Analysis of gender dynamics in cassava production for resource empowerment among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

One of the key hindrances to agricultural advancement is the wide gender gap in agricultural productivity. This study focused on gender dynamics in cassava production towards resource empowerment among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the level of involvement of cassava farmers based on gender and to determine the empowerment status and gender parity of women and men cassava farmers. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to randomly selected 245 cassava farmers made up of 68 adult male, 58 adult female, 61 youth male and 58 youth female cassava farmers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and empowerment in agriculture index. Both genders were highly involved in cassava farming. However, results further showed that adult males and females were more involved (x̅ = 2.28 and x̅ =2.3) than the youth male and female cassava farmers (x̅=2.18 and x̅=2.07 respectively). The disempowered headcount ratio was 60.3% for women as against 40.5% for men. This can be attributed to a number of  indicators and domains of the 5DE sub-index in which women were considerably disadvantaged. The average adequacy score reveals that men achieved adequacy in 64% of dimensions of 5DE, while the 5DE adequacy score was 53% for women. The 5DE disempowerment index disaggregated by gender establishes that the domain of production and control over resources were the major contributors to the disempowerment index for both women and men. Within the domain of the resources, the combined influence of ownership of assets and access to credit and associated decisions contributed 26.86 and 31.52 % respectively to women and men disempowerment. Formulation of policies, planning and preparation of projects/programmes that would encourage gender sensitivity on cassava production by relevant agencies is advocated

Transaction costs, inefficiency and productivity of acha (Digitaria exilis) farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria

This paper analyses the role which barriers to acha production in the form of high transaction costs have on farmers’ production efficiency. Particular attention is paid to the effects of transaction cost on acha farmers’ output and total production cost. An empirical application is presented on a sample of 200 households randomly selected from Kaduna State. The stochastic translog production and cost functions were used to analyse the data. The results revealed that although acha farmers are small scale producers with an average land productivity of 498kg/ha, they are 81% technically efficient, 85% allocative efficient and 76% economically efficient. The results also confirm the contribution of transaction costs to inefficiency and their role in orienting households towards making decision to produce as they affect output, increase cost of production and hence, increase inefficiency in production. Although these transaction costs effects are not large, they do significantly affect (P<0.05) the output and total cost of production. Policy makers therefore need to focus on providing institutional support to producers which is necessary for technical and managerial skills and for reducing cost inefficiencies in production

Household typology based analysis of livelihood strategies and poverty status in the Sudan Savannah of Nigeria: baseline conditions

The Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) was initiated with an overall objective of tackling poverty related issues among the rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through an innovation focussed approach referred to as Integrated Agricultural Research for development (IAR4D). This paper employs some baseline data of the Sudan Savanna Task Force in analysing household livelihood strategies and their poverty status. Stratified random sampling technique was employed in collecting data from the respondents. The respondents were classified on the basis of whether the farmers are future IAR4D (intervention), conventional (ARD) or clean sites (little intervention). This is necessary for the end-line survey and for the impact assessment of the Challenge Programme. A total of 600 households were surveyed for the study. Descriptive statistics, estimated poverty line and the Tobit regression model were employed in the analysis. The result showed that sales of crops and livestock constitute the highest proportion of household income in all the IP sites implying that the households are highly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. There was no significant difference (P<0.05) in the number of households below the estimated poverty line in all the treatments however, the poverty gap index was highest for the IAR4D sites and least for some R & D sites; Results of the Tobit analysis explaining the factors determining the intensity of household poverty in the region (regales of village type) shows that eight variables affect household poverty intensity (P < 0.05) viz: Household Head Education, Child Dependency Ratio, Household Size, Farm Income, Household Production Enterprise Portfolio, Non Farm Income, Household total farm area and Extension Contact. According to the results obtained from the elasticity coefficients, the important factors that reduce household poverty intensity in the study area were farm income (P < 0.05), household total farm area (P < 0.10) and non-farm income in order of importance (P < 0.10). Factors that significantly increase poverty intensity were household size and child dependency ratio (P < 0.05). The results thus imply that given that IAR4D is designed to act directly on farm income through adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies, taskforce interventions are likely to contribute to reduction of poverty in the area

Analysis of Smallholder Maize Market Participation in Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study focused on the analysis of factors influencing market participation decisions and the intensity of participation among smallholder maize farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 600 randomly selected maize farmers in 2017. Result showed that April and December are the months which farmers sell large quantities of maize. Proportional transaction costs including individual farmer characteristics, private assets, public assets influenced the probability and intensity of market participation at various significant levels. Level of education and ownership of assets are critical in determining the intensity of market participation in the study area. The study concludes that variable transaction costs constitute one of the major binding constraints to maize market participation and commercialisation. The results suggest that policies aimed at developing rural infrastructure, improved access to assets, human and capital development and market information system could reduce transaction costs and enhance market participation and market supply