The survey was conducted to identify key challenges encountered by households in Makurdi metropolis of Benue state, Nigeria who are engaged in urban agriculture. A well structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 100 respondents used for the study. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage and mean score. Results show that a greater percentage (46.0%) of the respondents engaged in cultivation of leafy vegetable, 22.0% cultivated cassava, 21.0% planted sweet potato, 18.0% cultivated tomato while 56.0% reared poultry, 23.0% kept goat, among others. Sources of agricultural information indicated by the respondents were family members/relations (85.0%), friends/neighbors (73.0%), radio (68.0%), extension agents (57.0%), etc. Major challenges encountered by the respondents in urban agriculture include inadequate size of farm land (M= 2.72), lack of access to credit facilities (M= 2.63), lack of funds (M= 2.50), high cost of labor (M= 2.49), insecurity of lands (M= 2.46), theft of crops at maturity (M= 2.38), lack of farm inputs such as improved varieties of seeds, fertilizer (M= 2.23), destruction of crops by stray farm animals (M= 1.96), among others. The study recommends that there is need for adequate provision of farm inputs by government at all levels at subsidized rate in order to reduce the cost of production and enhance optimum productivity.
This study evaluated the impacts of government interventions aimed at broadening forest species utilization and exports in Ghana. The interventions included setting up the Woodworking Sector Development Program (WSDP), raw material regulation and the introduction of a levy on exporting major species as air-dried lumber. After the government interventions were implemented, there was increased use and export of lesser-used species (LUS). However, only the air-dry levy showed a significant correlation with an increase in percent of LUS exported in the post-intervention time period.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.