This study was designed to measure technical efficiency and identify its determinants in crop production in Lafia Local government Area of Nasarawa State of Nigeria using a stochastic frontier production model. Double stage random sampling technique was used to select 100 crop farmers from which input-output data were collected based on 2005 cropping season. The results revealed that sixty five percent (65%) of the farmers were within the age range of 31-50 years and 67% had farm size ranging from 2-4 hectares. The technical efficiency of crop production range from 32.7% to 89.4% with mean of 69.6%. Farm size and fertilizer were the major inputs that are associated with the variation in crop output. The significant socio economic variables that accounted for the observed variations in technical efficiency among crop farmers were age, gender, marital status, household size, other occupation and land ownership. It is therefore recommended that a land redistribution policy that will increase the farm size of the farmers should be initiated. Fertilizer supply at subsidized rate to farmers in the area should be encouraged.

The study was about technical efficiency of women cassava farmers in Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. A simple random sample of 120 women cassava farmers were interviewed with a structured questionnaire and information concerning their socioeconomic attributes, revenue realized and cost incurred in cassava production were obtained. The data were analysed with the use of stochastic frontier Cobb-Douglas production function and the inefficiency model. Results indicated that farm size, family labour, hired labour, equipment depreciation, cassava stems, fertilizers and transportation had positive coefficients and thus influenced cassava output positively.  Education, household size, farming experience and extension visits increased farmers’ technical efficiency. Many farmers had high technical efficiency. The mean technical efficiency was 76 percent with a maximum of 98 percent technical efficiency. Recommendation made to improve cassava production were making farm inputs available at affordable prices, review of land tenure system, opening up of more credit agencies and increase extension visits among others.

The study was designed to analyze societal welfare implication of paddy price support withdrawal, as an alternative policy, from rice sector in Malaysia. Time series data (1980-2012) were collected and analyzed through different stages of analyses. The first stage of analysis involved time series econometric model namely, Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), which was used in coefficients estimation. Estimated coefficients were subjected to, and passed the relevant diagnostic tests. The estimated elasticities were then used for the second stage of analysis- scenario simulation. Finally, the generated simulation results were further used in estimating the societal welfare changed through appropriate estimation technique. Results show producer welfare loss of about RM189 million, and RM198 million was saved as revenue. The net gain or societal welfare improvement was about RM9 million. Simulated results show up to 10% reduction in paddy producer price or farm income; this could serve as disincentive to rice producers. Since the country is concerned about achieving rice self-sufficiency and rice food security, necessary precautionary measures have to be instituted to prevent farmers exit from paddy farming, by putting a concerted effort towards channeling the trickle-down benefit of societal welfare improvement, resulting from policy option, to rice producers particularly the dominant smallholder group.

The study examined level of savings among maize farmers in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 80 respondents in the study area. Primary data were collected using well-structured  questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Multiple Linear Regression. The results show that half of the  respondents (50.0%) were within the age bracket of 21 - 40 years with a mean age of 42 years. Majority (83.8%) of the respondents were married. About 26.2% of the respondents had between 11 and 15 years of farming experience. More than half (56.2%) of the respondents belong to one cooperative association or another. Most of the respondents (81.2%) had access to extension contact with 46.3% of the respondents operating savings accounts with commercial banks. Household size (0.819**), farming experience (-0.589**), membership of association (-5.635**) and revenue from maize farming (0.00028**) were significant at 5% and constitute major determinants of savings in the study area. It is recommended that efforts should be made to increase earnings from maize farming through improved productivity by appropriate extension service. Also, savings with the financial institutions by the maize farmers should be encouraged through whittling down of administrative bottlenecks and, through extension of collateral-free credit facilities to them. Keywords: Savings, maize farmers, commercial banks

Most farmers in Nigeria, cowpea farmers inclusive, practice subsistence farming with low productivity and consequent inefficiencies. Cowpea related researches have however, focused more on the technical efficiency and the enterprise profitability with little or no research on economic efficiencies, particularly in the study area. It is consequent upon this gap that this study estimated the economic efficiency level and assessed the influencing factors among cowpea farmers in the western agricultural zone of Nasarawa state, Nigeria. A sample size of 160 cowpea farmers was selected using multi-stage sampling technique. The data used was collected for the 2017 farming season using structured questionnaire and was analysed using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and tobit regression model. The study revealed that cowpea farmers in the study area operated on a small scale, at an average of 1.0 ha/farmer. Findings also indicated that, the mean technical (TE), allocative (AE) and economic efficiencies (EE) were:  0.31, 0.18 and 0.06 respectively. The implication of these results is that an average farmer in the study area has the scope for increasing TE by 69% in the short run under the existing technology.  An average farmer in the study area also has the scope of increasing their allocative and economic efficiencies by 82% and 94% respectively in the short run under the existing technology. The economic efficiency was only influenced significantly by the farm size. Education, farming experience, and extension visits were not significant determinants of the economic efficiency. The study recommends for  policies of government at all levels and those of all the stakeholders to discourage land fragmentation and promote efforts that encourage farmers to form strong cooperatives so that they can pool their resources together to increase their scale of operations and by so doing improve their cowpea production efficiency.

Nigeria has implemented various policies and programs aimed at ensuring self-sufficiency in rice production since 1970. The trade policy instruments employed included tariffs, quotas, subsidies, import restrictions and outright ban on rice import at various times. All these policies failed to bridge ever increasing demand-supply deficit in rice production. However, there is considerable potential for expansion of rice production in the five rice-growing ecosystems in Nigeria in order to attain selfsufficiency. The current government has again placed a total ban on the importation of rice with the target of attaining self-sufficiency in rice production by 2020. Given the current production level, this study intended to forecast the rice output from 2018 to 2025 so as to ascertain the likelihood of attaining the self-sufficiency level within the target period, and also to describe trends in rice output from 1980-2016. The study was based on annual time series data collected on national rice output from 1980 to 2016. Descriptive statistics and ARIMA (111) model were used to analyze data collected. Results shows that on the average, national rice output maintain a steady increase of 69% per decade from 1980 to 2016, with the peak of 93% increase recorded within the years 2000-2009. Given the current production environment, the national paddy-rice output was projected to Umar et al.; JEMT, 23(5): 1-6, 2019; Article no.JEMT.48292 2 reach 7.4 million tonnes (equivalent of 4.9 million tonnes of milled-rice) by the year 2020. This is short of 6 million tonnes of milled-rice target. However, the projected result also show that selfsufficiency level of 6 million tonnes of milled rice (about 10 million tonnes of paddy-rice) could only be attainable by the year 2025. It is recommended that until 2025 when the country was projected to attain self-sufficiency in rice production, effort should be geared towards bridging demand -supply gap by ensuring strict quota policy of rice import. This would eliminate price increase associated with disequilibrium in demand -supply of rice commodity in the market. Original Research Article

This study analysed the gender labour contribution among maize farming households in Agricultural Zone C of Kogi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 160 households from which the males and females were interviewed. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. The mean age of male respondents was 40 years while that of female respondents was 33 years. Average income of male farmers was ₦147,321.9 while that of female farmers was ₦143,475.0. The average household size of the respondents was 8 persons. Male respondents were more dominant in tertiary education than female respondents. The result on labour contributions reveals Men dominated in all the maize production activities except planting/sowing where women provided 72.1% of the labour. In extreme instances such as harvesting men provided 100% of the labour needed. Land preparation had 66.5% contribution from the male respondents while the females offered only 33.5%. Male contribution in tilling was 78.8% to the female 21.2%. In making ridges men provided 71.3% against the female 28.7%. In planting/sowing, the only activity women had dominance in, women were seen to have provided 72.1% of the labour contribution against 27.9% of the labour male respondents provided. Furthermore, 70.7% of the labour provided for weeding came from the male folks while the females provided 29.3% of the labour. Male respondents provided 89.9% of the labour for fertilizer application as against the 10.1% provided by the female respondents. Pesticide application was 73.8% of the male against 26.2% of labour contribution. Transportation saw men provide 98.5% of the labour against the 1.5% provided by the female. The results on constraints revealed that poor access to farm inputs was 91.3%  for male, while that of female was 96.3, poor transport systems were 88.1%  for both  male and female, lack of storage/processing facilities was 86.3% for both male and female  and poor access to credit was 95.0% while the female was 97.5%. It can be concluded that male gender in the household dominated the female gender in terms of labour contribution in the study area. Most constraints identified bother around institutional and infrastructural inadequacies in Nigeria’s rurality therefore there should be provision of better extension service, access to credit facilities and motorable roads in rural areas in study area.

The study examined the Effect of Government Agricultural Expenditure on Nigeria's Economic Growth. Time series data were generated from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics. Descriptive Statistics and Vector Error Correction Model were used for data analysis. A unit root test was carried out to ascertain the stationarity of the series. Johansen co-integration test was also carried out to establish co-integration status of the variables in the model. For valid inference, estimated coefficients were subjected to normality, autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity and dynamic stability tests. The null hypotheses in relation to the respective tests statistic could not be rejected at 5% level of significance. The negative sign and statistical significant of Error Correction term of the VEC model, further confirmed the existence of co-integrating relationship among the variables in the model. The descriptive statistics result shows that, for almost a decade, public spending on agriculture consistently decline and was below the 10% benchmark of Akanbi et al.; AJAEES, 32(3): 1-11, 2019; Article no.AJAEES.48640 2 the Maputo declaration. The estimated VECM results showed that on the long-run, only the coefficient of Government Agricultural Expenditure variable influenced the economic growth, which was proxy by National GDP. This influence was positive and statistically significant at 5% probability level. However, on the short run, the result showed that both coefficients of Government Agricultural Expenditure variable and that of agricultural output were both positive and statistically significant in influencing the economic growth (GDP) at 5% probability level. Hence, since government expenditure has positive and significant effect on economic growth both on the short run and long run, it is recommended that government should review upward agricultural expenditure to stimulate growth in Nigerian economy, which could trigger more employment opportunity, increase per capita income, improved agricultural sector infrastructural deficit and reduce poverty. Original Research Article