The study examined costs and returns in cocoa production in Cross River State by comparing three identified management systems of cocoa production in the area. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select a hundred and fifty cocoa farmers for the study. Data used in the study were collected using structured questionnaires which were administered by the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) extension agents using the participatory approach while the data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean, median, standard deviation, etc. and an investment decision model comprising the net present value (NPV) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) analysis. Results show that the respondents were predominantly small scale farmers with farm sizes ranging from one to five hectares. The age distribution of the farmers showed that 61.3% of them were among the active farming population falling within the age range of 21 to 40 years, and 16.67% of the respondents had no formal education. More than 50% of the total respondents sourced funds from their personal savings in all the management systems considered. Importantly, the study found that cocoa production is a profitable business irrespective of management system, since all of the management systems had positive net present values (NPV) at 10% discount rate. The NPV for lease-managed farms is highest. The benefit-cost ratio (BCR) at 10% discount rate was greater than one for all the three management systems, which indicates that the returns from cocoa production are high. Owner-managed farms had the highest BCR followed by lease-managed farms and sharecropped farms in that order. Lease-managed farms were more viable compared with other management systems in terms of their high NPVs. The study recommends that given the high benefits relative to costs involved in cocoa production irrespective of management system, investments in cocoa production can be increased by providing expanded access to cheap and flexible credit and land, which have presented as limiting factors in cocoa production based on the descriptive statistical analysis in the study.

Motivated by the recent global economic crisis, this paper simulated the impact of a rise in the price of imported food on agriculture and household poverty in Nigeria using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) class of decomposable poverty measures on the 2006 social accounting matrix (SAM) of Nigeria and the updated 2004 Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS) data. Results show that a rise in import price of food increased domestic output of food, but reduced the domestic supply of other agricultural commodities as well as food and other agricultural composites. Furthermore, a rise in the import price of food increased poverty nationally and among all household groups, with rural-north households being the least affected by the shock, while their rural-south counterparts were the most affected. A major policy implication drawn from this paper is that high import prices in import competing sectors like agriculture tend to favour the sector but exacerbate poverty in households. Thus, efforts geared at addressing the impact of this shock should strive to balance welfare and efficiency issues.

A two-stage Linear Approximate-Almost Ideal Demand Systems model was used to analyze household food demand in semi-urban and rural households in southwest Nigeria based on micro-level data from a multi-stage random sampling survey of one hundred and sixty two households. Aggregate food demand indicates inelastic sensitivity to price changes with the exception of grains. Individual food commodities, in the main, exhibit both price and income elastic behaviour. Expenditure elasticities ranged between o.6670 and 18.2224, were found to be generally higher than price elasticities. There was evidence of strong complementary relationships between individual food items. It is advocated that production of the set of price inelastic food items should be boosted, at least to a level where producers would not be forced to increase prices to the disadvantage of consumers. In like manner, increased supply of the highly price-elastic commodities would benefit both the consumer and the producer in that an accompanying reduction in prices with increased supply would lead to a higher margin of demand than the fall in price. Finally, it is suggested that food demand problems in the study area may be addressed more effectively via income rather than price policies, especially for luxuries such as meat/fish.

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The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of monetary aggregates of demand and supply on domestic cocoa absorption in the country. Data from 1970-2000 were obtained from official sources including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual Reports and Statistical Bulletins and the Statistical Database of the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) of the United Nations, among others. While the semi-log functional form was used (as the lead equation) to estimate the aggregate demand and supply models, the exponential form was preferred for the agricultural domestic absorption model. Both models used the adaptive Nerlovian partial adjustment mechanism. Domestic price level was identified to affect cocoa absorption negatively and significantly while exchange rate depreciation had a significant and positive effect. Real income was found to affect money demand by 4.4 percent in the short run and 24 percent in the long run. On the strength of these findings, the study recommends policies towards a lowering of interest rate and the rate of inflation now and the streamlining of the existing extension service programmes to include provision of easy access to inputs for farmers so as to increase cocoa supply.