Efficiency of resource-use and elasticity of production among catfish farmers in Kaduna, Nigeria

This study employed the use of the Stochastic Frontier Production Function in the empirical analysis of efficiency of resource-use and elasticity of production among catfish farmers in Kaduna, Nigeria. The simple random sampling technique was employed in selecting 60 catfish farmers drawn from the sampling frame obtained from the list of list of Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) contact farmers in the four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Chikun, Igabi, Kaduna and Kaduna North, which made up the study area. Empirical estimates from the analysis showed Marginal Physical Product (MPP) values ranged from -430.850 for catfish feed to 1.004 for labour. It was equally established in thisstudy that catfish farmers in the study area were not efficient in their use of production inputs, based on VMPi/Pxi ratios that ranged from -426.71 for catfish feed to 3.46 for labour, with none approximating to unity (which would have indicated that the farmers were optimally efficient in their use of production inputs). Also, production elasticity estimates indicated that the farmers were in stage 2 of the production process, with a return to scale of 0.664. These estimates indicate the existence of intervention points for relevant stakeholders in the bourgeoning catfish business in Kaduna

Micro-Credit Access and Profitability on Crop Production in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria

This study focused on the effect of micro-credit on the profitability of cropproduction in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. A sample size of 166 small-scale farmers was randomly selected from the farming communities in Orhionmwon Local Government Area. Ninety two (92) beneficiaries and 74 non-beneficiaries were randomly selected from the study area. A well-structured questionnaire and scheduled interviews were used to obtain data from the farmers. The data collected were  subjected to descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages and mean scores. The mean scores were compared using the t-test. Results showed that the respondents in the study area were almost  uniformly distributed gender-wise. The females were however slightly more, both among the beneficiaries (58.7%) and non-beneficiaries (52.7%). The mean years of farming for both the credit beneficiaries and  non-beneficiaries were 32 years and 34 years respectively. Most of the farmers had farm holdings less than 2.5 ha. The profit margin obtained from the beneficiaries was higher than that of the non-beneficiaries. For maize, it was N145,40.66/ha against N139,178.69/ha, for yam,  N671,588.06/ha against N552,927.93/ha, for cassava N377,194.99/ha against N223,000.74/ha and for plantain N681,416.68/ha against  N430,756.59/ha. Untimely delivery of loan was indicated as the greatest constraint to loan acquisition by the beneficiaries while the  non-beneficiaries identified high interest rate charges by the microfinance bank and distance as the greatest reasons for not accessing loans. © JASE

Enhanced Statistical Tests for GWAS in Admixed Populations: Assessment using African Americans from CARe and a Breast Cancer Consortium

While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have primarily examined populations of European ancestry, more recent studies often involve additional populations, including admixed populations such as African Americans and Latinos. In admixed populations, linkage disequilibrium (LD) exists both at a fine scale in ancestral populations and at a coarse scale (admixture-LD) due to chromosomal segments of distinct ancestry. Disease association statistics in admixed populations have previously considered SNP association (LD mapping) or admixture association (mapping by admixture-LD), but not both. Here, we introduce a new statistical framework for combining SNP and admixture association in case-control studies, as well as methods for local ancestry-aware imputation. We illustrate the gain in statistical power achieved by these methods by analyzing data of 6,209 unrelated African Americans from the CARe project genotyped on the Affymetrix 6.0 chip, in conjunction with both simulated and real phenotypes, as well as by analyzing the FGFR2 locus using breast cancer GWAS data from 5,761 African-American women. We show that, at typed SNPs, our method yields an 8% increase in statistical power for finding disease risk loci compared to the power achieved by standard methods in case-control studies. At imputed SNPs, we observe an 11% increase in statistical power for mapping disease loci when our local ancestry-aware imputation framework and the new scoring statistic are jointly employed. Finally, we show that our method increases statistical power in regions harboring the causal SNP in the case when the causal SNP is untyped and cannot be imputed. Our methods and our publicly available software are broadly applicable to GWAS in admixed populations

Profitability analysis of catfish production in Kaduna state, Nigeria

This study examined the profitability of catfish production in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The objective was to determine the costs and returns in catfish production and thus the profit. Data for the study were collected through the use of well-structured questionnaire. A total of 60 catfish farmers were randomly selected from four Local Government Areas. The results of the data analysed showed that the average investment costs in catfish production was N950, 900 while the total variable cost and total fixed cost were N 554,000 and N 58,050 respectively. The result shows that cost of feed and fingerlings accounted for 89.4% of the total variable cost. The gross farm income was N 1,172,000 per annum while the net farm income was N559, 950 per annum with a return on investment of 0.915 (91.5%). The result indicates that catfish production was profitable in the study are. This also indicates that there is enough employment opportunities in catfish farm in the area, thus relevant stakeholders can assist in catfish production. It was recommended that fish farming should be integrated with traditional cropping and livestock production systems; this will not only increase fish production, but also overall farm production.Key Words: Catfish, Kaduna, Nigeria, Profitability, Return on Investment

An assessment of the profitability of fish production systems in Ovia North East Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

The study examined the profitability of fish production system in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study are to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of the fish farmers, estimate the profitability of the various fish production systems and identify the problems facing fish farmers in the study area. A combination of purposive and Snowball sampling procedure was used in selecting 70 fish farmers. Structured questionnaire and interview schedule were used to collect the primary data and were subjected to descriptive statistics, gross margin and profitability analysis. The study revealed that the mean age of the respondents was approximately 36 years while majority (76 %) of the respondents were males with. average household size of 5 persons while about 51 % of the respondents were single. On the average, the farming experience of the respondents was about 11 years. The result shows that 20 % of the respondents used earthen pond production system while 51 % used concrete pond. The results also showed that earthen pond fish users had on the average a total revenue of  ₦475/kg of fish, concrete tank users had about  ₦483.33/kg of fish as total revenue, plastic tank users had about  ₦491.67/kg of fish, tarpaulin tank users had an average revenue of  ₦440/kg of fish, while farmers that combine both concrete and plastic and those that combine both concrete and tarpaulin had a total revenue of  ₦500/kg of fish and  ₦450/kg of fish respectively. The results also showed that fish production was profitable in the production systems. Earthen pond fish users, concrete pond users, plastic pond users, Tarpaulin pond users, concrete and plastic pond users and concrete and tarpaulin pond users had net profits of  ₦311.43,  ₦264.46, ₦304.29,  ₦353.87,  ₦277.97 and  ₦261.40. There is no significant difference between the profits earned in the various fish production systems at 5 % level of significance. The major constraints affecting the economic status of the respondents were inadequacy of sufficient funds, high cost of quality feed and unavailability of labour. It was recommended that catfish farmer in the study area can adopt any method of production and still make reasonable profit.Keywords: Fish production Systems, Gross margin and Profitabilit

Determinants of Revenue Derived from Pineapple Marketing in Edo State, Nigeria

The study examined the determinants of revenue derived from pineapple marketing in Edo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to describe the marketers, determine the marketing margin and efficiency, estimate the profitability of pineapple marketing and identify the factors affecting the revenue generated from pineapple marketing. A multistage sampling technique was used to select two hundred (200) respondents and data was obtained using a combination of interview and structured questionnaire. The results showed that an average pineapple marketer has a mean volume of 98 dozens and incurred a variable cost of N222, 861.28 earning average revenue of N289, 323.44 per month. The gross margin per person was N66, 442.16 for unprocessed pineapple per individual marketer about N678.19 and N1, 422. 62 was recorded as gross margin per dozen of processed and processing pineapple respectively. The average marketing margin was N1, 127.11 per dozen of unprocessed pineapple fruit and N1, 697.17 for the processed fruit. The marketing efficiency of unprocessed pineapple fruit (47.5%) and processed fruit (79.8%) in the study area were less than 100% indicating that the market is under efficient. The quantity of pineapple purchased (t-value= 111.529) and transport cost (t-value= 4.203) incurred were the statistically significant determinant of the revenue derived from pineapple marketing. The result of the regression analysis indicated that pineapple purchased and transportation cost incurred had positive and significant influence on the revenue accrued from pineapple marketing in the study area. The major constraints to pineapple marketing identified were, perishable nature of pineapple, exploitation from buyers and poor storage and processing facilitiesKey Word: Pineapple marketing, revenue efficiency, profitability, Edo State, Nigeri