Declining soil fertility and low rainfall are key constraints to crop production and are threatening food security in semi-arid areas. Applying inorganic fertilizer at reduced amount (micro-dose) and ...in situ rainwater harvesting using infiltration pits (IP) or tied ridges (TR) are low-input strategies to cope with these constraints. This work investigates the effect of integrating fertilizer with in situ rainwater harvesting technologies on pearl millet growth, yield and household profitability among Tanzanian smallholder farming communities. Split plot field experiments were conducted from 2015 to 2017 cropping seasons. Flat cultivation (FC) with zero fertilizer application resulted in lowest grain yield ranging from 297 to 453 kg/ha and in a negative net profit (NP). The highest yield of 2202 kg/ha was obtained upon the use of recommended rate under IP, but it resulted in negative NP. Infiltration pits under 25% micro-dose resulted in relative higher grain yield (778–2202 kg/ha) compared to TR (887–1915 kg/ha) and FC (592–1144 kg/ha); despite higher yield, it resulted in negative NP. Tied ridges and FC with micro-dose at 25% of recommended rate had a yield advantage ranging from 537 to 959 kg/ha and 295 to 455 kg/ha, respectively, compared to farmer practices, and both resulted in positive NP. The use of micro-dose at 25% of recommended rate along with TR or FC which gave higher grain yield and NP compared to farmers practice is recommended to resource-poor farmers for improved pearl millet productivity.
Upgrading strategies for a given product value chain might not result in the intended impact on different gender groups, if gender analysis is not undertaken. This study investigated the gender ...influence on preferred food and cash crops, as well as upgrading strategies in sub-humid Kilosa and semi-arid Chamwino Districts, Tanzania. A mixed methods research design was used to collect information from 595 respondents, while content analysis was used to qualitatively analyze qualitative data obtained from focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Our findings show that farmers from Kilosa and Chamwino had no differences with respect to preferences expressed by men and women for their first priority cash. Gender differences for choices were evident in relation to the second priority, food crops, in the semi-arid area and the third priority, which was also food crops in the sub-humid area, where women and youth differed from men on their views toward maize versus sorghum in the semi-arid region. Here, youth differed from women and men in how they viewed cassava versus rice. For upgrading strategies, which were only conducted with the first priority crops, most of the strategies preferred by men differed from those preferred by women and youth. In both areas, youth and women preferred upgrading strategies related to crop harvesting, transportation and primary processing, whereas men preferred upgrading strategies for farm inputs and crop marketing. Therefore, it is recommended that site-specific gendered analysis on upgrading strategies in agricultural value chains should be completed prior to introducing an intervention.
The causes of peri-implant bone loss continue to be controversial. To determine the
impact of biomechanical stress and inflammation, we investigated a total of 80
interforaminal implants in situ for ...more than 10 years.
Two stress groups, with 14 patients each, were established: a low-stress situation
with single-standing implants, and an increased-stress situation with splinted
implants. To categorize inflammation, we introduced a Composite Inflammation Score
using 4 inflammatory parameters. Peri-implant bone loss was calculated from digital
panoramic radiographs. To differentiate between the effects of stress and
inflammation, we compared bone loss in both stress groups at equivalent levels of
inflammation. With greater Composite Inflammation Score values, a clear discrepancy
between single-standing and splinted implants was evident (p = 0.117/0.000,
regression analysis; p = 0.135/0.000, analysis of variance; p = 0.002, t tests). While stress and inflammation alone may not
necessarily be detrimental factors, the presence of stress heightens peri-implant
bone loss significantly as inflammation increases.
Upgrading local food value chains is a promising approach to invigorating African food systems. This endeavour warrants multi-disciplinary North-South collaboration and partnerships through ...participatory action research (PAR) to help leverage appropriate upgrading strategies (UPSs) with a focus on local stakeholders. The more disciplines, cultures, and partner institutions that are involved, the more a project will present challenges in terms of communication and coordinating activities. Our aim was to determine the costs and investigate whether PAR with a multi-disciplinary approach was feasible in rural Tanzania with over 600 local stakeholders and more than 100 scientists. This article presents a self-evaluation of the collaboration and communication of project scientists during their research activities. Despite the overall high satisfaction, the more complex and complicated PAR activities required more cooperation, instructions and communication among the project scientists than had been anticipated in this multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, and multi–institutional context, resulting in greater tension and dissatisfaction. The findings indicate that this type of large multi-disciplinary PAR is challenging in terms of flexibility in the planning of research activities, the administration of finances, and cross-cultural communication. Potential avenues to overcome these obstacles include a) more communication on PAR activities across cultures to develop a shared vocabulary; b) developing other modes of shared responsibility for a more horizontal collaboration; and c) more face-to-face cross-cultural activities to overcome cultural, disciplinary and geographical distance.
The variability in rainfall in semi-arid Niger is great both spatially and temporally and is considered to be one of the most limiting factors in agriculture. To investigate these constraints more ...quantitatively, climate data at both survey and detailed scale were analysed. The results show that rainfall can vary considerably even within a few kilometres distance and on different time scales which means that crop yields are very unpredictable. Socio-economic surveys at two villages showed that smallholders have adapted a range of management strategies to ensure at least a minimum yield. Despite this, soil fertility is declining and further technologies need to be integrated into farming systems to make them sustainable.
► SIAT meta-modelling platform is able to reveal a complex land use response to a cut back in direct subsidies under CAP. ► A strong reduction in land demand for agriculture that makes it available ...for other sectors. ► Decrease in food production results in increasing price levels which in turn bring an increase in farming intensity. ► Reform evoke climate friendly, economically beneficial, socially desired and some environmentally undesired impacts in the case study regions.
Assessing the impact of macro-level policy driven land use changes on regional sustainability is an important task that can facilitate complex decision making processes of introducing reforms. The research work demonstrates the ability of Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool (SIAT), a meta-model, in conducting ex ante spatially explicit cross sectoral impact assessments of changes in common agricultural policy (CAP). The meta-model is able to appraise impacts of CAP amendments on land use and their repercussions on multiple indicators of sustainability. The presented study comprehensively analyses the possible impacts of discontinuing direct financial support to farmers under CAP. The simulations of the meta-model are able to reveal the land use changes both at EU and regional levels as well as to bring forth the subsequent changes in a number of indicators representing the regional sustainability (for five case study regions). In a nutshell, the simulations indicate that a reduction in direct support brings in general, a decrease in farmed area, an increase in forested land, less fluctuation in natural vegetation coverage, increase in abandoned arable land area and negligible changes in built-up area despite regionally diverging land use trends. The simulated changes in sustainability indicators for the study regions in consequence to these land use changes show that the discontinuation of subsidies evokes responses that are in general climate friendly (reduction in methane and N2O emissions, diminishing energy use and reduction in global warming potential), economically beneficial (increase in gross value of agriculture) and socially desired (decrease in unemployment rate) as well as environmentally harmful (increase in pesticide use). Even though the appraisals of diversity indicators such as forest deadwood and farmland birds are not conclusive for all regions, the changes are positive for the former indicator and slightly negative for the latter in general. The trade-offs among these regional sustainability indicators using their directional associations are also presented for a comprehensive assessment of the impacts.
Introduction: Preparation of teeth is a basic technique for dental treatment and plays an essential role in pre‐clinical education. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether undergraduate ...students’ evaluations of prepared teeth were consistent with faculty assessments and correlated with students’ performance in test preparations.
Materials and methods: Thirty four of 52 dental students having attended a pre‐clinical course on basic prosthodontic topics including tooth preparation volunteered to participate in this study. The students were given 10 casts each containing one tooth with an intentionally applied preparation fault of a certain type prepared by an experienced clinician. The students were asked to mark on a list the fault type found in every tooth. The association of students’ ratings with their performance during the course was analysed by means of a contingency table, and a generalised linear model was used to compare students’ and faculty ratings (α = 0.05).
Results: No significant difference between students’ and faculty ratings could be found by analysis of deviance (P = 0.953). Significant deviations of fault detection probabilities from their group mean were found for six of ten fault types. No significant association between students’ performance in test preparations and students ratings could be found (P = 0.564).
Discussion: It was possible to achieve a level of calibration within the group of students, which was comparable to that in the group of faculty members.
Conclusions: Calibration of both students and examiners remains to be an issue with the teaching concepts applied in this study.
To facilitate weed suppression, oilseed rape or canola (
Brassica napus) has been genetically modified (GM) over the last two decades to incorporate herbicide tolerance (HT). The introduction of ...oilseed rape in commercial agriculture raises concerns about potential adverse agronomic and environmental effects linked to both the genetic modification and altered agricultural practice. How will this new crop modify the existing cropping practice? What are the potential agro-environmental implications of its introduction? This paper analyses and schematises recorded and conceivable agricultural practice changes with GMHT oilseed rape introduction and its likely agro-environmental effects. It develops a conceptual systematics of influencing factors, subsequent practice changes and likely agro-environmental effects. The results can be used to design the mandatory monitoring of adverse GM crop effects.
Sustainable rural food systems for poor and vulnerable people need to be locally adapted to enhance food security. This requires participatory action research that considers the entire food value ...chain (FVC). This paper presents an assessment of the feasibility and potential success of upgrading strategies (UPS) for enhancing food security based on a study that was part of a larger participatory research project in two regions of Tanzania. The authors present the results relating to natural resource management and crop production. The results for natural resources show that enhanced soil water management was rated as high for the semi-arid Dodoma region. For the Morogoro region, the experts favoured soil fertility-improving UPS, such as conservation agriculture and agroforestry. Assessments of food production for both regions indicated the importance of intercropping, manure input, pest and disease control and cover crops. Assessments differed greatly between the two different climatic regions, and to a lesser extent between the nationality of the experts and their gender. This highlights the importance of including different South–North and female–male awareness in assessments. Implementation feasibility assessments of UPS indicated that the most suitable approaches were rainwater harvesting for semi-arid and conservation agriculture for subhumid regions respectively. Local and/or regional stakeholders and experts should be involved in developing and assessing site-adapted UPS for enhancing Tanzanian FVCs.
A representative environmental monitoring network at the regional scale cannot use raster-based or random sampling designs, but requires a stratified sampling procedure integrating different ...information layers, and it has to occur in ecologically differing homogeneous regions (ecoregions). These we have determined using a set of spatial strata with ecological variables which we analysed with classification and regression trees (CART). We present a framework for environmental monitoring, that covers different scales, and we transfer the framework to a potential GMO (genetically modified organisms) monitoring network. We use ecoregion and other environmental strata together with existing environmental monitoring networks to determine GMO monitoring sites more precisely.
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