Investigating the Effect of Fertilizer Subsidy on Agricultural Production and its Implication on Food Security in Nigeria (1981-2012)

The study examines the impact of government funded fertilizer subsidies on agricultural production in Nigeria. The data for this study are primarily time series data at macro level spanning from 1981 to 2012. Data on agricultural gross domestic product, exchange rate, crude oil price, capital, agricultural land, foreign direct investment into the agricultural sector and data on fertilizer subsidy costs were sourced from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) online Statistical data base of the United Nations, Penn world data of the University of Pennsylvania and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin and the National Bureau of Statistics, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), Federal Fertilizer Department (FFD), Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) and Farm management survey and advisory services. The Johansen approach to cointegration and error correction modeling was used in analyzing the data. The results show that capital, foreign direct investment into the Nigeria agricultural sector and fertilizer subsidy cost all have positive and significant effects on agricultural production in Nigeria. The coefficient for the error correction mechanism (ECM) is -1.234 which indicates that the deviation of agricultural production, proxy as gross domestic product (LAGDP) from the long-run equilibrium level is corrected by about 123% in the current period. This shows that the speed of adjustment of the Nigerian agricultural production to the state of equilibrium is very high (all things being equal). Keywords: Fertilizer, Subsidy, Cointegration, Nigeria, Agriculture

Effect of Market Reforms on Cotton Agriculture in Nigeria (1960-2010)

This study examined the effect of market reform on cotton agriculture in Nigeria using time series data on cotton production from a period of 1960 to 2010.The Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) modeling approach to co-integration analysis was employed to analyze the data. Results based on co-integration and error correction specification indicated that the exchange rate, import price, external reserve and SAP are the major determinants of cotton production in the long-run while exchange rate and SAP are the major determinant in the short-run. Findings indicated that market reform has a positive and significant effect on Nigeria’s cotton production both in short-run and long-run. KEYWORDS: Cotton, SAP, ARDL, Co-integration

Effect of Foreign Agricultural Aid and Corruption on Agricultural Growth in Nigeria (2002-2013).

This study examines the effect of Foreign Agricultural Aid and Governance on Agricultural Growth in Nigeria between 2002 and 2013. Agricultural growth (proxied as agricultural GDP) was specified as a function of factors such as Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Agricultural Aid, Land, Real Exchange rate, Control of corruption, Rule of Law, Governance, Population, Government Expenditure, Human capital and Inflation. Augmented-Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test was used to check the unit root properties of the variables, while quantitative estimates were based on Ordinary Least Square (OLS) modeling. The study finds that, after controlling for other factors, foreign Agricultural aid and Government Expenditure significantly affect agricultural growth while Corruption has a negative and significant effect on Agricultural growth in Nigeria. These findings suggest that while foreign agricultural aid could be a driver of growth in the Nigerian agricultural sector if well managed, Corruption will continue to hinder the goal of sustainable agricultural growth if not addressed. Keywords: Agricultural Aid, Corruption, Agricultural Growth, Nigeri

Does PhD Qualification Improve Pedagogical Competence? A Study on Teaching and Training in Higher Education

Purpose: There has been much debate in recent times about the factors that improve the quality of teaching in higher education (HE) institutions. This has been especially fuelled by the increasing importance attached to Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) qualification. To fill the existing gap in the current literature in this regard, this study aims to investigate whether HE teachers (lecturers) who undergo pedagogical training (PT) in addition to obtaining PhD qualification possess higher knowledge and pedagogical competencies (PCs) than those that relied only on having PhD qualification without further teaching qualifications. Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing upon data collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 1174 Nigerian HE teachers in various disciplines from 39 HE institutions, in addition to two focus groups; the study adopts a mixed methods research. The quantitative data were analyzed descriptively while qualitatively data were coded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Findings – This article proposes that teachers who undergo PT in addition to obtaining PhD tend to have more PCs and perform better than those that have not undergone any form of PT. Also, it found a statistically significant difference between PCs of HE teachers who have undergone PT in addition to PhD qualification from those without PT. The implication is that teachers who have undergone PT are more effective in facilitating teaching and learning than those who have not completed PT. Research Limitations/Implications: Despite the merits of the mixed research method, a major limitation of this study is the failure to compare students’ achievements or successes based on the two distinct samples. However, the limitations create opportunities for further studies into the subject matter. Originality/Value – This study is timely, given that Nigeria (like many African countries) has a low quality HE system and low graduate outcomes (related to knowledge, employability, and skills). More so, research into pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and practices are rare or non-existent in the literature related to Nigeria and other African countries’ HE system

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME AND TIME SERIES PROPERTIES OF COCOA PRODUCTION, EXPORT AND PRICES IN WEST AFRICA (1961-2007): AN APPLICATION OF THE PERRON TEST

This paper examines the structure of the West African Cocoa Agriculture by analyzing fifteen pertinent annual series, namely; acreage, yield, producer price, quantity exported and export value of cocoa, in Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire during the 1961- 2007 period. The methodology used is that of Perron (1989) wherein he tests the null and alternative hypotheses of a unit root or `trend-stationary` series, respectively, in the presence of possible slope and/ level shifts. The results for the Perron unit root tests indicate that all the series are trend stationary rather than being differenced stationary with the exception of cocoa export in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, as well as cocoa export value in Nigeria. Meanwhile cocoa producer price in Nigeria, cocoa acreage, cocoa producer price and cocoa export in Ghana alongside cocoa export value in Cote d’Ivoire were still not stationary after the introduction of the broken trend and intercept variables into the Perron model. The Perron changing growth model also revealed that SAP, otherwise referred to as structural break significantly and positively affected cocoa yield in all of Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. It also has a positive and significant effect on cocoa acreage in Nigeria. While Structural Adjustment programme also have a positive and significant effect on cocoa export in the three selected countries, it did not have a positive and significant effect on cocoa producer price in all the selected countries

EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA (1960-2008). A BOUNDS TESTING APPROACH

This study examines the effect of government expenditure on agricultural production in Nigeria between 1960 and 2008. The output of agricultural production proxied as agricultural GDP(LAGDP) was considered as a function of factors such as the amount of the lagged agricultural GDP, exchange rate (LER), government expenditure on agriculture(LEXP), structural adjustment programme (SAP), price of crude oil (LPo) and agricultural land (LD). Estimates, based on the autoregressive distributed lags modeling approach to integration and error correction specification, indicate that the exchange rate (LER), lagged value of agricultural GDP (LAGDP), crude oil price(LPo), structural adjustment programme (SAP), agricultural land (LD) and trend significantly determined agricultural output in Nigeria. The results further show that, the error correction mechanism (ECM) indicated a feedback of about 48.1% of the previous year’s disequilibrium from long-run agricultural output

AGRICULTURE AND BIOLOGY JOURNAL OF NORTH AMERICA Comparative nutritive evaluation of native Panicum maximum, selected tropical browses and their combinations using in vitro gas production technique

ABSTRACT In vitro gas production technique was used to predict the nutritive values of native Panicum maximum, Gliricidia sepium, Leucaena leucocephala, Moringa oleifera and Flemingia macrophylla, as well as assess and compare the supplementation effects of the selected tropical browses on native Panicum maximum. Evaluation parameters were gas production volumes, gas production constants, methane production, predicted metabolizable energy, organic matter digestibility and short chain fatty acid production. Gas production from Panicum maximum was significantly (P<0.05) lower than from any of the experimental browses, or their combinations with Panicum maximum, at all incubation periods except at 12 hours. Significantly (P<0.05) highest gas volume (37.667 ml/ 200 mgDM) was recorded for Moringa oleifera. All the in vitro gas production characteristics were observed to vary significantly (P<0.05) across all the treatments. Panicum maximum produced the least amount of methane (11.33 ml) while the highest volume of 14.00 ml was recorded for both Gliricidia sepium and Moringa oleifera. Overall, the methane production figures indicate that combining Panicum maximum with any of the browses increased methane production above that of Panicum maximum only, but lowered it with respect to what obtained for the corresponding browse. Significant (P<0.05) differences were observed in OMD, ME and SCFA across all the treatments. Generally, the browses had significantly (P<0.05) higher values than Panicum maximum. It was concluded that combining Panicum maximum and Moringa oleifera at 60:40 improved nutrient availability, OMD, ME and SCFA, and at the same time ameliorates the twin problems of energy loss to ruminants and global warming associated with methane production in ruminant nutrition

Intake and nutrient digestibility of ensiled cassava waste and Albizia saman pod mixture by West African Dwarf sheep.

Proceedings of 35th Annual Conference, Nigerian Society for Animal Production, Ibadan, Nigeria