Article Entry

Although post-harvest handling processes such as drying, threshing and storage have progressed among small scale farmers in developing countries, there are still low levels of technological interventions to address seed cleaning after harvest in Uganda. 

This leads to high costs of production due to the amount of time taken in the cleaning process, which translates into low income for farmers.

Ornamental fish is the coloured fish that can be reared indoors and is mostly used in aquariums for beautification purposes.  

“For many years, countries have been importing ornamental fish. This kind of fish is expensive and can boost a country’s economy if invested in,” says Dr. Juliet Nattabi, a lecturer at Makerere University’s Department of Zoology, Entomology and Fisheries Sciences.

“We have ornamental fish in Uganda, but unfortunately, people have not exploited the natural resources to their full potential,” she says.

Innovation could change the way medics are trained to manage infectiuos diseases like COVID-19

Many people’s appreciation of Virtual Reality (VR) is limited to gaming and entertainment, but new trends suggest something different. 

According to new research from Makerere University, the future of healthcare is likely to be more of a virtual experience, especially training health workers using virtual reality technology. 

A team of seven brilliant minds led by Professor Benjamin Kanagwa have turned learning materials of STEM (Science, Technology and Mathematics) subjects and fused them into a gaming experience for students.  Topics like digestion, blood circulation, and mathematics have been developed into a full gaming experience to the appeasement of learners.

One of the most serious global public health issues facing mankind is antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which causes 700,000 deaths annually. 

AMR is a natural process by which micro-organisms (bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and other pathogens) develop resistance to drugs used to fight them. 

A Makerere University researcher has developed a mobile phone Application that can assess the COVID-19 risk for in-hospital transmission. Dr. Ronald Mbiine, the researcher, says the smartphone-based App works by assigning a daily risk score to health workers based on their present state of health, symptoms and contact history. The early warning assessment allows for interventions,  including testing and treatment. 

Since 2012, cattle deaths due to tick-borne diseases (TBD’s) in Uganda have been on the rise due to escalating tick resistance to acaricides. With the future of chemical tick control under serious threat due to reports of emergence of multiple acaricide resistance, the latest innovation on herbal acaricide provides farmers with hope for a lasting solution, given its prolific efficacy in killing ticks. The overall efficacy of the herbal acaricide in killing acaricide resistant ticks ranges between 80.7 to 92.6 per cent, more effective than the chemical types currently available.  

For years now, people have concentrated on getting firewood and timber from eucalyptus trees, leaving the leaves to decompose. Some go as far as burning the leaves to clear their fields. Recognising that the leaves also have benefits, Dr. Simon Kizito and Dr. Christine Nagawa, both lecturers in the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) at Makerere University, came up with an innovation to use essential oils from eucalyptus leaves to kill maize and bean weevils.

Dr. Brenda Boonabaana, a lecturer in the Department of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism at Makerere University, says the young generation’s morals often degenerate because society is complex and parents hardly have time to support their children in several aspects of life. She adds that it gets worse when they become adults in a free world. The moral degeneration manifests and it takes a lot to get them back in check. It is against this background that the team behind ‘Becoming A New Generation (BANG) Club’ project made a decision to do something about the problem.