Farm Households In Nigeria Research Articles

Ecological and Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Agricultural Intensification in the West African Savannas: Evidence from Northern Nigeria

ABSTRACT Agricultural intensification in West Africa is at an early stage and the process is taking place through various pathways. Population pressure and market access are generally considered as major factors driving intensification and crop-livestock interaction. In this paper both ecology and economic factors and their interactions are hypothesized as driving forces in intensification and crop-livestock interaction. Analyses of a survey involving farming households in Nigeria confirm the hypothesis and show that the degree of intensification is higher in the Sudan savanna than the Northern Guinea savanna. Intensification is occurring mostly through higher land and labor use intensity, higher livestock stocking rates and application of more manure per hectare. It is concluded that policies to enhance market access will facilitate the process and that different technological options need to be pursued in the two agroecological zones to facilitate intensification.

Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania

In this article we show that associational relationships and social norms of villages in rural Tanzania are both capital and social. After outlining the various concepts of social capital we tell how and why we created data on social capital using a large-scale household survey in rural Tanzania that was designed to query households about their social connections and attitudes. By using the Social Capital and Poverty Survey (SCPS) and data from a different survey, which also had information on incomes, we show that a village’s social capital has an effect on the incomes of the households in that village, an effect that is empirically large, definitely social, and plausibly causal. Finally, we use the two data sets to examine a number of proximate channels through which social capital appears to operate.

Assessment of Food Security Situation of Tiv Farming households in Nigeria

The study assessed the food security situation and living conditions of Tiv farming households. Respondents were drawn from farming households in Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa States. Data was collected from 315 heads of households using interview schedule, and the data were analysed using means and food security index. The study found that enhanced ICT use (M=2.47) and increased competition (M=2.40) were perceived conditions that were found to be attributed to their agricultural operations. The analysis of food security situation shows that majority (64.1%) of these households were food secured. This could be because those strategies for ensuring food security is working for majority of the families. Also on the strategies put in place to ensure households’ food security were the use of high yielding crop varieties (M= 1.60), mixed cropping (M=1.53) and use of early maturing crop varieties. It was recommended that governments in these states should support various extension agencies by funding these agencies to be involved in the dissemination of these technologies that enhance the food security of the farmers.Key words: Food security; Tiv farming families; strategies