IMPACT : International Journal of Research in Applied, Natural and Social Sciences

1-12

Authors: Ogbemudia Benedict Imhanrenialena

Nigeria is battling high unemployment, which has become increasingly more devastating following the country over dependent on a single commodity (oil). Widespread corruption has occurred, and there has been a surge in the number of graduates following the increase in the establishment of both public and private polytechnic and universities. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate whether the long-run relationship between productivity growth rate and the unemployment rate is relevant to Nigeria for the period 1991-2016. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation test procedure was applied to determine the association between productivity growth rate and the unemployment rate. The result indicates that there is no significant positive long-run association between productivity growth rate and the unemployment rate(r = .347, n = 26, p = .082). The paper concludes that government economic policies should be geared towards boosting productivity and employment.

27-32

Authors: Renabeni T Murry & Lata Pujar

Emerging adulthood is a new developmental period characterized by delay in marriage which enables individuals to devote more time for various life decisions including matters related to marriage and mate preferences. The study was taken up to examine the mate preferences of male and female emerging adults of Dharwad, Karnataka. The Mate Preference Scale (Buss et al, 2013)was completed by a sample of 670 undergraduates in the age group of 18 to 26 years who were drawn out randomly from eleven colleges of Dharwad Taluk. The mean age at preferred age to marry for male was 27.84 years and for female it was 25.80 years. The study showed that males place higher value on good looks, relative to females and females place high value on resource potential, relative to males. The characteristics linked with resource acquisition such as college graduate, good earning capacity, favorable social status, ambitious and industriousness were desired more by the females than males. Good house keeper on the other hand was preferred more by males compared to females. However, good looks and good financial prospects typically didn’t rank in the top most desired characteristics for either gender. In fact, kind and understanding, healthy and intelligent toped the ranking irrespective of gender

69-76

Authors: Sonia Sethi Kaura & Saksham Gupta

Nine lactic acid bacterial (LAB) strains were isolated from different milk samples and evaluated for functional and probiotic properties and potentials as starter cultures. All of these isolates were recognized as probiotics on the basis of their acid and bile tolerance, antibacterial activity, antibiotic resistance, antibacterial potential, tolerance to acidic and bile salt conditions. Antimicrobial activity of the probiotic Lactobacillus was determined by well diffusion method. These results suggest that these strains may be used in the future as probiotic starter cultures for manufacturing novel fermented foods.

91-98

Authors: Paul Mansingh J & DebellaDeressa Bayissa

Ethiopia’s major staple crop is Teff (Eragrostisteff). Teff is one of the most important crops for farm income and food security in Ethiopia. Despite the importance of teff in Ethiopia, yields are remarkably low. Low yield due to low adoption of improved agricultural technologies is believed to be the main factor. Awareness is endogenous to the decision to adopt; thus, awareness and adoption are modelled jointly to allow us to interpret awareness as a potential policy variable which can be used to influence the probability of adoption. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the awareness of improved cultivation and post-harvest management practices of teff by smallholder teff farmers. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Cross sectional survey research design was employed to collect data. Among the 19 districts in the West Shoa zone, Chaliyadistrict was purposively selected because this district has 6815 ha of land under teff under cultivation, out of which only 46 ha are under improved practices. The number ofrespondents to be selected from each randomly selected eight villages was determined based on Probability Proportional to Size (PPS). The respondents (239) were selected from the eight villages by using random sampling technique. The data were collected using semi-structured interview schedule, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The collected data were coded, tabulated and analysed usingdescriptive statistical tests.In this research, it was found that the awareness on mechanical thresher, line sowing, less seed rate and transplanting was less among the respondents, which was a major constraint in adoption. The awareness about the benefits of row planting, transplanting and use of mechanical thresher was low among the respondents. Therefore, the extension agency should put forth more efforts to create awareness on these technologies and its benefits by employing effective and suitable communication methods as the awareness was low on these technologies.