A Cross-Sectional Study on Calf Health and Management Problems on Small Scale Dairy Farms of Selected Zones, Southern Ethiopia

The dairy industry is a large and dynamic segment of the agricultural economy of many nations and the major suppliers of milk and milk products to the urban and periurban consumers. Periurban and urban dairies are intensive productionsystems, which keep high grade cows and have improved management practices but this is usually associated with increase susceptibility to disease, poor survival rate and poor reproductive performance.

Farms in young stock, a good nutritional strategy optimize rumen development and growth while minimizing stress and disease. Livestock housing conditions greatly affects health and productivity. A relationship between housing and health during the rearing period has been described by several authors. Cleanliness of the barn influences calf health, as calves housed in unclean barns are at higher risk of disease than calves housed in clean barns.Colostrum contains a high level of nutrients important for lamb health and performance. it contains a high level of antibodies against a variety of infectious agents. The poor immune system and lack of previous exposure to infection make new born calves susceptible to infectious diseases and poor management.(Read more)

Impact of Global Climate Change on Charcoal Rot of Sesame Caused by Macrophomina phaseolina.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the most important oilseed crops in Pakistan. It was originated from East Africa and South Asia about 5000 years ago. In theworld, it is cultivated on an area of 8.26 million hectares with the Productionof 3.31 million tons, whereas in Pakistan, total area under cultivation is 80 thousand hectares with an annual production of 32.4 thousand tons during 2015-16 (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics). It has high nutritional value as it contains moisture 04.0-05.3, protein 18.3-25.4, oil 43.3-44.3, saturated fatty acids 14.0, monounsaturated fatty acids 39.0, polyunsaturated fatty acids 46.0, ash 05.2-06.2, glucose 03.2, fructose 02.6, sucrose 0.2 and phytosterols 0.4%.

Successful production of sesame is facing numerous restrains of fungal, bacterial, viral and phytoplasma diseases owing to highly virulent aggressive strains of pathogens. Among these constrains, Charcoal rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi.). Gold is the most important one, which are a destructive soil born, polyphagus and thermophilic fungal pathogen. M. phaseolina is causing huge losses of about USD 146 million in Nigeria with 40-57% disease incidence whereas in Pakistan 50-75% disease incidences have been observed. However, increased growth and development rate of this pathogen results total crop failures under favourable soil and environmental conditions.(Read more)

Stock Assessment and Estimation of Optimum Yield for Tilapia Stock (Oreochromis niloticus) in Lake Hawassa, Ethiopia.

The basic purpose of stock assessment is to provide decision makers with the information necessary to makerational choices on the optimum level of exploitation of aquatic living resourcessuch as fish. Aquatic living resources are limited but renewable, and fish stock assessment may be described as the search for the exploitation level, which in the long run gives the maximum sustainable bio-economic yield in weight from fishery.

Fish resource utilization is the primary and an important economic activity. Its purpose is to provide a flow of benefits to human society; it serves as a food because of its rich nutritional value in provision of protein. The global capture fisheries production in 2008 was reported by FAO, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, as 90 million tones, with an estimated first-sale value of US$93.9 billion, comprising about 80 million tons from marine waters and 10 million tons from inland waters.(Read More)

Analysis of Microfinance Banks Support to Agricultural Lending in Edo State, Nigeria.

Globally, 1.2 billion people are extremely poor (surviving on less than USD 1 a day), and three quarters live in rural areas. Poverty is predominantly a rural phenomenon. Extremely poor peoplespend more than half of their income to obtain (or produce) staple foods, whichaccount for more than two thirds of their caloric intake. Most of these people suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and many go hungry at certain times of the year. In recent years, development agencies and national governments have renewed their commitment to reducing poverty, hunger and other human deprivations, as evidenced by the Millennium Development Goals. Among other objectives, the goals aim to halve the proportion of people living on less than USD 1 a day by 2015 (from the starting level of 1990). That means cutting the share of extremely poor people in low- and middle-income countries from 28 to 14%.

The goals also call for halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015. Rural poverty and hunger fell sharply between 1975 and 1990, but the rate of poverty reduction has since slowed. Net aid (that is, official development assistance) to developing countries fell from 0.35% of the gross national income in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1982-83 to 0.24% in 2002-03. The real value of net aid disbursed to agriculture in the late 1990s was only 35% of the level in the late 1980s, according to IFAD. And, although the proportion of the economically active population engaged in agriculture has been falling in developing regions, it still exceeds 50% in Africa and Asia.(Read More)

Microbial Evaluation of Selected Post Harvest Processing Techniques for Quality Fish Product at Bahir Dar Town, Ethiopia

Fish is a highly nutritious food for providing high quality protein and income to many people in the developing world. In Africa, 5% of the population (35 million people) depends on the fisheries sector for their livelihood. However, fish is one of the mostperishable of all the foods because it is a suitable medium for growth of microorganisms after death. In the tropics at ambient temperature fish will spoil within 12-20 hrs depending on species and method of capture.

Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia, creates job opportunity for 3,514 fishers. Most communities engaged in fisheries of L. Tana have been experiencing significant loss. Fish postharvest loss in Lake Tana is more than 30%, excluding low value fish parts. 

Losses occur as a result of flaws in the handling, storage, distribution, processing and marketing techniques. Traditional fish processing and preservation method is the only method used to dry fish in the study area where the price of the such fish is very low due to quality problems affecting the fishers’ livelihood and nutrient loss for the consumers. Hence, it is important to identify appropriate improved fish processing methods to reduce postharvest fish loss, increase quality, and market value and their income. This could be by upgrading the traditional fish processing technology and adoption of solar dryer. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of fish processed by solar tent, open air rack and smoking methods.(Read more)

Response of Grain Sorghum to Split Application of Nitrogen at Tanqua Abergelle Wereda, North Ethiopia

The large need of plants for nitrogen and the limited ability of soils to supply available nitrogen cause nitrogen to be the most limiting nutrient for crop production on the globe. Worldwide interest associated with increasing cereal grain protein has added anattention on improving the utilization of nitrogen in cereals. Moreover, the concern of ground water contamination, cost of manufacturing and distribution has pressurized farmers to use nitrogen more efficiently.

Proper nitrogen application time and rates are critical to meet crop needs and indicate considerable opportunities for improving nitrogen use efficiency.The growth stage of crops at which fertilizer is applied determines the nitrogen use efficiency; however, the response can vary by genotype. Luxuriant application of nitrogen fertilizer at sowing increases the emergence of broad leaf weeds, thereby the labor requirements for hand weeding, hence, split application of nitrogen is considered as more economical both in terms of weed management and nitrogen use efficiency for optimizing grain yield.(Read more)

Sulfated Polysaccharides in Diets for Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in the Initial Growth Phase.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, the consumption of fish has rapidly increased in recent years, especially in the last decades, going from 9.9 kg per individual in 1960s to 19.7 kg per individual in 2013. This increase in consumption leads to the demand, by the consumer, that management methods,breeding and nutrition be improved, thus increasing productivity.

In the fish production chain, the improvement of a few productive traits, such as specific growth, is essential for the success of the activity, given that, from the economic point-of-view, this trait is prominent for being intrinsically connected to productivity and production profitability. In this context, the use of economically feasible and natural nutritional compounds, capable of promoting such increment in animal growth, can be an important ally to the producer.(Read more)