Extent of Extension Service Delivery for Agro-pastoralists in Niger State,Nigeria

The study examines the extent of agricultural extension services deleivery to agro-pastoralists in Niger State. Nigeria. Primary data were collected through field survey from agropastorialist from three purposely selected Local Government Areas in Niger State. Katcha, Paiko and Wushishi LGA’s were purposely selected by making sure they were in different agricultural zones of the Niger State namely Zone I, II and III respectively. Twenty percent of the agropastoralists house-hold population was sampled from each of three LGA randomly. A total of 210 household heads were sampled and interviewed using a semi structured survey instrument administered by trained enumerators who understood the local language. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the data. Results revealed that all (100%) of the household heads were all males and 67.7% acquired adult education while agro-pastoralism was the major occupation (98.1%). Majority (98.1%) of the agro-pastoralists claimed they were of Fulani ethnic group. Information on out break of diseases (mean=3.9); provision of grazing reserves (mean=3.7) were reported high. Majority (99.5%) of the respondents opined that lack of easy access to vaccines and non- proximity of veterinary clinic were major constraints. In the testing of hypotheses, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) showed a significant positive relationship between extent of extension service provision and the following variables namely Age (r =0.172; p<0.05), number of wives (r =0.163; p<0.05), number of children (r =0.222 and; p<0.05), and number of cows owned (r =0.221; p<0.05).  The result of Chi-square analysis shows that there was a significant relationship between Extent of extension provision and the settlement type (X2 =10.21; p<0.05), Extent of extension provision and educational level (X2 =12.20;p<0.05). It was recommended that government should make adequate arrangement for provision of neccessary infra-structure in the already gazzeted grazing reserve most especially vetinery clinics and make vaccine available and affordable for them. There is need to produce more radio programmes and also encourage formation of radio listening group since is one of the major source of information to their production system. Keywords: Agriculture, Extension service delivery, agropastoralist

Effect of Credit Utilization on Output of Rural Youth Rice Farmers in Shiroro Local Government Area, Niger State

The study aimed at examining the effect of loan utilization on the output of youth rice farmers in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. The specific objectives are to determine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, determine whether there is significant difference in output of the beneficiaries and non beneficiaries and compare the mean output of the youth farmers with and without credits facilities. To achieve the study objectives, 100 respondents from 10 wards was used for data collection. The collected data analyzed using simple descriptive statistics and T-test was used to compare the mean output of credit beneficiaries and non- beneficiaries. The study revealed a significant difference in the mean output of rice farmers who utilize loan (1,375kg/h) with those without credit which was (275kg/ha) (t-cal=18.44,

Effect of Dry Season Tomato Farming on Poverty Alleviation among Women Farmers in Niger State, Nigeria

Generally, the study examines the effect of dry season tomato farming on poverty alleviation among women farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Specifically, it examines the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the women dry season tomato farmers, their major sources of resources for tomato farming, marketing and marketing channels for tomato produced as well as the monthly income generated from the sales of harvested tomatoes and the effect on poverty alleviation in terms of provision for food, clothing, housing, health care and children’s education. Three Local Government Areas (LGAs), from each of the three geo-political zones of the State were purposively selected .A total of 15 villages were randomly selected from these LGAs and based on the preponderance of women tomato farmers, respondents were purposively selected to give a total of 233 . Findings showed that over one-half of the respondents (52.4%), had formal education and married (53.2%), with majority (91.3%), of them having four and more people in their households.Morever,41.6% of the women practiced farming as their major occupation. Furthermore, over two-thirds of them cultivated 0.5ha of tomato farm, while only 2.1% of them cultivated above 1ha. Findings indicated that majority of them had more than four years tomato farming experience and access to farm land was never a problem but many of them (51.9%), relied mostly on family labour. Niger State Agricultural Development (NSADP) plays a leading role in the provision of relevant technical information to most of the women farmers especially, in the areas of improved seed varieties among others. Results showed that many of the women (61.7%),usually sold their produce at the village markets ,mostly every week either in retails or in bulks or both(47.6%) with an estimated monthly income of between N6,000 and N15,000 by many of them (63%).In view of this, their expenditure performances indicated that many of the women farmers were above average in meeting the following basic needs; food (52%), clothing (48.1%), housing (57%),health care (39.9%) and children’s education (19.4%).Generally the effect of dry season tomato farming on poverty reduction as indicated by majority of the women farmers was on the high side. Chi-square tests showed significant relationships between some independent variables and the effect of dry season tomato farming as strategy for poverty reduction; household size ((Χ2=246.29,