Case study Kenyan fish exports

" Food safety and quality have become increasingly important in international fish trade. Stringent conditions imposed by major fish-importing nations in the developed world, which take in 80 percent of global fish exports, give food safety priority over price as the main determinant for market access. Nearly half of fish exports originate from developing countries, which have limited capacity to invest in the rigorous fish safety measures demanded by importing countries... Concerns about the safety of fish from Kenya first arose in November 1997 when Spain and Italy both banned fish imports from Kenya, claiming the presence of Salmonellae.... Kenya faces important challenges in implementing stronger food safety measures, especially in light of its small development budget. It cannot export fish unless it incurs huge costs" from TextFood safety ,food security ,Public health ,

Labour Arrangements in Cassava Production in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study examined the effects of labour arrangements on the profitability of cassava enterprises in Oyo North Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for data collection, while data were analysed using descriptive statistics and budgetary analysis. The results show that the prevalent labour arrangements for cassava enterprises are: a combination of Family, Hired and Contract labour (38.9%); Family-Hired labour (27.8%); Family-Contract labour (31.1%). The gross margin per hectares across labour arrangements are N279481.99 (all-labour), N286044.24 (family-hired), N216940.10 (familycontract), and N235000.00 (family only). The returns on a naira invested on variable costs across different labour arrangements for cassava enterprises are N2.04 (all-labour), N3.66 (family-hired), N2.37 (familycontract), and N2.61 (family only). This implies that a unit (N1) variable cost in the various labour arrangements of all-labour, family/hired, family/contract and family only in cassava production will yield a marginal return of N3.04, N3.66, N2.37 and N2.61 respectively. Family-hired labour arrangement yields higher marginal return per unit of manday and one naira spent than all other arrangements. The study recommends among others the application of laboursaving technologies and an optimum combination of various labour arrangements to reduce the cost of labour used in cassava production

Rubbing out gender: women and merchant ships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how gender differences are rubbed out and simultaneously reinforced in intentional and unintentional ways. It will do this by exploring the experiences of female cadets/seafarers. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is drawn from two independent PhD theses, where one of the theses conducted ethnographic fieldwork aboard a container ship in 2009. The other thesis used a case study research design of cadetship programmes in the Philippines using structured interviews, observations with the aid of fieldnotes and documentary analysis of records from seven maritime schools and cadetship programmes of ship-owners. Findings – This paper reveals that the merchant vessel remains to be a “man’s world” where female seafarers are marginalised. It also shows that the maritime colleges in the Philippines deploy training practices that reproduce the gender biases against women participation to seafaring because the socialisation of cadets are fraught with the values and symbols of a hegemonic masculinity intent to silence other genders. On board ships, similar contradictory rubbing out and reproducing of gender differentials are observed. This shows how controlling gender is difficult. Research limitations/implications – Observations conducted are limited to one shipboard voyage and whether the same manifestation in different types of ships, ship routes and crew mix would emerge require triangulation with other forms of data collection like in-depth interviews with seafarers on board. Practical implications – Ethnographic insights offer valuable insights for novice researchers and those conducting shipboard research. Originality/value – Not much study has been done with respect to the presence of women on board and how they disrupt and play with masculine space. This paper provides empirical evidence and insights on the ambivalence of integrating women in the seafaring profession owing to official and unofficial policies and training that intentionally and unintentionally construct women as unfit to work as sea-based professionals

An alternative management strategy for Lake Victoria (Kenya)

In Kenya, fisheries resource management has been based on the top-down centralized approach since the colonial days. Stakeholders have never been consulted concerning management decisions. The 4-beaches Study was undertaken to investigate the potential for an alternative management system for Lake Victoria

The Bondo Stakeholders' Workshop, February 26th - 27th, 2001

This paper is a review of the workshop held at Bondo in Kenya to assess the role of local stakeholders in the of co-management of Lake Victoria's fisheries within the frame of the LVFRP

Analysis of competition in the wholesale and retail markets for fish in Kisumu, Kenya

This study analyses competition in the wholesale and retail fish marketing system in Kisumu, which is Kenya's largest fish market. It is based on cross sectional and time series primary data collected in a survey involving 88 retailers and 47 wholesale traders of fish in the town. Stratified random sampling method was used in selecting the respondents, Concentration ratios, Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients are derived and evaluated for both markets. They demonstrate that market shares are unequally distributed among the wholesalers and retailers. The Gini coefficients are 0.37 and 0.45 for the whole and retail markets respectively. Based on a Gini coefficient cut-off level of 0.4, it is concluded that the wholesale fish market exhibits effective competition while the retail outlet has oligopolistic tendencies. The implication of this level of competition to price efficiency is discussed. Intervention measures to enhance competition in the market are recommended

Marketing study

The findings are presented of a marketing survey conducted in the lake Victoria region. The research concentrated on consumers, trader /processors serving local markets, industrial processors serving mainly international markets, and fishers. The market for fish from Lake Victoria is traced from the consumer to the producer, including as many components of the chain as possible. The components are dealt with in individual sections which comprise a profile of a typical consumer/trader-processor/industrial processor /fisher, a list of survey sites, a map showing locations, a note on potential biases within the individual survey, a list of hypotheses or study topics for all surveys except for that of industrial processors, detailed analyses and also the pertinent questionnaire

Preliminary gut content and dentition analysis reveal subtle resource partitioning and feeding adaptations within a haplochromine cichlid community of Lake Victoria satellite lake

The trophic relationships between six haplochromine cichlids of Lake Kanyaboli, a satellite lake of Lake Victoria that has not been infested by the Nile perch (Lates niloticus), were studied as a first step towards understanding the cichlid community structure in this threatened wetland ecosystem. Coefficient of similarity analysis of diet revealed subtle trophic resource partitioning within this haplochromine community. Trophic specializations are further revealed by differences in dentition structures. Of the six haplochromine species examined, Astatotilapia nubila and Astatoreochromis alluadi had the highest coefficient of similarity (0.5256±0.300), indicating highest diet overlap, while Astatotilapia ‘big eye’ and Xistichromis phytophagus were the most ecologically separated (0.0210±0.019). Resource partitioning is further enhanced by a diurnal spatial distribution of the six species within the lake. Overall, the haplochromine cichlid community of Lake Kanyaboli is characterized by a relatively high trophic diversity compared to Lake Victoria. Small water bodies (SWBs) thus present opportunities for conservation of trophic diversity threatened by introduction of exotics in the Lake Victoria basin.Key words: Community structure, haplochromines, resource partitioning, satellite lakes, trophic ecology

An Appraisal of Critical Highlights of the United Nations Environment Programme Report (UNEP) on the Environmental Assessment of Ogoni Land, The Setting Up of the Hydrocarbon Remediation Project (HYPREP) by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Its Operat

The paper carries out an appraisal of some critical highlights of the United Nations Environment Programme Report (UNEP) on the environmental assessment of Ogoni land, the setting up of the Hydrocarbon Remediation Project (HYPREP) by the Federal Government of Nigeria, its operations and recommended pathways towards creating a sustainable environment and development in Ogoni land. In achieving its aim, this paper adopts an admixture of the historical, comparative, empirical, the law and development approaches, in relevant areas. The paper ends with a conclusion and set of recommendations. Keywords: Appraisal, United Nations Environmental Programme Report (UNEP), Ogoni land, Highlights, Hydrocarbon Remediation Project (HYPREP), Recommendations, Sustainable, Environmental assessment. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-8-05 Publication date: August 31st 201

Existing Metrics Use in Indexing ICT Integration in University Teaching

ICT integration by universities teaching professionals is emerging as a major concern, this study demonstrate the need to address the integration problem by encouraging existing metrics use in indexing ICT integration as an ICT governance strategy. Quality of integration depends on quality indexing which also depend on quality of existing metrics and their use. Considering the role that University Information Technology Teaching Professionals’ (UITTPs) continuous improvement indexing can offer, towards autonomic governance of the continuous emerging ICTs in the university teaching, this study examined extent in use of existing ICT integration metrics to index ICT integration by the UITTPs. Six metrics for ICT integration were investigated; time, workshop course content relevance, technical malfunctions, support conditions, support services, and motivation and commitment to student learning and staff professional development metrics. Descriptive survey design was used in which interviews were conducted to UITTPs in three (3) public and three (3) private purposively selected universities in Kenya. The findings were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using Kendall’s correlation of concordance and tested using Chi-square on the extent of concordance and presented with help of frequency tables, figures and percentages. The findings revealed that all the metrics are rarely used for indexing ICT integration (32.8%), and most UITTPs were in discordance on this level of all the six metrics use except for support condition. This implied that the use of metrics for indexing integration has not been formalized across the Kenyan universities. Universities need to be encouraged to identify suitable metrics, formalize them and improve their frequency in use. Secondly, socio based metrics such as content relevance are used more frequently for indexing integration as compared to Technical metrics, socio-technical metrics balance therefore need to be emphasized by the universities management when determining and using metrics for indexing ICT integration