EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF COST AND RETURNS TO COMMERCIAL TABLE EGG PRODUCTION IN LAGOS STATE

Using basic statistics and a simple gross margin analysis procedure, it is apparent that commercial table egg production in Lagos State is profitable. Under the same assumption and based on available statistics, the gross margin for a commercial table egg producer with 1000 laying birds has increased from N975,000:00 in 1998 to N1,050,000:00 in 2005, representing an increase of 7.7 percent. The demand for poultry products is expected to grow in view of increase in per capita income, increased awareness of the health implications of inadequate intake of protein in the human diet and the outbreak of avian influenza in Asia. Thus, increased production of table egg under the Presidential Initiative is sustainable and should be maintained.Livestock Production/Industries,

POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS: A REVIEW OF THE CONCEPT OF THE WORLD BANK-ASSISTED AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECfS IN NIGERIA.

The Agricultural Development Project (ADP) concept has been used as the primary method to increase production q.nd welfare in the smallholder agricultural sector in Nigeria. This was done through the provision of farm and crop development programmes and services. rural infrastructures, institution building, human resource development, and substantial technical assistance. Since 1974, The World Bank has given substantial support to this programme. The earliest ADPs were restricted in their coverage to specific areas within some states and were called enclave projects. The federal and state governments were impressed with the results of the enclave projects. This led to pressure to expand the enclave projects and to have ADPs in those states which had not yet benefited. State-wide ADP projects managed under the same semi-autonomous agency concept were developed, followed by ·the three nwlti-state ADPs (MSADP I, 3, 3), and the present sector- and subsector approach with the ADPs as the main delivery agents. The ADP concept represents a clear shift from capital intensive investment projects for selected high-potential areas to a development of the country's small holder sector in the drive to enhance rural income andalleviate poverty

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

This paper highlighted the importance of the family in the society as well as the negative impact poverty, war and diseases can have on the development of the family. It went on to review the eight MDGs set in 2000 for attainment on or before 2015 which also targeted the most vulnerable groups in the family (the women and children). Available data from the World Bank and the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that though substantial progress has been made towards attaining the various targets set for the MDGs but, only MDG Goal 3/Target 3A, aimed at gender parity in primary and secondary school was fully met in Nigeria in 2012 as indicated by NBS 2014 national survey results of 1.0 and 1.02 ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary school at the national level. Nigeria did not meet fully all of the other MDG goals and targets and actually retarded rather than progress with respect to MDG Goal 1/Target 1A, Goal 6/Target 6A and Goal 7/Target 7C. Proportion of the population that had access to improved sanitation facilities for instance, actually declined from 37 per cent in 1990 to 28 per cent in 2012 in Nigeria rather than increase by 50 per cent from the 1990 level. Therefore, a lot still needs to be done in Nigeria and most other developing countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to assist families in this part of the world to be able to contribute their quota to economic development in their environment and the world at large. More investments are needed in the education and health sectors and priorities must be given to the vulnerable groups (women and children) as well as very poor families who performed worse

APPRAISAL OF INFORMAL ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Before appraising the informal economic activities in the agricultural sector it may be necessary first to decipher what constitutes an informal economic activity. This can be i~fe rred from the definition of the informal sector although there does not seem to be a consensus yet on the exact definition of the term. Perhaps, the pioneering work of Hart (1973) which defines an informal sector as where income is derived from self employment could be a good basis. According to Obadan et. al. (1996), the works of Sethurama (1976, 1990), Hug an (1971 }, Charmes (1990), Bromey (1979), Macgraffey and Windsperger (1990) and others have adopted variants of employment/income based classification that are similar to that of Hart. However, the most frequently adopted definition is that from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) (1976); which defines informal enterprises as those that employ a handful of workers, who earn low income, utilize rudimentary or subsistence technology and operate largely outside the boundaries of government regulations governing businesses in general. This definition by the ILO aptly describes most of the activities in the agricultural sector in Nigeria, which ·is still largely peasantry, relaying on rudimentary technology, employing mainly family labour and operated on small scale

An Empirical Analysis of The Prices of Nigeria's Agricultural Export Commodities:

The study examines the role of price incentives in expanding agricultural commodity exports. Using the concept of efficiency, based on the theory of opportunity cost, nominal and effective protection coefficients (NPC & EPC) were estimated for cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm kernel, palm oil, rubber and soyabean. Their world market prices served as the efficiency benchmarks in order to determine the pattern of incentives or disincentives to the Nigerian agricultural export sector. The NPC values obtained ranged from 0.47 for cotton to 1.18 for soyabean pre-Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and during the SAP the values ranged from 0. 63 to 2.14 f or the respective crops. This result confirmed that incentives improved substantially for export crop production during the SAP. The result of the EPC analysis complemented that of the NPC which indicated that incentives were more in favour of the production of soyabean, a non-traditional export crop in Nigeria. Consequently, the study concluded that the programme for boosting industrial and export crop production recently launched by the Federal Government should emphasise the production of soyabean in order to diversify our agricultural export base, along with palm produce and rubber particularly now that oilseeds and rubber have better prospects in the world market

DIVERSIFICATION OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY: AGRICULTURE AND SOLID MINERALS AS PANACEA*

Diversification of the Nigerian economy with specific emphasis agricultural and solid mineral sectors is feasible in view of Nigeria's endowment. Nigeria has a large expanse of agricultural land. This 77.7 per cent of Nigeria's tota l land area which is 910.8 thousand kilometres. Of this total, 37.3 per cent is arable land, 7.4 per cent is permanent crop and 9.0 percent is under forest. Therefore, substantial still available for agricultural activities. Most importantly, Nigeria's a diverse, which include four sub-sectors, namely; crop, livestock, fishery forestry which are yet to be ful ly exploited. In the same vein, Nigeria is bl with a wide variety of solid minerals which are widely distributed in the states of the Federation. So far, about 33 solid mineral commott occurring in about 450 locations nationwide have been identified. include coal, cassiterite (tin ore), columbite, marble, tantalite, wolfram, lead, zinc, limestone, kaolin, clay, shales, and radioactive minerals monazite, zircon, molybdelite and barytes. Others are glass sand, sand, uranium, serpentine, phosphate, cuprite, granite, talc ore, feldspar, bentonite, soda ash, iron ore, dolomite, etc. Thus, Nigeria with most of the mineral raw materials needed as inputs for production. An effective partnership between government and the sector in exploiting these abundant agricultural and solid mineral which are well distributed all over the country, will certainly put Nigeria part of sustainable growth and development