The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme: Productivity and Shortcomings among Rice Farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Increasing access to improved farm inputs at a subsidized rate has urgently become the focus of government programmes. This study therefore examined the effect and shortcomings of GES Scheme on rice farmers’ productivity. A cross-sectional data of 160 smallholder rice farming households was selected through multistage random sampling technique from three major rice-producing local government areas. The total number of communities randomly selected was six. The data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire and the objectives were analysed using descriptive statistics and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index. The results revealed that the average age of the rice farmers in the study area was about 46 years. More male farmers (73.1%) were involved in the Scheme than their female counterparts. Among the registered rice farmers, 58.7 percent received telephone alerts for the subsidized inputs (fertilizer and seeds), but not all the farmers were able to gain access to the inputs due to cash constraint, missing names at the redemption centres, untimely supply, among others. The results from the TFP index showed that the participants were productive. They had an average of 10% net gain from the cost incurred in production. Using the TFP index, it was revealed that rice farmers in Gbonyin local government area are the most (80%) productive among others. It was therefore recommended that timely supply of inputs should be ensured and an efficient monitoring team should be in place to check inadequacies in this Scheme

Governance quality, remittances and their implications for food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite impressive progress in the fight against malnutrition and hunger in recent years, food and nutrition insecurity remains a major concern in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. In this study, we employ a panel data covering 15 SSA countries from 1996 to 2015 to investigate the growth effects of remittances and quality of governance on food and nutrition security, proxied by the average value of food production and the average dietary energy supply adequacy, respectively. We use a dynamic empirical model based on system GMM to control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The empirical results emanating from our analysis show that the interaction of remittances and the composite index of governance quality exerts positive and significant effects on the average value of food production, and also contributes to the improvement of average dietary energy supply adequacy in SSA. In addition, the control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability and rule of law scores increase both measures of food and nutrition security. Albeit, the contribution of control over corruption score is relatively the largest as compared to other indicators of governance

Welfare Impact of Globalization in Developing Countries: Examining the Mediating Role of Human Capital

Publication history: Accepted - 16 August 2019, Published - 21. August 2019espite remarkable progress in the fight against poverty during the past few decades, the proportion of the poor living in developing countries is still on the high side. Many countries have promoted integration as an important development strategy; however, its impact on welfare of the poor is still unclear. In this study, we examine the roles of education and health dimensions of human capital in globalization and its impact on the poverty gap and the child mortality rate using cross-country panel data covering 110 developing countries between 1970 and 2015. We use a model based on system generalized method of moments (SGMM) to control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The empirical results reveal that globalization reduces poverty gap and child mortality rate, and that an increase in the stock of human capital in developing economies improves welfare outcomes. The study also finds that human capital strengthens the negative impact of globalization on poverty gap and child mortality rate. For example, should enrollment in secondary school in Nigeria (in 2013) be increased from 39.2% to 61.6%, on average, it could translate into 2508 fewer under-five child deaths. We recommend that interconnectedness and promotion of human capital development should constitute a fundamental component of policy mix targeted at enhancing reduction of poverty and child mortality rate in developing countries

The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme: Productivity and Shortcomings among Rice Farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Increasing access to improved farm inputs at a subsidized rate has urgently become the focus of government programmes. This study therefore examined the effect and shortcomings of GES Scheme on rice farmers’ productivity. A cross-sectional data of 160 smallholder rice farming households was selected through multistage random sampling technique from three major riceproducing local government areas. The total number of communities randomly selected was six. The data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire and the objectives were analysed using descriptive statistics and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index. The results revealed that the average age of the rice farmers in the study area was about 46 years. More male farmers (73.1%) were involved in the Scheme than their female counterparts. Among the registered rice farmers, 58.7 percent received telephone alerts for the subsidized inputs (fertilizer and seeds), but not all the farmers were able to gain access to the inputs due to cash constraint, missing names at the redemption centres, untimely supply, among others. The results from the TFP index showed that the participants were productive. They had an average of 10% net gain from the cost incurred in production. Using the TFP index, it was revealed that rice farmers in Gbonyin local government area are the most (80%) productive among others. It was therefore recommended that timely supply of inputs should be ensured and an efficient monitoring team should be in place to check inadequacies in this Scheme

Does agricultural cooperative membership impact technical efficiency of maize production in Nigeria: An analysis correcting for biases from observed and unobserved attributes

Publication history: Accepted - 31 December 2020; Published online - 22 January 2021The formation of agricultural cooperatives has been widely promoted as an agricultural development policy initiative to help smallholder farmers cope with multiple production and marketing challenges. Using a nationally representative survey dataset of smallholder maize producers from rural Nigeria, this study assesses the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on technical efficiency (TE). We based our estimation approach on the combination of a newly developed sample selection stochastic production frontier model with propensity score matching to control for possible selectivity biases from both observables and unobservables. We estimate stochastic meta-frontiers to examine TE differences between cooperative members and non-members. Our results reveal that TE levels of members are consistently higher than that of non-members. This calls for continued policy incentives targeted at encouraging farmers to form as well as participate in agricultural cooperatives

What Drives Households’ Payment forWaste Disposal and Recycling Behaviours? Empirical Evidence from South Africa’s General Household Survey

Publication history: Accepted - 22 July 2020; Published - 1 October 2020.Safeguarding the environment and its citizens’ health remains one of the key policy priorities of the governments of many developing and emerging countries. Using the 2017 General Household Survey (GHS) dataset, this study examines the driving factors a ecting households’ recycling behaviour and payment for waste disposal in South Africa. The methods of data analysis were based on descriptive statistics and a Bivariate Probit regression model. The descriptive statistics results indicate that there are 56.29% male-headed and 43.71% female headed households, with an average age of 49 years. In addition, the study shows that 89.97% of household heads had formal education with a mean monthly income of 11,099.07 ZAR/650.504 USD. The study also revealed that 22% of the households sampled had access to social grants. The results from the Bivariate Probit regression model show that household’s income, access to social grants, formal educational attainment and the age of the household were significant (p < 0.01) driving factors a ecting households’ recycling behaviour and payment for waste disposal. The study concludes that the households’ socio-economic factors a ect their recycling behaviour and willingness to pay for waste management in South Africa. Actions targeted at poverty alleviation and environmental sensitization programmes are key for facilitating environmental conservation behaviours of households in South Africa in order to achieve the environmental sustainability Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of the United Nations

Do soil and water conservation practices influence crop productivity and household welfare? Evidence from rural Nigeria

PRIFPRI3; ISI; CRP3.2; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural EconomiesDevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Transformation StrategiesCGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE

COVID-19 induced shocks and its implications for human capital development

Abstract Background COVID-19 has delivered an enormous shock to the global economy, triggering the deepest recession in eight decades, almost three times as deep as the 2009 global recession. Of all the nations in Africa, Nigeria remains one of the nations with a huge and significant impact on the human capital. Methods Hence, here we employed the recent nationally representative data from Nigeria - the COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey 2020-World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study Integrated Agriculture Survey (LSMS-ISA), a harmonized dataset to explore how the COVID-19 induced shocks affected households’ human capital development (using health and education outcomes). Results The results indicate that the COVID-19 induced shocks impact on both health and education in Nigeria. Interestingly, access to social safety nets had a positive association with the health and education outcomes. The study concludes that households’ access to social safety nets, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic aids in the development of the nation’s human capital. Therefore, effectively enhancing household’s resilience and strengthening human capital development require positive and considerable innovation, maybe over a period of years. Hence, just an access to the national social safety nets programs or social programs may not be as effective as expected. Therefore, it may not be as successful as intended to just have access to national social safety net programs or social programs that contribute or transfer negligible amounts to the vulnerable recipients over short time frames

Data on food insufficiency status in South Africa: Insight from the South Africa General Household Survey

Food insecurity or insufficiency, among other factors, is triggered by structural inequalities. Food insecurity is an inflexible problematic situation in South Africa. The country has a custom of evidence-based decision making, stocked in the findings of generalized national household surveys. Conversely, the deep insights from the heterogeneity of the sub-national analysis remain a principally unexploited means of understanding of the contextual experience of food insecurity or insufficiency in South Africa. The data present the food insufficiency status with special focus on adult and children. The data also reveal the adult and children food insufficiency status across the provinces in South Africa. The data contains socioeconomic and demographic characteristics as well the living condition and food security status of the households. Keywords: Food security, Children, Adult, Data, Sustainable goa