Search

The study investigated the marketing practices, channels of sheabutter distribution and performance using multi stage sampling techniques to select three local government area for the study in Oyo State. The results showed about 91% of the respondents were female, the average age of the respondents was 35.5 years. Most (92.5%) of the respondents were married with average household size of 8 members. Marketing efficiency was 135% which implies that the respondents covered the cost of marketing and made a margin above 100%. Unavailability of sheabutter due to deforestation and credit unavailability were the major constraints faced by sheabutter marketers. Furthermore, Household size (p=0.005), marketing experience and member of organization (p=0.001), source of shea butter (p=0.01) and credit availability (p=0.005) were factors influencing marketing efficiency of the respondents. The study concluded that sheabutter marketing was a profitable enterprise in the study area. The study recommended that there should be proper awareness on the prospect of sheabutter business (either for local use or exportation) among young people; this will be an avenue to alleviate the scourge of unemployment in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing awareness of the benefits of more nutritious, healthier and safer food products by consumers plays a vital role in the recent changes experienced in the food production chain, and meat products are no exception to this. The study investigated consumption pattern of meat in Ogbomoso North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data for the study were obtained from 120 respondents with the use of structured questionnaire analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. According to the study, chicken, turkey and beef with percentage frequencies 96.7%, 81.7% and 76.8% respectively were the most consumed meat types, while quail, rabbit and guinea fowl with percentage frequencies 6.7%, 7.5% and 12.5% respectively were the least consumed meat types. Also, income of the respondent with t-value 41.08 and a positively signed coefficient at 1% level of significance was found to have a direct effect on the monthly expenditure on preferred meat type. The study recommend there should be awareness on the nutritional benefits of consuming meats of low saturated fats and calorie contents such as rabbit, quail and guinea fowl and also to teach them how to raise these animals domestically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the various forms of agroforestry technologies adopted by the farmers as well as assessed the factors influencing the adoption of agroforestry technologies among farmers in the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents from the study area. Both descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages as well as inferential statistics such as Logistic Regression model were used in the study. From the study, it was discovered that adopters of agroforestry technology accounts for 42.47%, while non-adopters accounted for 57.53% of the sampled respondents. The result further shows the different forms of agroforestry practices adopted by the farmers in the study area which includes boundary planting, multipurpose trees/shrubs, wind breaks and live fencing. The result of the analysis of the factors that influence the adoption of agroforestry technologies among farmers from the logistic regression analysis revealed that access to extension services, age, education, farming experience, farm size and gender were positive and significant factors in determining the adoption of agroforestry technologies among the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effect of plastic/nylon pollution, the disposal method and the factors influencing the methods of disposal in Oyo state. This study was conducted in eleven local government areas (LGA) of Oyo states using structured questionnaire with five hundred respondents purposively selected but 454 questionnaires were valid for the research analysis. The analytical tools used were descriptive statistics (such as percentage and frequency) and multinomial regression model. Majority (81%) of the respondents were married, about 88.6% of the respondents were educated. Most (84%) of the sampled households had a family size of between 1 and 5 with almost 60% of the respondents earning between ₦10,000-₦50,000. The study observed that 54% of the respondents’ choice of plastic and nylon disposal methods was time savings, about 86% had no difficult in disposing their waste, 29.5% of the respondents stated that plastic and nylon waste disposal block water ways. The factors influencing plastic/nylon disposal were waste collectors (p

This study investigated the assessment of smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to climate change in Ogun State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 150 farmers in the agricultural zones of Abeokuta, Ijebu and Ilaro. Data were collected with the aid of well structured questionnaire from the farmers. Descriptive statistics and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used for the data analyzed. The average age of the respondents was 45.5 years. The majority were married with an average household size of 5 persons while a larger percentage of the respondents are involved in crop farming. The result shows that most of the farmers are aware of variations in the prevailing weather conditions of their area and floods were mostly experienced in the year 2018 and 2019. The vulnerability indices in Ilaro, Abeokuta and ijebu ode agricultural zones were -0.652, 0.250, and 0.303 respectively. This means that Ijebu ode was the least vulnerable to climate change followed by Abeokuta while Ilaro is the most vulnerable. Therefore, the study recommends that an integrated rural development scheme aimed at increasing access to social amenities should be established by the government to strengthen the resilience of rural farmers to climate change.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection follows a natural course of events predicted by a dynamic interaction between viral antigen and the host immune system, which forms the basis for HBV serological diagnosis. These interactions may deviate from the typical serologic patterns. This study investigates the types of atypical HBV serologic profiles (AHBSP) across clinical cohorts of patients with HBV infection in southwestern Nigeria. This is a cross-sectional, hospital-based, multi-centered study. Patients' sera were analyzed for HBsAg, anti-HBs, HBeAg, anti-HBe, anti-HBc IgM, and anti-HBc IgG by ELISA from 279 study participants attending selected gastroenterology clinics between August 2019 and December 2020. The prevalence of atypical HBV serologic profiles was 27% (n = 76). The mean age of patients was 35.7 ± 11.2 years. The gender distribution involved 183 females (65.6%) and 96 males (34.4%). Across clinical cohorts of patients with atypical serologic profiles, HBeAg Negative, anti-HBe positive with detectable HBV DNA had the highest prevalence of 21% followed by isolated anti-HBc antibody positive, HBsAg negative and detectable HBV DNA, 5%. The atypical serologic profiles, HBeAg positive, HBsAg negative with detectable HBV DNA and concurrent anti-HBs with HBsAg, had the lowest prevalence, 0.4%, respectively. This study identified the considerable presence of atypical HBV serologic profiles across clinical cohorts of HBV infection in southwestern Nigeria.