Research finds no basis for farmers’ negative perception of the quality of fertilizers in Tanzania
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7 May 2021
Soil fertility and nutrient management are crucial factors in crop production; however, fertilizer adoption in Tanzania (and indeed Africa) remains below the recommended rate contributing to poor crop yields and poverty. This is partly due to farmers’ persistent suspicion that the quality of fertilizers in the market is sub-standard.
Journal of Development Economics found no reliable evidence to support farmers’ beliefs that the fertilizers available to them at local markets were of poor quality.
A farmer in Tanzania evaluates beans with NPK fertilizer applied at a demonstration plot on fertilizer use for legumes in a past IITA project.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker
Chicago s manufacturing community got a much-needed dose of good news when a Canadian electric vehicle maker on May 7 announced plans to build a factory in Joliet that will create more than 800 jobs. Montreal-based Lion Electric says it will spend $70 million over three years to build and run a facility to make up to 20,000 electric buses and trucks a year.
Lion Electric s arrival in the Chicago area builds on what is turning out to be a growth industry for the region. And it s worth noting that Illinois won the project over Texas and Michigan, though it didn t offer the highest dollar-incentive package.
A cicada (Jin Kemoole/Flickr)
It s been 17 years since we last heard the sound of the Brood X cicada. Any day now, trillions of them will emerge out of the ground in parts of the eastern and Midwestern United States. It s a wonder of nature that we get to witness once every 17 years.
Now, cicadas and Brood X have been an inspiration to researchers well beyond the world of entomology. Below, we ve got three stories on the remarkable things humankind has learned from these insects. Cicada-Licious
MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: The last time Brood X emerged was in 2004. And Jenna Jadin was a PhD student in evolutionary biology and ecology at the University of Maryland at the time. A well-known cicada expert, Mike Raupp, a professor at the University of Maryland, he had been inundated with press calls about the cicada emergence.
Lake Central won 4-2 at home in the rivals first meeting this season, but Lucka said she felt confident in the rematch, which could potentially be a trilogy if both teams win their sectionals and advance to a Class 4A regional June 1. I knew my defense was behind me, and they did so good, Lucka said. They were perfect, so I was just trying to play for them and pitch my best game.
Lucka ended the game by striking out Indians senior and Eastern Illinois recruit Mikayla Creasbaum in the top of the seventh inning, and Lucka s teammates immediately rushed the diamond to give her a group hug.
The Case Against Admissions Lotteries
The radical idea is appealing in theory but useless in practice.
Chronicle illustration May 6, 2021
“In the interests of putting the concept of ‘equality of educational opportunity’ into practice, [colleges] might want to consider abandoning altogether the use of grades and tests in admissions, and instituting instead a lottery system for choosing among their applicants.” So wrote the eminent education scholar Alexander Astin in a
Scienceletter more than 50 years ago. Proposals for lottery admissions to college have surfaced countless times since then, appearing in the pages of
A key fact about nearly all these proposals is that they have been intended for America’s most selective institutions, not the nearly 600 four-year colleges and universities with open-door policies or the additional 700 with acceptance rates greater than 75 percent (as of 2018-19). A small number of institutions with acceptance rates below