Determinants of Child Labour and Schooling: Implications for Poverty and Social Inequality Reduction among Rural Households of Ogun State, Nigeria

Social inequality has remained an adamant obstacle to economic development in Africa and indeed Nigeria. The decision to send a child to work or school reinforces the human capital accumulation or the prevalence of poverty and social inequality. The study analysed pertinent variables in the tradeoff between child labour and schooling in rural households of Ogun State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling was used in the selection of rural households and ex-post facto approach was adopted in interviewing 493 household children; 240 girls and 253 boys. In order to explicitly estimate the interdependency between child labour and schooling, a bivariate probit regression was modeled. Simple percentages and means were used to describe boys and girls socio-demographic characteristics. Findings revealed that female children had a higher likelihood to work than attend school. The proportion of girls not enrolled in school (16.7%) was almost twice larger than that of the boys (8.7%). Girls were observed to have higher school drop-out rate (18.3%) than boys (16.6%). The rate of out-of-school for both boys and girls was at 30 percent. The proportion of male children who attended school exclusively was higher than females. More girls participated in work only while a higher proportion of boys combined work with schooling. It was observed that the propensity to participate in child labour increased with child‟s age while the years of education of the child decreased the probability of labour participation and increased the likelihood of schooling. Household poverty significantly increased the probability of child labour and decreased the likelihood of schooling. Children from male headed households and farm households were found to participate more in labour activities and less in schooling than their other counterparts. Furthermore, presence of secondary school and electricity increased school attendance and decreased labour participation while presence of public potable water source was found to increase the probability of child labour but does not significantly impact on school attendance. The study concluded that reducing child labour will increase schooling options. However, decreasing child labour is possible through decreasing household poverty and gender disparity and providing physical infrastructure which will in turn decrease poverty and social inequality among the rural households and foster development.Keywords: Child labour, child schooling, poverty, gender disparity, bivariate probi

WETLANDS ATTRIBUTES AND INFLUENCES ON FOOD SECURITY OF HOUSEHOLDS AROUND OGUN RIVER OF NIGERIA

The physical and ecological attributes of wetlands are important in their economic and biological usefulness. To this end, this research answers questions such as: what are the attributes of the wetland in the study area? Do the wetland attributes have influence on food security status of the households? The study was conducted in the wetlands of Ogun River and its tributaries located in the South-western Nigeria. Primary data were collected through the use of personally administered questionnaire and interview. Two stage sampling technique was used in selecting 633 households included in this study. Data were analyzed using descriptive techniques; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food security module and binary Logit model. The result revealed that wetlands of upper Ogun have abundance of all wetland attributes examined. Food security situation in households with children was not different from those without children. Majority of wetland residents’ households were not food secure leaving about a quarter as food secured. All the eight wetland attributes examined in this study had potential of increasing food security among wetland households as food security was constituently higher in wetlands with abundance of these attributes as against where they are limited. Socio-economic characteristics and wetland attributes have influence on food security status of households. The study therefore recommends that wetlands that are deep and free flowing with unobstructed water ways should be developed by government, international development agencies and non-governmental organizations so as to improve food security status in wetlands areas

Wetland importance and dependence among households around the Ogun River Basin, Nigeria

Wetland is particularly important in developing countries for economic purposes. This study examines livelihood activities, wetland dependence and its determinants among wetland households. Primary data were collected from households in a two stage random sampling procedure. Both descriptive and quantitative methods were employed for data analysis. Results show that support for dry season production, all year round water supply, and fishing were the first, second and third most important benefits of wetland to households. Socio-economic factors have influences on wetland dependence. This study concludes that wetland support dry season farming and is heavily depended upon for income by households in wetland communities. It is therefore recommended that skills acquisition centres should be established in wetland communities to engage youths particularly male in other employment apart from wetland related ones so as to reduce dependence on wetlands and thus take pressure off them

Adoption of agricultural practices with climate smart agriculture potentials and food security among farm households in northern Nigeria

Despite the conceptual promise and attractiveness of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in ensuring farmers’ resilience and food security, empirical evidence of its success are observed to be scanty and mixed in terms of results, thus prompting further research. In this article, we analyzed the effect of adopting six Agricultural Practices with CSA Potentials (AP-CSAPs) on food security status using recent cross-sectional data on 238 maize farmers from Northern Nigeria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Probit regression. The results showed that 92.4% of the maize farmers were male, with a mean age and household size of 44 years and nine persons, respectively. We find that 37.0% of the farm households were food insecure, and adoption of the AP-CSAPs was generally low. However, while refuse retention and agroforestry influenced food security, the remaining four practices considered did not. In addition, we find that land fragmentation, off-farm income and age influence the likelihood of being food secure. We recommend further research on the medium- to long-term effects of AP-CSAPs and suggest that policies aimed at consolidating landholdings to promote monocropping among rural farmers be discouraged

Determinants and the perceived effects of adoption of sustainable improved food crop technologies by smallholder farmers along the value chain in Nigeria

Adoption of improved agricultural technologies is fundamental to transformation of sustainable farming system, and a driving force for increasing agricultural productivity. This study provides empirical evidence on the determinants, and the perceived effects of adoption of improved food crop technologies in Nigeria. It is a cross-sectional survey of available technologies and 1,663 farm households in Nigeria. Data were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed very low technology adoption index. Available food crop production technologies used by sampled respondents were assessed as effective, appropriate, readily available, affordable, durable, user and gender friendly, with requisite skill to use them. However, processing technologies such as cabinet dryer were observed as unaffordable, not durable, not gender or users friendly. Packaging machines are also not users or gender friendly; washing machine not affordable, durable and gender friendly. Grain processing technologies like De-stoner, grading, and packaging machines are still not locally available and affordable. While parboilers have a negative impact on product quality, farmers’ health and the environment, tomato grinding machines have positive impact on the quality of the product, health of the users, yield and negatively affect the environment. The main determinants of adoption are the crop types, farm size and locations. Adoption of herbicide and inorganic fertilizer were influenced by travel cost to nearest place of acquisition, while the age of farmer has a positive and significant influence on the adoption of pesticide, water management and cassava harvester. Interestingly, male farmers only exhibit greater likelihood of adopting land preparation, inorganic and organic fertilizer technologies compared to their female counterpart. Therefore, policy options that consider all users at the development stages, favour reduction of travel cost, increase farm size are recommended to encourage sustainable adoption of improved food cop technologies