Rainfall and Temperature are important factors in agriculture especially in Nigeria where rain-fed agriculture is practiced extensively and agriculture contributes to food security and provides employment for urban an...Rainfall and Temperature are important factors in agriculture especially in Nigeria where rain-fed agriculture is practiced extensively and agriculture contributes to food security and provides employment for urban and rural dwellers.Therefore,climate variability represents a major danger to agriculture by modifying the rainfall and temperature pattern,thereby resulting to a big peril in the sustainability of agriculture.This is the reason all countries of the world are concerned about the effects of climate variability on agriculture.This work therefore,examined the impact of climate variability on rainfall and temperature in Imo State,South Eastern Nigeria.The rainfall and temperature data were gotten from Nigerian Meteorological Agency(NIMET)for a period of 30 years which was analyzed by using descriptive statistics,decadal distribution,trend graph anomalies and 5 year moving average.The analysis showed increasing trend pattern in yearly maximum,minimum temperature and decrease in annual rainfall,The third order polynomial trend shows a decrease in the anomaly of annual mean rainfall(y=-0.0002x4)and a persistent increase in the mean temperature anomaly especially in the second decade(1996-2007).The discoveries show that there is a notable variability in temperature and rainfall pattern which revealed an increase in temperature and decrease in annual rainfall.This calls for serious attention as people in this part of Nigeria critically depend on rainfall for agricultural practices.It is recommended that government should support the agricultural sector by providing mechanized farming systems such as irrigation and drilling of water borehole in farm sites for agriculture,especially for the rural farmers and create awareness to the farmers on recent trends in climate issues to achieve sustainable agriculture.展开更多
This study examined the impact of farmers＇ health on labor data was collected through a field survey of 290 rural households productivity of female farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Primary Descriptive statistics and es...This study examined the impact of farmers＇ health on labor data was collected through a field survey of 290 rural households productivity of female farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Primary Descriptive statistics and estimation of efficiency following maximum likelihood estimation （MLE） procedure available in Frontier 4.1 were used to analyze the data. Results from the analyses showed that malaria has the highest prevalence level among female farmers in the study area followed by typhoid fever. The causes of sicknesses vary from cold, stress, mosquito bites and bad drinking water. Furthermore, the results showed that sicknesses affect the productivity of farmers by reducing their work capacity. Also, the distance to source of drinking water from home, source of drinking water, age, body mass index of farmers are also found to significantly affect the physical work output of farmers in the study area. The result shows that the distribution of farmers was highly skewed with about 99% of the farmers having their efficiency above 0.61. This indicates that majority of the farmers are technically efficient in the allocation of resources to crop production, The result also shows that the average efficiency was about 82.9%. Thus, the farmers＇ level of efficiency can be improved if there is a shift in the fi＇ontier, i.e. if factors contributing to inefficiency are adequately controlled. The study recommends the need to invest more on human capital especially health for there to be an improvement in rural productivity. Also, rural development policies should include health policies especially for women since it has a great influence on the household and emphasis should also be on preventive rather than curative health services.展开更多
Climate variation generally occurs at local scale, regional scale, national scale and global scale. Having established that the global climate has varied slowly over the past millennia, centuries, and decades and it i...Climate variation generally occurs at local scale, regional scale, national scale and global scale. Having established that the global climate has varied slowly over the past millennia, centuries, and decades and it is expected to continue to vary in future. Like the climate change, variability may be due to, national internal processes within the climate （internal variability）, or variations in natural or anthropogenic external forces （external variability）. Evidence of climate variations is now well documented, and the implications are becoming increasingly clear as data accumulates and data and climate models become increasingly sophisticated. The fluctuations in rainfall and temperature regimes are the atmospheric driving forces that are responsible for the climate variations over the southeastern Nigeria including Imo State as the case in other parts of the world. It is on this premise that this study examined the evidence of climate variability in Imo State of the southeastern Nigeria. The study employed the holistic use of real meteorological data from Nigerian Meteorological Department on two weather parameters （temperature and rainfall）, for 30 years （1980-2009）. Results indicated fluctuations in temperature and rainfall regimes within the period under study, which were the reasons for the variations in climate of the region. Apparently, evidence of climate variability are indicated by increasing surface air temperature, increasing heat waves which enhances disease vectors, communicable diseases and epidemics, sea level rise and associated coastal erosion, flooding, increased evaporation that dry up streams and rivers etc..展开更多
The study comparatively analysed the socioeconomic characteristics and digital literacy level of Agricultural Extension personnel (AEP) in Ebonyi and Imo States, South-East, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to de...The study comparatively analysed the socioeconomic characteristics and digital literacy level of Agricultural Extension personnel (AEP) in Ebonyi and Imo States, South-East, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of agricultural extension personnel in Ebonyi and Imo States, and to ascertain the digital literacy level of AEP in the studied states. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 312 Agricultural Extension personnel (132 from Ebonyi State Agricultural Development Program and 180 from Imo State Agricultural Development Program) for the study. Data were collected through the use of validated and structured questionnaire, and administered through the help of well-trained enumerators. Data were analysed using simple descriptive statistical tools such as percentages mean score, standard deviation and weighted mean. Findings indicated that they were more male in the both States (55.3% and 57.8%) for Ebonyi and Imo State respectively and that the average age of AEP in Ebonyi and Imo States were 44.7 years and 49.2 years respectively. It was further revealed that the majority (77.3% and 82.8%) had B.Sc./HND as their highest academic qualifications, belonged to professional organisations (62.1% and 75%), and were earning an average monthly income of N58,798 and N62,648 for Ebonyi and Imo State respectively. Also, it was revealed that their mean years of service were 12.4 years and 13.4 years for Ebonyi and Imo State respectively. Almost all of them (87.9% and 95.0%) own a smartphone, had access to the internet (80.3% and 90.0%), but do not own a laptop/ipad (82.6% and 72.8%) for Ebon-yi and Imo State respectively. Results further revealed that Agricultural extension personnel in both Ebonyi and Imo State respectively had low digital literacy level ( = 2.41 and 2.32). The study concluded that AEP in Ebonyi and Imo State respectively had similar socioeconomic characteristics and low level of digital literacy. The study recommended that the management of ADPs in both Ebonyi and Imo State should ensure the training of AEP in digital skills to enhance their digital literacy level to enable them use digital technologies in their work.展开更多
This study examined land cover and land use changes (LCLUC) in Owerri and environs from 1986 to 2016 and went further to determine the trend in the change of each LCLUC class. The satellite imagery of the area over th...This study examined land cover and land use changes (LCLUC) in Owerri and environs from 1986 to 2016 and went further to determine the trend in the change of each LCLUC class. The satellite imagery of the area over the three decades was characterized into the different LCLUC classes and the changes in the areal extent of the different LCLUC classes were calculated and plotted, followed with the estimation of the trend?using?linear regression analysis method. The result?revealed that over the three decades, forests and sparse vegetation respectively decreased at a rate of 0.73% and 0.05% of the total land area per year while built up areas increased?almost equally in the opposite direction at a rate of 0.65% of the total land area per year. Open spaces and water bodies decreased at the rate of 0.11% and 0.02% of the total land area respectively which were as a result of the pressure for resources like land and sand for built infrastructure.?A model was derived for the LCLUC and it revealed that Owerri and environs may be devoid of vegetal cover in about 2 decades (2039) if the current rate of conversion of forests to built-up infrastructure is not abated.?This whole LCLUC scenario if not controlled may trigger changes in the local climate of the area and urgent steps are therefore needed to create awareness to all the stakeholders?in the area?on the need for sustainable land and natural resources use, tree planting, urban spatial plan and controls in order to safeguard the environment, ecosystem and climate of the area for the future.展开更多
文摘Rainfall and Temperature are important factors in agriculture especially in Nigeria where rain-fed agriculture is practiced extensively and agriculture contributes to food security and provides employment for urban and rural dwellers.Therefore,climate variability represents a major danger to agriculture by modifying the rainfall and temperature pattern,thereby resulting to a big peril in the sustainability of agriculture.This is the reason all countries of the world are concerned about the effects of climate variability on agriculture.This work therefore,examined the impact of climate variability on rainfall and temperature in Imo State,South Eastern Nigeria.The rainfall and temperature data were gotten from Nigerian Meteorological Agency(NIMET)for a period of 30 years which was analyzed by using descriptive statistics,decadal distribution,trend graph anomalies and 5 year moving average.The analysis showed increasing trend pattern in yearly maximum,minimum temperature and decrease in annual rainfall,The third order polynomial trend shows a decrease in the anomaly of annual mean rainfall(y=-0.0002x4)and a persistent increase in the mean temperature anomaly especially in the second decade(1996-2007).The discoveries show that there is a notable variability in temperature and rainfall pattern which revealed an increase in temperature and decrease in annual rainfall.This calls for serious attention as people in this part of Nigeria critically depend on rainfall for agricultural practices.It is recommended that government should support the agricultural sector by providing mechanized farming systems such as irrigation and drilling of water borehole in farm sites for agriculture,especially for the rural farmers and create awareness to the farmers on recent trends in climate issues to achieve sustainable agriculture.
文摘This study examined the impact of farmers＇ health on labor data was collected through a field survey of 290 rural households productivity of female farmers in Imo State, Nigeria. Primary Descriptive statistics and estimation of efficiency following maximum likelihood estimation （MLE） procedure available in Frontier 4.1 were used to analyze the data. Results from the analyses showed that malaria has the highest prevalence level among female farmers in the study area followed by typhoid fever. The causes of sicknesses vary from cold, stress, mosquito bites and bad drinking water. Furthermore, the results showed that sicknesses affect the productivity of farmers by reducing their work capacity. Also, the distance to source of drinking water from home, source of drinking water, age, body mass index of farmers are also found to significantly affect the physical work output of farmers in the study area. The result shows that the distribution of farmers was highly skewed with about 99% of the farmers having their efficiency above 0.61. This indicates that majority of the farmers are technically efficient in the allocation of resources to crop production, The result also shows that the average efficiency was about 82.9%. Thus, the farmers＇ level of efficiency can be improved if there is a shift in the fi＇ontier, i.e. if factors contributing to inefficiency are adequately controlled. The study recommends the need to invest more on human capital especially health for there to be an improvement in rural productivity. Also, rural development policies should include health policies especially for women since it has a great influence on the household and emphasis should also be on preventive rather than curative health services.
文摘Climate variation generally occurs at local scale, regional scale, national scale and global scale. Having established that the global climate has varied slowly over the past millennia, centuries, and decades and it is expected to continue to vary in future. Like the climate change, variability may be due to, national internal processes within the climate （internal variability）, or variations in natural or anthropogenic external forces （external variability）. Evidence of climate variations is now well documented, and the implications are becoming increasingly clear as data accumulates and data and climate models become increasingly sophisticated. The fluctuations in rainfall and temperature regimes are the atmospheric driving forces that are responsible for the climate variations over the southeastern Nigeria including Imo State as the case in other parts of the world. It is on this premise that this study examined the evidence of climate variability in Imo State of the southeastern Nigeria. The study employed the holistic use of real meteorological data from Nigerian Meteorological Department on two weather parameters （temperature and rainfall）, for 30 years （1980-2009）. Results indicated fluctuations in temperature and rainfall regimes within the period under study, which were the reasons for the variations in climate of the region. Apparently, evidence of climate variability are indicated by increasing surface air temperature, increasing heat waves which enhances disease vectors, communicable diseases and epidemics, sea level rise and associated coastal erosion, flooding, increased evaporation that dry up streams and rivers etc..
文摘The study comparatively analysed the socioeconomic characteristics and digital literacy level of Agricultural Extension personnel (AEP) in Ebonyi and Imo States, South-East, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of agricultural extension personnel in Ebonyi and Imo States, and to ascertain the digital literacy level of AEP in the studied states. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 312 Agricultural Extension personnel (132 from Ebonyi State Agricultural Development Program and 180 from Imo State Agricultural Development Program) for the study. Data were collected through the use of validated and structured questionnaire, and administered through the help of well-trained enumerators. Data were analysed using simple descriptive statistical tools such as percentages mean score, standard deviation and weighted mean. Findings indicated that they were more male in the both States (55.3% and 57.8%) for Ebonyi and Imo State respectively and that the average age of AEP in Ebonyi and Imo States were 44.7 years and 49.2 years respectively. It was further revealed that the majority (77.3% and 82.8%) had B.Sc./HND as their highest academic qualifications, belonged to professional organisations (62.1% and 75%), and were earning an average monthly income of N58,798 and N62,648 for Ebonyi and Imo State respectively. Also, it was revealed that their mean years of service were 12.4 years and 13.4 years for Ebonyi and Imo State respectively. Almost all of them (87.9% and 95.0%) own a smartphone, had access to the internet (80.3% and 90.0%), but do not own a laptop/ipad (82.6% and 72.8%) for Ebon-yi and Imo State respectively. Results further revealed that Agricultural extension personnel in both Ebonyi and Imo State respectively had low digital literacy level ( = 2.41 and 2.32). The study concluded that AEP in Ebonyi and Imo State respectively had similar socioeconomic characteristics and low level of digital literacy. The study recommended that the management of ADPs in both Ebonyi and Imo State should ensure the training of AEP in digital skills to enhance their digital literacy level to enable them use digital technologies in their work.
文摘This study examined land cover and land use changes (LCLUC) in Owerri and environs from 1986 to 2016 and went further to determine the trend in the change of each LCLUC class. The satellite imagery of the area over the three decades was characterized into the different LCLUC classes and the changes in the areal extent of the different LCLUC classes were calculated and plotted, followed with the estimation of the trend?using?linear regression analysis method. The result?revealed that over the three decades, forests and sparse vegetation respectively decreased at a rate of 0.73% and 0.05% of the total land area per year while built up areas increased?almost equally in the opposite direction at a rate of 0.65% of the total land area per year. Open spaces and water bodies decreased at the rate of 0.11% and 0.02% of the total land area respectively which were as a result of the pressure for resources like land and sand for built infrastructure.?A model was derived for the LCLUC and it revealed that Owerri and environs may be devoid of vegetal cover in about 2 decades (2039) if the current rate of conversion of forests to built-up infrastructure is not abated.?This whole LCLUC scenario if not controlled may trigger changes in the local climate of the area and urgent steps are therefore needed to create awareness to all the stakeholders?in the area?on the need for sustainable land and natural resources use, tree planting, urban spatial plan and controls in order to safeguard the environment, ecosystem and climate of the area for the future.
