Athanasius Ssekyanzi

Background: Fermentation is defined as a biochemical process that produces energy using microorganisms from various raw material substrates. It is an ancient form of bio-preservation of food and improvement of its nutrient content. In addition to enriching the nutritional components of plant materials and preserving food, fermentation promotes the growth of beneficial microbes that play a role in human and animal health, especially in the digestive tract, commonly known as probiotics. Objectives: The current study investigated the fermentation of ripe banana, jackfruit seeds and sweet potato tubers to produce Bacillus subtilis and also examined the effect of fermentation on the biochemical properties of the plant materials used in the current study. The mentioned plant materials are the most cultivated crops in many parts of Uganda and generate a lot of food waste. Methods: The study was carried out at the soil laboratory of Mountains of the Moon University in Fort Portal tourism western Uganda. The solid fermentation of ripe bananas, jackfruit seeds and sweet potato tubers in this study was a natural process hence no inoculation of microbes onto the sample was done. Solid fermentation involved the putting the solid substrates into fermentation vessel with limited moisture. In every 3 days, temperatures, relative humidity and pH were monitored in the fermentation vessels to establish the conditions in which microbes are growing. Gram staining was done on the sub cultured microbial colonies to view the shapes of the cells and endospore structures of the Bacillus species. There were 2 biochemical tests performed on sub cultured colonies i.e. catalase test and starch hydrolysis to confirm the presence of the presence of Bacillus in the fermented samples of ripe banana, jack fruit seeds and sweet potato tubers. For catalase tests: the microbial colonies from nutrient agar on petri-dishes of ripe banana, jackfruit seeds and sweet potato tubers cultures were transferred and smeared on microscope slides. For starch hydrolysis tests, the sub cultured microbial colonies from ripe banana, jackfruit seeds, sweet potato and mix petri-dish were transferred to starch agar. Results: There was decrease in carbon-nitrogen ratio due to fermentation effect except the ripe banana which experienced an increase in carbon content from 2.44 carbon: 2.8 nitrogen to 3:12 carbon: 1.7 nitrogen. In additional to that, ripe banana produced high population of microbes with colony forming units of 1.6 · 104 on day 3.4 · 104 on day 6, 1.05 · 105 and 1.08 · 105 on day 12. Conclusion: All the fermented samples ripe banana, jackfruit seeds, sweet potato tubers and mixed samples contained Bacillus since their microbial colonies displayed rod shaped cells and gram positive and they tested catalase. Fermentation improves the biochemical properties of ripe bananas as evidenced by increase of crude proteins and fats and carbon. For samples jackfruit seeds, fermentation negatively affect the biochemical properties since they lost carbon, crude proteins and fat.

As the number of inhabitants in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) increases, demand for animal-source proteins outstrips the current supply. Aquaculture is promoted to sustain livelihood and for improved food security. However, the production in SSA is still low at less than 1% of the total global production. Poor water quality is cited to be one of the factors limiting the growth of the aquaculture sector and is attributed to limited familiarity with standard aquaculture practices. Thus, a knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) survey was carried out among fish farmers in five districts of the Rwenzori region. Our results showed that 81% and 80% of them had poor knowledge and practices concerning water quality in aquaculture, respectively. Seventy percent did not know that fish farming caused pollution, while 68% believed that there was no need to treat fish farm effluents. Only 45% showed good attitudes towards water quality management. Fish farmers that fed fish with only complete pellets and those that combined them with locally available products (LAP) were 8 and 5 times more likely to possess more knowledge (p < 0.01) on water quality as compared to others that used only LAP. Slight improvements in attitudes and practices for every unit increment in knowledge were observed (p < 0.05). This limited familiarity with water quality management could severely impede the growth of aquaculture, as well as the sustainable utilization of available water resources. Therefore, there is a need for more training and improvement of extension services among fish farming communities.

Aquaculture has the potential to sustainably meet the growing demand for animal protein. The availability of water is essential for aquaculture development, but there is no knowledge about the potential inland water resources of the Rwenzori region of Uganda. Though remote sensing is popularly utilized during studies involving various aspects of surface water, it has never been employed in mapping inland water bodies of Uganda. In this study, we assessed the efficiency of seven remote-sensing derived water index methods to map the available surface water resources in the Rwenzori region using moderate resolution Sentinel 2A/B imagery. From the four targeted sites, the Automated Water Extraction Index for urban areas (AWEInsh) and shadow removal (AWEIsh) were the best at identifying inland water bodies in the region. Both AWEIsh and AWEInsh consistently had the highest overall accuracy (OA) and kappa (OA > 90%, kappa > 0.8 in sites 1 and 2; OA > 84.9%, kappa > 0.61 in sites 3 and 4), as well as the lowest omission errors in all sites. AWEI was able to suppress classification noise from shadows and other non-water dark surfaces. However, none of the seven water indices used during this study was able to efficiently extract narrow water bodies such as streams. This was due to a combination of factors like the presence of terrain shadows, a dense vegetation cover, and the image resolution. Nonetheless, AWEI can efficiently identify other surface water resources such as crater lakes and rivers/streams that are potentially suitable for aquaculture from moderate resolution Sentinel 2A/B imagery.