1,720,963 research outputs found
Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices and Small-scale Farmers’ Income: The Case of Maize Farmers in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya
Get PDFClimate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is one of the resolutions that addresses the issues of climate change adaptation, mitigation and income of farmers. This study evaluated the adoption of CSA practices and the income of small-scale farmers in Trans-Nzoia County. A well-developed questionnaire was used to collect data. Multiple regression and descriptive statistics were applied to analyse the data collected from 119 randomly selected sample households. Findings revealed that the practices were at great extent, averagely, fairly, and poorly adopted by the farmers. Adoption of practices including water conservation structures, water harvesting, minimum tillage, integrated soil fertility management, agroforestry, drought tolerant crop varieties, timely planting, use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, early maturing varieties and practice of irrigation were significant at 5% level of significance influence the income of small-scale farmers. This study therefore recommends that continuous promotion of climate-smart agriculture practices is important to increase farmers’ productivity and therefore income increase. Strategies should be developed so that farmers’ level of adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices increases so as to boost productivity and therefore increase the income of the farmers. Training farmers on the benefits of adoption of CSA practices while also subsidizing farm inputs like agro-chemicals and fertilizers can boost the adoption rate of CSA practices, resulting in high farm income
Effects of Crop-Livestock Diversification on Household Food Security in Homabay County, Kenya
Get PDFFood is the most basic need according to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Thus, food insecurity has been a global concern, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many organisations have recommended intensive investment in agriculture as a way of boosting food production to reduce the rising levels of food insecurity in SSA nations. This work reviewed the types of crops and livestock that can do well in Homabay county, as well as the effect of crop-livestock diversification on household food security. The study used peer-reviewed literature published in English from literature sources such as Scopus, Web of Science, Research Gate, among others. Data from the selected articles were extracted and analysed to assess the types of crops and livestock in Homabay as well as the effects of crop-livestock diversification on household food security. The study used Microsoft Excel to list the studies based on the topic, publication date, authors, year of publication and key results. The findings showed that food crops such as maize, beans, cassava, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, millet, and sorghum can do well in Homabay County. In addition, cash crops like tomatoes, vegetables, and cotton can also perform well due to the fertile soils and good climate in Homabay County. The findings also showed that crop-livestock diversification boosts household food security by producing more household foods, increasing farmers’ purchasing power for additional foods that are not produced by the farmers, reducing farm risks, nutrient gaps, and overreliance on food imports. The study recommended that farmers should incorporate many crop types and livestock species in their farms. The government can also support farmers through diversification trainin
Gender disparities in agricultural extension among smallholders in Western Uganda
No full textIn this study, we aimed to assess gender disparities in access to agricultural extension services and the determinants of access to extension among male and female-headed households in Western Uganda. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to extract primary data from 200 farmers using a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Binary Logit model. Our findings revealed that majority of the male-headed households had access to extension compared to their female-headed household counterparts. This was also evident in the sources of agricultural extension. The socio-demographic characteristics of farmers also indicated that male-headed households were better off in many areas, for example, male-headed households boasted 498.83 kg/ha maize productivity, while households headed by females produced 405.36 kg/ha, indicating a 94 kg/ha yield gap. Similarly, adoption of agricultural practices was high among the male-headed households than their fellow female-headed counterparts. Finally, the estimates from the Binary Logit revealed that male-headed households' access to extension was influenced by age, education, farm size, crop diversity, and group membership. The predictor variables that significantly influenced female-headed households' access to extension include age, education, experience, household size, farm size, distance to extension, crop diversity, non-farm income, and credit access. The study concluded that there are gender disparities in agricultural extension as evident in the access to, sources and determinants of access to agricultural extension. To bridge the gender gap, the study advocates for more training and extension services to female-headed households regarding access to and sources of extension services. Extension service provision is one of the pillars of agricultural productivity among the smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The role of agricultural extension services involves linking farmers and the governments. Through extension services, smallholder farmers are able to acquire modern agricultural techniques that increases farm productivity. With increased farm productivity, farmers are able to come out of the catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Female headed households normally report less productivity of major crops, leading to food insecurity amongst them. This research work contributes to the global discussions on access to extension among the male and female headed households. The study presents results on the state of access to agricultural extension services as well as the determinants of access to extension among the male and female headed households. Our findings and recommendations can be adopted by relevant authorities to increase access to extension, leading to higher crop productivity among female headed households. In the long run, there will be a decline in food insecurity as a result of the increased crop productivity among the female headed households
Determinants of access to trainings on post – harvest loss management among maize farmers in Uganda: a binary logistic regression approach
No full textPost-harvest losses (PHL) reported in maize production put Sub-Saharan African countries at higher risks of food insecurity. Recent studies reported that higher percentage of PHLs occur during the production stage when farmers are in full control of the crop, suggesting that farmers are not equipped with PHL management skills. This study therefore aimed at assessing the determinants of access to trainings on PHL management among maize farmers in Uganda. Primary data were drawn from 246 randomly sampled farmers in Alebtong District followed by Binary logit analysis. The results depicted that majority of the farmers (58%) did not have access to PHL management trainings. However, those who had access sourced it from extension workers (40.65%), farmers’ groups (22.76%) and farmer-to-farmer trainings (12.20%). The main barriers limiting access to the trainings were unawareness of the PHL trainings and inaccessibility of the training centers. Farm size, group membership, maize output and marital status had positive effect on farmers’ access to PHL management trainings while farm location, and distance to the training centers had a negative effect on access to PHL management trainings. Based on the findings, there is need for public sensitization on the benefits of the PHL trainings, farmers should also be motivated to join farmer-based groups and association where they would learn more about the PHL trainings. In addition, the government should open more training centers and employ more training agents so that many farmers can be reached and trained on how to handle and mitigate PHLs in maize
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Cultivating Household Food Security through Resource – Use Efficiency among Cash Crop Farmers: Evidence from Tobacco Producers in Uganda
Get PDFPoverty, food insecurity and malnutrition cases have been reported among farmers who prioritize cash crops such as tobacco. This is as a result of inefficient allocation of farm resources to tobacco production, with little or no allocation to staple food crops. To increase food production among such farmers, researchers have recommended optimum allocation of farm resources between tobacco and staple food crops. This study therefore aimed at determining the resource use efficiency for tobacco – food crop production, the optimal farm plans and the factors affecting resource use efficiency for food crops production. Data Envelopment Analysis was used to assess the level of resource use efficiency and the optimal farm plans while Tobit model was used to determine the factors affecting resource use efficiency for the optimal farm plans. The results from data drawn from 200 tobacco farmers in Western Uganda depicted that farmers were 61% efficient in their resource allocation to tobacco and food crops. Results for the optimal allocation plans suggested that farmers should optimally allocate their resources to tobacco and food crops in order to achieve household food requirements. Household size, pesticides use, farm income and support from the tobacco contract companies had a positive association with resource use efficiency for food crop production while input prices, land size and gender had a negative relationship with resource use efficiency. In conclusion, farmers are inefficient in allocating their farm resources between tobacco and other food crops which has far-reaching implications for availability of household foods. The study therefore recommends that the governments of SSA should increase the training and extension services on the adoption of optimum resources for cash – food crop production as well as supporting the farmers through inputs subsidies so as to increase household food production
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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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