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This study assesses the effect of livelihood diversification and technology adoption on food security status among rice farming households in the Ogun State Nigeria. Farming households in Africa have increasingly sought means of escaping from the detrimental consequences of poverty by inclining to diversification of their activities; within and outside the farm sector. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 158 rice farmers. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Simpson Index, adoption index and logit regression model. Factors affecting food security of the rice farmers were Simpson Index of Diversification (γ1= 0.320, p= 5%), Technologies Adoption Index (γ2=1.019, p=5%), household size (γ5= -0.060, p= 10%), educational status of the farmers (γ6= 0.035 , p= 5%), farm size (γ7= 0.133, p= 5%) and access to credit (γ9= 0.405, p= 10%). It was recommended that rice farmers should be educated on modern technologies in rice production. Credit facilities should be made available for the rice farming household either by the government or private organizations to enhance farming activities, alleviate poverty and increase household food security.

The growth and development of the agricultural sector in developing countries is largely dependent on technological enhancements, because merely expanding the area of farm cultivation is no longer sufficient to meet the increasing food needs of growing populations. This study examined the effects of risk attitudes on the technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected for the study using a multi-stage sampling technique, and 180 rice farmers were selected from the study area. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier analysis and a simple lottery-choice experiment. The findings revealed that 36.1% of the farmers were between the ages of 31 and 40. Farmers who were 41 years and over were seen to be more risk averse than their younger counterparts. In this age group, 76.66% of rice farmers were risk averse, while 23.34% were risk tolerant. The result of the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) of the parameters of the stochastic frontier analysis revealed that farm size positively and significantly influenced rice output (β = 0.16, p < 0.1), as did quantity of seed (β = 0.74, p < 0.01) and use of chemicals (β = 0.26, p < 0.01). Years of farming had a negative effect on technical efficiency (β = 0.64, p < 0.01), as did severe risk aversion (β = 0.57, p < 0.1). The study concludes that small-holder farmers are generally risk averse, negatively influencing technical efficiency in the study area. The study recommends that the design of government programs should incorporate farmers' risk attitudes as an important variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to assess differences in production efficiencies and identify factors that affect efficiencies and inefficiencies of adopters and non-adopters of mobile-based Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) among cassava farming households in the southwest of Nigeria. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 216 cassava farmers (104 adopters and 112 non-adopters) non-randomly selected through snowballing from Oyo and Ogun States during the 2020/2021 production season. Descriptive statistics were calculated and the Production Frontier model was used to estimate technical (TE), allocative (AE) and economic efficiency (EE) of adopters and nonadopters as well as factors influencing production inefficiencies. The results indicated that adopters had mean TE, AE and EE of 75.1, 30.7 and 23.1% respectively compared with non-adopters who had mean TE, AE and EE of 27.9, 85.1 and 78.3% respectively. Therefore, there are differences between the efficiencies of adopters and non-adopters of mobile-based ICTs. Factors driving cassava production efficiencies include farm size, labour used, stem cuts, fertiliser and agrochemical use, level of formal education, number of mobile-based ICTs used, access to extension services and access to credit. To address production inefficiencies of cassava, efforts should be focused on improvement of existing farm resources, sensitisation of farmers on the need to adopt mobile-based ICTs, strengthening of the agricultural extension system, access to credit and investment in the basic education of small scale farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates community willingness to contribute for an ecotourism improvement project and its determinants in the Okwangwo Division of the Cross River National Park, Nigeria. Personal interviews were conducted with 150 households in three communities located in the proximity of the park. The study showed that the respondents were willing to contribute an average of about one percent of their mean annual income per year. Determinants of the respondents' willingness to contribute amount was estimated with the aid of the ordinary least squares and tobit models. The results showed that willingness to contribute were influenced by factors such as income, distance of respondents' residence to the park, post-high school education, occupation and membership of an environmental conservation group. The results generated from this study will contribute to the knowledge of sustainable management of ecotourism projects. Keywords: Ecotourism, Willingness-to-contribute, Cross River National Park, Contingent valuation, 1. Introduction The increase in human population and preferences for leisure activities often leads to an increase in demand for recreational use of public lands in many parts of the [...]