Water-Energy-Food Accessibility and Tracking Progress towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in the Savannah Region of Katsina State, Nigeria

Although remarkable progress has been achieved in reducing hunger and poverty and improving people’s health in the past couple of decades, humanity still faces considerable socio-economic and sustainability challenges. Ensuring sustainable access to safe and sufficient water, improved sanitation facilities, clean energy sources and healthy food is a necessary requirement for ending hunger and poverty, advancing health and achieving all the goals of the sustainable development agenda. Socio-economic variables are determinant factors of water, energy and food accessibility. Ecological region, income and education are measures used in this study, which aims to examine a pairwise comparison of water and energy sources, sanitation facilities and food accessibilities in six sampling communities and tracking progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDG) at a local scale using nine specific SDG indicators. A study involving questionnaire administration covering 1785 households across the three ecological regions of Katsina state was performed. Two communities representing urban and rural households from each of the ecological regions were selected. An analysis of variance was used to test the equality of resource accessibility across the investigated communities followed up by a post hoc analysis to identify significant mean groups. The results showed that the overall access level to safely manage water and sanitation facilities were 16.5% and 28.1%, respectively. Access indices of 1.83 and 1.24 for electricity and cooking fuel, respectively, were calculated in the study area. The study revealed that location, education and income are the key drivers of water, energy and food access and choice.

Differentiation and Variability in the Rhizosphere and Endosphere Microbiomes of Healthy and Diseased Cotton (Gossypium sp.)

The plant microbiome is a key determinant of health and productivity. However, it is still difficult to understand the structural composition of the bacterial and fungal microbiomes of diseased and healthy plants, especially the spatial dynamics and phylogenies of endophytic and rhizosphere microbial communities. We studied the differentiation and variability in the rhizosphere and endosphere microbiomes of healthy and diseased cotton from north and south of the Tianshan Mountains using the methods of PCR-based high-throughput sequencing and real-time quantitative PCR. The endophytic and rhizosphere bacterial abundances in the diseased plants were greater than those of healthy plants. The numbers of endophytic and rhizosphere fungi associated with diseased plants were greater than those associated healthy plants (p < 0.05). Endophytic and rhizosphere bacteria did not share common OTUs. The dominant rhizosphere bacteria were Proteobacteria (29.70%), Acidobacteria (23.14%), Gemmatimonadetes (15.17%), Actinobacteria (8.31%), Chloroflexi (7.99%), and Bacteroidetes (5.15%). The dominant rhizosphere fungi were Ascomycota (83.52%), Mortierellomycota (7.67%), Basidiomycota (2.13%), Chytridiomycota (0.39%), and Olpidiomycota (0.08%). The distribution of dominant bacteria in different cotton rhizosphere soils and roots differed, with the dominant bacteria Pseudomonas (15.54%) and Pantoea (9.19%), and the dominant fungi Alternaria (16.15%) and Cephalotrichum (9.10%) being present in the greatest numbers. At sampling points in different ecological regions, the total numbers of cotton endophytic and rhizosphere microbiome OTUs from southern to northern Xinjiang showed an increasing trend. There were significant differences in the composition and diversity of rhizosphere microbes and endophytes during the entire cotton growth period and in representative ecological regions (p < 0.01), whereas rhizosphere microbes and endophytes showed no significant differences among the four growth periods and in representative ecological regions. RB41, H16, Nitrospira, and Sphingomonas play important roles in the microbial ecology of cotton rhizosphere soil. Pseudomonas accounted for a large proportion of the microbes in the cotton rhizosphere soil. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the complex microbial composition and diversity associated with cotton north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.

Negative Binomial Distribution to Explain the Domestic Fire Incidence in Nepal

Background: Fire disaster is one of the most destructive disasters. According to global dataset of Sendai Framework, domestic fire incidence was 9.9% up to 2019. In Nepal, 62% fire incidence was reported during 2017 and 2018. However, many studies have been conducted on fire incidence, few of them are based on domestic fire incidence. Objective: To find the descriptive statistics of fire occurrences and fire fatalities, and to identify the probability distributions that best fit the data of fire occurrences observed in three ecological regions as well as overall in Nepal. Material and Methods: The data of fire incidences from May 2011 to April 2021 were retrieved from Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction Portal, Government of Nepal. At first, a statistical software "Mathwave EasyFit" of 30 days trial version was used to identify the candidate probability models. Further, the best probability model was determined after testing the goodness of fit of the candidate models by using graphical tools-histogram and theoretical densities, empirical and theoretical CDFs, Q-Q plot and P-P plot; and mathematical tools-maximum likelihood, Akaike Information Criteria and Bayesian Information Criteria by using the package “fitdistrplus” of software R version 4.1.1. Results: On an average, 135 fire incidences per month were occurred in Nepal. However, the Terai faced the highest monthly fire incidences compared to the Hill and the Mountain, it has less fatality per 100 fire incidence followed by the Hill and the Mountain. Descriptive statistics reveals that fire occurrences are moderate during November to February and high in March and April. The fire incidences were reported high during spring and winter and low during summer and autumn season which reveals that fire incidence might be related with the precipitation and temperature. The sample data was run in "Mathwave EasyFit" software which suggested Poisson, geometric and negative binomial distribution as candidate probability models. The goodness of fit of these models were further tested by graphical as well as mathematical tools where negative binomial distribution was found to be best among the candidate models for the data set. Conclusion: Incidence of fire disasters varies by ecological regions as well as by seasons. It is low in the Mountain region and during Monsoon/rainy season. Negative binomial distribution fits the best to monthly data of fire incidence in Nepal.

Productivity of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa L.) Genotypes Across Different Agro-Ecological Regions of Oman

Background: Quinoa has the great potentiality of its expansion in world agriculture owing to its resilient traits of productivity under marginal conditions across varying altitudes, soil and climatic conditions with extreme levels of abiotic factors like moisture stress, high temperature and salinity as influenced by climatic change. It offers a crop of food security in several countries that have begun the trials of evaluation since the early 1980s leading to the rapid expansion of its cultivation in other countries after the United Nation’s declaration for 2013 as “Year of Quinoa” to promote its production as a grain crop. In this view, five quinoa genotypes were evaluated for their yield, agronomic performance and adaptability at three locations across different agro-ecological regions of Oman. Methods: Five quinoa genotypes Amarilla Marangani, Amarilla Sacaca, Blanca de junin, Kancolla and Salcedo INIA, received from the Oman FAO office in 2016, were evaluated for three consecutive years from 2016/2017 to 2018/2019 during the winter season (October to March) at national agriculture research stations located at Rumais in South Batinah governorate, AlKamil in South Sharqia governorate and Sohar in North Batinah governorate. The experiments were conducted on the sites containing sandy loam soil under Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) involving these five genotypes with four replications under a drip-irrigation system with varying levels of irrigation water salinity. The irrigation and fertilizers were applied as per national recommendations. The characters viz. chlorophyll content, plant height (cm), number of branches, inflorescence length (cm), days to maturity and grain yield (ton/ha) were recorded at appropriate times of growth of crops at all locations. Grain samples were subjected to proximate analysis. The data on yield and yield contributing characters were subjected to multi-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) using GenStat Statistical Package v12. Results: The results indicated that among the effects of main factors viz. genotypes, locations and years, all the effects were highly significant (p<0.01) in respect of plant height and grain yield, whereas for a number of branches, all the main effects except genotypes were highly significant (p<0.01). In respect of chlorophyll content (SPAD value), effects of genotype and years were found significant (p<0.05) and whereas for inflorescence length, effects of locations and years were highly significant (p<0.05). Genotype Amarllia Sacaca had the highest plant height (135 cm), followed by genotype Salcedo INIA (117 cm) during the winter season of 2016/2017. The highest grain yield of 5.40 t ha-1) obtained was harvested at Agriculture Research Station, Rumais where Amarllia Sacaca produced the highest (8.86 t ha-1). The protein content was highest (17.49%) in the genotype Amarllia Maranagani. Irrespective of genotypes, locations and years, the quinoa crop had acceptable performance in terms of 107.47 cm plant height, 18 number of branches, 44.47 SPDA value (chlorophyll) and 31.96 cm inflorescence length with an average yield of 3.83 t ha-1. Conclusion: Quinoa has been found to be highly adaptable to Northern agro-ecological regions (South and North Batinah Governorates) of Oman, and genotypes evaluated can be successfully introduced for general cultivation in Northern Oman.

Diversity of Agroforestry Species and Uses in Two Ecological Regions: A Case from Central Nepal

Multiple benefits of the agroforestry systems attract the attention of the global community and are being practiced in Nepal from time immemorial. However, there is minimal evidence of the diversity of species and the use value of plants and their comparative analysis in ecological regions. This study compares the diversity and use value of plants grown in the agroforestry system (home garden) in two separate ecological regions in central Nepal. The frequently used diversity indices were used to measure species diversity. A total of 130 and 99 species, 96 and 69 genera, and 50 and 40 families were reported from home gardens in the Terai and midhill ecological regions, respectively, where 58 species were common for both. The findings reveal Terai farmer prefers ornamental plants over fruit and fodder in the midhills indicating that horticulture and livestock-based livelihood could be enhanced in the hilly region. The diversity indices indicate a higher diversity of plants in the Terai region than in midhills. However, Mann–Whitney U test showed an insignificant difference in species diversity between the regions. Moreover, the chi-square test revealed that there is no significant variation in the use diversity for the regions. The results demonstrate similar plant diversity in the home garden despite the difference in ecological regions and species varieties. The finding assists in understanding the composition of biodiversity in agroforestry systems in specific areas of two different ecological zones and provides insight into the agroforestry for species preferences and use-related decisions. Future research with established management procedures may be required to confirm these findings and provide agroforestry establishment criteria for agricultural sustainability.

Factors Affecting Use of Formal Agricultural Credit among Smallholder Farmers in Western Nepal

Formal agricultural credit is important for sustainable development of agriculture sector and national economy, particularly in developing countries. Yet, many smallholder farmers lack participation in formal credit market. An investigation was done during 2019 in two main agro-ecological regions (hill and terai region) of western Nepal. Probit model was used to identify the factors affecting the use of formal agricultural credit among smallholder farmers. The results revealed that use of formal agricultural credit increases with age, education, commercial nature of production, and collateral availability, and decreases with number of adult in household, farming experience and farm size. The study concludes with key policy recommendations. Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 8, Issue-4: 457-462.

Impacts of Human Activities on Ecosystem Service Value in Arid and Semi-Arid Ecological Regions of China

The quantitative and spatial–temporal variations in the characteristics of ecosystem value can be helpful to improve environmental protection and climate adaptation measures and adjust the balance between economic development and the ecological environment. The arid and semi-arid regions of China are undergoing the effects of climate change across the entire northern hemisphere. Their ecological environments are fragile and in conflict with anthropogenic activities, which significantly altered more ecosystems services in these regions. Therefore, estimating the effects of anthropogenic activities on ecosystem services is important for formulating ecological policy and regional environmental mitigation plans of these regions. This study employed the model of ecosystem service value (ESV) assessment and the bivariate spatial autocorrelation method to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in the characteristics of ecosystem value in the arid and semi-arid ecological regions of China and its interaction with human activities. Results showed that (1) the total value of ES of the study area increased from USD 487,807 billion in 2000 to USD 67,831,150 billion 2020; (2) the ES value provided by forest land first increased by 5.60% from 2000 to 2020; (3) the ESV provided by grassland showed an overall decline over the 20 years. Food and raw material production showed the lowest ES value, and climate regulation and soil conservation decreased from 2000 to 2020; (4) the index of human footprint patches decreased from 45.80% in 2000 to 17.63% in 2020, while the high and very high human footprint index areas increased significantly, mainly due to the rapid urbanization and improvement of railway networks in these areas. Spatially, the regions with high human footprint were mostly dispersed in the northeastern of China such as Shanxi and Gansu, whereas the regions with a low human footprint remained mainly located in the central and southwestern parts of China; (5) significant spatial dependencies between changes in ESV and the human footprint index were recorded. Our study could provide a scientific basis for ecosystem functions regulation and land development security in arid and semi-arid ecological regions.

Species Diversity of Trichoderma Associated With Soil In The Zoige Alpine Wetland of Southwest China

Background: The Zoige alpine wetland is one of the most important wetlands in China because of its complex natural environment, abundant ecological resources, and unique climatic conditions. The ecology of soil fungi is poorly understood, and recent comprehensive reports on Trichoderma are not available for any region, including the Zoige alpine wetland ecological region in China. Our results may be used as a reference for a greater understanding of soil microorganism at various ecological regions, ecological rehabilitation and reconstruction and as microbial resources. Results: One hundred soil samples were collected from different soil types and soil layers in Zoige alpine wetland ecological regions in 2013. Using the traditional suspension plating method, a total of 80 Trichoderma strains were isolated. After a preliminary classification of morphological characteristics and the genes glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd), 57 strains were representatively selected and eventually identified as seven species via phylogenetic analyses of multilocus sequences based on the genes transcription elongation factor 1 alpha (tef1), encoding RNA polymerase II subunit B (rpb2) and ATP citrate lyase (acl1). Among them, Trichoderma harzianum was the dominant species and had the highest isolation frequency (23%) in this zone, while Trichoderma polysporum and Trichoderma pyramidale were rare species, with isolation frequencies of less than 1%.Conclusions: Our detailed morphological observation and molecular phylogenetic analyses support the recognition of Trichoderma zoigense was described for the first time as a new species.

Climate variables effect on fruiting pattern of Kinnow mandarin (Citrus nobilis Lour × C. deliciosa Tenora) grown at different agro-climatic regions

Kinnow orchards grown in different agro-ecological regions of Punjab, Pakistan, namely Sargodha, Toba Tek Singh (TTS) and Vehari districts, were selected to assess the effect of climate variables on fruit-bearing patterns. Experiment was laid out in RCBD while selecting identical features Kinnow plants and labeled twigs at analogous canopy positions in all three sites. Temperature was reported higher in TTS and Vehari areas, while relative humidity in Sargodha accounted for different levels of agrometeorological indices by computing more variations in warm districts. Climate variables influenced fruit-bearing habits and vegetative growth trend in all three flushes while recording heavy fruit-bearing plants during on-year and light fruit-bearing in off-year at Vehari. Similarly, three vegetative flushes were recorded unevenly in all three sites due to different fruit-bearing patterns induced by climate variables. Harvesting pattern of orchards began earlier in Sargodha, where maximum orchards were harvested before new flowering to add evenness to fruiting habits during on & off-years. In warm conditions, fruit ripening arrived in the peak of winter and mostly domestic market-driven harvesting resulted in late start of fruit picking with more erratic fruit-bearing habits. Both physiological and pathological fruit drops have been significantly affected by climate variables with a higher degree of physiological drop in warm regions and pathological effects in the humid conditions of Sargodha on heavy fruit-bearing plants. Fruit yield and grading quality were also affected in both seasons by showing more asymmetrical trend in yield and fruit grading in warm areas of TTS and Vehari due to an irregular fruiting pattern compared to Sargodha. From now on, the climate variables of the three sites directly influenced the fruiting patterns, vegetative flushes, fruit drops, yields and grades of Kinnow mandarin.