Background: Potato plays a great role for the achievement of food security program due to its plasticity to environmental conditions and yielding capacity. However, its productivity is far less than other countries due to constraints threatening subsistence farms in Ethiopia. Therefore, potato production practices by smallholder farmers were assessed in Wolaita zone of southern Ethiopia to identify major factors constraining production of the crop. Data were collected at two stages, i.e., at a pilot survey and the time of basic data collection. Descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, and index ranking were used to analyze the data. Results:The descriptive statistical revealed that smallholder farmers have very small land (about 0.5 ha per household). Low access to and high prices of seed tubers of improved potato varieties (>0.25 USD kg −1 seed tubers) and scarcity of information on good fertilizer management practices for producing the crop with only a blanket rate of 147 and 135 kg ha −1 of urea and diammonium phosphate, respectively, limit potato production in the area. Furthermore, prevalence of diseases and low market prices of tubers at harvesting, but too expensive during planting period are the major constraints of potato production in the zone. In addition, results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that the occurrence of natural hazards, seeding rate and expensive price of improved seed tubers were important factors significantly influence potato productivity in Wolaita area. Likewise, disease problems, low market price of potato at harvesting time, storage problems, and lack of seed tubers were the four major constraints identified by index ranking. Conclusions:Results of this study revealed that potato production is constrained by a number of factors among which diseases, storage problems, low market prices of tubers at harvest, and insufficient quality seed tubers for planting were the four major constraints challenging potato production in the study area according to the index ranking method.
Background. Thrombocytopenia is the most common hematological abnormality in patients with acute malaria. This study aimed to determine the role of thrombocytopenia as a diagnostic marker for malaria in patients with acute febrile illness. Method. A cross-sectional health facility-based study was conducted on 423 consecutively selected acute febrile patients at Ataye District Hospital from February to May 2019 GC. A complete blood count and malaria microscopy were performed for each acute febrile patient. ROC curve analysis was performed to calculate sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of platelet count in predicting malaria. A P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result. Out of the 423 acute febrile patients, 73 (17.3%) were microscopically confirmed malaria cases and the rest 350 (82.7%) patients had negative blood film results. Of the microscopically confirmed malaria cases, 55 (75.34%) were P. vivax and 18 (24.66%) were P. falciparum. The prevalence of thrombocytopenia among malaria patients (79.5%) was significantly higher than those in malaria negative acute febrile patients (13.7%), P < 0.001. About 67% malaria-infected patients had mild to moderate thrombocytopenia and 12.3% had severe thrombocytopenia. The ROC analysis demonstrated platelet counts <150,000/μl as an optimal cutoff value with 0.893 area under the curve, 79.5% sensitivity, 86.3% specificity, 95.3% negative predictive value, and 54.7% positive predictive value to predict malaria. Conclusion. Malaria is still among the major public health problems in the country. Thrombocytopenia is a very good discriminatory test for the presence or absence of malaria with 79.5% sensitivity and 86.3% specificity. Therefore, this may be used in addition to the clinical and microscopic parameters to heighten the suspicion of malaria.
Profitability of different rates of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and five potato varieties (Bellete, Gudene, Jalene, Marachere and local check) was investigated in southern Ethiopia to find out rates of the nutrients and varieties that would give acceptable returns and likely to be adopted by smallholder farmers in the locality. Factorial combination of N (0, 55.5 and 111 kg/ha) and P (0, 19.5 and 39 kg/ha) were applied to the main plots while the five varieties were to the sub plots of split-plot design and replicated three times. Both factors had significant effect on tuber yield, but there were no significant interaction effect. Significant treatments of this experiment were, therefore, subjected to economic analysis using partial budget procedure. Economic analysis showed that 0:19.5, 55.5:19.5 and 55.5:39 kg NP/ha and varieties Bellete, Jalene and Marachere were economically superior and stable even within a price variability range of 20% in the locality. In conclusion, application of NP nutrients with the rate of 0:19.5, 55.5:19.5 or 55.5:39 kg/ha for the varieties Bellete, Jalene and Marachere were identified profitable treatments for lucrative production of potato in the study area.
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