Estimation of household food demand patterns and elasticity is often conceived as an important prerequisite for designing, predicting and analysing agricultural policy impacts. Based on this fact, this study sets out to estimate the food demand of rural households in the study area with a view to identifying its determinants and responsiveness to price and household food expenditure. The study employed a multi-stage sampling technique in the selection 254 rural households in Enugu state and the primary data collected were analysed using Descriptive statistics and Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model. The result of the descriptive statistics showed that the mean age, household size, and years of education of the sampled rural households were 49. 7±13.30, 7.0 ± 3.02, and 13.96±3.96. The result of the QUAIDS model revealed that all the expenditure elasticity for the selected staple food items were positive and hence, regarded as normal goods and In terms of magnitude, all the staple food items except rice and yam have expenditure elasticity less than one and are therefore, regarded as necessities. Own price elasticity were all negative as expected in both uncompensated and compensated price elasticity estimates. The Marshallian cross price elasticity estimates also revealed that almost all the selected staple food items have positive cross-price elasticity values indicating that they are net substitutes while the Hicksian/compensated cross price elasticity revealed that majority of the selected staple food items have negative cross-price elasticity values indicating that they are complements. However, the study further revealed that price, total food expenditure, sex, age, marital status, years of education, household size and household head income were the key determinants of the rural household demand for the selected staple food items in the study area. Based on the foregoing, the result of this study should inform the design of food security related policies aimed at improving the nutritional status of the poor and vulnerable households in the country.
Heavy metals like chromium do contaminate the environment that comprises of soil, water and air. It affects the growth of flora and fauna which in turn affect human health negatively. Chromium could also bio-accumulate in plants and animals and this becomes dangerous for survival of human if adequate steps are not taken for treatment of industrial and agricultural wastes. Therefore, the batch removal of Cr (VI) from environment water bodies becomes necessary. Its removal from aqueous solution using immobilized Bacillus subtilis (IBBS), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (IPBS), mixed biomass (IMBS) and Alginate alone (IABS) was carried out. The conditions of influence of initial Cr (VI) concentrations, solution pH, contact time, biomass dosage and temperature were studied. The sorption kinetic models of Cr (VI) onto the biosorbents were examined with pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order, and Elovich kinetics respectively. It was found that the experimental conditions affected the extent of removal of Cr (VI) from aqueous solution. The higher the initial concentration, the larger the amount of Cr (VI) removed while the higher the temperature the lesser the amount removed. The optimum contact time and adsorbent dose for effective removal of Cr (VI) from aqueous solution were found to be 60 mins and 0.01 g respectively. Pseudo second-order kinetic model best correlates the experimental data. Among isotherm models studied, Freundlich adsorption isotherm model gave the best fit.
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