The study focused on the impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The study specifically evaluated the perceived resultant situations attributed to climate cha...The study focused on the impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The study specifically evaluated the perceived resultant situations attributed to climate change to determine the extent of impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families and also explored adoptable strategies for coping with the situations. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study was 246,909 respondents made up of farmers and extension workers who are registered with the State Ministries of Agriculture. Out of the nine Niger Delta states, Bayelsa and Delta states were randomly chosen for the study. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 5,038 respondents. Structured questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. The instruments were validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items which yielded a coefficient of 0.81. The Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS v 20.0) was employed for data analysis. The statistical tools used for data analysis were weighted mean to answer research questions and standard deviation to validate the closeness of the respondents from the mean and from each other in their responses while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that the extent of impacts of climate change on farmers and the farming families in Niger Delta region of Nigeria are moderate. Findings further revealed that climate change has led to increased poverty level and raised cost of production (input and labour cost) as indicated by the farmers. The study recommends that farmers in the region should be encouraged by providing incentives and subsidizing inputs for them by Federal and State governments as well as other non-governmental organizations, as this will go a long way in improving production especially as most farmers agree to continue cultivation even with the observed impacts.展开更多
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of the technological level in small-scale dual-purpose cow-calf <em>Bos indicus</em> female operations on the resumption of the ovarian activity post...The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of the technological level in small-scale dual-purpose cow-calf <em>Bos indicus</em> female operations on the resumption of the ovarian activity post-partum. A total of 13 small scale dual-purpose <em>Bos indicus</em> × <em>Bos taurus</em> operations were included in this experiment and they were classified according to their technological status as: high technological status (HT), medium technological status (MT) and low technological status (LT). Ninety-three mature cows were treated with either a CIDR (controlled internal drug release device) with estradiol benzoate (CIDR+EB) or alone (CIDR). At day 9 all animals received intravaginally a CIDR for nine days. At day 0, the CIDR was withdrawn and 24 hours later one dose of estradiol benzoate was administered to 51 cows (17 in HT, 17 in MT and 17 in LT), the remaining animals (n = 42) did not receive the estradiol benzoate administration (14 in HT, 13 in MT and 15 in LT). Comparisons were performed on serum progesterone concentrations after CIDR treatment. By day 7 after implant withdrawal, the proportion of cows that resume ovarian activity detected by progesterone concentration increased in all technological level farms, no statistical main effect was observed within technological level. By day 17 there was a significant main effect of technological level (P = 0.05) on the proportion of animal that resumed the estrous cycles, but neither a main effect of treatment (P = 0.97) nor an interaction between technological level and treatment (P = 0.98). Furthermore, technological level of the farm showed a tendency (P = 0.07) to affect that resume the estrous activity, and a significant effect of treatment was observed (P = 0.005) but no interaction between technological level and treatment. The proportion of cows that showed estrus was different across technological level (P = 0.02), the highest proportion of cows showing estrus regardless of treatment was in the HT: 90% (40% CIDR and 50% CIDR+EB), MT: 50% (13.3% CIDR and 36.7% CIDR+EB) and in the LT: 50% (18.8% CIDR and 31.3% CIDR+EB). In conclusion, the combination of a progestogen and estradiol benzoate resulted in a high proportion of cows that were induced to resume the ovarian activity and this treatment was particularly beneficial in the medium and low technological status of the farms.展开更多
文摘The study focused on the impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The study specifically evaluated the perceived resultant situations attributed to climate change to determine the extent of impacts of climate change on the farmer and the farming families and also explored adoptable strategies for coping with the situations. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study was 246,909 respondents made up of farmers and extension workers who are registered with the State Ministries of Agriculture. Out of the nine Niger Delta states, Bayelsa and Delta states were randomly chosen for the study. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 5,038 respondents. Structured questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. The instruments were validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items which yielded a coefficient of 0.81. The Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS v 20.0) was employed for data analysis. The statistical tools used for data analysis were weighted mean to answer research questions and standard deviation to validate the closeness of the respondents from the mean and from each other in their responses while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that the extent of impacts of climate change on farmers and the farming families in Niger Delta region of Nigeria are moderate. Findings further revealed that climate change has led to increased poverty level and raised cost of production (input and labour cost) as indicated by the farmers. The study recommends that farmers in the region should be encouraged by providing incentives and subsidizing inputs for them by Federal and State governments as well as other non-governmental organizations, as this will go a long way in improving production especially as most farmers agree to continue cultivation even with the observed impacts.
文摘The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of the technological level in small-scale dual-purpose cow-calf <em>Bos indicus</em> female operations on the resumption of the ovarian activity post-partum. A total of 13 small scale dual-purpose <em>Bos indicus</em> × <em>Bos taurus</em> operations were included in this experiment and they were classified according to their technological status as: high technological status (HT), medium technological status (MT) and low technological status (LT). Ninety-three mature cows were treated with either a CIDR (controlled internal drug release device) with estradiol benzoate (CIDR+EB) or alone (CIDR). At day 9 all animals received intravaginally a CIDR for nine days. At day 0, the CIDR was withdrawn and 24 hours later one dose of estradiol benzoate was administered to 51 cows (17 in HT, 17 in MT and 17 in LT), the remaining animals (n = 42) did not receive the estradiol benzoate administration (14 in HT, 13 in MT and 15 in LT). Comparisons were performed on serum progesterone concentrations after CIDR treatment. By day 7 after implant withdrawal, the proportion of cows that resume ovarian activity detected by progesterone concentration increased in all technological level farms, no statistical main effect was observed within technological level. By day 17 there was a significant main effect of technological level (P = 0.05) on the proportion of animal that resumed the estrous cycles, but neither a main effect of treatment (P = 0.97) nor an interaction between technological level and treatment (P = 0.98). Furthermore, technological level of the farm showed a tendency (P = 0.07) to affect that resume the estrous activity, and a significant effect of treatment was observed (P = 0.005) but no interaction between technological level and treatment. The proportion of cows that showed estrus was different across technological level (P = 0.02), the highest proportion of cows showing estrus regardless of treatment was in the HT: 90% (40% CIDR and 50% CIDR+EB), MT: 50% (13.3% CIDR and 36.7% CIDR+EB) and in the LT: 50% (18.8% CIDR and 31.3% CIDR+EB). In conclusion, the combination of a progestogen and estradiol benzoate resulted in a high proportion of cows that were induced to resume the ovarian activity and this treatment was particularly beneficial in the medium and low technological status of the farms.
