SOCIAL PROTECTION POLICIES AND AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT IN NIGERIA: EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION USING HOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATA

Social protection programmes have been recognised and proven to be one of the most effective policies in fighting poverty, hunger and unproductive capacity of rural or poor farmers. Despite the fact that poverty have seen to be declining over the years, the number of people who are still undernourished remains high in Nigeria, and where little effort has been made in improving social interventions. Thus, this study explores the relationship between social protection policies and agricultural output in Nigeria using data from Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The method of analysis engaged is the Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The result from the PSM shows that households who benefit from social protection programmes in form of agricultural credits experienced trice yields more than their counterparts who do not benefit from the programme

Plant Nutrition and Sustainable Crop Production in Nigeria

The aim of this study is to examine the determining factors of plant nutrition and sustainable crop production in Nigeria. The study applied an in-depth review of literature and observed that different biotic and abiotic factors interact together to determine the outcome of plant nutrition and sustainable crop production in Nigeria. These factors include; types of fertilizers applied, atmospheric emissions, level of technological development, infrastructural facilities, climatic conditions, irrigation method, and level of skilled labour force. The study recommended that there should be increased and equal access to credit facilities, social protection incentives, and more innovation and technological involvement in the agricultural sector in order to increase productivity and efficiency

Badanie wpływu edukacji na kobiety pracujące w rolnictwie w aspekcie tworzenia się kapitału ludzkiego w Afryce. Analiza interakcji

Agriculture plays a crucial role in Africa's economy, and women constitute a significant proportion of the agricultural workforce in the region. Impact of women's role in farming and women education in Africa is significant for the human capital development. Furthermore, women's engagement in agricultural activities has increased with time, leading to improved contributions to food security and livelihood. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of women's participation in agriculture and women education interaction on human capital in Africa with the data obtained from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank and Human Development Index (HDI) covering 33 African countries for the time frame 2000 to 2018. To control endogeneity that may be present in fixed effects model, the study applied the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). The results show that, across African sub-regions, while women's participation in agriculture has a significant negative effect, education has a significant positive impact on human capital outcomes. Additionally, the interaction between women participation in agriculture and education has a significant positive impact on human capital across sub-regions in Africa. The findings underscore the need for policies that promote gender equality, as this has the potential to significantly increase human capital formation and sustainable development. The study, through the the interaction between women's in agriculture and education highlights the contribution of these factors to various goals, such as no poverty (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2), quality education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5) and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8).Rolnictwo odgrywa kluczową rolę w gospodarce Afryki, a kobiety stanowią znaczną część siły roboczej w rolnictwie w regionie. Wpływ roli kobiet w rolnictwie i edukacji kobiet w Afryce jest istotny dla rozwoju kapitału ludzkiego. Ponadto zaangażowanie kobiet w działalność rolniczą wzrosło z czasem, co prowadzi do większego wkładu w bezpieczeństwo żywnościowe i zapewnienie środków do życia. Na tym tle w niniejszym artykule bada się wpływ interakcji kobiet w rolnictwie i edukacji kobiet na kapitał ludzki w Afryce na podstawie danych uzyskanych ze Światowych Wskaźników Rozwoju (WDI) Banku Światowego i Wskaźnika Rozwoju Społecznego (HDI) obejmujących 33 kraje afrykańskie w okresie od 2000 do 2018 r. Aby kontrolować problem endogeniczności, który może występować w modelu z efektami stałymi, w badaniu zastosowano uogólnioną metodę momentów (GMM). Wyniki pokazują, że w podregionach afrykańskich, gdy udział kobiet w rolnictwie ma znaczący negatywny wpływ, edukacja ma znaczący pozytywny wpływ na kapitał ludzki. Ponadto interakcja między udziałem kobiet w rolnictwie a edukacją ma znaczący pozytywny wpływ na kapitał ludzki w podregionach Afryki. Uzyskane wyniki podkreślają potrzebę prowadzenia polityki promującej równość płci, ponieważ ma to potencjał do znacznego zwiększenia tworzenia kapitału ludzkiego i zrównoważonego rozwoju. Badanie, poprzez interakcję między udziałem kobiet w rolnictwie i edukacji, podkreśla wkład tych czynników w różne Cele zrównoważonego rozwoju (SDGs), takie jak brak ubóstwa (SDG 1), brak głodu (SDG 2), wysokiej jakości edukacja (SDG 4), równouprawnienie płci (SDG 5) oraz godnej pracy i wzrostu gospodarczego (SDG 8)

Promoting clean energy adoption for enhanced food security in Africa

The research investigated the idea of clean energy and how it affects food security utilizing panel data from selected African nations. The World Development Indicators (WDI) for the years 2005 to 2022, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) were the sources of data. The study engaged the generalized method of moments (GMM), and the results showed that clean energy indicators have both beneficial and adverse effects on food security. This is crucial for policy toward the actualization of sustainable development goals of no poverty (SDG1), no hunger (SDG2), clean and affordable energy (SDG7), sustainable cities (SDG11), and climate action (SDG13). The findings of this study will benefit policymakers, governments, and organizations working toward promoting clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and food security in Africa. It will also benefit farmers and communities who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. By implementing the recommendations of the study, these stakeholders can work toward a more sustainable and secure future for Africa. Additionally, the environment and global efforts to mitigate climate change will also benefit from the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

Analysis of Living Standard Measurement Study- Integrated Survey on Agriculture Data Set

The Living Standard Measurement Study- Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) is a General Household Survey (GHS) and a cross-sectional survey consisting of 22,000 households which is carried out periodically across the globe. Currently, the GHS has three panels consisting of 5,000 households of the GHS collecting additional data on agricultural activities, other household income activities, and household expenditure and consumption, among others. This is to improve data from the agricultural sector and the linkage to other facets of households’ characteristics and outcomes. The LSMS data-set, questionnaire, and basic information document are freely available online at: http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/273

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IN NIGERIA

In examining the effect of human capital on agricultural productivity in Nigeria, this study employed micro data sourced from the Living Standard Measurement Studies, General Households’ survey on Agriculture (LSMS-GHSA) wave 3 (2015/2016) consisting of 2917 respondents. Using descriptive and econometrics method of analysis, the result of the descriptive statistics showed that though significant hours are spent more on agricultural activities as a result of crude implement used in the process of cultivating and harvesting, a large percentage of the income still comes from the agricultural sector. The result from the logit regression showed that education and health as proxy for human capital positively and significantly influence agricultural productivity by 0.32% and 0.30% respectively. This study therefore recommends that policy meant to enhance human capital development should be put in place to promote productivity in the agricultural sector which will translate to economic development and helps to achieve Sustainable Development Goals

TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION, POST-HARVEST LOSSES AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA

Nigeria’s population is increasing and it is estimated to reach 400 million by 2050 with inevitable increase in the demand for food. With this population growth, the likelihood of a looming food crisis remains unavoidable except agricultural productivity is enhanced through technology adoption to match population growth. This study empirically examined the impact of technology adoption on agricultural productivity in Nigeria, utilising Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS), Integrated Survey on Agriculture (ISA). The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of the adoption of identified elements of technology (such as ICT, fertiliser, tractorisation, herbicides, pesticides and certified crops) on agricultural productivity; examine the point(s) on the value chain where the deployment of technology is significant and the impact of the adoption of identified indicators of technology on post-harvest losses in Nigeria. The study engaged the descriptive statistics, the logit regression, the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and the Multinomial Logit Regression (MLR) in analysing the data. The findings showed that technology adoption among farming household heads in Nigeria is relatively low, with only 31.92 percent adoption rate. The age of the household heads, location of the household heads (whether rural or urban), membership of a cooperative society, and educational level of the household heads are the significant determinants of technology adoption among farming households in Nigeria. There exists a positive and significant impact of adoption of the identified components of technology on household agricultural productivity in Nigeria. This implies that household heads who adopt technology have a higher probability of experiencing a higher level of agricultural productivity compared to non-adopters of technology. The findings also showed that information and telecommunication technology (ICT) deployment is significant for all the actors on the agricultural value chain, and that the influence of ICT is statistically significant in reducing post-harvest losses in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study concluded that to increase agricultural productivity, enhance efficient value chain, and reduce post-harvest losses, technology adoption is essential. The study recommended that there is a need for the government to improve support mechanisms for technology adoption. For example, concerning internet access, there should be support for public internet access points and agribusiness training for farmers to foster adoption of technology to improve productivity. In addition, rate of adoption will increase if more farmers are aware of the importance of various components of technology to drive productivity. Therefore, government at all levels should strengthen their efforts to encourage farmers through the extension agents, among others, on the need to adopt various components of technology so as to increase productivity

An Econometric Analysis of Food Security and Agricultural Credit Facilities in Nigeria Romanus

Background: It is a known fact that the efficiency of credit facility positively contributes to production base of a sector, especially the Nigerian agricultural sector which is recognised as the heartbeat of the economy by employing over 70% of the country’s labour force; this forms the motivation for this study. Objective: This study examined the potential of agricultural credit facilities in terms of commercial bank credit to agriculture and agricultural credit guarantee scheme fund (ACGSF) and their corresponding interest rates to farmers towards increasing agricultural production as the pathway to food security in Nigeria. Method: The study employed the Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) econometric approach on the time series data sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 1990-2016. Result: The result from ARDL showed that commercial banks credits and ACGSF increased food security by 8.12% and 0.002% respectively, while population reduces food security by 0.001%. Conclusion: The study concluded that population should be controlled through family planning and adequate financing of the ACFSF by the government and monitor commercial banks leading interest rates on credit facilities

Public Health Expenditure and Under-five Mortality in Nigeria: An Overview for Policy Intervention

AIM: This study looked at the contribution of the health expenditure by the government on under-five mortality in Nigeria. METHODS: The autoregressive distribution lag technique was employed in this study in examining the long-run effect of public health expenditure on under-five mortality in Nigeria. Data were sourced from the World Development Indicators for the period 1985–2017. RESULTS: Results from the study showed that though public health expenditure is statistically significant, it showed a positive relationship with the under-five mortality. CONCLUSION: The implication of this result is that 1 unit increase in public health expenditure would improve increase under-five mortality rate by 1.56 units. However, in the Nigerian context, this can be better explained by the lack of proper health-fund coordination and other factors such as maternal education. Therefore, the study concluded by recommending that proper health-fund coordination should be put in place to ensure that budget allocated to the health sector is being spent properly. &nbsp

Female participation in agriculture and economic development in 33 African Countries

Women occupy a crucial position in the agricultural sector because; they participate in different forms, as entrepreneurs, labourers, and marketers among others. Despite the various responsibilities’ women are involved in, such as family and child-care among others; they contribute up to 40% of agricultural GDP. Against this background, this study examined how female participation in agriculture contributes to economic development in selected African countries, which is in line with the United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 5 & 8; to ensure gender equality, decent work and economic growth respectively). The study engaged a panel data of selected 33 African countries sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and the Human Development Index (HDI) for the period of 2000 - 2018. The study applied the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) and the fixed effects method based on Hausman specification result. Findings from the POLS and fixed effect were consistent across sub-regions, showing that, female participation in agriculture, though statistically significant, was negatively related to economic development. This means that a 1% increase in female participation in agriculture may reduce economic development by between 0.06% and 2.7%. On the other hand, across model, female education was found to be statistically significant and positively related to economic development. On the average, increased level of female education may increase economic development by 1.71%. The implication of this is that an increase in female participation in agriculture without the required level of education and training and access to agricultural materials may have a negative impact on economic development. Therefore, the study recommended that female education and training are required to improve economic development in Africa. (Afr J Reprod Health 2021; 25[5s]: 107-115)