ABSTRACT In recent years, global warming/climate change has caused many glaciers to melt with the subsequent rising of sea levels. This has put many coastal communities all over the world especially those in developing countries at risk. The vulnerability of these communities to the impacts of climate change depends on many factors including environmental and socio-economic factors. This study sought to assess the vulnerability of coastal communities in Ghana to the impacts of climate chang...
ABSTRACT Market intergration and access, are critical and important aspects to rural poor households. They are a pre-requisite for enhancing agriculture based economic growth through the improvement of competitiveness of farming enterprise and improving rural incomes. Several studies have been conducted on participation and access of small-scale farmers in rice and other crops marketing in Africa, but, specific information on the extent to which small-scale rice farmers are integrated into d...
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine pottery production, marketing and consumption by the contemporary Mbeere people. Pottery production was one of the earliest technologies adopted by farming communities whereby they used pots as storage facilities for their agricultural produce (Sharer and Ashmore, 1987). This industry has continued to date and thus studies in pottery have been carried out to understand cultural groups, how they adapt and manipulate the environment to meet the...
Abstract: This paper assesses maize-coffee-banana agro-ecosystems’ resilience to damage as well as computing the social-ecological vulnerability index to climate change on the southern slope of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The study focused on identifying agronomic practices and assessing their impacts on agro-ecosystems’ resilience; examine the socio-economic status of the farmers in the region and its impacts on agro-ecosystems; and examine the agro-ecosystems’ natural resilience a...
ABSTRACT The issue of greenhouse emissions, global warming and climate change have become major environment concerns of the twenty-first century in both local and international conventions. Moreover, it is an undisputable fact that the process of gas flaring during crude oil exploration has been a major source of greenhouse emission in oil producing countries like Nigeria. Therefore, this study examines the problem of greenhouse emission which occur as a result of gas flaring in Bayelsa state...
ABSTRACT In 2010, the Economic Stimulus Program (ESP) was initiated by the Government of Kenya with the aim of encouraging aquaculture in Kenya. Kitui Central Sub- County benefited with 200 fish ponds under ESP. However, their status is not known in terms of production, challenges and the contribution of fish farming to household wellbeing. To address this, a sample of sixty (60) fish farmers were used from the targeted 200 fish farmers who benefited from the Government’s support. The prima...
ABSTRACT In 2010, the Economic Stimulus Program (ESP) was initiated by the Government of Kenya with the aim of encouraging aquaculture in Kenya. Kitui Central Sub- County benefited with 200 fish ponds under ESP. However, their status is not known in terms of production, challenges and the contribution of fish farming to household wellbeing. To address this, a sample of sixty (60) fish farmers were used from the targeted 200 fish farmers who benefited from the Government’s support. The prima...
Abstract: In 2010, the Economic Stimulus Program (ESP) was initiated by the Government of Kenya with the aim of encouraging aquaculture in Kenya. Kitui Central Sub- County benefited with 200 fish ponds under ESP. However, their status is not known in terms of production, challenges and the contribution of fish farming to household wellbeing. To address this, a sample of sixty (60) fish farmers were used from the targeted 200 fish farmers who benefited from the Government’s support. The pri...
Abstract In the Upper West Region of Ghana, most the people are engaged in subsistence agriculture. A major challenge that they face is a long dry season of about eight months that renders most of them jobless. This research assessed the possibility of dry season farming in improving living standards of rural farmers. The research revealed that most farmers used dams with canals and furrows, others used canals with fuel powered pumps and some used wells for irrigating their crops. An average ...
ABSTRACT This study analysed the economics of smallholder organic farmers in the Muleba district. Specifically, the study was conducted to identify the costs associated with organic and conventional coffee production, to assess the profitability of the two farming system and to determine the effect of premium price in compensation of yield in organic coffee. The study also addressed the coffee organic standard demanded by importers. Multistage, purposive and simple random sampling procedures...
xiii ABSTRACT Climate variability is an emerging phenomenon that is threatening dairy farming globally. The dairy-climate change dilemma in Kenya cannot be mistaken. However, extensive research into dairy farming and an understanding of the dynamics of climate variability effects is greatly lacking.The study investigated the effects of climate variability on dairy farming in Masaba North Sub-county of Nyamira County, Kenya. The main objective was to determine the effects of climate variabilit...
This study was designed to focus on why subsistence livestock farmers concentrate mainly on cattle rearing instead of diversifying the livestock sector to incorporate small ruminants particularly goats which can sustain under a diverse climatic conditions. Areas of interest in this study were socioeconomic and cultural factors namely; social status, ownership, dignity, prestige, taste, lack of information on sustainable goat farming, customary activities, income and market that influence fa...
ABSTRACT Food insecurity remains a major challenge among the small-scale farmers in Kyuso SubCounty. Though the Ministry of Agriculture has been training small-scale farmers on various dryland farming technologies, Kyuso Sub-County has remained food insecure. This is evidenced by the fact that small-scale farmers in the Sub-County depend on food aid for their survival. The role played by the dryland farming technologies in ensuring household food security among the small-scale farmers has no...
Abstract: The invasion by Striga in most cereal crop fields in Africa has posed an acute threat to food security and socioeconomic integrity. Consequently, numerous technological and research developments have been made to minimize and even control the Striga impacts on crop production. So far, efforts to control Striga have primarily focused on the manipulation of the genetics of the host crops, as well as understanding the phenological and physiological traits, along with the chemical comp...
ABSTRACT Tobacco farming is well established as the traditional cash crop in Tabora region. However, in recent years, groundnut is one among the cash crops which have been introduced in the area as an alternative source of income for smallholder farmers. Using 2007/2008 cropping season survey and the data from 121 randomly selected smallholder farmers from three villages, this study provides a comparative economic analysis for tobacco and groundnut farming systems. The analysis of quantitati...