Econometric analysis of the impact of agricultural insurance of farming systems in the middle belt, Nigeria.

Agriculture continues to dominate economic development policy in many developing countries. This is hardly surprising given the high proportion of the population of such countries that derive their livelihood from agriculture and related activities. What is surprising in many of the countries is the failure of the policy to deliver the sustained supplies of food and industrial raw materials as intended. In part this may have occurred because they failed to address the inability of the peasant farmers to withstand the increased risks associated with the adoption of commercial farming practices. Agricultural insurance is seen as one of the best strategies to address farm risks and encourage farmers to embrace modern production practices with greater potential for better and quality yields. In Nigeria, the Government introduced agricultural insurance programme with the tripartite aim of broadening farmers’ access to farm resources, positively changing farmers’ attitude to risk in their choice of resource use and to achieve increased food supplies in the market. Different factors can be identified that influence farmers’ behaviour especially making decisions thatrelate to farm production, vis-à-vis choice of enterprise, its combination, the type and level of resources used in a given farming season. This study was carried out to examine whether agricultural insurance exerted any significant influence on the farming practices in the country. This study tests the broad hypothesis that farmers who purchase insurance increase their exposure to risk by adopting modern farming practices and achieved increase in resource productivity. The study found that the sampled farmers differ in their use of farm resources and the level of output produced. A higher proportion of insured farmers applied improved farming practices and were more commercially oriented. The insured farmers ventured into more risky enterprises and released a greater proportion of their output to the market for sale. However, contrary to expectations, uninsured farmers were found to be more productive and efficient in their resource use than the insured farmers

Econometric Analysis Of The Impact Of Agricultural Insurance On Farming Systems In The Middle Belt, Nigeria

Agriculture continues to dominate economic development policy in many developing countries. This is hardly surprising given the high proportion of the population of such countries that derive their livelihood from agriculture and related activities. What is surprising in many of the countries is the failure of the policy to deliver the sustained supplies of food and industrial raw materials as intended. In part this may have occurred because they failed to address the inability of the peasant farmers to withstand the increased risks associated with the adoption of commercial farming practices. Agricultural insurance is seen as one of the best strategies to address farm risks and encourage farmers to embrace modern production practices with greater potential for better and quality yields. In Nigeria, the Government introduced agricultural insurance programme with the tripartite aim of broadening farmers' access to farm resources, positively changing farmers' attitude to risk in their choice of resource use and to achieve increased food supplies in the market. Different factors can be identified that influence farmers' behaviour especially making decisions that relate to farm production, vis-à-vis choice of enterprise, its combination, the type and level of resources used in a given farming season. This study was carried out to examine whether agricultural insurance exerted any significant influence on the farming practices in the country. This study tests the broad hypothesis that farmers who purchase insurance increase their exposure to risk by adopting modern farming practices and achieved increase in resource productivity. The study found that the sampled farmers differ in their use of farm resources and the level of output produced. A higher proportion of insured farmers applied improved farming practices and were more commercially oriented. The insured farmers ventured into more risky enterprises and released a greater proportion of their output to the market for sale. However, contrary to expectations, uninsured farmers were found to be more productive and efficient in their resource use than the insured farmers

Polymerase chain reaction genotyping of Epstein-Barr virus in scraping samples of the tongue lateral border in HIV-1 seropositive patients

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the etiological agent of oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL), an oral lesion with important diagnostic and prognostic value in acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome. The two EBV genotypes, EBV-1 and EBV-2, can be distinguished by divergent gene sequences encoding the EBNA-2, 3A, 3B, and 3C proteins. The purpose of this study was to identify the EBV genotype prevalent in 53 samples of scrapings from the lateral border of the tongue of HIV-1 seropositive patients, with and without OHL, and to correlate the genotypes with presence of clinical or subclinical OHL with the clinic data collected. EBV-1 and EBV-2 were identified through PCR and Nested-PCR based on sequence differences of the EBNA-2 gene. EBV-1 was identified in the 31 samples (15 without OHL, 7 with clinical OHL and 9 with subclinical OHL), EBV-2 in 12 samples (10 without OHL, 1 with clinical and 1 subclinical OHL), and a mixed infection in 10 samples (2 without OHL, 3 with clinical and 5 with subclinical OHL). The presence of EBV-1 was higher in women, but a significant statistical result relating one the EBV genotypes to the development of OHL was not found. We conclude that the oral epithelium in HIV-1 seropositive patients can be infected by EBV-1, EBV-2 or by a mixed viral population