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Effect of age of improved forage sorghum on prussic acid toxicity and nutritive value to young ruminants in semi-arid Kenya
(Chuka University, 2016) Irungu, R.; Ashiono, G.B.; Muasya, T.K.; Kariuki, J.N
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolour (L.) Moench) is suitable fodder to alleviate feed shortage in semi-arid tropics as it is drought tolerant. Two varieties of forage sorghum were studied to ascertain the effect of age on prussic acid concentration and nutritive value and to establish the threshold at which it would be safe to feed the sorghum to young ruminants. Varieties E1291 and E6518, planted in randomized complete block layout with three replicates, were sampled for prussic acid (hydrocyanic acid, HCN) and nutrient composition at 5 and 10 weeks (first and second weeding and thinning) and thereafter, every 2 weeks up to 22 weeks. The data was subjected to analysis of variance and regression which showed that HCN negatively correlated to sorghum age. Variety E1291 contained less prussic acid compared to E6518. During the study, E6518 and E1291 contained 186.7 and 90.8; 167.5 and 139.8 mg/kg DM, HCN at 5 and 10 weeks, respectively, which decreased significantly to 81.6 and 70.8 mg/kg DM at 14 weeks. Prussic acid concentration in E1291 during the whole study period did not surpass the threshold of 200 mg/kg DM but the concentration in E6518 approached this threshold below 10 weeks’ growth. After 10 weeks’ growth E6518 also did not surpass the toxic threshold. Therefore, E1291 can be fed to young ruminants at any age but E6518 can only be fed after 10 weeks without toxic effects on young ruminants. Dry matter (DM), organic matter and fibre increased whereas crude protein decreased with sorghum age. The sorghum sampled young produced highly nutritious feed for young ruminants. However, the low DM is disadvantageous as ruminants offered these sorghum varieties ingest less DM compared to sorghum containing higher DM. Hence sorghum should be harvested later than 22 weeks of growth for higher DM intake by young ruminants.
Effect of Capital Allowance Incentives on the Financial Performance Of listed Consumer Goods Companies in Kenya
(Chuka University, 2024) Rebecca Ngugi Muthee; Patricia Gachambi Mwangi; John Mutua
The Consumer goods sector has been a major driver of industrial growth, leading to some international firm
to enter the market thus increasing existing investment in recent years. However, their financial performance is lowlands
ubpar. The companies have experienced a decline on the contribution to the country’s GDP from 5.0% in
2017 to 4.1% in the manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco sector. Nevertheless, there is paucity of
empirical and conceptual knowledge on the phenomenon influence of capital allowance incentive on the
financial performance. This study was anchored on the Agency cost theory. Descriptive cross-sectional
design was used. The study used secondary data which was collected using a checklist and was extracted
from the Nairobi Security Exchange (NSE) reports between the year 2017-2021. The target population of the
study comprised of the thirteen listed consumer goods companies in the Nairobi Securities Exchange as at 31st
December 2021. The study used census technique. Data analysis was done with the aid of SPSS version
25.0. The study used correlation analysis and multiple regression to determine the relationship between
capital allowance incentives and financial performance. To test the statistical significance, the t-statistic at 95%
The confidence level was used. Data was presented using tables and figures. Further, it was found that capital
allowance had a positive regression coefficient of (0.739, p-value of 0.0463). The study will be useful to
listed consumer goods companies to institute more robust capital allowance incentives. The study will also
contribute to the body of knowledge for both researchers and academicians.
Effect of Inventory Management Practices on Performance of Food Processing Firms in Nairobi County, Kenya.
(Chuka University, 2024) Mayabi Peres Linda; Miriam Thogori; Joseph Masinde
the better performance of any firm. The food processing sub sector
performance has been declining thus its contribution to the Gross
Domestic Product has reduced to 10% thus leading to operation
inefficiency. The overall objective of the study was to probe the effect
of inventory management practices on performance of food
processing firms in Nairobi County. The study was premised on the
lean theory. Descriptive design was employed.
A population of 172 food processing firms and a sample size of 120
firms was determined. Stratified and simpler random sampling were
used to pick specific firms while data was collected using structured
questionnaires. Descriptive statistics aided in describing the primary
characteristics of the data. Regression analysis aided to ascertain the
effect of inventory management on performance of food processing
firms with the aid of SPSS version 28. T-statistics were used to gauge
the significance of individual objectives at 5%confidence level while
F-statistic was used to establish the overall significance of the model.
The study established inventory management was found to be
positively correlated to performance, ((regression coefficient 0.492, p
value0.000). The study concluded that inventory management
practices had substantial impact on performance on Food processing
firms and recommends that firms should establish adequate quality
control and quality monitoring points in order to get the best quality
during the production and also as a way of minimizing on cost. The
findings will contribute to theory of supply chain management and
policy making regarding different of inventory management practices
to ensure increase in performance.
Endogenous sugars associated with development of somatic embryos of coffee (coffea arabica l.)
(Chuka University, 2016) Mayoli, R.N.,; Lubabali, A.H.; Isutsa D.K.,; Nyende, A.B.,; Mweu, C.M.; Njoroge, E.K
Plant tissue culture allows rapid in vitro regeneration of plants. Processes and factors related to development of coffee somatic embryos are not well established, resulting in poor induction or few embryos and hence low regeneration of coffee seedlings. This research identified and quantified endogenous sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose) associated with somatic embryogenesis in Coffea arabica cultivar Ruiru 11. Third leaf pair of greenhouse-grown mother plants was used as explants in half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS 1962) media. Both green and brown leaf discs cultures with and without embryos were used to characterise the sugars. Embryos with fresh culture media and leaf explants were used as controls. A complete random design replicated thrice and repeated in two seasons in 2014 was used. Sucrose, fructose and glucose were extracted and analyzed using a Knuer HPLC and identified by comparing retention time with that of sucrose standard. Glucose content was significantly (P<0.05) high in brown leaf discs without embryos in both seasons (40.15 mg/g and 37.75 mg/g FW, respectively). Fructose content was significantly (P<0.05) high in brown leaf discs without embryos in both seasons (48.4mg/g and 42.4 mg/g FW). Sucrose content was significantly (P<0.05) high in fresh leaves in both seasons (18.87 mg/g and 19.57 mg/g, respectively) whereas in season 2, the sucrose content was significantly (P<0.05) high in embryos on green leaf discs (58.43 mg/g). Harmful effects of high accumulation of fructose and glucose which are reducing in nature resulted in no embryo development in the brown leaf discs. High sucrose which resulted in brown and green leaf discs with embryos implied that embryo maturation is associated with storage material accumulation and is accompanied with an increase in sucrose to hexose ratio.
Enhancing agribusiness through improved markets, market linkages and partnerships
(Chuka University, 2016) Dr. Mutunga, J.K.
The African governments have downplayed the role of agriculture in kick-starting transformation through agricultural based revolution, despite the public declaration and evidence that yields can be dramatically increased if farmers had access to improved technologies and product markets. Agricultural produce markets play a significant role of driving agribusiness and therefore should be developed and managed appropriately. Market development should focus at addressing the glaring obtaining structural, financial and infrastructural challenges through: Exploiting market development opportunities in export–import balance, product transformation and diversification and accelerating input markets through dynamic research; Enhancing market linkages through regional integration and, exploiting opportunities that come with information and communication technology, supply chain management and adoption of pro-poor market access models and; Promoting public-private partnerships and venture mergers to increase operational volumes for better market access. Revolution through agribusiness would generate many progressive jobs in agriculture and move large populations out of poverty. Securing family food supplies through higher yields would enable smallholder farmers to free up land and labour for more profitable agribusiness uses and thus increase farm level revenues. The same would increase local level demand for higher value foods and non-farm goods and services, create additional productive employment in rural areas and improve livelihoods of people depending on agriculture. Agriculture would play its rightful role in financing African economic development, poverty alleviation and enhancing food security for majority of such dependent economies.