PROFIT EFFICIENCY OF SMALLHOLDER COCOYAM-BASED FARMERS AND ITS DETERMINANTS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Cocoyam belongs to the indispensable food category that supplies calorie in the diet of the Nigerian populace. However, researches on its nutrition and economic values are scarce leading to low production and under consumption among the populace. Against the backdrop of the great potential of the Nigerian agriculture in cocoyam production, and the need for land use efficiency, sustainable development, poverty alleviation, attainment of food –security/ self-sufficiency and adequate resource allocation to the production of the crop, this study examined farm level profit efficiency and  its determinants for   smallholder cocoyam-based farmers in Osun State, South-west Nigeria, using Cobb-Douglas stochastic profit function. Multistage and random sampling techniques were used to select 180 small-holder cocoyam farmers during the 2014 growing season and data were collected from them on their socio-economic and production characteristics. Maximum likelihood estimates of the specified models revealed an average profit efficiency of 44.88 percent which indicated that the profit of the farmers can be increased by 55 percent with the same production cost. The study also found that the  level of education of the farmers, access to credit, farming experience, household size, access to extension services, and marital status are factors  affecting farm-level profit efficiency in the use of resources.  Farm-level policies aimed at promoting the farmers education, access to credit, access to extension services and marital status are recommended for improved profit efficiency.     &nbsp

Useful pharmacodynamic endpoints in children: selection, measurement, and next steps.

Pharmacodynamic (PD) endpoints are essential for establishing the benefit-to-risk ratio for therapeutic interventions in children and neonates. This article discusses the selection of an appropriate measure of response, the PD endpoint, which is a critical methodological step in designing pediatric efficacy and safety studies. We provide an overview of existing guidance on the choice of PD endpoints in pediatric clinical research. We identified several considerations relevant to the selection and measurement of PD endpoints in pediatric clinical trials, including the use of biomarkers, modeling, compliance, scoring systems, and validated measurement tools. To be useful, PD endpoints in children need to be clinically relevant, responsive to both treatment and/or disease progression, reproducible, and reliable. In most pediatric disease areas, this requires significant validation efforts. We propose a minimal set of criteria for useful PD endpoint selection and measurement. We conclude that, given the current heterogeneity of pediatric PD endpoint definitions and measurements, both across and within defined disease areas, there is an acute need for internationally agreed, validated, and condition-specific pediatric PD endpoints that consider the needs of all stakeholders, including healthcare providers, policy makers, patients, and families.Pediatric Research advance online publication, 11 April 2018; doi:10.1038/pr.2018.38