No abstract

The objective of this research is to assess the livelihood diversification of the rural farmers in Kwara State. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample communities from which a total of 160 households were randomly selected for the study. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to collect data for the study. The quantitative technique involved the use of questionnaire while the qualitative involved the use of PRA tools. The study found that 47.3% of the sampled farmers are in the age range of 56 years and above. There are more adults 37-55 years (38%) than youths 19-36 years (14.7%) in the study area. The males (51.2%) outnumber the females (48.8%) while educational levels are relatively low among the population as 38% of the sample had no formal education. Of the total households facilitated during PRA, 53% were considered "asset poor," the major occupation for income generation in the communities was trading on non-farm produce (39.8%). Household size ranged from 5-8 (34.9%), 8 and above (33.3%) and 1-4 (31.8%). The study found that access to credit facilities was the major interest of the communities and existing groups were not strong enough to control market or operate as pressure group to influence access to credit facilities. Thus, the study recommends that a simple and functional microcredit delivery system that will enable them to access loans should be introduced by stakeholders in order to increase and strengthen their economic activities. Furthermore, business advisory services should be provided for the enterprise groups to help achieve these goals.

The microbial activities and the biodegradation-abilities of undefined consortium in contaminated soils in the Niger Delta of Nigeria were studied. The Respirametry technique was adopted to evaluate the microbial activities while the soils were incubated with 2% () ν ν crude oil in mineral salt medium at 37˚C in three stages of two weeks each in a shake flask. At the end of the last phase, components of the crude oil degraded by the undefined consortium in the soils were identified with the gas chromatographic techniques. The consortia of the different samples studied showed different degree of capacities on the crude oil, removing a large number of components of the crude oil, making the areas potentially suitable for in-situ bioremediation.

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Bacterial resistance to conventional paint biocides is widely documented. However, an investigation regarding the preservative potential of carbonaceous soot as a viable alternative is novel. Fresh paint samples (SA, SB and SC) were collected in duplicates from a reputable paint manufacturing company in Lagos, Nigeria. SA was produced with conventional paint biocide, SB and SC were without biocide. All samples were inoculated with 0.032 × 106 cfu/mL of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 (NC 002516.2) previously isolated from spoilt paints and identified by the 16S rDNA analysis. SB was supplemented with crude soot (10 g/L of distilled water) at 200 mL v/v. The preservative efficiency of soot was investigated by monitoring the bacterial population (BP), optical density (OD600nm), viscosity (VIS), the transmittance (TR) and specific gravity (SG) of the samples bi-weekly for 14 weeks. BP increased drastically from 0.032-31.61 × 106 and from 0.032-112.93 × 106 in SA and SC respectively. In contrast, SB increased from 0.032-24.63 × 106 by week 4 but reduced from 24.63 – 10.95 × 106 by week 14. The OD of SA increased from 1.55 to 1.98 by week 8 and decreased to 1.74 by week 14. SB had a decrease from 1.60 to 1.49 by week 4 and increased to 1.63 by week 14, while SC increased from 1.59 to 2.54 by the 14th week.TR increased from 1.80 to 2.30 and 1.25 to 2.20 in SA and SC respectively. In contrast, TR decreased from 2.00 to 1.25 in SB. The viscosity and specific gravity values of all the samples decreased with time with the highest decrease observed in SC and the lowest in SB. The test crude soot showed preservative potential in paints.