Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (FAES)
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Item Open Access Spatio‑temporal variations in physicochemical water quality parameters of Lake Bunyonyi, Southwestern Uganda(SN Applied Sciences, 2021-06-03) Saturday,Alex; Lyimo,Thomas J.; Machiwa, John; Pamba,SiajaliThe current study was carried out to examine the spatial and temporal variations of physicochemical water quality parameters of Lake Bunyonyi. The observations were made on the surface water of Lake Bunyonyi for 1 year to deter mine the water quality. The basic 12 variables used to determine the quality of water were measured monthly at nine stations. Water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), turbidity, electric conductivity (EC), pH and Secchi depth (SD) were measured in the feld, while parameters like total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), nitrite-nitrogen (NO2-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) were determined following APHA 2017 standard guidelines for physicochemical analysis. Taking into account standard guidelines for drinking water by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the water quality index (WQI) was used to determine the water quality. Temperature, DO, pH, turbidity and EC did not difer signifcantly among the study stations (p>0.05) but showed signifcant temporal variations among the study months (p<0.05). Likewise, TN, TP, NO2-N, NO3-N and SRP did not difer signifcantly among the study stations (p>0.05) but showed signifcant temporal variations among the study months (p<0.05). The WQI values ranged from 28.36 to 49 across and from 28.2 to 56.2 between study months with an overall mean value of 36.9. The measured water quality variables did not exceed the UNBS and WHO standards for drinking water in all months and at all stations. According to these values, the water quality of Lake Bunyonyi gener ally belongs to the ‘good’ class in terms of drinking water quality based on the WQI classifcation. The study fndings are fundamentally important for policy makers in setting guidelines for efective lake management.Item Open Access Agricultural Projects and Rural Development in Rwanda: A Case Study of Urugaga Imbaraga in Musanze District(Kabale University, 2021) Joseph, MunyanzizaThe majority of communities in Rwanda are rural dwellers and agrarian by occupation. This study assesses the role of agricultural projects and rural development in Musanze district, Rwanda. The research was a survey that collected data from 214 respondents -- 139 being farmers, 35 selected from Urugaga Imbaraga project staff, 30 respondents being local leaders and 10 community development officers. Respondents were selected using purposive and random sampling methods. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. The researcher used both primary and secondary data collection tools. Data was analysed by descriptive statistics. The study findings revealed that Agricultural Projects have significantly increased food production in the locality through increased provision of pesticides and improved seeds to farmers, establishment of new infrastructure and provision of fertilizers. Though Urugaga Imbaraga in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture has significantly improved farmers` use of agricultural inputs, there is need to empower farmers by reducing the cost of fertilizers, improved seeds and even pesticides based on acreage one owns. Due to lack of adequate production capacity and insufficient stocks in the country, Rwanda still depends upon imported inputs which are too costly for farmers. There is need to loosen conditions that dictate access to, control and use of financial facilities by farmers. Being the core of the country’s economic backbone, agriculture should be given special attention in this regard whereby special financial facilities should set aside for agricultural development and be made flexible so as to be available to individual farmers.Item Open Access Agricultural innovation characteristics and their utilization: A case of National Agricultural Research Organization(Kabale University, 2021) Alex, BarekyeThe research was carried out to assess the utilization of agricultural innovations in Uganda, using a case of the National Agricultural Research Organisation, with the following objectives: to establish the factors that influence development of agricultural innovations; to determine the relationship between agricultural innovation characteristics and utilization of innovations at farm level; and to examine the effect of market attributes on utilization of innovations in agriculture. Using a cross sectional survey research design, a survey mainly using structured questionnaires was carried out among the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) staff to establish factors that influence development of agricultural innovations. A total of 91 households involved in cassava, maize and rice production were interviewed in Kihiihi Sub-county, one of the sub-counties in Kanungu District where the NARO innovations on cassava, maize and rice have been promoted. The data was collected, coded, cleaned and analysed using SPSS to generate frequency tables and STATA to generate an ordered logistic regression of innovation characteristics and market attributes on utilization of agricultural innovations. The respondents agreed that it is important to consider the cost, relevance, and end-user opinion of agricultural innovations as important determinants of developing agricultural innovations. Respondents also agreed that in order to sustain innovations, agricultural research innovators need a clear plan on how innovations should be done (88% of respondents agreed), 91% of respondents agreed that regular information sharing among stakeholders and 94% agreed that the cost of the innovation process, are important factors in sustaining agricultural research innovations. Of the three commodities considered in this study, generation of new varieties emerged as the most important agricultural innovation in the community with 56%, 48% and 54% of the innovation on cassava, maize and rice respectively. The results also indicated that that there was a positive significant relationship between the attribute/characteristics of the varieties and the extent of utilization of varieties. In addition, regression results indicated that innovation characteristics such as relative advantage, compatibility, triability and, other variables such as gender, age, education had a significant effect (p<0.05) on innovation utilization by farming communities. However, complexity had a negative significant effect. The age of respondents had a negative significant effect on the utilization of the innovations, while education had a positive significant effect on utilization of innovation.