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The household head characteristics of smallholder cassava farmers supplying raw materials to the major commercial starch processors in Nigeria were examined alongside their market participation categories. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 96 farmers working in clusters in the eight cassava producing states. Data were analyzed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics, including the use of independent sample t-test technique to compare farmer's characteristics for the farmers' market participation categories. Results revealed that majority of the farmers were farming for subsistence with only 19.80% selling up to 50% of their farm produce as against 80.20% who sold less. Average mean values were found to be higher for the high market participants compared with the low participants for the age, farming experiences, education, farm size, gender, marital status, household size, training, season of harvesting and fertilizer use, but lower for use of credit, improved cassava variety, harvesting method, farming time devotion, and road access. Only farm size, gender and harvesting season at p<0.01 level and training at p<0.05 level were found to be statistically significant in distinguishing the high and low market participation categories. Policies and programmes aimed at promoting market participation among cassava farmers in Nigeria should be more impactful if directed at these significant factors.

Farm credits played vital roles in the socioeconomic transformation of the rural economies. However, their acquisition and repayment were characterized by numerous challenges including high levels of default among beneficiaries. This study analyzed the smallholder farmers' loan repayment capacity using household data from 110 cooperative farmers from selected villages in Ogun State, Nigeria. Specifically, the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of respondents, loan repayment rate and factors influencing repayment capacity were examined. Aside from purposive selection of Yewa North, multistage random sampling technique was used to select the study sample. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression techniques. Results revealed that the average age of respondents was 45 years with 36% within 20 to 40 years active working population. Average repayment rate was 69% with 42% repaying above nine-tenths, and 20% less than one-half of potential amounts during the period. Loan size (p<0.01) and farm size (p<0.05) had significant positive influences on loan repayment capacity while household size (p<0.05) had a negative influence. From the elasticity analysis, while a 10% increase in loan and farm sizes resulted to 7 and 2.8% increases respectively, similar 10% increase in household size caused 4.2% decrease in repayment capacity. All significant variables produced a priori signs. The implication is that to enhance loan repayment capacity of smallholder cooperative farmers, policies and programmes capable of increasing sizes of loan and farm holdings, or reducing household size should be promoted. However, higher proportional increases were required for each variable to attain a desired level of increase in loan repayment capacity.

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Aims: This study seeks to explore a two-way relationship between Nigeria’s economic performance, measured by the GDP, and her stock of foreign reserves over time. Study Design: It uses secondary data - documented time series of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) and foreign exchange reserves (FER) – collected from various volumes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin. The annual time series data cover a period of 38 years, from 1981-2018. Methodology: The time series properties of the variables were verified using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit roots’ test procedure. Also, the Bounds test technique was used to test for cointegration while the autoregressive distributed-lag (ARDL) and error correction models were estimated to analyze short- and long-run relationships between the variables. Relevant diagnostic tests were carried out to validate the resultant model estimates. Results: Results of unit roots’ test reveal both GDP and foreign reserves as I(1) series. Bounds test for the GDP model revealed an observed F-statistic (.421) that is less than the critical lower bound F-statistic (4.94) at P=.05 and cointegrating relationship was not confirmed. However, Bounds test for the foreign reserves revealed an observed F-statistic (6.445) lager than the critical upper bound F-statistic (5.73) at P=.05 and cointegration was established leading to specification of a long-run error correction model (ECM). Result of ARDL model estimation shows that only one-year-lag of GDP was significant (P=.05) and positive in explaining variations in the current GDP. Previous year’s values of both GDP and foreign reserves have positive influence on the long-run foreign exchange with over 81.8% explanatory power. The adjustment coefficient of the error correction equation is highly significant (P=.001) with the desired negative sign, implying that previous periods’ errors are correctable by adjustments in the subsequent periods, and convergence is attainable. Granger-Causality test result revealed a unidirectional causality that runs from GDP to the external reserves. Conclusion: The study establishes a long-run relationship between stock of foreign reserves and economic performance in Nigeria. The finding corroborates the view that a booming economy has the propensity to attract foreign direct investment thereby boosting the stock of the country’s foreign reserves. To attract more FDI in the critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, the government should create enabling and investment-friendly environment, implement policies and programmes capable of amplify ease-of-doing-business, and boost investors’ confidence in the economy.

The theory of demand and supply implied a positive relationship, or price information transmission between the supply and demand markets for products. Using cointegration analysis and weekly data from week 37 in 2004 to week 26 in 2006, a long-run equilibrium relationship was investigated between the prices for the yellow and white varieties of gari, a granulated dry food product processed from cassava roots, in a typical rural (supply) and urban (demand) markets in Enugu State of south-eastern Nigeria. The Augmented DickeyFuller (ADF) test was used to check for stationarity in the pairs of prices while the Engle and Granger two-step procedure was used to test for cointegration of the markets. Results revealed that, although yellow gari sold for relatively higher prices than the white gari in both the rural and urban markets, the market prices were significantly positively correlated for the two products. The tests for unit roots revealed that the different price series were individually nonstationarity while the pair of prices for each product was integrated of order one. The ADF test statistics were calculated as -1.63 and -1.59 in levels and -9.45 and -8.35 in first differences for yellow gari. The statistics were also calculated as -1.69 and -1.56 in levels and -10.57 and -9.10 in first differences for white gari in the studied rural and urban markets. The results revealed further that the rural and urban markets were cointegrated with t-statistics calculated as -4.09 for yellow gari and -4.20 for white gari. Changes in prices in one of the markets reflected similar long-term changes in prices in the other. The error correction model did not, however, reveal any significant causality link between the peripheral and central markets, suggesting that there were no clear trends in price leadership between the markets. On the whole, the study had established that there could be efficiency in the transmission of price information among the operators of the traditional food markets in Nigeria. The implication was that the development of the cassava agro-industrial sector might need to generate its own source of raw materials to guarantee food security in Nigeria.