If a climate signal could be detected at state or regional level, it would be useful to policy planners, agricultural authority and farmers to prepare for climate change. This study, therefore, employed a statistical model to investigate the relationship between the yield of cowpea and temperature (in centigrade) and precipitation (in millimeters) for the period 1961 -2006 at state levels in Nigeria. The analyses were based on all the twenty major cowpea producing states for the main period 1961 -2006. Data for annual yield of cowpea for all the time period were collected from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (N.B.S). Data on the two important climate variables required for crop growth -temperature and precipitation -at state in Nigeria were obtained from the Nigerian Metrological Agency. The response of cowpea yield to climate change varied from one geographical location to the other. The results indicated negative and significant relationship between cowpea yield and temperature in six of the twenty states producing cowpea in the country. Five of the six states are in the northern part while the remaining one is in the south. The results of the relationship between the yield and precipitation were similar to those of temperature in the northern states, except Sokoto. There was a negative correlation between rainfall and cowpea yield in Adamawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Niger Plateau and Yobe. On the contrary, increase in precipitation will lead to increase in yield in the southern part except Kwara. The time trend is positive and significant in all the cases except in Adamawa, Bauchi and Jigawa where time trend was non significant though positive..These results also show that as the years pass by and climate factors run contrary to agricultural productivities, cowpea farmers were adopting new measures to cope with the negative effect of climate change. Through adaptation, the negative effects of climate change on cowpea yield could be reduced and the positive influences enhanced. Examples of potential adaptive measures include the introduction of drought or heat resistant varieties, early sowing, mixed cropping, alteration of the tillage system and utilization of land that has been considered too marginal for agricultural cultivation.The hottest cowpea producing state is Sokoto with average temperature of 34.30 o C followed by Kebbi state (figure 3). Other cowpea producing states with greater than 30 o C average annual temperature include Bauchi, Benue, Yobe and Kaduna. They are all in the northern part of the country. The coldest is Plateau state with the average annual temperature of 24.2 o C.
Cameroon is covered by about 20 million hectares of forests. Timber exploitation is the second source of external income after petroleum. Besides, Cameroon's forest has several other functions. Yet the threat to the very existence and survival of this forest is rapidly increasing due to overexploitation by logging companies and for firewood. Despite its usefulness, a substantial volume of the wood felled by timber exploiters is abandoned as waste to rot. This waste can be used as firewood by households even for building and making of furniture by small-scale users like carpenters if they had access to it.This paper encourages the use of timber waste as an alternative to kerosene, which has become very expensive and unaffordable due to the general rise in the price of petroleum products in recent years. The overexploitation of forests can therefore be limited by putting the waste timber into use. It will go along to reduce freshly cut wood which is usually cut illegally and uncontrollably and which is a major source of depletion of forest resources. This project, once achieved will forever last because it will always generate revenue to the groups involve in the collection and the distribution of forest waste which will make money from sales even if they were to sell cheaper since the major cost is transportation and the waste wood is also cheap to obtain from the logging companies or even costless since they have less interest in it.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.