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)

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

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

Supply Response of Maize, Millet and Sorghum in Nigeria: An Error Correction Model Approach

The paper quantified the yield responses of maize, millet and sorghum in Nigeria using error correction model. The analysis was carried out using a time series data covering 1966-2008. LR-test statistic showed that there was cointegrating vector implying a unique long-run equilibrium relationship with the assumption of linear deterministic trend in the data. The error correction model results indicated that maize, millet, and sorghum yield were not significantly dependent on the prices of maize, millet, and sorghum in the short-run with the exception of millet yield which was dependent on own price. In the long-run, maize yield was statistically dependent on the prices of millet and sorghum. The paper concluded that maize supply was influenced by market signals (prices) and hence small incremental changes in millet and sorghum prices have significant impact on national maize supply level. It is recommended that millet and sorghum price stabilization policy will go a long way in increasing maize production. This will have a consequential effect of increasing the welfare of maize farmers

Credit Acceptability and Food Security of Farming Households in Nigeria Ayetoro, Yawa North Local Government Area, South_West, NIgeria

study examined the socio-economics characteristics of farming families (particularly access to credit) Thouseholds' perception of food security. To achieve this, a cross sectional survey of 90 randomly lected farming families was conducted. Descriptive and econometric analyses (binary logistic ression model) were carried out. Results showed that farming households' education, farming perience of the farmers, household size, farming household perception of the food security condition were significantly related to access to credit or credit usage. In addition, we deduced from the responses that food security is attached to quantitative compromises in food selection and consumption Policy measures aimed at increasing the farming households' access will go a long way in making the farming families much more food secured in the study area