Level of Savings among Maize Farmers in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

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

Economics of Sesame Production in Misau Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria

“…The ratio of gross income to variable cost was 1.557; this is further showing that Sesame production is profitable in the study area for the ratio is greater than 1. This is confirmed by Umar et al (2011) in the study of productivity analysis of Sesame (sesame indicum L.) production under organic and inorganic fertilizers application in Doma LGA, Nasarawa State where it was found that, the average gross returns per hectare by the application of organic fertilizer was N59,640.00 and N89,433.00 by application of inorganic fertilizer. Average total variable costs per hectare for organic and inorganic (fertilizers applied) by farmers were N22,855.00 and N27,682.00, respectively.…”