The Role of Trade Policy in the Performance of Nigerian Agricultural Sector: A Time Series Analysis

There has been an increasing interest in understanding the role of trade policy in agricultural performance over the years. This time-series study investigates the impact of trade openness and domestic currency rate on agricultural performance in Nigeria within the period, 1981-2019. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the study confirmed that there exists a long-run relationship between trade policy and agricultural performance in Nigeria. The result showed that trade openness has a significant and positive effect on agricultural performance in Nigeria. Further, the study confirmed that trade openness contributes more to agricultural performance in the long-run than in the short-run. However, exchange rate impacted negatively and significantly on agricultural performance in the long-run. Meanwhile, the short-run estimates showed that exchange rate has a significant and positive effect on agricultural performance. More so, it was gathered that interest rate affects agricultural performance negatively in Nigeria. There is need for government to embark on outward looking trade policy that supports the agricultural industry in terms of its exportation of indigenous commodities and stimulation of output growth. Keywords: Agricultural output, trade openness, exchange rate, interest rates, ARDL. JEL Classification: Q19, F13, E52. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-16-08 Publication date:August 31st 202

Gender differentials in the determinants of usage of climate change adaptation strategies in farming communities of Ekiti and Ogun States, Southwest Nigeria

The use of adaptation strategies remains the only approach to reduce and combat the effects posed by climate change all over the world. We explored the extent of usage of adaptation strategies by farmers in Ekiti and Ogun States. 358 men and 222 women farmers were surveyed using multi-stage procedure. We employed semi-structured questionnaire and focus group discussions to collect data from the respondents. The data were analysed descriptively and presented in percentages and frequency counts. The data were further subjected to Chisquare, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation, t-test, multiple linear regression analysis and Explorative Factor Analysis (EFA). The findings revealed that the majority of men (99.7%) and women farmers (96.8%) perceived to adapt to climate change. Men (= 2.29) relative to women (= 2.33) used more on-farm adaptation strategies. The strongest determinant of usage of climate change adaptation strategies by men farmers was climate change adaptation barriers (t = 5.13, p < 0.01), while for women farmers, climate change experience (t = 7.42, p < 0.01) was the strongest determinant. The promotion of gender-sensitive approaches to climate change adaptation that cater for the needs of men and women farmers is highly essential to enhance adaptation among them

Chemical examination of essential oil from stem, roots and fruit peels of Nigerian Citrus jambhiri

The chemical profiles of the stem, root and fruit peel essential oils of Citrus jambhiri were investigated. Pulverized plant samples (500 g) each was hydrodistilled using all-glass Clevenger-type apparatus to obtain the essential oils. Two-dimensional GC-TOFMS was used for compositional profiling of the extracted oils. Chemical profiling of the stem oil of C. jambhiri revealed the presence of 64 components (83.11 %), the root oil of C. jambhiri showed 55 components (74.21 %) and the fruit peel oil of C. jambhiri revealed 25 components (83.56 %). The major components of the stem oil of C. jambhiri is 3,4-dimethyl-1,5-cyclooctadiene(13.43 %); geijerene (14.38 %) and γ-terpinene (8.07 %) were observed as main constituents in C. jambhiri root oil whereas cis-linalool oxide (19.85 %), trans-linalool oxide (furanoid) (14.86 %), terpinen-4-ol (7.37 %) and limonene (4.64 %) were the major components of C. jambhiri fruit peel oil. Even though the samples were obtained from the same plant, the compositional profile of the essential oils from various plant parts differs.TET FUNDhttps://www.tandfonline.com/loi/teop202021-01-27hj2020Chemistr

Biodiversity conservation and rural development: inseparable options for Protected Area management. A case study of four Nigerian national parks

The establishment and management of Protected Areas have become the cornerstones of biodiversity conservation strategies. However, efforts aimed to manage these areas have paid little or no attention to livelihoods and needs of the surrounding communities. Therefore, this study assesses the socio-economic predictors of the local people's needs and also establishes the link between biodiversity conservation and rural development. A survey of villages around four Nigerian national parks has been carried out to determine available infrastructural facilities, the facilities mostly desired by villagers and the socio-economic predictors of the local people's needs and their dependence on the national park resources. The selection of the study areas was performed through multi-stage random sampling, with a focus on villages within a 10-km radius of each national park boundaries. Primary data were collected from 1500 respondents in 106 local communities around four national parks, i.e. 22 around the Cross River National Park (CRNP), 22 around the Gashaka Gumti National Park (GGNP), 27 around the Kainji Lake National Park (KLNP), and 35 around the Old Oyo National Park (OONP). The collected data were analysed and presented descriptively, while logistic regression was used to identify the socio-demographic predictors of needs by local people. Results of the demographic characteristics show that there were more male respondents interviewed (73.2%) than female respondents (26.8%) in all four national parks. In all the four studied national parks, farming has a predominant occupation: CRNP (99.3%), GGNP (93.9%), KLNP (90.5%), and OONP (85.2%). The major number of respondents is married: CRNP (77.0%), GGNP (70.0%), KLNP (84.4%), and OONP (79.6%), and is within the age group of 15–25 years: CRNP (43.0%), GGNP (30.0%), KLNP (36.2%) and OONP (25.2%). All of the respondents interviewed in CRNP were Christians (100%), while the majority of respondents in GGNP (87.3%), KLNP (99.2%), and OONP (53.1%) were Muslims. In terms of educational qualifications, there was a high level of illiteracy among the people living around the studied national parks as most of the respondents in CRNP had primary (45.3%) and secondary education (32.7%). However, for the other three national parks, we demonstrated a higher percentage of non-formal education: GGNP (61.5%), KLNP (63.1%) and OONP (68.1%). The obtained results show that the study area is characterised by a lack of infrastructures, such as roads (96.4%), electricity (97.7%) and limited provision of service, such as medicine (91.1%), potable water (96.5%), and education services (86.6%). The majority of the interviewed respondents in communities around the national parks indicated the provision of health care centres (78.5%), boreholes/portable water (77.7%), roads (68.6%), the establishment of schools (59.7%) and employment (56.2%). Our results show that the communities' expectation was for basic infrastructures, such as the provision of potable water (77.5%), health care centres (78.5%), electricity (78.1%), and roads (68.9%). The logistic regression analysis indicated that the predictors of the respondents' infrastructural needs were gender (β = 0.068, p < 0.01), age (β = 0.032, p < 0.01), and education level (β = 0.047, p < 0.05). The study concludes that there is a need for the federal, state and local governments to provide the basic infrastructures in villages surrounding the studied national parks to reduce the pressure and over-dependence of the local people on the national park resources. The literacy campaign and conservation education should be taken to the grass-root because the majority of the local people are illiterates and live around biodiversity hotspots

ESTIMATING THE GROWTH EFFECTS OF POPULATION, POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

This research study investigates the growth effects of population, poverty and unemployment in Nigeria from 1980 to 2018.It adopts the fully modified ordinary least square method (FMOLS) to estimate the long run coefficients of population, poverty and unemployment of economic growth. The empirical results show that that population growth rate has a positive but insignificant impact on economic growth in Nigeria. This implies the attribute of inept characteristics of the population that comprises majorly of unskilled and semi-skilled labour and in turn failed to contribute efficiently to productive capacity of the economy. Also, poverty rate has a positive and significant impact on per capita income. Further, unemployment has a significant negative impact on economic growth. The economic implication is that the level of economic growth worsened because those that are qualified and able to work cannot secure a job and contribute significantly to production processes. As regards causality test result, the study found that there is no feedback causality between population growth, poverty, unemployment and economic growth in Nigeria. There is need for government to beef-up the skill acquisitions programmes, vocational trainings and entrepreneurship development in order to ensure that the growing population is equipped with relevant skills that contribute significantly to economic activities

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SOYA BEANS PRODUCTION IN SAKI EAST LOCAL GOVERNEMNT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

The study employs a stochastic frontier production function analysis to examine the productivity and technical efficiency of Soya beans production in Oyo State, Nigeria and also to identify the factors affecting the technical insufficiency using farm level survey data. The result shows that Soya beans farmers operated on a very small scale and are profitable, the productivity analysis shows that agro chemicals fertilizer, farm size and labour were all positive and significantly related to the technical efficiency. The return to scale (TRS) of 0.9904 shows that soyabean production was in rational state of the production surface. The technical efficiency varies from 0.1094 to 0.9568 with a mean technical efficiency of 0.6649, indicating that farmers were operating below the efficiency frontier. Thus, in the short run, there is a scope to increase output by 34%. The inefficiency model revealed that education of the farmers; extension visits and access to credit are the main factors that affect technical efficiency of the farmers

OPTIMIZATION OF A CONVECTIVE DRYING PROCESS FOR PRODUCING STARCH-ALBUMEN POWDER AS COATING MATERIAL IN FRIED FOODS

Dried starch was added to egg albumen at concentration of 10-30% to increase solid matter content prior to convective air drying at 40-60oC with hot air velocity of 4.5 m/s. The functional properties of starch-albumen powder (SAP) and properties of the coated fried yam chips were fitted to response surface regression model. Our findings suggest that for a multiple objective of minimizing oil uptake and moisture content and, maximizing acceptability of fried chip drying at temperature of 40oC and starch content of 11.3% should be used

Distribution and diversity of flora and fauna in International Institute Of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) forest and nature reserve, Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria

The study examined the distribution and diversity of plant and animal  species at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture forest and nature reserve, it was aimed at assessing the numbers of plant and  animal species and the areas where they occur in the study sites. Plant and animal species were enumerated through direct on-site field  observation for fifteen months to provide data that could enhance the management and sustainable utilization of the forest. Eighty-seven plant species from 39 families were found in the area; 55 species were trees while shrubs and grasses were 32 species. The common tree species found in the area were Elaeis guineensis (32.4%) Funtumia elastica (11.4%) Newbouldia laevis (7.6%) and Lecaniodiscus cupanioides (4.5%). Two particularly interesting climber species found, were Pararistolochia  goldieana and Caesalpinia bonduc. Also, there are several wild relatives of cultivated yams which grow naturally these are Dioscorea bulbifera, Dioscorea dumentorum, Dioscorea hirtiflora, Dioscorea togoensis,  Dioscorea praehensilis and Dioscorea Prevssii. These form potential gene pool/resources for improvement of the cultivated yam. Ninety-two species of wild animals from 45 families were also found in the study area. There were 66 species of birds from 28 families, 3 species of reptiles from 3 families and 23  species of mammals from 16 families. A total of 11,632 sightings were recorded. The most abundant animal species found in the area were  Corvus albus (7.8%), Viverra civetta (7.4%), Cephalophus rufilatus (7.2%) and Dendrocygna viduata (5.4%). The endemic Ibadan malimbe  (Malimbus ibadanensis) was also sighted in the study site and several other birds which normally winter around the lake.Key words: Ecology, Distribution, Diversity, Forest, Nature Reserve, IITA

OPTIMIZATION OF A CONVECTIVE DRYING PROCESS FOR PRODUCING STARCH-ALBUMEN POWDER AS COATING MATERIAL IN FRIED FOODS

Dried starch was added to egg albumen at concentration of 10-30% to increase solid matter content prior to convective air drying at 40-60oC with hot air velocity of 4.5 m/s. The functional properties of starch-albumen powder (SAP) and properties of the coated fried yam chips were fitted to response surface regression model. Our findings suggest that for a multiple objective of minimizing oil uptake and moisture content and, maximizing acceptability of fried chip drying at temperature of 40oC and starch content of 11.3% should be used

Carcinoma of the scrotum in a Young man with HIV Infection: Is there a Possible Association?

Squamous cell carcinoma of the scrotum is rare and its occurrences in the young is even rarer. A 39-year-old gentleman presented with a large non-healing ulcer developing on his left hemi-scrotum 9 months after the excisional biopsy of multiple pruritic nodular lesions on the scrotum. On histological examination it was found to be squamous cell carcinoma. Examination under anaesthesia revealed that the tumour was not resectable and patient was offered radiotherapy. Historically, scrotal carcinoma is occupation related, but none of the occupational predisposing factors was identified in this patient. Patient was however, found to be positive for HIV 1. We suggest that the occurrence of scrotal carcinoma which is normally seen in elderly men in a young man might be due to the associated HIV infection. NQJHM Vol. 16 (3) 2006: pp. 93-9