Socio-economic characteristics and allocative efficiency of upland rice farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria

The paper analysed the relationship between allocative efficiency and a set of socio-economic variables. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 165 rice farmers from six local government areas (LGAs) from the 10 rice-producing LGAs in Ogun State. The paper considered a Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier cost function applied to farm-level data of upland rice farmers in Ogun State to empirically determine the level of allocative inefficiency, using a single-stage model. The theoretical model predicts a positive relationship among cost of production, capital and output of paddy rice. The study showed a positive and significant relationship between allocative efficiency and farmers’ age, access to technical assistance and extension services. Policy measures aimed at increasing rice farmers’ access to technical assistance and extension services will go a long way toward boosting rice production in the study area

Ex-Ante Evaluation of Nutrition and Health Benefits of Biofortified Cassava Roots in Nigeria: The Dalys Approach

Cassava is a major staple that supplies more than 50% of daily energy to more than 200 million persons in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Cassava roots are known to be low in micronutrients such as vitamin A, iron, and zinc. Micronutrient deficiencies threaten the lives of millions of poor households and those located in remote rural areas of SSA often not targeted by fortification programmes. This paper presents results from an ex-ante evaluation of nutrition and health benefits of increased vitamin A status of cassava roots through biofortification for at-risk-target-groups using the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) approach. Results showed that Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) causes an annual loss of about 553,000 years of healthy life in Nigeria with children constituting more than forty percent. Biofortified cassava would reduce VAD by 4.42%, 11.73%, and 3.14% for children, pregnant women, and lactating women respectively in the pessimistic scenario. Results for the optimistic scenario are 28.79%, 76.39, and 20.45% respectively. The biofortification of cassava roots would result in annual gains of about 33,000 years of healthylife and avert 166 child deaths per year for the pessimistic scenario and about 220,000 years life and 1272 child deaths per year for the optimistic scenario. In economic terms, such a programme would bring gains amounting to about $10 million per year, which Biofortification, DALYs, Economics, Health, corresponds to an internal rate of return (IRR) as high as 92.4$63 million per year and an IRR of 165.3%. A research and development effort aimed at the biofortification of cassava roots is a powerful strategy in the fight against hidden hunger from micronutrient deficiencies, which African governments at the national and local levels, and international investors should support to improve the standard of living of the people in SSA.Cassava, Biofortification, DALYs, Economics, Health, Nigeria, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Small-scale Maize Seed Production in West and Central Africa: Profitability, Constraints and Options

There is general agreement among national governments and foreign aid donors that the food security situation in most developing countries is worsening. In the African region, almost half the population is being considered to be food insecure. To achieve food security, a country must be able to grow sufficient food. Since most developing countries rely on their agricultural production for their food security, it follows that food insecurity is mainly due to deficient agricultural production and low productivity. A main reason for this situation is that seed and planting material of adapted varieties required by farmers are not always available when needed, a situation often referred to as seed insecurity. There have been consistent efforts by the various national governments to put in place policies and programmes that ensure adequate seed supply systems (Omaliko, 1998)

Gender Analysis of Income Inequality and Poverty among Rural Households in Nigeria: Evidence from Akinyele Local Government Area, Oyo State

Despite the wide believe that income inequality and poverty differ among the female and male headed households in Africa, very few studies have been conducted to empirically substantiate this. Therefore, this study assessed income inequality and poverty in rural Nigeria from a gender perspective. The study revealed that income was more evenly distributed among the female headed households than the male counterparts in the study area. Although, the male headed households had better access to land for farming, higher income and spent more on food than the female headed households, poverty incidence, depth and severity were higher among the male headed households than the female counterparts.  Number of dependants and households size was discovered to significantly increase the probability of falling below the poverty line among the respondents. Access to credit and contact with extension agents had significant poverty reducing effects. Therefore, in order to achieve the desired poverty reduction, it is recommended that more family planning awareness should be created, there should be social security particularly for the female headed households with large number of dependants, constraints limiting farmers’ access to credit should be identified and eliminated and finally, the extension system in Nigeria should further be developed in order to increase number of extension visits to the farmers

Strategic Options for Small-Scale Maize Seed Systems Development in West and Central Africa Policy Brief

Seed can play a critical role in increasing agricultural productivity. It is an essential, strategic and an inexpensive input that often determines crop yields and the productivity of all other agricultural inputs

Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers’ Participation in Cooperative Organization in Rural Nigeria

This study investigates the factors that influences smallholder rice farmers’ participation in cooperative organisations. it seek to provide answers to the reason why some rice  farmers join cooperatives while others are reluctant to join or drop out, in spite of the benefits associate with being a member. The 341 farming households was selected through multistage random sampling procedure. The data was collected and analysed using well-structured questionnaire and probit model, respectively. The results reveal among many others that cooperative members have higher income per hectare than the non-cooperative members. Younger and male farmers are more likely to participate in cooperative organization. Farmers with small farm size have the highest probability of participation than those with large farm size. Contact with extension agents and education positively influence the probability of participation.  In order to improve participation in cooperative organization, this study therefore, recommends that female headed households should be the focus of attention of any program aim to increase cooperative membership in rural Nigeria. Contact with extension agents and years of education of the household head should be improved. Programs, strategies and policies that are targeted at the achievement of increase agricultural productivity should be intensified. Keyword: Rice, farmer, cooperative, Nigeria JEL Classification: D02, J54, O12, P1

Technology Adoption among Cassava Producers in Ijebu North-East Local Government Area of Ogun State

The main objective of this research work was to find out the adoption of technology among cassava producers in the study area. A multistage random sampling procedure was adopted to collect primary data from 80 cassava farmers who were randomly selected from some selected communities in the study area. Descriptive statistics, logit regression analysis and budgetary analysis were used to analyze the data collected. The result revealed that majority of the respondents have low formal education, as about 68% of the farmers only attended primary school, 67% of respondents fall within the age bracket of 31 to 50 years which is the normal age group for the working population, also revealing that majority of the respondents (farmers) are males with about 78% of entire respondents being males, the research also revealed that 91% of the farmers are married with an average income of N34,153.21. Furthermore, the regression analysis showed that age of farmers, farm size, hired labour (mandays) and cropping patterns showed significant influence at different levels on the probability of adopting improved technologies in cassava production as age had a positive and significant influence on the probability of adopting improved technologies. This influence is significant at 10% level. The coefficient of farmer’s age and education is positive meaning that as farmers age increase by one unit, the probability of adopting improved technologies will also increase. The budgetary analysis revealed that the average total revenue is N34,153.52, the average farmer’s net income is N22,094.99 and gross margin is N25,818.77 with the profitability index as 0.6469. Based on the problems identified, it has been recommended that the government should provide incentives for the farmers as well as increasing the rate of visit of extension agents in the study area so as to boost their level of adoption of technologies on cassava farming. Keywords: Farming, Technology, Profitability, Adoption, Incentive

Socio-economic factors and smallholder cassava farmers' access to credit in south-western Nigeria

Open Access JournalRésumé Facteurs socio-économiques et accès au crédit des petits producteurs de manioc dans le sud-ouest du Nigeria L'accès au crédit est un facteur important pour l'augmentation de la productivité agricole. Le modèle " Tobit" a été utilisé pour évaluer les facteurs qui influencent l'intensité de l'accès au crédit des petits producteurs de manioc du sud-Ouest du Nigeria. Les données primaires utilisées ont été collectées, auprès de 856 ménages, lors d'une enquête conduite par l'International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) en 2011. Les résultats du modèle empirique Tobit indiquent que seules sept des 11 variables sont statistiquement liées à l'intensité de l'accès au crédit. Cependant, seules les variables cheptel, production totale de manioc, valeur monétaire des actifs productifs du ménage et taille du ménage ont une influence positive et statistiquement différente de zéro sur l'intensité de l'accès au crédit. L'augmentation de ces variables permettrait d'augmenter le montant du crédit auquel un agriculteur pourrait avoir accès. Les politiques qui mèneront à l'amélioration de la diversification par l'élevage, l'augmentation de la production de manioc et l'accumulation d'actifs des agriculteurs sont recommandées pour cette région. Abstract Access to credit is an important factor in the attainment of agricultural productivity increase. We adopted a Tobit model to assess the factors that influence the intensity of rural smallholder cassava farmers' access to credit in Southwest Nigeria, using primary data collected from 856 rural households by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 2011. The results of the empirical Tobit model indicate that seven out of the 11 variables included in the model are statistically related to the intensity of access to credit. However, only total livestock unit, cassava output, monetary value of the households' productive assets and household size are positively and statistically significant. This implies that increase in output, diversification of households' income sources into livestock production and accumulation of assets are important variables that have the potential to enhance farmers' access to larger amounts of credit. Therefore, policies that will lead to improve farmers' outputs and/or increase diversification and assets accumulation are recommended for this region

Input use and profitability of arable crops production in Nigeria

The study accessed the profitability of the usage of all input in crop production through Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Project (CBARDP) among rural dwellers in the Northern part of the country with the view of comparing the input usage to recommended practices. The study was carried out in five States where the IITA/AfDB-CBARD project was implemented. The States were Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and Kwara. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to randomly select 720 farmers for the study for primary data generation. Farmers in study areas cultivated so many crops but the two most important crops (maize and cowpea) were used for the study. The analytical techniques used were descriptive statistics, Gross Margin and Income-Expenditure Ratio. The results showed that maize and cowpea production were profitable in the study area. However, farmers underutilized available production resources with the exception of land input. In addition, farmers did not comply with the recommended agronomic and management practices. The low usage of inputs especially fertilizer would affect the efficiency levels of maize and cowpea farmers implying that farmers were not using the available inputs optimally therefore, effort must be geared towards enhancing input use to promote competitiveness of maize and cowpea production in the area. Finally, since land input was over-utilized, there may be need for farmers to reduce land under cultivation for better utilization of resources

Assessment of the Role of Mass Media in the Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies among Farmers in Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to assess the Role of Mass Media in the Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies among Farmers in Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A random sampling technique was used for selecting samples. The total sample size was 108 respondents. Data were collected through a well structure interview schedule and analyzed with descriptive statistics and Chi- square. The study showed that the respondents have different degree of accessibility to radio, television, telephone, Internet, and newspaper/ bulletin. Radio was found to be more accessible (46.3%) and also the major source (60.19%) of agricultural technologies to the farmers. The study further revealed that 90.7% of the respondents affirms that mass media is effective in the dissemination of agricultural technologies while 9.3% saw mass media as not effective. The Chi- square analysis at 0.01% level of probability showed that the use of mass media was effective in the dissemination of agricultural technologies in the study area. The factors militating against the effective utilization of mass media as source of agricultural technologies to the farmers in the study area were also identified to be illiteracy, low income level, lack of credit facilities, and inadequate/ erratic power supply. To enhance the effectiveness of mass media in the dissemination of agricultural technologies for agricultural development in the study area there is need to strengthen the use of radio and television in information dissemination to farmers, more competent presenters who are knowledgeable in agriculture to handle agricultural programs. Also such programs should be broadcasted in local languages as much as possible and efforts must be taken to guarantee that the airing times are suitable. Key words: Agricultural technologies, Dissemination, Mass media, Analysi