Farmer field school's training on knowledge level of citrus growers regarding improved production practices / Impacto do treinamento da escola de campo para agricultores quanto ao nível de conhecimento dos produtores de citros em relação às melhores práticas de produção

ABSTRACT: The major objective of this paper was to assess the impact of the Farmer field school (FFS) training program on the knowledge level of farmers (citrus growers) regarding improved citrus production practices. Distract Sargodha was the targeted research area for this study being the leading producer of citrus in Pakistan. Quantitative data were collected through interview schedule and analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). It was conclude that young people were more tend towards getting training under FFS program than old age farmers. Educated farmers were in majority in FFS farmers while; conversely illiterate farmers were in majority in the category of non-FFs farmers. In category of FFS farmers livestock farming was their primary income as reported by majority (31.3%) of FFS farmers and in the case of non-FFS farmer's crop sale was their primary income source as reported by 28.4% of non-FFs farmers. In addition to that both FFS and non-FFS farmers also earn income from nonfarm sources like business, job, foreign remittances and labour. FFS training program had positive and significant impact on the knowledge level of farmers regarding citrus production and protection practices. T-test statistics showed highly significant (P<0.05) difference in knowledge level of FFS farmers and non-FFS farmers.

RESUMO: O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi avaliar o impacto do programa de treinamento da escola de campo para agricultores (FFS) quanto ao nível de conhecimento dos agricultores (produtores de citros) em relação às melhores práticas de produção de citros. O Distrito de Sargodha foi a área de pesquisa escolhida para este estudo por ser o principal produtor de citros no Paquistão. Os dados quantitativos foram coletados por meio de entrevistas e analisados por meio do Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Conclui-se que os jovens eram mais tendenciosos à obtenção de treinamento através do programa FFS do que os agricultores mais velhos. Os agricultores escolarizados estavam, em sua maioria, na categoria de agricultores FFS, enquanto que os agricultores analfabetos estavam, na categoria de não FF. Na categoria de FFS, a pecuária se mostrou o principal rendimento, conforme relatado pela maioria dos agricultores (31,3%), enquanto que, em 28% dos agricultores não-FFs, a principal fonte de renda era a venda de suas colheitas. Além disso, tanto os agricultores FFS como não FFS também ganham renda com fontes não agrícolas. O programa de treinamento FFS teve impacto positivo e significativo sobre o nível de conhecimento dos agricultores em relação às práticas de produção e proteção de citrus. O teste-T mostrou diferença altamente significativa (P<0,05) no nível de conhecimento dos agricultores FFS dos não-FFS.

Pattern of childhood malignancies: study of 922 cases at Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern of childhood cancer in northern Pakistan. DESIGN: A descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION: January 1992 to December 2001 at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All histologically diagnosed malignant childhood tumours registered with the tumour registry of our institute were retrieved from the case files. Basic epidemiological data regarding each case were collected from the request forms and analysed for the site of involvement, age distribution and histological types of tumour. RESULTS: During the ten year study period a total of 922 childhood malignancies, constituting 4.3% of all malignant tumours, were seen. Haematological malignancies (lymphomas and leukaemias) were the commonest, accounting for 50.4% in males and 37.7% in females. The haematological malignancies were followed by tumours of bone (6.3%), CNS (6.3%), and eye (4.84%) in males and soft tissue tumours as 5th common in females. Skin, renal and colorectal tumours were also in the ten commonest in both sexes and so were ovarian tumours in females. CONCLUSIONS: Lymphomas and leukaemias are the main bulk of childhood cancer. Malignant tumours were twice more common in males than females in this series.

Carcinoma of the male breast: a study of 141 cases from northern Pakistan.

Carcinoma of the male breast, histologically identical to that seen in females, is a rare malignant epithelial tumour. We retrospectively studied 141 cases of male breast carcinoma diagnosed during a ten year period (1992-2001). These tumours comprised 0.7% of all cancers, 1.1% of all malignancies in males and 5.9% of all breast carcinomas in both genders. A male to female ratio of 1:16 was observed. The peak incidence was in the age group between 50-60 years and majority of the patients were below 60 years. Most of the patients presented with a painless lump and infiltrating ductal carcinoma was the main histological type. While compared with our previous similar analysis, a highly significant increase (p< 0.0001) was found for total numbers of breast carcinoma in both sexes and total number of malignancies in males.

Analysis of gastrointestinal malignancies at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the pattern of gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies in northern Pakistan. DESIGN: A retrospective pathology based tumour registry data analysis. PLACE AND DURATION: January 1992 to December 2001 at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All histologically diagnosed malignant tumours of GI tract registered with the tumour registry were retrieved from the case files. Basic epidemiological data regarding each case was collected from the request forms and then analysed for the site of involvement, age distribution and histological types of tumours. RESULTS: During the study period a total of 2279 patients had GI tract malignancies, constituting 10.8% of all malignant tumours diagnosed in this period. Males were more frequently affected than females (M:F ratio 2.3:1). Peak incidence was in the 50-60 year age group. Colorectal tumours were most frequent (44.6%), followed by stomach (24%), esophagus (22.6%), anal (4.6%) and small intestinal (3.7%) malignancies. Ten cases of malignant tumours of the appendix, 6 in females and 4 in males were also found. The histological pattern was predictable. Statistical analysis showed that there was significant increase (P<0.01) in registration of stomach, anorectal and small intestinal tumours over the period studied,whereas esophagus and colorectal tumours remained the same. CONCLUSION: Colorectal tumours are more frequent in our material as compared to other developing countries. Peak incidence is in slightly younger age group and cases in <20 years age group are also more frequent as compared to Western studies.