Bolan International Journal of Research Insights (BIJRI)

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Agricultural Water Management Policies in Nigeria

Nnanguma, K. A. — 2025-05-10

Agricultural Water Management (AWM) plays a crucial role in enhancing food security, improving agricultural productivity, and building resilience against climate change in Nigeria. Despite policy frameworks and donor-supported interventions such as the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) project, only 2% of the country’s 3.14 million hectares of irrigable land is currently being utilized. This study evaluates the effectiveness of Nigeria’s AWM policies by employing a mixed-methods approach involving surveys, interviews, and document reviews across selected agricultural zones. Findings reveal that institutional inefficiencies, weak policy coordination, and limited infrastructure development are major impediments to achieving water management goals. Smallholder farmers, who make up over 80% of the agricultural workforce, face significant challenges in accessing formal irrigation systems and climate-smart technologies. The study also highlights a lack of participatory planning, poor monitoring systems, and gender disparities in irrigation access. It concludes that for AWM policies to be effective, they must be inclusive, decentralized, and climate-resilient. The study recommends institutional reforms, targeted investments in climate-smart irrigation infrastructure, strengthened stakeholder participation, and robust monitoring frameworks to ensure sustainable water governance in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

Availability of Social Support and Well-Being of Chronically Ill-Patients: Moderating Role of Positive Religious Coping and Engagement Coping

Alishba Ejaz — 2025-08-23

This study worked to explore the direct effect of social assistance and moderation between spiritual approach and engagement coping among depressed patients. This study explored whether the assessments of stressors and managing approaches relate to chronically ill-patients. This thesis also explored the role of stressors specifically, unfortunate self-welfare and attention to one self in the prediction of hopelessness among terminally ill patients. The study used primary data over the period 30 March to 20 July. For the purpose, the study used Calculable Research that included quantifiable data for a quantitative analysis. In the cross-sectional research, the random sampling technique was used for the collection of data and participants were selected from different fields. The Stratification was based on age, gender and program. According to the sampling outcomes, the selected participants were 286, including both males and females out of which 90(32%) were male participants and 196(68%) were female participants. The scales used in this study are Physical Well-Being Scale (PWS), Religious Coping Scale (RCS), Engagement Coping Scale (ECS), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). And it was found that these variables have a direct effect on depression.

Women’s Informal Political Agency in Conservative Societies: Voice Without Power?

Ammara Hamza — 2025-08-23

This paper explores the concept of women’s informal political agency in conservative societies, with a particular focus on Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces. While formal political spaces often exclude women due to entrenched patriarchal norms and structural barriers, many continue to exert significant influence through informal and culturally sanctioned modes of participation. Drawing on feminist theoretical frameworks—including Kabeer’s (1999) model of empowerment, Mahmood’s (2005) notion of embodied agency, and Crenshaw’s (1989) intersectionality—the study investigates how women navigate political landscapes through kinship, religious authority, and moral legitimacy. Using qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and focus groups, the study reveals that women exercise considerable voice, yet often lack institutional power—a condition termed "voice without power." Findings show that women influence community decision-making and dispute resolution but face structural limitations in formal politics. The paper concludes that informal agency, while vital, remains fragile unless integrated into broader governance frameworks. Policy recommendations include institutional recognition of informal leadership, context-sensitive empowerment programs, and intersectional policy audits. The study contributes to feminist political theory by highlighting culturally embedded forms of agency and proposing new strategies for inclusive governance.

Examining the Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Reading Achievement: Insights from Elementary Schools

Sahir Adeem — 2025-08-23

This study explores a correlation between intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and reading achievement among elementary school level students. The research paper relates the importance of motivation in literacy because it determines the impact made on the performance in the reading by the different types of motivation on the students. The surveys determined the self-constituted motivation levels of the students they were analyzed along with their studying rankings in reading and the teacher perceptions of what activities were the students involved in when reading in the classroom. Students who are the intrinsically motivated perform better according to the findings as compared to the students that are externally motivated. The fact that motivation was enhanced as well was also pointed out as classroom activity to define the mechanisms of engagement and interest was given. According to the researchers, what they recommend to the teachers is that the latter should focus on eliciting meaningful behaviours/intrinsically-oriented performances through the means of engagement and diverse reading materials, since they can cautiously apply extrinsic rewards to lure the temporary participation.

MENSTRUAL LEAVE APPS AND WORKPLACE EQUITY AMONG KARACHI CORPORATE WOMEN

Shereen Mazari — 2025-08-23

Digital health tools have become major stakeholders in the last few years in defining policies at the workplace such as those handling menstrual health. The paper investigates the way menstrual leave apps shape the representations and actions of equal treatment in workplaces by women employed in Karachi corporate industry. Although there is the worldwide initiative to establish gender-inclusive policies, menstrual equity is understudied in urban professional communities in South Asia (Hennegan et al., 2021). The research will be based on the feminist technology studies and organizational justice theory, and will combine the mixed-methods research, surveying 2,000 women and interviewing 40 participants that will include financial, tech, and FMCG sectors. The quantitative evidence shows that app-mediated menstrual leave policies are positively correlated with perceived fair workplace, lower presenteeism, and better job satisfaction in and across women (Mahajan & Jha, 2020). In the male-dominated firms, conflict underlies the stories of tech inclusivity and stigma as shown in qualitative interviews. The authors come to the conclusion that despite the singular potential of the menstrual leave apps as a solution to fair workplaces, these types of applications may or may not be effective, depending on the attitudes of the management and organization cultures. Based on these findings, context-sensitive HR frameworks that combine digital tools and the overarching agendas of gender equity will be necessary (Rani & Nath, 2023).