Cotton response to fruiting branch removal (FBR) is critical information in estimating plant recovery potential and making management decisions after hail storms or other physical damages. Fruiting branches were removed at first bloom (R8), 2.5‐cm boll (R12) and peak bloom (R16) growth stages. Five FBR treatments were conducted at each of the above three growth stages: 0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 %. At harvest, five plants were randomly chosen from each plot and branches separated into three groups: vegetative, lower and upper fruiting branches. Lower fruiting branches were from the nodes where FBR treatments were conducted, whereas upper fruiting branches were the new branches developed after FBR. Seed cotton weight, open boll number and node number in each group were recorded. Fruiting branch removal increased boll number, boll size and boll/node on the upper fruiting branches, which compensated yield loss on lower fruiting branches. Generally, FBR at the first bloom reduced cotton yield more than it did at the 2.5‐cm boll and peak bloom growth stages when FBR percentage was lower than 75 %. The removal of all 16 fruiting branches at peak bloom reduced cotton yield by 16.8 %, indicating remarkable compensation ability by cotton plants in climates with a long growing season.

To describe the construction and testing of a portable point-of-care low-field MRI system on site in Africa.Methods: All of the components to assemble a 50 mT Halbach magnet-based system, together with the necessary tools, were air-freighted from the Netherlands to Uganda. The construction steps included individual magnet sorting, filling of each ring of the magnet assembly, fine-tuning the inter-ring separations of the 23-ring magnet assembly, gradient coil construction, integration of gradient coils and magnet assembly, construction of the portable aluminum trolley and finally testing of the entire system with an open source MR spectrometer.Results: With four instructors and six untrained personnel, the complete project from delivery to first image took approximately 11 days.Conclusions: An important step in translating scientific developments in the western world from high-income industrialized countries to low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) is to produce technology that can be assembled and ultimately constructed locally. Local assembly and construction are associated with skill development, low costs and jobs. Point-of-care systems have a large potential to increase the accessibility and sustainability of MRI in LMICs, and this work demonstrates that technology and knowledge transfer can be performed relatively seamlessly.

Camel production is a potential avenue for improved food and income security in dryland areas of East Africa. Despite this potential, there is a dearth of information on the increasing choice of camel production among pastoralists in the region. Camel-owning households were obtained through snowball sampling approach whereas those without camels were obtained randomly in the vicinity of those who had camels. A total of 116 respondents were interviewed in Moroto and Amudat districts of the Karamoja sub-region, Uganda. Descriptive statistics and binary probit regression analysis were conducted on the data. Results showed that 45% of the sampled households owned camels with an average camel holding of 17.96 ± 22.12 heads. There were more cows (9.67 ± 12.368) than bulls (3.85 ± 7.149) in the camel herds. Only 8% and 26% of camel herders had access to extension services and financial credit respectively. The binary probit regression model revealed that age of the household head, household size, on-farm income and herd size significantly influenced the decision to undertake camel production in the region. Furthermore, all the household members were engaged in different camel management activities; however, herding was mainly the responsibility of the children (34.9%) and adult males (32.1%). Milking was mainly done by women (33.6%) while disease management was done by adult males (48.7%) and the elderly (22%) in the household. Provision of higher milk quantities (44.3%) and camels being in the lineage (13.6%) were cited as the key motivations for camel rearing. On the other hand, 56% of respondents observed that the initial high cost of camel acquisition was the main limitation to owning camels. This study has shown that decision-making in transitioning to camel production in Karamoja is a result of socio-economic attributes including pastoralists' perceptions of associated costs and benefits arising from camel production. Therefore, it is vital to strengthen innovative financing mechanisms and traditional systems such as agistments that can support pastoralists willing to acquire camels. There is need for extension services that target camel rearing where women and children are involved given their central role in camel management.

Recurrent and prolonged droughts have exacerbated the problems of pasture and water scarcity in arid and semiarid lands (ASALs), hence, the need for immediate and long-term adaption strategies to such shocks. Camels are increasingly being integrated into mainstream livestock production systems as an adaptation strategy to droughts. However, rigorous empirical evidence remains scarce on the role of camel-rearing in household resilience to droughts. This study used cross-sectional data from 116 households in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda to examine the effect of camel adoption on household resilience to drought. Resilience to drought was measured as an index constructed from consumption-and income-smoothing indicators using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. The effect of camel adoption on household resilience to droughts was estimated using Lewbel's estimator. Descriptive statistics show that camel tropical livestock units (TLUs) constituted 25% of the total TLUs of the herd among adopting households. PCA analysis shows that income-smoothing factors (increased off-farm income and alternative sources of income) had the greatest contribution to resilience. Econometric results show that a unit increase in the proportion of camel TLUs significantly increased household resilience to droughts by 20%. The study recommends increased emphasis on income diversification both on-farm and off-farm across programmes that aim to build pastoral household resilience to droughts.