Agricultural land use and Population growths in Nigeria: The Need for synergy for a Sustainable Agricultural Production

The study examined the relationship between agricultural land use and population growth rates from 1961 to 2018 in Nigeria. Secondary data were obtained from Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Bank. Descriptive statistics, trend equation and correlation analyses were used. Findings revealed that agricultural and arable land utilization grew at the rate of 0.62% and 0.72%, respectively per annum; while the total population growth rate stood at 2.57%. Also, urban and rural population grew at a rate of 4.75% and 1.67% respectively. In addition, the agricultural and arable land utilization rates had significant positive correlations with the total population, urban and rural population. Besides, the findings revealed that, agricultural land (to total land ratio) has continued to increase and currently averaged at 68.78% indicating massive land expansion put under agricultural used. Findings revealed that, most arable crop outputs increase majorly from land expansion rather than land productivity, a situation that cannot assure sustainable agricultural land use food security in a near future. Hence, the country needs agricultural land sparing policies and technologies to slow the current agricultural land expansion drive. Besides, the country’s agricultural land policies should focus on achieving land productivity and sustainable land-sharing strategies among major land users in the country. Again, the rural population growth rate is lower than the urban growth rate, implying that, the rural population is deteriorating with its probable negative effect on farm labour. This needs to be addressed urgently if the sustainable agricultural system is to be achieved in the near future in Nigeria.

Production Efficiency of Major Crops among Smallholders Farmers in Central Ethiopia

Agricultural production of most smallholders in Ethiopia is dependent with recurrent rainfall resulted in production variations. Limited input availability and precarious environmental conditions determine smallholders’ decisions on their production and the production efficiencies vary from farmer to farmer. This study was carried out with the aim of analyzing the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of smallholder farmers in the production of major crops and their determinants in central Ethiopia, Oromia special zone surrounding Addis Ababa. Multistage sampling technique was employed to randomly and proportionally select 386 smallholders from ten PAs. Primary data were collected from smallholders through a semi structured questionnaire using face to face interview. Cross sectional data collected from sampled households in the study area were analyzed using mathematical and econometric methods. Mathematical programming technique selected for this study was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) using linear programming technique assuming multi-input and multi-outputs were handled. Tobit regression model was regressed against the socioeconomic, demographic, and institutional variables that are expected to affect the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of sampled households. The results of estimated efficiency scores show the mean technical, allocative and economic efficiencies were 0.75, 0.60 and 0.45 respectively. The mean scores of efficiencies show underutilization of resources and the possibilities of smallholders to increase their agricultural production by 25%, and reduce cost of production by 40% and total cost by 55%. Marital status, level of education, farming experience, access to credit, cooperative membership, access to farming information, and off/non-farm income has positive influence on the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies. While age of the household head, access to training and livestock size has negative relations to efficiencies. Delivery of agricultural inputs and trainings on time by the government is the key policy implication to improve the efficiencies of smallholders.

A multivariate probit analysis for indigenous chicken ownership at household level: The case of Alice communal area, South Africa

African indigenous chickens (IC) though commonly kept by households in rural areas for consumption and sale, their contribution to rural livelihoods is generally overlooked. Literature suggests that IC production plays a vital role in rural communities of South Africa as an important source of animal protein and income. Despite these claimed benefits, production of indigenous chickens in Alice and other parts of South Africa’s rural areas is very low. This study used a cross-sectional survey of 120 households who keep IC in Alice communal area. The multivariate probit model was employed to investigate the factors that determine the choice of indigenous chicken owned by rural households. Results reveal that, gender, age, household size, association membership, access to formal markets, access to veterinary services, access to informal credit, access to formal credit and diversity score drive ownership of different indigenous chickens at household level. Thus far, the paper argues that, promotion of ownership of indigenous chicken at household level calls for strategic institutional alignment and a clear understanding of social demographic characteristics of the targeted community, which should be supported by several awareness campaigns and client based selection of indigenous chicken breeds of socio-economic importance to the household.

Review of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in sub-Saharan Africa

Agricultural extension and advisory services in Africa have significant impact on food security as well as economic and social development. Recent moves towards a pluralistic delivery system, facilitated by the emergence of private-sector led initiatives in many countries are the subject of policy and academic discourse. This study used an adapted, fit-for-purpose market systems development framework to review available research in extension and advisory services in selected sub-Sahara Africa countries. Using a literature survey methodology, we report evidence of multiple actors in extension delivery, findings that point towards evolution towards mixed delivery as well as objectives. While there are significant uptake of cost-recovery approaches among commercially-oriented farmers, many smallholder farmers still depended on donor-funded services. Our review adds to existing knowledge through incorporating a market systems development framework, which extends the often-used willingness to pay approach, and highlights the need for merger of both public and private-sector objectives to achieve developmental outcomes.

The Intervention Strategies for rural water supply system in Vhembe District South Africa

Consistent access to potable water remains a major challenge among communities in rural areas of Vhembe District Municipality (VDM). This is due to the high frequency of water supply infrastructure breakdown due to obsolete infrastructure and inadequate involvement and participation of rural communities in paying for water and maintenance which affect sustainability of water supply system in VDM. This study assesses current state of water supply, challenges and effectiveness of measures in place in order to propose intervention to improve rural water supply system in VDM. The study followed a mixed method research design, which include both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data was analysed using thematic content analysis and chi-square test. The study established that water is inconsistently supplied in VDM. As about 53.5% of the respondents received water once per week which necessitate intervention to improve the situation. All the respondents from the four local municipalities of Vhembe District were not satisfied with the quantity of water received and distance travelled to collect water. The study recommend intervention strategy which included that local management structure to be established and terms of reference agreed with communities including more water supply sources options to be added

Impact of information communication technology (ICT) and mass media usage on technical efficiency of fish farming in Ogun State, Nigeria

The role of information in agricultural development cannot be overemphasized, as information is vital in increasing production, improving marketing and enhancing distribution strategies. Therefore, the study examined the impact of information communication technologies on the technical efficiency of fish farming in Ogun State, Nigeria using a stochastic production frontier approach. In a cross-sectional survey, a multi-stage sampling technique was employed to elicit primary information from 120 fish farmers. Major ICT sources used by the fish farmers include television (81.7%), radio (79.2%) and the Internet (68.3%). The average output of catfish has positive and significant elasticity with regards to each input variable except family labour. The inefficiency model revealed that the age of farmers, farming experience, television and radio usage were significant but negatively related. That means that any increase in any of these factors will reduce the inefficiency of fish farmers and bring about an increase in technical efficiency. This implies that it is possible to increase technical efficiency in fish farming in the study area provided that the media channel (radio and television) predominantly used is improved. This study recommends a reduction in family labour usage while at the same time encouraging young people to venture into fish farming.

Effect of market participation on household welfare among smallholder goat farmers in Botswana

Goat farming is a major livelihood activity for most smallholder farmers in Botswana. To ensure sustainable livelihoods for these farmers, a shift from the prevalent traditional and subsistence system to a more market-oriented one is considered necessary. Market participation is widely viewed as an effective means of addressing poverty which is particularly rampant in most rural areas of Botswana and other developing countries. Little evidence is however available on the link between market participation and household welfare, especially among livestock and, in particular, small stock farmers. This paper evaluates the effect of market participation on household welfare among smallholder goat farmers. Estimating an endogenous switching regression model, the results show a positive and significant effect of market participation on household income for both participant and non-participant farmers. This effect was found to be more pronounced among the non-participants had they decided to sell. The results suggest that goat farmers should be encouraged to engage in market participation other than their traditional ways of keeping goats. This implies that existing policies and programs that increase market participation and encourage market-oriented farming should be revised in order to provide efficient and sustainable support. Furthermore, the study recommends that information on goat markets should reach rural areas where most farmers reside and are unable to access technology.

Comparative Analysis of Plantation and Banana Marketing in Port Harcourt City Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria.

The study was centred on the comparative analysis of plantain and banana marketing in the Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 126 plantain and banana marketers whom were selected using a simple random sampling technique from seven purposively-selected markets in the study area. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, a gross margin model, and the t-test. The findings showed that plantain and banana marketers were 100% female, that is only females were identified in the trade; 51.6% and 56.3% of these plantain and banana marketers had mean ages of 40.8 years and 59.5 years respectively; in addition, the majority of the marketers were married (73.0% and 65.1% respectively). Furthermore, they earned a monthly profit of ₦55,370.42 and ₦47,654.74 respectively, which indicates that both businesses are profitable. Further, the plantain and banana trade shared similar marketing channels, the number of which was four, with the most dominant channel being the one composed of the producer, rural assembler, wholesaler, retailer, and the consumer. The t-test analysis demonstrated that the difference in profit by plantain and banana marketers was statistically significant at the p-value of < 0.05. Unemployed youths in Rivers State should be trained by well-meaning organisations so that they can take up the marketing of plantains/bananas as a means of earning a living due to their profitability.

Impact of international trade on employment in orange industry of South Africa

The purpose of the study is to analyse the long-run and short-run dynamic relations amongst total employment (lnEMPGt), export output (EXPOt) and import output (IMPOt) from 1990 to 2018, by applying a time-series analysis. The study adopts the secondary data for total employment from the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa, while both export and import output were sourced from the Global Trade Atlas. The multivariate cointegration approach is adopted in the study to identify any causal relationships amongst the concerned variables. The chosen optimum lag selection criterion was the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) due to its association dependence on the log-likelihood ratio. The third lag was selected for the entire analysis. The results from the cointegration test and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) suggest a positive long-run effect between total employment and export output, while import output is negatively associated with total employment. The adjustment term of lnEMPGt, EXPOt and IMPOt suggests that the previous year’s errors are corrected for the current year at a convergence speed of 0.002, 1.11 and 25.37 percentage points, respectively. The results of the Granger causality test show that there are bidirectional causality effects between export output and total employment in the long run, while there are no causality effects between import output and total employment. The overall conclusion is that export outputs positively impact employment, while import outputs impact it negatively in the South African orange industry.

AN Assessment of public relations among certified and non-certified cocoa marketers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Public relations (PR) are often ignored in agricultural marketing, and organizations with imperfect utilization of PR are usually badly managed, ineffective and generate high labor turnover. Therefore, this study identified the different types of adopted PR strategies, described the structure of the cocoa market, estimated the marketing margin, identified factors affecting PR strategies and outlined the major challenges hindering the use of PR among certified and non-certified cocoa marketers. A combination of purposive and random sampling techniques was used to select 120 respondents for the study. The analytical tools used to achieve the research objectives are descriptive statistics, Likert-scale, Herfindahl Index, marketing efficiency model, marketing margin and multiple regression analysis. The result revealed that the most frequently used PR strategy was phone calls. The Herfindahl Index values of 0.19 and 0.12 suggested that the structure of cocoa markets among certified and non-certified marketers was moderately concentrated and non-concentrated respectively. Moreover, the higher efficiency (122.6%) and marketing margin (18.44%) values for certified cocoa marketers revealed that they are more productive than non-certified marketers. Age, marketing margin, cost of spoilt cocoa beans and household size are important variables explaining the adoption of PR strategies among certified cocoa marketers. On the other hand, marketing margin, cost of spoilt cocoa beans and household size are important variables influencing the adoption of PR strategies among non-certified marketers. The most important factors hindering cocoa marketing are high costs of transportation among certified cocoa marketers, and commission among non-certified cocoa marketers. We recommend the use of mobile phone and training of marketers on the use of PR strategies and modern cocoa processing techniques. The challenges of erratic network performance, high airtime tariff and input subsidies should be addressed by the government to reduce wastage in the industry.