Evaluation of the Challenges in the Implementation of the Guidance and Counselling Programme in Baringo County Secondary Schools, Kenya

The need for guidance and counselling services in all learning institutions cannot be overstated. In response to this demand, guidance and counselling programme has been implemented since 1971 and more emphasis on its services in 2001 through Legal Notice, No. 95 of the Kenya Gazette that recommended guidance and counseling departments be established in all secondary schools. However, there are indications that student’s still experience problems which are manifested in form of school indiscipline, school unrest, and increased examination cheating, among others. This may be due to lapse in the implementation of the guidance and counselling programme. Thus the purpose of this study was to evaluate the challenges in the implementation of guidance and counselling programme in Baringo county secondary schools. This study employed a survey design. The population of the study was 23 extra county secondary schools, with 23 teacher counsellors. Purposive sampling was used to select the number of schools and teacher counsellors to be included in the study. The sample comprised of 23 schools and 23 teacher counsellors. A total of 23 respondents constituted the study sample. The data was collected through an open ended questionnaire. Piloting of the instrument was done to improve validity and the test items were validated by experts in the Department of Counselling, Psychology and Educational Foundations. Reliability of the TCEQ was established by use of Cronbach’s alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.86 respectively was obtained.  Descriptive statistics was utilized to analyse the data with the aid of SPSS version 20 for windows. An analysis of the findings indicated that lack of time and funding, inadequate facilities, uncooperative clients and lack of qualified personnel were among the challenges facing the implementation of the guidance and counselling programme. It was concluded that there are challenges in implementation of the guidance and counselling programme in Baringo county secondary schools. It’s therefore recommended that the teacher counsellors to be provided with training, facilities and funds by the government and school administration. Its further recommended teacher counsellors to be employed on full time basis, time allocated for G&C sessions and the workload of teacher counsellors be reduced. Keywords: Challenges, Teacher Counsellor. Guidance and Counselling Programm

Socio-Demographic Factors Associated with Alcohol Abuse among Egerton University Students in Njoro-Kenya

The main objective of higher institutions of learning in Kenya is to provide education and growth experiences for its students but alcohol abuse has continued to be a problem in the university campuses that is slowing down their progress and the Kenya vision 2030 that envisages a healthy population free from the impact of alcohol abuse through the reduction of the prevalence and the impact of alcohol abuse disorders in order to attain the highest possible level of physical, social and mental health. Despite the growing problems of global alcohol abuse, accurate information on the prevalence of alcohol abuse among university students in Kenya is still inadequate. The study therefore aimed to determine the socio-demographic factors associated to alcohol abuse among the Egerton University students. This was a cross sectional study among 355 students of Egerton university Njoro campus. Stratified random sampling was utilized to select the study sample and a questionnaire was used to collect the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data with an aid of SPSS version 18.0. Data presentation was done using frequency tables, charts and in narratives. The study was cleared by the Kenyatta National Hospital and the University of Nairobi ethics board. The study found significant association between the prevalence of alcohol abuse and the year of study, marital status, family's economic status and  the living arrangements (with whom). There was no significant association between the prevalence of alcohol abuse and age, programme of study undertaken and place of residence. It was concluded that alcohol is associated with year of study, marital status, family economic status and living arrangement. Based on the findings of this study, there is need to detect, strengthen various policies and programmes and accordingly make changes to address the factors that contribute to socio-demographic factors associated with alcohol abuse in the institutions of higher learning in Kenyan. The findings of the study will help Commission of University Education (CUE) to better understand the current situation and accordingly make changes to address the factors that contribute to alcohol abuse in these institutions. Keywords: Alcohol, Prevalence, Alcohol abuse, Socio-demographic factors

The Prevalence of Alcohol Abuse Among Egerton University Students in Njoro-Kenya

The main objective of higher institutions of learning in Kenya is to provide education and growth experiences for its students but alcohol abuse has continued to be a problem in the university campuses that is slowing down their progress and the Kenya vision 2030 that envisages a healthy population free from the impact of alcohol abuse through the reduction of the prevalence and the impact of alcohol abuse disorders in order to attain the highest possible level of physical, social and mental health. Despite the growing problems of global alcohol abuse, accurate information on the prevalence of alcohol abuse among university students in Kenya is still inadequate. The study therefore aimed to determine the prevalence of alcohol abuse among the Egerton University students. This was a cross sectional study which investigated the prevalence of alcohol abuse among 355 students of Egerton university Njoro campus. Stratified random sampling was utilized to select the study group and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence of alcohol abuse. Data was analysed using SPSS version 18.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Data presentation was done using frequency tables, charts and in narratives. The study was cleared by the Kenyatta National Hospital and the University of Nairobi ethics board. The study found out that the prevalence of alcohol abuse among Egerton University students is 21.1 %. The study found significant association between the prevalence of alcohol abuse and the year of study, marital status, family's economic status and  the living arrangements (with whom). There was no significant association between the prevalence of alcohol abuse and age, programme of study undertaken and place of residence. It was concluded that alcohol abuse is prevalent among Egerton university students and is associated with year of study, marital status, family economic status and living arrangement. Based on the findings of this study, there is need to detect, strengthen various policies and programmes and accordingly make changes to address the factors that contribute to alcohol abuse in the institutions of higher learning in Kenyan. The findings of the study will help Commission of University Education (CUE) to better understand the current situation and accordingly make changes to address the factors that contribute to alcohol abuse in these institutions. Keywords: Alcohol abuse, prevalence, alcohol, socio demographic factor

Assessment of soil erosion and climate variability on Kerio Valley Basin, Kenya

This study was aimed at assessing soil erosion, climate variation and how climate has affected both the agro climatic and agro-ological zones of Kerio Valley basin. The basin faces challenges especially soil loss, due to the massive degradation that takes place in Kerio valley. Due to the increase in rainfall recently experienced in the area, most of the top soil has been carried away leading to excessive degradation of the valley, causing soil loss in the basin and subsequent deposition of the sediments in Lake Kamnarok which is an oxbow lake posing it to the threat of extinction. All these aforementioned factors, i.e. soil erosion, climate variation and land degradation have contributed to reduction of water storage capacity of the Lake. The main objective of this study was to assess the effects of soil erosion, climate variation on the basin and climate effect on agro-climatic and agro-ecological zones of the basin. Agro-climatic zones show how climate variability shapes agricultural landscape of an area while agro-ological zones show how agriculture affects the ecology of the basin. This includes the reduction of the lake size that has led to the disruption of the ecology of Lake Kamnarok and its environs, the major implications being the lake size reduction as the lake is proved to be a home for reptiles especially crocodiles. All these factors were finally assessed to determine their effect on water reduction capacity of Lake Kamnarok. The results depicted that the major factors that have caused changes in the basin and the Lake include heavy rainfall that has resulted in soil erosion and subsequent land degradation. These factors have eventually affected the agroclimatic and agroecological zones of the basin. This study integrated the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) to assess the areas with massive degradation and to quantify the amount of soil loss using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model. It was concluded that the main factor that caused the changes in the agroclimatic and the agroecological zones was soil erosion which was influenced by climatic factors, i.e. rainfall and temperature

Phosphorus legacy: role of long-term soil phosphorus accumulation in the sustainable management of intensive agroecosystems

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for all organisms. Phosphate rock is primarily utilised for the manufacture of P fertilisers, and is a finite resource. Most agricultural lands worldwide present low levels of available soil P, thus requiring P inputs for productive agriculture. However, constant P inputs result in accumulation of soil P (legacy P), increasing risk of eutrophication of waterways. Efficient P use of agriculture require improvements in utilisation of legacy P. The objective of this work was to investigate and quantify the impact of contrasting agricultural land uses and management on the nature and dynamics of P. Three long-term, replicated field trials were selected: i) long-term irrigation trial, Winchmore, New Zealand; ii) long-term pig slurry inputs, Santa Catarina, Brazil; iii) long-term ecology trial, Lincoln, New Zealand. Four experiments were conducted. The first study investigated the impact of 62 years of irrigation on the amounts and distribution of soil profile P to 100 cm under grazed pasture. Despite identical P inputs, total soil profile P accumulation was inversely proportional to water input rates (6423, 5908 and 5054 kg P ha⁻¹ for the control, low and high irrigation rates, respectively). Differences were mainly attributed to inorganic P forms. Phosphorus removal and transfer/loss occurred under irrigation. For a 3-fold increase in irrigation frequency, P removal in irrigation outwash increased by 13-fold. Combined, annual removal in animal products, internal transfer, and outwash losses were directly related to irrigation frequency and increased from 8 to 18.6 kg P ha⁻¹ for treatments receiving annually, 2.6 or 7.7 100-mm irrigations, respectively. The second experiment quantified the impacts of P inputs in pig slurry to a high P-sorbing Oxisol under cropping in southern Brazil. Fifteen years of slurry additions resulted in P accumulations and vertical movement proportional to application rates. However, changes were confined to the 0-20 cm depth. Phosphorus accumulated mainly in inorganic forms. Slurry input rates of 25, 50, 100 and 200 m³ ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ resulted in accumulations of 25, 57, 106 and 159 kg P ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ (0-40 cm), where 8, 10, 23 and 28 kg P ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ were organic P forms. Mass balance confirmed that most of P added to the system accumulated in the soil. The third and fourth experiments assessed, respectively, long-term and short-term impacts of plant biomass retention or removal in soil biogeochemical properties after 20 years, in absence of P inputs. Grassland plants utilised 35% of the P legacy, mainly from inorganic forms. Plant production and P uptake were up to 2-fold higher for the biomass retained comparatively to biomass removed. Mineralisation of soil organic P was limited following P depletion. Contrastingly, despite increased microbial P immobilisation soils under biomass retained, 20% faster turnover rates and 2-fold increase in P fluxes through microbial biomass were observed. The collective findings of this research show that legacy P in soils plays a dominant role in determining P availability as influenced by land management. Further research is necessary to investigate strategies to enhance legacy P mobilisation and utilisation by plants

Modelling maize yield sensitivity to abiotic stresses in East Africa: integration of crop modelling and synthetic climate change scenarios

Climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural production in East Africa (EA). In this study, we synthesized the DSSAT-CERES-Maize model calibrated and evaluated experiments to analyze the sensitivity of climatic variables on maize yield in the region. We used calibrated cultivar coefficients of locally adopted varieties in twelve sites across the region. Consequently, we generated synthetic scenarios of precipitation and temperature changes in line with the plausible projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to characterize the impact of climate change on maize production across the region. Our findings reveal that the impacts of climate change are heterogeneous and vary from location to location. The analysis points to adverse effects in the semi-arid zones, with maize production in Katumani (Kenya), Dodoma (Tanzania), and Ruzizi (Rwanda) expected to decline by -25% to -30% under an extreme temperature rise of + 3 °C and a 30% decline in precipitation. The results also reveal that increased precipitation will compensate for yield losses resulting from elevated temperatures in both arid and humid zones. The potential yield gain under increased precipitation and warming is 16%, 18%, and 5% in Katumani, Dodoma, and Morogoro (Tanzania), respectively. The study recommends site-specific soil, water, and land management adaptation strategies. Strategies for soil and water conservation are recommended for dry regions, whereas approaches such as varying sowing dates are recommended for semi-humid to humid zones. Nutrient enhancement and cultivar variation might be feasible in both contexts

Synergism between feremycorrhizal symbiosis and free-living diazotrophs leads to improved growth and nutrition of wheat under nitrogen deficiency conditions

A controlled-environment study was conducted to explore possible synergistic interactions between the feremycorrhizal (FM) fungus Austroboletus occidentalis and soil free-living N2-fixing bacteria (diazotrophs). Wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants were grown under N deficiency conditions in a field soil without adding microbial inoculum (control: only containing soil indigenous microbes), or inoculated with a consortium containing four free-living diazotroph isolates (diazotrophs treatment), A. occidentalis inoculum (FM treatment), or both diazotrophs and A. occidentalis inoculums (dual treatment). After 7 weeks of growth, significantly greater shoot biomass was observed in plants inoculated with diazotrophs (by 25%), A. occidentalis (by 101%), and combined inoculums (by 106%), compared to the non-inoculated control treatment. All inoculated plants also had higher shoot nutrient contents (including N, P, K, Mg, Zn, Cu, and Mn) than the control treatment. Compared to the control and diazotrophs treatments, significantly greater shoot N content was observed in the FM treatment (i.e., synergism between the FM fungus and soil indigenous diazotrophs). Dually inoculated plants had the highest content of nutrients in shoots (e.g., N, P, K, S, Mg, Zn, Cu, and Mn) and soil total N (13–24% higher than the other treatments), i.e., synergism between the FM fungus and added diazotrophs. Root colonization by soil indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi declined in all inoculated plants compared to control. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons revealed that the FM fungus modified the soil microbiome. Our in vitro study indicated that A. occidentalis could not grow on substrates containing lignocellulosic materials or sucrose, but grew on media supplemented with hexoses such as glucose and fructose, indicating that the FM fungus has limited saprotrophic capacity similar to ectomycorrhizal fungi. The results revealed synergistic interactions between A. occidentalis and soil free-living diazotrophs, indicating a potential to boost microbial N2 fixation for non-legume crops

Exploring the plant and soil mechanisms by which crop rotations benefit farming systems

Crop rotation, which involves growing a sequence of different plant species on the same land (Karlen et al. 1994), has been a valued farm practice for thousands of years. According to Parker (1920), crop rotation evolved primarily from experiential learning. This technique was developed by early farmers to improve soil productivity, as they had experienced low yields due to continuous cropping with a single species. However, monoculture, cultivating the same crop year after year on the same land, has re-emerged in many parts of the world, driven by the goals of food security and economic benefit. Increased use of inorganic fertilizer in the monoculture system has masked land degradation trends and avoided crop yield loss but there have been impacts on sustainability of farming systems

Organic phosphorus in the terrestrial environment: a perspective on the state of the art and future priorities

Background The dynamics of phosphorus (P) in the environment is important for regulating nutrient cycles in natural and managed ecosystems and an integral part in assessing biological resilience against environmental change. Organic P (Po) compounds play key roles in biological and ecosystems function in the terrestrial environment being critical to cell function, growth and reproduction. Scope We asked a group of experts to consider the global issues associated with Po in the terrestrial environment, methodological strengths and weaknesses, benefits to be gained from understanding the Po cycle, and to set priorities for Po research. Conclusions We identified seven key opportunities for Po research including: the need for integrated, quality controlled and functionally based methodologies; assessment of stoichiometry with other elements in organic matter; understanding the dynamics of Po in natural and managed systems; the role of microorganisms in controlling Po cycles; the implications of nanoparticles in the environment and the need for better modelling and communication of the research. Each priority is discussed and a statement of intent for the Po research community is made that highlights there are key contributions to be made toward understanding biogeochemical cycles, dynamics and function of natural ecosystems and the management of agricultural systems