The study was carried out to determine the effect of access to rural infrastructure on household welfare in Ogun State. A three-stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 442 selected respondents. The study was based on primary data obtained through questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression. The study revealed that majority of the respondents were male (62.3%), married (80.1%), aged 48.1±11.5 years, with years of formal education, household size and farming experience of 7.3±4.7 years, 7.2±2.8 persons and 13.7±10.4 years, respectively. The MPCHHE was ₦7,152.10. The proportion of households with access to potable water, primary school, health centre, market and agro-centre were 89.1%, 88.5%, 43.9%, 64.5% and 33.7%, respectively. More households had high access to infrastructure (52.8%). Many of the households had high welfare (43.9%), while 24.4% had medium welfare and 31.7% had low welfare. High household welfare was explained by age (β=-0.32), male-headed households (β=0.51), non-farm income (β=0.20), ARI (β=-0.49), access to credit (β=0.39), educational level (β=0.25) and labour size (β=0.34), while age (β=0.15), male-headed households (β=- 0.12) and ARI (β=0.18) explained low household welfare. Based on these findings, it was recommended that policies that would increase public investment in functional rural infrastructure must be given high priority by the government.

The problem of climate change is becoming more threatening to sustainable economic development. The fact that climate has been changing in the past and will change in the future emphasises the need to understand how farmers perceive climate change and adapt to it in order to guide strategies for adaptation in the future. This study examines perception and adaptation to climate change of maize-based farmers in three agro-ecological zones of Nigeria using data from a cross sectional survey of 346 farming households selected through a multistage sampling technique. The study re-affirmed male dominance in maize production with about 90.8% of the farmers being male, while about 54.6% were between the productive ages of 41 - 60 years with a mean age of 45 years. About 47.4% of the farmers had no formal education, while the average number of years of formal education was 6.5. Results showed that 81.5% of the sampled maize farmers had perceived changes in climatic variables and 68.5% had employed adaptation measures. Econometric estimation of Heckman probit model revealed that the likelihood of farmers perceiving changes in climate was positively and significantly influenced by farming experience, access to extension agents, farm income and agro-ecological settings, while farming experience, distance to market centre, access to extension agents and farm income increase the probability of adapting to climate change. Policy focus should be awareness creation as well as improved farmers' knowledge through extension agents, social network and NGOs and strengthening of credit institutions.

In spite of the enormous benefits of fruits and vegetables, studies have shown that their consumption in Nigeria is far below the recommended daily intake therefore, this study investigated the factors influencing the demand for fruits and vegetables among households in rural and urban South-western Nigeria. Data were sourced from 152 rural and 259 urban households, respectively with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive statistics and the quadratic almost ideal demand system model. Household size and location, sex and years of education of household heads influenced the demand for fruits and vegetables. Both rural and urban households considered the demand for fruits and vegetables to be luxury goods. Rural households were more responsive to changes in own-prices of fruits and vegetables than their urban counterpart. Fruits and vegetables were “net substitutes” in the rural and “complements” in the urban.

Income inequality and poverty are closely related. This study decomposed income inequality in Nigeria using the Gini-decomposition, regression-based and Shapley approaches. Results show that in 2004, income inequality is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The study also noted that employment income increases inequality while agricultural income decreases inequality. Factors such as urbanization, residence in the southwest zone, household size, the house head’s formal education, number of time suffered from illness, engagement in a paid job, involvement in a non-farm business, formal credit and informal credit contributed to the increased income inequality. Between 1998 and 2004, income redistribution and income growth increased poverty. The study recommended that welfare enhancing programs that will benefit urban/rural poor should be identified, while better economic opportunities should be created for those in rural areas.

Nigeria's economic growth has not been pro-poor. Health indices remain poor with high child mortality rate particularly in the rural sector. This study provides insights into child immunization as a complement to unobservable factors responsible for mortality reduction. The ratio of the number of children not alive to the number of children born alive in a household is the measure of the household's child mortality rate. The National Living Standards Survey is the main source of data and the control function approach is the preferred estimation procedure. The estimation results reveal a strong link between access to immunization and reduction in mortality. The results show a robust inverse relationship between child immunization and child mortality. Literacy of mothers emerges as an important determinant of demand for child immunization. It is argued that improving girl-child education would increase demand for child immunization and reduce child mortality in rural Nigeria.

There has been a deficit in the national maize output due to low usage of Improved Maize Seed (IMS) among other factors. Social Capital (SC) has been identified as a potential instrument for adoption of improved seed. Although most farmers belong to Social Groups (SG), the contribution of SC in the use of improved seed has not been adequately documented. Thus, relationship between SC and usage of improved seed in southwestern Nigeria was examined. A four-stage sampling procedure was used. Osun and Oyo states were purposively selected based on their high maize production level. A total of seven Agricultural Development Programmes zones: three from Osun and four from Oyo states were randomly selected. One block was randomly selected from each selected zone. Twenty one cells were randomly selected proportionate to the size of the blocks in the states. In all, 386 farmers were randomly selected proportionate to size of the cell. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data on farmers’ characteristics, seed type, maize yield and social capital dimensions: Membership Density (MD), heterogeneity, Meeting Attendance (MA), Decision Making (DM), Cash Contribution (CC), Labour contribution (LC) and Aggregate Social Capital (ASC). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logit at α 0.05. Farmers belonged to an average of 3 societies and had DM index of 60.7±9.7. Meeting attendance was high (76.7±27.3), Heterogeneity index was 38.7±9.7, while monthly CC and LC to SG were ₦83.0±2.3 and 26.3±10.8 man-day per annum, respectively. The ASC was 41.9±1.1. Farmers’ group accounted for the highest proportion (26.6%), while recreational club (0.5%) and environmental protection/natural resources group (0.5%) accounted for the lowest proportion of farmers’ membership in SG. The main source of IMS was farmer association (33.2%), while the least source was certified farmers’ shop (2.8%). Marital status (β=1.85), output price (β=0.89), education (β=0.81), MD index (β=0.09), quantity of maize seed planted (β=0.04) and volume of loan accessed from SG (β=1.0x10-5) increased the likelihood of using IMS. Social capital influenced improved maize seed usage. Education, output price and meeting attendance increased farmers’ choice of improved maize seed, while membership in fewer social groups reduced it. Active participation in social groups is recommended to promote usage of improved maize seed.

This study assessed the empowerment status of women in Rural Nigeria. Following Alkire and Foster (2007) multidimensional poverty measure, we constructed the multidimensional women empowerment index across selected dimensions and indicators using the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey data (DHS). The logit regression was used to profile its determinants. The multidimensional women disempowerment index was 0.427. The study finds that when the empowerment cutoff k=2, approximately 43% of the rural women were disempowered. The education and resource dimensions had the highest relative contributions of 33.59% and 31.61% to the overall multidimensional disempowerment index. The study revealed that while age of the women, age of the household head and employment in skilled and unskilled sector significantly increase the probability of rural women’s empowerment, gender of household head, employment in agriculture and allied sector, household size, and location of rural women in the Northern region of Nigeria reduce the probability of women economic empowerment in rural Nigeria. It is recommended that efforts must be directed at these individual indicators to improve on the empowerment, inclusion and agency of rural women especially in planning intervention strategies. This should be backed up with enforcement of policies that will ensure rural women enjoy the same potentials, rights and privileges as men in society in order to ensure and achieve sustainable rural development.

Tourism is a major driver of economic growth and development in any society. This study examines the socio-economic determinants of on-day site demand for recreation in Agodi Park and Gardens in Ibadan, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 114 tourists, randomly selected from the site using semi-structured questionnaires. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, single-site travel cost approach and Poisson regression. Majority of tourists were male and in their active working years with an average household size of six. The qualities identified by tourists as affecting their decision to spend more time in the park include view, historical significance, facilities, cleanliness and maintenance, reasonable entrance fee and accessibility of the park. The result of the Poisson Regression revealed that sex, age, adult education, monthly income, cleanliness and maintenance of the park had positive significant effect on the number of trips taken to the park by tourists. However, trip cost had a negative significant effect. The park has great economic benefits in providing tour and recreational functions as a public resource with an access value of ₦895,684.80.The study recommends that government should provide suitable working environment for increased incomes and the education of tourists should be encouraged. In addition, policies and efforts on park cleanliness and maintenance is required.

Failure of investment, failure of farmers to use borrowed funds for production and the refusal to return borrowed funds are some of the causes for low repayment performance: hence the need for credit rationing.The study was therefore aimed at determining factors affecting credit rationing among groups in Farmers Development Union (FADU) of Ekiti State.The study was carried out in four local government areas (Ikere, Ado-Ekiti, Ayedun and Ijan Ekiti) in Ekiti State, Nigeria.A total sample size of 33 farmer groups within the union comprising of 10 members each were selected via sampling proportionate to size.Secondary data obtained from records of the groups spanning a single year period was used for the study in addition to interview schedule.Findings, however, revealed that loan beneficiaries of FADU must be registered members of the organization and must have at least 25% loan request as savings before loans could be granted to them.Also, 66.7% of the beneficiaries were in their active working age and 84.8% of the groups consisted mainly of women with trading as their major occupation.All the beneficiaries were married with 36.4% of the women having a mean household size of 6 people.The regression analysis showed that educational level and income were socio-economic characteristics that positively affect repayment performance.Also, the probit model revealed that income, outstanding debt and leverage of beneficiaries were significant determinants of loan rationing.However, to fully harness the benefits inherent in credit rationing by microcredit institutions; proper monitoring of borrowed funds was encouraged as repayment performance and credit rationing are interwoven.

The study examined farmers’ vulnerability, perception and adaptation to climate change in Kwara State. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire to elicit information from 120 food crop farmers selected through a multistage random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, fuzzy set approach and multinomial logit model. Results show that majority of the sampled farmers were in their productive age with about 26.6% had no formal education and were predominantly small scale farmers. The study revealed that majority (84%) of the farmers believed that temperature had increased while about 65.8% noticed that precipitation had declined. The farm household vulnerability assessment showed that the average multidimensional vulnerability indices for male and female farmers are 17.5% and 27.8%, respectively, while the average vulnerability index for all the farming households is 18.4%, implying that the intensity of vulnerability to climate change is higher in female farmers and that the whole sampled population is less than 50% vulnerability threshold. The econometric investigation revealed that education of household head, farming experience, land ownership, rainfall and temperature were the most relevant and significant factors that determined the farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies to climate change in the study area. The major barriers to adaptation include lack of information on adaptation methods, land tenure problem and inaccessibility to credit.

The study applies the counting approach to explain the deprivation concept among children under 5 years of age using the 2008 DHS data. Five dimensions of deprivation were used: safe drinking water, sanitation, housing, health, and nutrition largely recognized in the SDGs. In all, a total of 13561 children were sampled. About half of the children were males with a mean age of 28.27 months old. The assessment of dimensional deprivation showed that children are most deprived in sanitation, health, and access to safe drinking water while they were least deprived in nutrition. The situation is also marked with regional disparities with northern regions reporting higher deprivation rates than the southern regions but this rate was significantly higher in the sanitation dimension across regions. Considering deprivation counts, 33.9% of children suffer from more than three deprivations and approximately 85.2% from at least two deprivations. Child deprivation should be tackled using a holistic approach through social protection programmes to resolve children’s problems in an integrated manner which would in this case be more efficient and effective in safeguarding children’s rights to survival and development. Identifying the children suffering from single and multiple deprivations can help to target the interventions.

Increasing threat of climate change is aggravating the problem of declining agricultural productivity in the face of rapid population growth. This implies that rural sustainance and food security is under threat and stress. Given that crops differ in climate requirements and economic importance, analysis of the attendant effect of climate change on specific crop remains to be adequately explored. This study uses Ricardian approach to examine the effects of climate change on maize production in Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was employed for the study. Data were collected on 346 maize-based farming households in three different agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. Average age of the farmers and household size were 45years and 8 persons respectively. Average years of farming experience and years of schooling were 25.6 and 6.5 years respectively. The empirical results showed that maize net revenue is sensitive to climate change. Seasonal marginal impact analysis showed that increase in rainfall during rainy season increased Maize Net Revenue (MNR) in rainforest, guinea and montane savanna respectively. Marginal increase in rainfall during the dry season increased MNR in rainforest while it decreased MNR in guinea and montane savanna respectively. However, marginal increase in temperature during dry season has positive impacts on MNR in all AEZs. The predicted results using a range of climate scenarios confirm that climate change will have negative impact on maize net revenue in the future. Maize Farmers have taken adaptive measures against climate change which are changing the planting dates, changed land-use practices, mixed cropping and mixed farming. The major barriers to adaptation are inadequate credit or saving and inadequate knowledge of appropriate adaptation strategies suited for the local climate conditions.

This paper assessed the preference for improved solid waste management among urban poor and non-poor households in Asaba, Delta-state.A random sampling method was employed resulting in 115 households and information obtained from the state's waste management board.Descriptive statistics, Alkire and Foster multidimensional poverty methodology, choice experiment and conditional logistic regression model were employed for analysis.The average age of household heads was 39 years and literacy level was high with an average of 14 years of schooling.Multidimensionally, 25.20%of households are poor at dimensional cut-off k=4.Households' preference for improved waste management is influenced positively household head education, perception, number of income earners and negatively by poverty status.The mean willingness to pay estimate is N1546.32/month but reduced to N619.80, with consideration of socio-economic characteristics.Households ranked waste separation top and collection frequency least important.This study recommends education, provision of free containers for waste separation and the introduction of graduated fees for any waste management plan.

One of the Millennium Development Goals is expansion of access to safe and reliable water sources to all by 2015. Rural areas in Nigeria are characterized with lack of access to potable water which has contributed adversely to public health and welfare of the rural dwellers. Concerted efforts have been made by government to improve access to safe drinking water. This study was therefore carried out to examine willingness to pay for potable water by rural households. A multistage sampling method was used to obtain a sample size of 107 respondents for the study. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression model were used to analyze the data. The respondents were mainly male, married with mean household size of four and mean age of 44 years showing that a good proportion of the sampled respondents were in their economic active age. Community well and streams were the most common water sources while none of the households had access to piped water. The Mean Willingness to Pay (MWTP) for water from safe sources was found to be N150 (0.91$)/20litres. Results also revealed that educational status, household monthly income, quality of water, reliability of water, connection charges, and distance to water source are the significant factors that influence the probability of households' willingness to pay for potable water. Therefore, in designing improved water supply system and services for rural areas, water service providers must ensure reliable service, improved quality water and proximity to the source.

Major resources are being committed to moringa products innovation and value added production, yet considerable uncertainties still exist regarding public perception of moringa products in terms of labelling and certification. Consequently, understanding consumers' behaviour will be important if the impact of moringa products on nutrition is to be realized. This study therefore assessed consumers' perceptions and attitude towards labelled and certified moringa products (tea, spice and oil) and also identified factors influencing their willingness to pay for these products in Ogun State Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was employed to elicit information from 150 randomly selected respondents within Abeokuta South and Abeokuta North Local Government Areas of Ogun State. Contingent valuation method was used to obtain premiums that consumers are willing to pay for labelled moringa products. Descriptive statistics and the logit regression model were used to analyse the data. Overall, attitude towards moringa products, attitude towards labelling and certification; current purchasing and consumption patterns significantly affected the respondents' willingness to pay a premium for the labelled and certified moringa products. (c) All Rights Reserved

The study examined factors that affect participation In urban agriculture. Different categories of urban agriculture were Identified and the problems encountered by these farmers enumerated. Data were collected using the stratified random sampling technique from 115 respondents in the study area made up of 89 farmers and 29 non -farmers. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the logit model. Results show that the mean age of the respondents is 45.8% and are still economically active. Farming is practised as primary occupation by 10.2% of the respondents and as secondary occupation by 65.3 %. The most common form of production practised is arable crop production followed by horticulture. Preference for arable crop production is due to lack of title to land. Factors that affect participation in urban agriculture include age, years of schooling, number of dependants, food expenditure and non -food expenditure. Lack of title to land and theft were stated as the most pressing problems. The study recommends that government should establish farm settlements In peri-urban centres where land would be leased to farmers particularly young unemployed youths. This will reduce the problem of land acquisition and inadequate household food supply.

Government continues to initiate programmes to address the challenge of poverty in Nigeria.This paper investigates the poverty levels over time using the multidimensional approach and estimates its determinants; using the National Living Standard Survey data of 2004 and 2010. The Alkire-Foster methodology and the Logit model were employed for analysis. The result showed that 70% of rural households are headed by males, are still in their economically active years and practice agriculture. Also, more than one third have no education. The adjusted headcount ratio, headcount ratio and the intensity of poverty increased in 2010 relative to 2004. The absolute and percentage change in poverty reveals that change is higher for the headcount ratio than the intensity of poverty. The health, asset and education dimensions contributed most to poverty. Agriculture has the highest adjusted poverty incidence. Being in a female headed household, increased household size, working in the agriculture sector and residing in the northern zones increase the probability of being poor. Education, working in non-agricultural sector and services, residing in South West and South East zones reduce the probability of being poor. Effort should be targeted at reducing the number of poor households; and the health, asset and education dimensions require special attention; as well as those engaged in agriculture and resident in the northern regions of the country. Key words: Multidimensional poverty, Alkire-Foster, logit, rural Nigeria.

Smallholder farmers constitute the largest share of farm households in Nigeria and many of them are poor. A way out of poverty for them is to address market related problems. In this paper, the market options available to these farmers, as well as market related factors that are problematic were investigated. Primary data were collected from 100 maize farmers in Saki Agricultural Zone of Oyo State, Nigeria. Seventy five maize farmers participate in the market while 25 farmers produce only for subsistence. The farmers are well experienced and cultivate about 5.6 hectares of land. About 90% do not have access to market while 64% do not have access to good roads. The study identified 4 market options and the most patronized was the farm gate market option. The censored tobit result, market price show that, member of a producer group, farm size, educational and total maize produced, road condition, primary occupation and transaction costs significantly affect farmers’ market participation. Policy interventions that seek to improve these factors are very important to market participation.