A B S T R A C T E-wallet-powered Growth Enhancement Support Scheme was designed by the Nigerian Government to facilitate and improve farmers' prompt access to agricultural information and input services. An assessment of the pilot phase of the scheme becomes necessary for an effective implementation. The study therefore assessed the attitude of crop farmers towards the e-wallet platform of the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme. A total of 120 crop farmers across the study area were sampled through a simple random sampling method. Data were collected through a well-structured interview schedule, and analysed using percentages, PPMC and Chi-square. Farmers' mean age was 47 years. Majority were males, married and have an average of 15 years farming experience. Maize and cassava were the most grown crops. Majority indicated non commitment of the ADP and long distance to redemption centre as major constraints to use of e-wallet. More than half had favourable attitude towards the e-wallet platform of the Scheme. There is significant relationship between the years of farming and educational level with farmers' attitude towards the e-wallet. Constraints faced also had negative influence on attitude to the scheme. Establishment of more redemption centres to stop the rigor of long queues and reduce long distance covered before accessing the centres will make prompt access to information targeted by e-wallet achieve desired end.
In the wake of deepened situations of changing climate, a clear understanding of the perceived impacts and adaptation of climate variability and change on livelihoods of vegetable farmers in Western and Eastern Africa, which is not readily available, is critical for sustainable vegetable production in Africa. Development planning for climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment was utilised in the study. Using multi-stage sampling procedure, 193 vegetable farmers in selected sites prominent for vegetable production from Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria were used. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and linear regression at α0.05. Awareness of climate variability and change was high among most respondents from the three countries, but highest among respondents from Uganda (78.3%). Awareness was highest for long dry spell ($$\bar{x}$$ x ¯ = 1.90) and drought ($$\bar{x}$$ x ¯ = 1.81) and lowest for harmful gas emissions ($$\bar{x}$$ x ¯ = 0.76). Changes in climate variability and trends were perceived to be highest in terms of flood volume/damage caused by flood to farmlands in Nigeria ($$\bar{x}$$ x ¯ = 3.85) and Uganda ($$\bar{x}$$ x ¯ = 5.0), but in terms of increased temperature for Ghana ($$\bar{x}$$ x ¯ = 4.93). Impact of climate-related changes on vegetable farming was high in Ghana (98.3%) and Nigeria (46.6%) but low in Uganda (5.0%). Awareness (β = 0.14), perception (β = 0.15) use of adaptation strategies (β = 0.10) and household size (β = − 0.19) predicted change in perceived impact of climate variability among vegetable farmers. Vegetable farmers in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda are affected differently by climate variability. Farmers in these countries also have different priorities for adaptation strategies. Locality-specific climate adaptation strategies would help ease farmers burden due to climate change.
Various health challenges and fatalities in rural communities of most developing countries of the world have been traceable to the unabated use of biomass energy sources. We therefore assessed the awareness of the health implications of the use of biomass energy sources among women in rural households of Jigawa State. Multistage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 120 respondents using structured questionnaires. Data were collected on respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics, types of biomass used, information sources on the health implications from use of biomass energy sources, awareness of the health implications and constraints to the use of alternatives to biomass. Data were summarised using frequencies, percentages, means, Chi-square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Majority of the respondents (78.3 %) were below 40 years of age with a mean age of 30 ± 2.02 years. Majority were married (90.8 %), Muslims (100 %), involved in agro-processing (65.8 %), had no formal education (73.3 %), and earned not more than ₦10, 000 (90.8 %) with mean household size of 9 members. Wood (100 %) and charcoal (100 %) were the dominant biomass energy sources used. Respondents’ main source of information on the health implications of the use of biomass were radio (64.2 %) and extension agents (54.2 %). Awareness level of the health implications from the use of biomass energy sources was fairly high (51.7 %). High cost of the alternatives, scarcity of refilling points and alternatives and lack of capital were the main hindrances to the use of the alternatives to biomass energy sources. The result on the inferential statistics revealed that a significant association existed between education (χ2 = 6.08; P < 0.05) and awareness of health implications from the use of biomass. Efforts should be made to sensitize women on the health implications resulting from the use of biomass. Alternatives should be made available and affordable to encourage a switch from biomass energy sources thereby reducing the fatalities that may result from its continual use.
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