The study assessed the impact of Shell Petroleum Development Company's (SPDC) sustainable community development (SCD) approach to interventions in the Niger Delta region. It specifically assessed performance of projects implemented through SCD approach against projects' objectives and also assessed projects impact on livelihood activities of the beneficiaries. A desk review of SPDC's approaches to project implementation was done and a field work was carried out during which opinion leaders, youth, women leaders were interviewed and field observation of the projects were made. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and composite index. Response on the level of performance of SPDC's agricultural intervention revealed that the project performance was high, but there was an average level of impact on the livelihood activities of the beneficiaries as it did not exceed 0.699 index range. It was concluded that the SCD approach used for the implementation of the community projects was less effective, thus the project objectives were not fully achieved. Therefore, SPDC should re-strategize her community development initiatives to achieve her goal of sustainability.

The study assessed farmers’ awareness and adoption of maize production technologies in Punjab Province, Pakistan. A simple random sampling technique was used to collect data from 120 farmers in the study area through personal interview using a structured interview schedule. The study found that 48.3% of the respondents had obtained information about agricultural practices from extension agents and that 65% of the respondents regularly visited the agricultural extension department. Furthermore, 62.5% of the respondents had a high awareness about improved maize cultivation practices and 53% had already adopted the techniques. Farmers who visited the agricultural extension department had a higher awareness and were more likely to adopt improved maize cultivation practices compared with farmers who did not visit the agricultural extension department. Farmers’ education level, cultivated area, and whether they visited the extension department were the key determinants of adoption of new technologies. Government policies in the province should aim to improve methods of extension delivery for the implementation of effective farming practices in small-scale farming systems. Key words: Awareness, adoption, farmers, agricultural extension, maize, Pakistan.

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The Paper assessed self-efficacy of secondary school agricultural science towards climate-friendly farming. It specifically examined the influence that attitude towards climate-friendly farming, knowledge of climate change and ownership of household farms could have on the climate-friendly farming self-efficacy of the respondents. Correlation analysis, chi-square, percentages and composite index technique were applied to a set of primary data collected from 200 randomly sampled agricultural science students in 4 randomly selected schools in Uyo, AKS. Findings revealed that 52% of the respondents have high climate-friendly farming self-efficacy. The respondents had a positive attitudinal disposition towards climate-friendly farming. Most (48.5%) of the respondents had low knowledge of climate change. There is a need for stakeholders to translate the high climate-friendly farming self-efficacy observed among the respondents into climate-smart farming through a conscious effort at increasing their participation in practical farming activities both in school and home farms. There is a need to include climate change issues in secondary school curriculum to raise the knowledge level of the agricultural students on climate change. Students, upon the acquisition of this knowledge and skills, would help in the extension of innovative and efficient farming methods to their households and communities thereby complementing government efforts in the extension of modern and acceptable practices in farming.

This work reflects the extraction process of oil and pectin from grape peels using a response surface method in which a central composite rotatable design of 25 and 35 was used for the two extractions. Output temperatures (80–100°C) and heating times (5–9 hours) were used for oil extraction, while (80 -100oC) and heating times (20 – 60 minutes) and a pH of extract (1.0 – 3.0) were selected for pectin removal. Oil yield ranged from 7.90 - 15.30%, while pectin yield ranged from 19.90 – 35.70%. A maximum oil yield of 15.30% was obtained at a temperature of 90oC at a heating time of 9.0 hours, while a maximum yield of pectin of 35.70% was obtained at a pH of 2.5, 95oC temperature and 50 minutes heating time. The optimum value for oil production was 15.63% at an average temperature of 99.64oC and heating time of 8.99 hours, while the average value of pectin yield was 38.01% at an output temperature of 94.00oC, the period release time of 58.00 minutes with a pH of 2.00. The deviation between the experimental and predicted values was low and not significant. All processing conditions have important impacts on the extraction of oil and pectin from grape peels.