Farmers' Preference for Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Nigeria: Analytic Hierarchic Process Approach

Enhancing agricultural production through sustainable soil/land and water conservation practices are vital to the sustenance of the human race as entrenched in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2, 12 and 15 respectively. Smallholder farmers are faced with myriads of soil and water-related issues in production which make them vulnerable to land degradation and low productivity. This calls for policies to enhance sustainable food production; hence, the need for this study which highlighted the influencing dynamics governing the preference and use of SWC practices alternatives in Nigeria with particular reference to Osun State. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in this study to select the representative sample of 240 respondents. Data collected through primary source include information on selected farmers’ socioeconomic attributes, institutional and farm level characteristics as well as the SWC practices prevalent in the study area. The SWC practices highlighted in this study include: Soil Management/Amendment Practices (SAP), Agronomic Practices (AP) and Cultivation Practices (CP). The data collected were analyzed with crosstabulation analysis, AHP technique and the logit regression model. The results from AHP revealed that Agronomic Practices (AP) is the most preferred and used SWC practice option in the study area while marginal effects of the logit regression revealed that age, gender, years of formal education, membership of local level institutions, access to extension services and frequency of extension visit as well as farmers’ perception on the impact of extension visit are significant influencing dynamics governing the rural farmers’ preference and use of SWC practices alternatives in the study area. Hence, concerted efforts should be geared towards developing pro-farmers policies in line with these influencing dynamics. &nbsp

Effect of social capital and information acquisition on the adoption and benefits of conservation agriculture among cassava and maize smallholder farmers in South-West Nigeria

Sustainable economic growth and development in developing economy like Nigeria is achievable through the agricultural sector and sub-sectors which are concentrated in rural areas. Rural areas represent a home to majority (about 75%) of the households practicing farming for family sustenance and/or to earn income from the sales of agricultural products (Oyakhilomen and Zibah, 2014). In addition to the persistent use of traditional farming practices, these rural farming households cultivate crops varieties that are low-yielding on small and scattered farmland holdings (smallholder farmers) (Oyakhilomen and Zibah, 2014). This act depletes the soil organic matter with devastating consequences on production output, income generation as well as the ecosystem. Similarly, non-access to agricultural credit and limited technical knowhow are parts of the challenges that are facing the development of farming activities in subSaharan Africa, including Nigeria (Kassie, Pender, Yesuf, Köhlin, Bluffstone and Mulugeta, 2008). These challenges call for holistic interventions such as conservative agricultural practices; which are sustainable, promote safe environment and ultimately increase production output

The Endogeneity Effects of Conservation Agriculture Adoption on Smallholder Farmers' Food Security Status in Osun State, Nigeria

Goal two of the Sustainable Development Goals stipulates that, individuals at all strata are food secure. This is a major social problem with far reaching economic and development consequences. Growing population has exacerbated the pressure on land base agriculture to supply energy requirements, and traditional agricultural practices have complicated the topical issue. Thus, efforts to simultaneously improve agricultural productivity and keep the system sustainable calls for appropriate sustainable agricultural practice such as conservation agriculture. This study investigates the links between CA adoption and household food security in Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty-one respondents in the study area were sampled. Multisampling technique was used to select the required sample and a questionnaire was administered. Descriptive statistics result revealed farmers’ and farm-based characteristics while food security index divulged the food security status of the respondents. The Double hurdle model was employed to investigate factors driving the adoption of CA and extent of adoption while two-stage least square (2SLS) estimated bi-causal links between CA adoption and food security status. The age of respondents, gender, education, access to credit, farm size cultivated and access to extension services contributed significantly to the adoption of CA and so to the extent of adoption. The two-stage least square confirms the exogeneity of CA adoption with food security status. By implication, the adoption of CA practices in Nigeria is a viable option to increase food production and by extension to attain sustainable food security status. &nbsp

Household Cooking Energy Situation in Nigeria: Insight from Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey 2015

The lingering electricity energy crisis in Nigeria which is beyond the control of most households necessitates making decision and choice on alternative energy pathways for households' sustenance and welfare. This study assessed households' energy situation with respect to choice of cooking fuel and cooking energy poverty status in Nigeria. Further investigation was sought to isolate the main factors influencing households' choice of individual fuels as main cooking fuels using data from Nigeria's Malaria Indicator Survey of 2015 with the application of descriptive and multivariate probit analyses. Findings revealed that wood and kerosene fuels remain the major fuels utilized by most households in Nigeria for cooking purposes. Meanwhile, level of education, household size, wealth status and regional factors are significant predictors driving choices of fuels among households, though the impact of these factors differs across the highlighted choices. Based on these findings, mass enlightenment campaign on the safe use of clean energy is recommended while the need for economic diversification by rural households to aid their wealth status is also emphasized. Also, there is need to gear up corporate social responsibilities by the available private establishments in ensuring rural accessibility, availability and affordability of modern and cleaner fuel (such as LPG). Keywords: Cooking Energy Choice, Multivariate Probit Model, Nigeria JEL Classifications: D10, I30, Q40 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.691

Distribution pattern of households’ income inequality in Eastern Cape, South Africa: Application of regression-based decomposition of inequality

Income inequality is a pervasive problem in South Africa and particularly affects the Eastern Cape, where poverty levels remain high despite several efforts to address this societal issue. The datasets from 1499 households used for this study, were extracted from the 2021 South African General Household Survey. This study thus examined the distributional pattern of households’ income inequality in Eastern Cape, South Africa, through the use of exploratory data analysis and application of regression-based decomposition of inequality. The EDA results revealed that relatively older households are more concentrated than those young people, female-headed households were also predominant in the study area, while the majority of the households are Black South Africans. The magnitude of the monetary variables’ departure from the mean inferred clear evidence of a widened households’ income disparity or inequality in the study area. The decomposition analysis indicated the contributions of various socioeconomic factors to income inequality. The findings from the regression-based decomposition of inequality found household size, access to basic infrastructure services, possession of assets, internet communication facilities, and households’ population group, as the major drivers of the households’ income inequality in the province, while livelihood diversity has a relatively moderate proportionate contribution. On the other hand, factors such as age and gender of the household head, as well as households’ involvements in agriculture have a minor effect on the households’ income inequality. This paper finally concludes that the relative contributions of each factor contributing to inequality were deemed important for designing effective policy-relevant interventions which can be used to promote economic growth and to address this persistent challenge of income inequality in society

Distribution pattern of households’ income inequality in Eastern Cape, South Africa: Application of regression-based decomposition of inequality

Income inequality is a pervasive problem in South Africa and particularly affects the Eastern Cape, where poverty levels remain high despite several efforts to address this societal issue. The datasets from 1499 households used for this study, were extracted from the 2021 South African General Household Survey. This study thus examined the distributional pattern of households’ income inequality in Eastern Cape, South Africa, through the use of exploratory data analysis and application of regression-based decomposition of inequality. The EDA results revealed that relatively older households are more concentrated than those young people, female-headed households were also predominant in the study area, while the majority of the households are Black South Africans. The magnitude of the monetary variables’ departure from the mean inferred clear evidence of a widened households’ income disparity or inequality in the study area. The decomposition analysis indicated the contributions of various socioeconomic factors to income inequality. The findings from the regression-based decomposition of inequality found household size, access to basic infrastructure services, possession of assets, internet communication facilities, and households’ population group, as the major drivers of the households’ income inequality in the province, while livelihood diversity has a relatively moderate proportionate contribution. On the other hand, factors such as age and gender of the household head, as well as households’ involvements in agriculture have a minor effect on the households’ income inequality. This paper finally concludes that the relative contributions of each factor contributing to inequality were deemed important for designing effective policy-relevant interventions which can be used to promote economic growth and to address this persistent challenge of income inequality in society

Correlates of farmers’ resilience to food insecurity in South-West Nigeria

Recently, many developing nations are disproportionately experiencing the impact of shocks and stressors compared to the rest of the world due to increasing inadequate capability and capacity to withstand the shocks. In particular, farmers and farming households are faced with diverse repeated and unanticipated shocks, which may be socio-economic, ecological and/or environmental in nature. All these shocks become unbearable and worsen in terms of food insecurity. The welfare costs associated with the shocks are significant, attracting humanitarian and development policy experts’ attention to developing suitable interventions to build a resilient food system and society. Consequently, this study analyzed the correlates of farmers’ resilience to food insecurity in South-West Nigeria. Drawing on the data collected from 472 smallholder farmers randomly sampled, descriptive statistics, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s food insecurity experience scale approach, composite score technique, principal component analysis (PCA) and Structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that more than half (55.3%) of the respondents were inadequate in almost all the resilience indicators and components, had low resilience capacity, and were vulnerable to food shocks and food insecurity. In comparison, only 7.8% have a high resilience capacity to be a buffer against food shocks. 54% of the respondents fall into a high food insecurity category, while only 1.9% fall into a very-low food insecurity continuum. The SEM analysis also revealed that social safety net (p<0.01), climate extreme events (p<0.01), access to essential services (p<0.01), presence of enabling institutional environment (p<0.01), and technical level (p<0.05) made direct impacts on the farmers’ food insecurity status. Conversely, possession of assets (p<0.01), and social capital/neighborhood effect (p<0.1) had inverse impacts on the farmers’ food insecurity status. The study recommended transparently implementing a social protection program to assist the farmer in building buffers against shocks. There is also a greater need for sustained investments across the resilience pillars and indicators to build farmers’ resilience capacity to food insecurity and other shocks

Shocks and Coping Strategies of Rural Households: Evidence from Ogo-Oluwa Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria

Rural households in Nigeria are vulnerable to shock because of their limited capacity to make informed decision on secured coping strategies which is further aggravated by some households’ specific socio-economic characteristics. Attempts were made to identify shocks being faced by households’ heads and coping strategies. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 80 respondents and well structured questionnaire was used to collect data through in-depth interview. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics to describe households’ socio- economic variables; Probit analysis was also used to determine the relationship between personal socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, shocks and choice of coping actions. The results revealed that a large share of households experience multidimensional shocks, which are mainly associated to ecological but also suffer from other economic, demographic and social factors. Majority of households undertake coping actions in response to shocks; coping strategies employed but not limited to include borrowing, distress sales of assets, remittances, adjustment in food intake, drawing on savings. Educational status, household size, per capita income, shocks type, coping strategies, among others are found to significantly affect the choice of coping actions and are likely to have implications for households’ future welfare status

Smallholder Farmers' Use of Indigenous Knowledge Practices in Agri-food Systems: Contribution of Food Security Attainment Drive

Most of the world's poor, including those in Nigeria, live in rural and agrarian settings and are engaged in agricultural practices for sustenance. Meanwhile, increasing agricultural productivity requires the adoption of modern technologies and improved farming systems, which entail considerable cost outlays for initial adoption and continued use. These costs may be out of reach for resource-poor smallholder farmers, hence the need to embrace indigenous knowledge practices (IKPs) in an agrarian economy such as Nigeria. This research examined the contribution of farmers' food security attainment efforts through the use of IKPs. Drawing on a documentary review of literature and empirical evidence, as well as data collected from 349 randomly selected smallholder farmers, the study applied descriptive statistics, a standardized food insecurity experience scale survey module, and a multivariate probit regression model to analyze the dataset. The findings revealed that almost 86% of the farmers have a strong and positive perception of the effectiveness of IKPs on agricultural production, while approximately 90% of the farmers are food insecure (those in the chronic and moderate food insecurity categories). The results also indicated that farmers' food security status, household size vis-à-vis dependency ratio, awareness of IKPs, age of the farmers, years of farming experience, access to extension services, and frequency of visits by extension personnel significantly influenced farmers' use of traditional farming practices, crop selection/rotation strategies, and water management techniques in the study area. Despite the farmers' use of IKPs, most of them are still largely food insecure, which raises serious concerns. Given this, the study recommends a multi-stakeholder partnership to foster synergies between the use of indigenous knowledge and modern scientific approaches by farmers, harnessing the complementary strengths of both knowledge systems to address the contemporary challenges faced by smallholder farmers in the agri-food systems