Farmers’ Information Sources and Constraints to Climate Adaptability in Ondo State Nigeria

The study assessed farmers’ information sources and constraints to climatic adaptability in Ondo state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study ascertained the socio-economics characteristics of the respondents; examined the sources of information on climate change adaptability available to both gender respondents; compared the perceived knowledge of climate change adaptability of the respondents; determined the factors influencing respondents’ access to information on climate change adaptability; determine the factors influencing respondents utilization of information on climate change adaptability; and also identified the constraints faced by respondents relating to climatic adaptability. Multi-staged sampling technique was used to select and interviewed equal samples of male and female farmers of 120 respondents. Both the descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out and results showed that the mean age of farmers was 43.5 years, 82.5% of the farmers were married, with an average household size of 7 members. The average years of experience was 12.3 years, average size of farm land is 4.7 hectares. Results showed that farmers had access to information mainly through family and friends (70.8%). Majority of the farmers perceived climate change through higher sunshine intensity (97.5%), the adaptation activity embarked upon mostly by farmers was mulching (97.5%). The major factor influencing respondent’s access to information was electricity (=2.58). The major factor influencing utilization of information was past experience about climate change (=2.47), the major constraint to climatic adaptability were power (=4.28) and poor information on warning system ( =4.27).

Production Trend, Constraints, and Strategies for Millet Cultivation in Nepal: A Study from Review Perspective

Millet cultivation is making a quick comeback in the Nepalese agrarian landscape after years of institutional neglect. Agricultural agencies and farmers ignored these cereals while giving precedence over rice, wheat, and other crops such as oilseeds and pulses. Millets can foster well in poor soil conditions with less water, fertilizer, and pesticides. The main objectives of the study were to assess prospects and potentiality of millet, constraints during farming, and the possible strategies to overcome problems by analyzing the data and secondary literature. Districts in the eastern part of Nepal show dominance in millet production. Millet contains a comparative advantage over other cereals in terms of soil climatic adaptability, drought resistance, insect pest tolerance, and management factors. Further, the health-promoting factors play an important role in tackling food security and malnutrition problems, particularly in mid and high hills. The preference of tourists towards "dhido" has further increased its demand at present. However, lack of domain-specific high-yielding varieties, high preference towards major cereals, and poor marketing infrastructure particularly in marginal areas are the constraints mainly considered for unexpected production of millet. Millet features a high possibility of improving the production which can be supported with subsidy, improving tourism, promoting the millet products with agro-based industries, and motivating the growing farmers. Proper local and national strategies to cope with the limitation will help to uplift millet farming from minor cereals to exportable standards.

Optimization of Design Parameters for Office Buildings with Climatic Adaptability Based on Energy Demand and Thermal Comfort

According to a Chinese building energy demand report of 2016, building consumption is accelerating at a spectacular rate, especially for urban public buildings. In this study, various design parameters that meet the principle of climate adaptation are proposed to achieve the unity of energy utilization and indoor thermal comfort level. According to the local energy conservation codes, five typical benchmark geometric models were established in Open Studio (Sketch-Up plug-in) for sites representative of various climates, meanwhile, adopting the engine of Energy Plus (EP-Launch) to calculate the instrument definition file (IDF), respectively, for assessing the coupling relationship between energy consumption as well as thermal comfort. Results implied that based on the time proportion (8760 h) that met the level 1 comfort range, total energy reductions of different Chinese climate regions were different. Among them, the severe cold zone (SCZ—Changchun) and hot summer and cold winter zone (HSCW—Shanghai) appeared to have the greatest energy saving potential with 18–24% and 16–19%, respectively, while the cold zone (CZ—Beijing) and mild zone (MZ—Kunming) approximately equaled 15% and 12–15%, and the saving space of the hot summer and warm winter zone (HSWW—Haikou) appeared relatively low, only around 5–7%. Although the simulation results may be limited by the number of parameter settings, the main ones are under consideration seriously, which is further indication that there is still much room for appropriate improvements in the local public building energy efficiency codes.

Climatic-Adaptability Solution in Traditional Architectural of Desert Areas of Iran/Kashan

Nowadays, the shortages of fossil based energy on the earth and the pollution caused by using them is a noticeable problem that people are challenging with. As a result, human try to use natural resources vastly instead of fossil-based ones to reduce their consumption dramatically. In this circumstance, the role of architects are more important than ever in reducing the need for energy by proper designing likewise the past construction history. Green building design criteria emphasizes the energy-efficient performance of fenestration materials. Iran is a country comprising of four main different climatic areas. Selecting materials and using proper techniques for a building project is a challenging task in each part. Ancient buildings were built by different materials, techniques and forms in different parts of this country. One of the main parts of climatic areas in Iran is the hot and dry climates such as deserts. The appropriate materials and techniques which were used in ancient buildings in this part of the country to make this area comfortable for people will be investigated in this paper. Moreover, the buildings of Kashan, located in the desert part of Iran, will be mentioned as case study.

Morpho-physiological and adaptive variation of Italian germplasm of sulla (Hedysarum coronarium L.)

Sulla is a biennial forage legume native to the central-western Mediterranean Basin and has increasing interest for regions with Mediterranean-climate. The Italian germplasm is a reservoir of variation for important agronomic traits. This study aimed to support breeding programs by investigating patterns of agronomic, adaptive and morpho-physiological variation among ecotypes collected from the three main Italian regions of species cultivation: central Italy, and the two islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Forage yield and morpho-physiological traits were evaluated at a site with Mediterranean climate in Sicily. Forage yield and cold tolerance in a cold-prone site of northern Italy were also assessed, to locate useful germplasm for widening crop resilience and climatic adaptability. Collection regions, and ecotypes within regions, differed for total forage yield and final plant survival, but their responses were subjected to interactions with test location. Specific adaptation dominated the adaptive responses of ecotypes and elite commercial varieties. Ecotype adaptation to cold winter was associated with latitude and, more specifically, the extent of cold stress in collecting sites. The ecotype collection region had a bearing also on morpho-physiological characteristics. A few ecotypes from central Italy performed outstandingly with respect to elite varieties, displaying wide adaptation across cold-prone and drought-prone environments.