Linking Poverty Incidence to Water Resources Use: Policy Implications and Remedies Using Nigeria as Case Study

Water has been identified as a crucial resource for all life, production and development, while a lack of access to water has been linked to poverty. Its availability is closely linked to human welfare and health by affecting nutrition status and quantity of drinking water especially of the poor. It has impacts on household labour because of the time and energy spent in obtaining it. This paper examines the linkages between poverty incidence and water resources using descriptive statistics on secondary data from vast body of existing water resources management and poverty literature with the aim of suggesting a frame work that Nigeria‘s policy maker, the international donor community and other stakeholders may find useful in formulating policies related to management of Nigeria’s water resources in Nigeria. This study reviews the changing trend in water policy formulation in Nigeria and challenges and impact of those policies on sustainable water supply provision. The observation suggests that putting too much emphasis on drinking water needs, addresses a rather insignificant part of the problem of water resources and biases the range of solutions which are likely to be proposed for perceived shortages

Analysis of Profitability of Fish Farming Among Women in Osun State, Nigeria

The simple random sampling technique was employed in selecting 62 farmers drawn from the sampling frame obtained from the list of Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) contact farmers in the four Local Governments Areas (LGAs) of Egbedore, Olorunda, Ede South and Ife Central, which made up the study area. The main instrument for collecting the primary data was structured questionnaire. It is evident from the result is that an average total cost of N371486.35 was incurred per annum by fish farmers while gross revenue of N791242.52 was realized with a gross margin of N 574314 and a profit of N 419756.17. The rate of return on investment of 0.58 implies that for every one naira invested in Fish production by farmers, a return of N1.5 and a profit of 58k were obtained. The multiple regression result revealed that fish output was significantly determined by pond size, labour used, cost of feeds, cost of lime and cost of fingerlings. The study concluded that fish production in the study area is economically rewarding and profitable

Sustainable Resource Productivity in Small Scale Farming in Kwara State, Nigeria

Rising resource prices in recent years, combined with increasing global demand for resources due to a growing population and increasing wealth, have brought the issue of resource scarcity to the forefront of the political agenda. Low level of agricultural production in Nigeria is partly due to poor resource use by small scale farmers. Efficient and sustainable use of limited agricultural production resources is therefore necessary for sustained food security. This study has been able to produce some useful results based on responses from one hundred and ten farmers interviewed in three local government areas of Kwara state. The cost and returns analysis revealed that the average gross margin of N18,975.92/ha is obtained by the farmer. The production function that gave the best fit to the specified production model was Cobb-Douglas function. By comparing the Marginal Value Product (MVP) to the Unit Factor Cost (UFC) of the resources employed, it was established that land and capital resources were over utilized. The linear programming analysis also showed   that the most profitable and sustainable crop combination in the area was maize and cassava, which had a gross margin of N108,920.80/ha.Key words: Sustainable, Resource Productivity, Small Scale.