Segmentation in Agriculture and Farmers’ Productivity: Evidence from Survey of Poultry Farms

The World Bank intervened in Nigeria agriculture in 2009 to increase productivity in 5 farm areas, namely-poultry, rice, maize, cashew and pineapple farming through the value chain strategy. Agricultural activity was segmented and farmers were encouraged to go into one farm operation only. Proponents of the segmentation argue that it holds the key to solving the low agricultural productivity in developing counties because farmers will only specialize in one farm area. That is, specialization will enable the farmer to innovates better ways of tackling problems, time the market and planting period to mitigate climate change. The aim of the research is to examine the effects of the segmentation practice on the productivity of Poultry farmers in Nigeria, using a survey data. Result from the survey using regression analysis did not support encouraging segmentation in poultry farming. This is because poultry farmers who engaged in more than one poultry practice had more yield of egg per bird. The lesson for agricultural policy is that farmers should be encouraged to engage in multiple farming practice

Does Incentive Improve Export Performance of Firms? An Evidence

Trade is an engine of growth, and favourable international trade is essential to attain internal and external stability. In recent times, many developing countries, including Nigeria, have chosen the path of export incentives as the means of achieving a favourable international trade balance. The paradigm shift is a pointer that globalization has made international trade very competitive and firms in less developed countries are at the receiving end. The present study examined the effect of export incentives on the export performance of Nigerian firms. Data were collected through a survey of 60 firms that benefited from export expansion grants (EEG). The Fixed Effect method was adopted in the study. The result shows that the export performance of the firms improved significantly with the export expansion grant. It then suggests that if the country implements all its incentive programmes, the country's external trade will improve significantly