High prevalence of ectoparasites in the tropics and lack of access to veterinary services necessitated the use of indigenous practices in controlling ectoparasites among small ruminant farmers. This study was carried out to assess the utilization of indigenous practices in controlling ectoparasites among small ruminant farmers in Ido Local Government Area, Ibadan, Oyo State. A multi stage sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. One hundred and fifteen well- questionnaires administered to the farmers and 112 were recovered from the field. Descriptive statistics such as percentage, frequency distribution and charts were used to analyse the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. The results showed that the age 49-60 had the highest respondents (42.2%) followed by the age group of 36-48 years (28.4%). It also showed that majority of the respondents were female (66.7%). Some indigenous practices highly utilized in the study area included; the application of wild lettuce (ewe yanrin) on the affected parts of the animal (97%), Nuclea latifolin (ewe egbesi) 97% rubbing of liquid lime (osanwewe) on the affected part (93%). Chi Square was used to measure the relationship between respondents' selected socio-economic characteristics and their utilization. The Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) was used to measure the relationship between respondents, constraints (r=0.194, p=0.050), benefit (r=0.201, p0.043). Some of the constraints identified in the study area included inadequate useful information from extension agents, extinction of materials used and non-documentation of the leaves used while some of the benefits of the leaves includes ease of administration of the leaves, low cost of the leave, and accessibility were some of the benefit derive.

Article HistoryThis study assesses the effects of Rural Road Infrastructure on the distribution of Agricultural products in Akure South Local Government area with a view to providing solutions to the problems caused by inadequate provisions of road infrastructure and its negative impact on agricultural product distributions in the study area. The study evaluated the opinion of the farmers, traders, drivers who are the users of rural roads as well as the government officials in charge of rural road maintenance and construction. Furthermore primary data were employed in eliciting information from the respondent through the questionnaires and systematic random sampling techniques were employed in gathering relevant data and information within the study area. The result of the analysis revealed a significant relationship at 0.05 between the quality of the road infrastructure and the transportation of agricultural product in the study area at p-0.02 and r-0.186. The study concluded that the roads in the study area as well as those connecting the farms with markets are bad and recommended that these roads should be widened and bituminized as well as the provisions of other road infrastructure and the member of the community should participate in rural roads construction and maintenance.Contribution/Originality: The study contributes in the existing literature on rural roads infrastructural provision, uses new estimation methodology in examining the state of rural roads, originate new formula for investigating road infrastructure, contribute the first logical analysis of roads infrastructure, its primary contribution is finding inadequate roads and document road infrastructural needs.

There are many diseases that affect poultry production in Nigeria and treatment of these diseases are too cost to buy because most of these drugs and vaccines are imported to Nigeria, hence, ethnoveterinary medicine is considered as alternative. The study therefore examines the perception and use of ethnoveterinary medicine among poultry farmers in Ido local government area of Oyo State. Purposive sampling and simple random sampling were used to select 113 respondents in the study area. Data was obtained using well structured questionnaire and were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentage while the inferential statistical such as Chi-square and Pearsons Product of Moment of Correlation (PPMC) were used to analysed the hypotheses. From the study, it was revealed that majority (70.9%) of the respondents were male while 29.1% were female, and 38.2% of the respondents were within the age bracket of 35 and 45 years and 27.3% were within the age range of 46 to 56 years. The results of the study also shows that 6.4% of the respondents had adult education, while 8.2% had no formal education,7.3% had primary education, 30.9% had secondary education and 47.3% had tertiary education which means that most of the respondents can read and write and they had better knowledge of the questionnaire given to them and all ethnoveterinary practices available in their areas. Also from the study most of the respondents 55.5% perceived that ethnoveterinary practices is being influenced by tradition and 34.5% of the respondents agreed that ethnoveterinary medicine promotes cultural heritage and 42.7% of them believed that ethnoveterinary medicine helps in controlling diseases and 44.5% of the respondents established the fact that usage of ethnoveterinary medicine required little or no training and 53.6% of the respondents believed that knowledge of ethno veterinary medicine can be easily transferred from one generation to another. Most (59.1%) of the respondents had favourable perception towards the use of ethnoveterinary medicine. From the study it was revealed that there are some plants that are considered less important to human are sometimes very useful to poultry birds and example of such plants includes uses of carica papaya to increase feed intake in poultry (39.1%), uses of Moringa Oleifera to resist high temperature in poultry (60.9%), uses of Citrus Aurantifolia fruit to resist high temperature in birds (32.7%), uses of oil to treat fowl pox (55.5%) and uses of bitter leaf to treat chronic respiratory diseases (64.5%) in poultry. Most (63.6%) of the respondents had low level of use of enthnoveterinary medicine. Lack of adequate information (77.3%), unfavorable Government policies (53.6%) and poor research funding (64.5%) were identified as major constraints to use of ethnoveterinary medicine. It is therefore recommended that stakeholders should make information on ethnoveterinary medicine available to poultry farmers.

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