability proportional to size. Descriptive statistics and logit model were used for analyzing
quantitative data. The output from the study indicates that 51 (34.5 per cent) of the sampled farm households
were formal credit users, whereas the remaining 97 (65.5 per cent) were non-users. It was also found out that
credit access to female headed households is still limited and the difference between the wealth groups in
accessing credit from the formal sources was also statistically significant. Farmers acknowledge group lending
that solves the problem of collateral requirement by lending institutions, controls misuse of borrowed funds and
minimizes the risk of default and they also recognize the provision of saving services by microfinance
institutions. The maximum likelihood estimates of the logistic regression model show that Frequency of contact
Development Agents, physical distance of farmers from lending institutions, family size, farm size, experience in
credit use from the formal sources, Sex of household head, education level of household head, participation of
households in extension package program, attitudes towards Risk, farmers’ perception of Loan repayment period,
farmers’ perception of Lending procedures, lack of opportunity to take a second loan , and membership of
farmer’s multipurpose cooperatives were important factors influencing formal credit use of smallholder farmers.
Therefore, policy aimed to accelerate agricultural development in the area could be successful if these factors
and problems are taken into consideration to access credit from the formal financial sources. Based on the
findings of the study and personal observation of the situation in which the analysis of factors affecting
smallholder farmers’ access to formal credit systems are found, some recommendations are forwarde
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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