DETERMINANTS OF POVERTY AMONG DRY SEASON WOMEN VEGETABLE FARMERS IN KWARA STATE, NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

This study examines the determinants of poverty among 120 representative dry season women vegetable farmers in Kwara state, North Central Nigeria using logistic regression model. The poverty status of the dry season women vegetable farmers were also profiled using the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke, (1984) weighted poverty indices. The results of the descriptive statistics show that 30% of the women vegetable farmers have no formal education. The FGT indices indicate that 36% of the women are poor. The results of the logistic regression model reveal membership of cooperative society, type of irrigation system, presence of other sources of income, size of farm land and farming experience as the major determinants of poverty among the women vegetable farmers in the study area. It was suggested that women vegetable farmers in the study area should endeavour to be members of cooperative societies in the state as there are benefits derivable from such association. Cooperative societies could also be harnessed by government to make meaningful improvement in vegetable production and by extension welfare of the women vegetable farmers in the state.Â

DETERMINANTS OF POVERTY STATUS OF RURAL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the determinants of poverty status of rural farming households in Osun State, South western, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and twenty representative farming households comprising of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the Farmers Empowerment Programme (FEP) in the state were used for the study. Descriptive statistics, the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke class of weighted poverty indices as well as the Tobit regression model were used to analyse the data generated from the survey. The results of the poverty indices show that 35 per cent of the beneficiaries of the Farmers Empowerment Programme were poor as against 55 per cent for the non-beneficiaries of the programme. The regression results show household size, amount of credit utilised and annual farm income as the factors influencing the poverty status of the rural farming households in the state. The lower incidence of poverty and access to credit for the beneficiaries of FEP in the state are indications of better welfare for this category of farming households. It is therefore suggested that the programme be sustained for poverty reduction among farming households in the state

Amino acid and mineral composition of meat from rabbits (Oryctolagus cunniculus) fed diets containing graded levels of processed tallow (Detarium microcarpum) seed meal

Eighty one weaned composite breeds of rabbits (males and females) were randomly allotted to nine treatment groups with nine rabbits per treatment. Each treatment had three replicates with three rabbits per replicate. Processed tallow meal was included in the diets as a source of protein which was set at 16 % CP. The control diet had 100 % palm kernel cake (PKC) and 0 % tallow seed meal (TSM). Diets 1 4 contained cooked tallow seed meal (CTSM) included at 75 % PKC: 25 % CTSM, 50 % PKC: 50% CTSM, 25% PKC:75 % CTSM and 0 % PKC: 100 % CTSM, respectively while groups 5 – 8 had fermented tallow seed meal diets (FTSM) and included at the same levels as in the cooked diets. Fifty four rabbits were randomly selected for slaughtering from the nine groups with six rabbits (male and females) per group. Amino acid and mineral composition of rabbit's meat were determined. The amino acid content of the meat of rabbits were significantly (P<0.05) affected by both the processing methods and levels of inclusion except for alanine which was not affected by processing methods, while the mineral contents revealed that potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, copper, manganese, iron, and zinc were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the processing method and the inclusion levels of the diets. It was concluded that eat from rabbits fed processed tallow seed meal based diets had low cholesterol level irrespective of processing method and it is of high biological value due to its amino acid composition.Key words: Amino acid, mineral, rabbit meat, tallow seed, processin