1,720,968 research outputs found
Socio-Economic Efficiency of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens L.) Larvae Meal for Aquaculture Production
Get PDFFish feed is a major component in aquaculture production, accounting for 40-80% of total production costs. Protein is still the most expensive ingredient in fish feed. Fishmeal (FM) has traditionally been the predominant fish diet for aquaculture production in Kenya where Nile tilapia has been the
dominant fish species. However, with declining catch fisheries, FM has become increasingly rare and expensive as a result of its demand from the human food and animal feeds industries. Due to the increased price of fish feed, farmed fish have low profit margins. For the industry's growth, it is therefore necessary to produce palatable and long-lasting alternative feeds that are inexpensive and nutritionally balanced. Despite being viable FM substitutes, insect-based protein sources like Black
Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) have not been extensively studied for their economic use in aquaculture. In this study, the socioeconomic efficiency of using BSFL meal to replace fish meal in aquaculture production in Kenya was evaluated. The study's specific objectives were: 1) to determine the technical efficiency of BSFL in aquaculture, 2) to assess the economic efficiency of BSFL in
aquaculture production, and 3) to evaluate the acceptability of BSFL in aquaculture production. To
address technical and economic efficiency aspects, BSFL meal was used to substitute fish meal in the meals at 0% (control diet), 25% (Diet T2), 50% (Diet T3), and 75% BSFL inclusion levels (Diet T4). Awareness, perceptions, attitudes, and intentions to use BSFL meals in aquaculture were investigated to address the social efficiency element. Primary data were collected from 211 fish farmers in Kenya's Siaya, Kisumu, and Homabay counties using a cross-sectional survey design. To assess farmers' awareness, a binary logistic model was applied. With the use of SmartPLS 3.0, a structural equation model was used to investigate hypothesized paths of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the adoption of BSFL meal. Purposive sampling was utilized to select 40 experts, 24 of whom responded to the Delphi study. Kendall's coefficient of concordance was used to evaluate expert consensus. According to the findings, there were no significant differences in growth performance indicators, however, diet T3 was the best in terms of final mean weight, weight gain, daily weight gain, survival rate, Specific Growth Rate (SGR), Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), and Feed Efficiency (FE). T3 was the most effective FM substitute for Nile tilapia fry for a lucrative and sustainable aquaculture business, with an 8.94% cost savings when compared to the control diet. An analysis of the cost effectiveness of the various diets revealed that diet T3 provided more economic advantages per kilogram of fish produced than the other diets. Over 53.6% of the fish farmers were aware of insect-based feeds but only 1.9%of the fish farmers had used BSFL in aquaculture. Awareness of insect-based feeds (IBFs) varied significantly across counties (2= 9.008, P= 0.011). The of the binary logistic regression results revealed that farming experience (p < 0.01), distance to feed sources (p < 0.05) and knowledge about components of existing feed (p < 0.01) positively significantly affected the farmers’ awareness of BSFL based aquafeeds, while farmers’ income (p <
0.01) negatively significantly affected the farmers’ awareness of BSFL. The results further indicated that fish farmers’ intention to use BSFL can be predicted by Attitude (β = 0.411, p = 0.000), Perceived Usefulness (β = 0.319, p = 0.000) and Perceived Ease of Use (β = 0.178, p = 0.004) with
attitude having the greatest influence. According to Delphi study results, all stakeholders agreed that BSFL should be used as an alternative protein element in aquaculture. The assessment of the perceived benefits BSFL in aquafeed was statistically higher than the perceived risks, indicating a higher level of acceptability. Overall, this study suggests that a 50% inclusion level of BSFL, which is relatively cheap than conventional fish feeds. It is thus important to raise awareness and promote
the use of BSFL in fish production by relevant government departments among fish farmers through multiple publicity channels and media
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
Contributing Factors to the Looming Food Crisis In Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities For Policy Insight
No full textThe food price crisis of 2007–2008 and the recent resurgence of food prices have focused increasing attention on the causes and consequences of food price volatility in international food markets and the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Agricultural Price Index was 34% higher as of 30 June 2022, compared to January 2021. This paper reviews increasing food crisis in Africa in the wake of climate change, COVID-19, and the Russia–Ukraine war and the implications on Africa’s food security stability. Climate change is affecting the fundamental basis of agriculture through changes in temperature, rainfall, and weather, and by intensifying the occurrences of floods, droughts, and heat stress. COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the production and supply chains, while the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war continues to disrupt the global food market and food prices. SSA is susceptible to the effects of this war, and this has already resulted in high demand for food commodities and increased food prices. The study calls for the need for the international community to establish a strategic food reserve to face food crises triggered by armed conflicts or climate-induced disasters and pandemics. This mechanism may facilitate reactive interventions that help to contain the human security implications of food crises, thus fostering peace. Solutions also lie in implementing programs and policies informing the monitoring of weather shocks and advancing supporting to those impacted. Additionally, the governments of SSAs should embrace domestic production of farm inputs such as fertilizer to avoid overdependence on imports which are susceptible to wars and conflict
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
- …
