F.B. Bareeba1 and S. Balaba Tumwebaze2
1. Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Makerere University
P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
E-mail: bareeba@starcom.co.ug
2. Department of Forest Management, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation, Makerere University P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
E-mail: kabogoza.foresmuk@inforcom.co.ug or ufric@starcom.co.ug
The Faculty of Agriculture has seven departments, namely, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Crop Science, Soil Science, Food Science and Technology and Agricultural Extension and Education. The Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation comprises of four departments, namely, Community Forestry and Extension, Forestry Biology and Ecosystem Management, Forest Management and Forest Products Engineering.
The following undergraduate degree programmes lasting four years are offered in the Faculty of Agriculture: BSc degrees in Agriculture, Food Science and Technology, Agricultural Engineering. Each department also offers specialised MSc and PhD programmes. The current number of undergraduate students is: BSc Agriculture 405, BSc Food Science and Technology 150 and BSc Agricultural Engineering 98. Postgraduate students number around 70. Two undergraduate degrees are offered in the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation: BSc in Forestry and Community Forestry and Extension. There are 160 undergraduate and 10 postgraduate students studying in the faculty.
The total number of academic staff is 105 with 85 in the Faculty of Agriculture and 20 in the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation. They all require biometrics assistance for on-station research, on-farm experiments, field surveys and social and environmental studies. Within the faculties there are two biometricians, one with a PhD and one an MSc qualification. A third biometrician is away on extended study leave. Assistance has also been sought from time to time from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for genetic data analysis, from the International Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF) for agro-forestry data analysis and also from the University of Reading.
Data management is done by two computer technicians using spreadsheet software, namely, Excel, Lotus and Quatro Pro. Available statistical software are SPSS, SAS and Mstat. Minitab has also recently been installed on one computer. There are a total of 25 computers in the two central pools (one for each faculty) used mainly by students. Although limited in number, these computers are up to date. Much of the software, however, is currently unlicensed. In addition each department has several computers which are used by staff and postgraduate students.
Courses currently offered in biometrics are: `introductory statistics' for first year students, `biometrics' for second year students and `applied statistics and biometrics' for postgraduate students. The courses are fairly elementary and cover various basic statistical methods appropriate to agricultural experimentation. However, they fall short of all the needs of the two faculties.
The main areas where biometrics help is required are
There may be opportunities for the two biometricians on staff to work with other biometricians in the region to develop these extra courses. Hopefully this workshop may go some way to achieving this.
