By 2024, the market for organic spices is anticipated to exceed USD 40 billion. Growing consumer knowledge of the therapeutic benefits and health benefits of consuming natural spices will be the main factor driving industry expansion.

The expansion of the organic spice market is anticipated to be fueled by a shift in consumer preference toward chemical-free products because of their remarkable health benefits, such as their anti-inflammation and pain-relieving characteristics.

By 2024, the Asia Pacific organic spice industry is anticipated to be worth more than USD 15 billion.

 

The tropical cucurbit Telfaria occidentalis (Hook) is a member of the huge Cucurbitaceae family, which also includes gourds, pumpkins, squashes, and melons. Okoli and Mgbeogu have described the crop’s botany (1983). The fast-growing, climber annual fluted pumpkin produces large, fluted or wrinkled fruits. Two or more fruits may grow on the creeping stalk. Fruits can weigh up to 10 kg and take 5 months to reach full maturity. Weight ranges from 2 to 5 kg for small fruits. Fruits are filled with seeds; small fruits can have up to 30 seeds, large fruits can have up to 70 seeds, and very large fruits can have up to 100 seeds. Okoli and Mgbeogu (1983) describe fruits with a length of 105 cm and 196 seeds. They watch

 

Effect of FINTECH on agribusiness development in transition economy

CHAPTER ONE/ INTRODUCTION

 

Background to the study

In Nigeria, the government through the Central Bank of Nigeria has tried to achieve a financial inclusion as an integral part for promoting sustainable and inclusive growth by formulating policies that are expected to encourage country wide access to financial services at affordable cost particularly to the less privilege and vulnerable group Olatunji, (2015). The intent of these policies and mechanisms is to reduce the number of persons excluded from organized financial system by getting more people involved in the organized financial system. These consistent attempts to sustain and deepen financial inclusion have included the deployment of technological innovations in the financial sector

Technological advancements have evolved the social and economic landscape, evident from the emergence of industries like fintech. By properly leveraging modern technology’s financial and communication applications, agriculture, the oldest industry of human civilization, can experience rapid growth and sustainability. Again, with the financial technology accessible to Nigeria’s farmers, how has the employment of these technical tools affected agricultural productivity? On this note this research intends to measure the influence of financial technology on the productivity of small holder farmers.

The Nigerian economy was a predominantly agrarian one at independence in 1960, with agriculture contributing 63.8% to GDP, but the share of agriculture in output has dropped over the years. Agriculture contributed 41.2% to GDP in 1970, but this had dropped to 20.6% in 1980. Although it rose to 37% in 1990, it had fallen to 27% in 2000. New figures based on the rebased GDP show that agriculture’s contribution to GDP had fallen further to 23.8% in 2010, 20.2% in 2014 and 21.42% in 2018 (Central Bank of Nigeria, 2019). The primary trigger of the decline in agricultural output was the discovery of oil. The country has moved from being self-sufficient in food production to become an importer of food. In 1981, the value of Nigeria’s imported food and live animals was N1.8 billion, but this had surged phenomenally to N1.4 trillion by 2018 (Central Bank of Nigeria, 2019).

The 2006 population census put Nigeria’s population at 140,003,542, which makes it the country with the largest population in Africa. Nigeria occupies a land area of 923,768 kilometres, thus providing ample land for agricultural production. However, less than 50% of the cultivable agricultural land is under cultivation by small-holder farmers who use outdated techniques, thereby resulting in low yield (Manyong et al., 2005). The low yield of agricultural production is compounded by a variety of other problems such as poor access to modern inputs and credit, poor infrastructure, inadequate access to markets, land and environmental degradation and inadequate research and extension services (Manyong et al., 2005). These factors, combined with the diminishing income levels of agricultural households, have subsequently exacerbated poverty.

Low agricultural productivity has been identified as an important contributing factor to rural poverty in Nigeria (McKinsey Global Institute, 2014). Nigerian agriculture is characterised by low yields which reflect the dominance of small-holder farmers who lack knowledge about agricultural best practices and are unable to invest in seeds and fertiliser (McKinsey Global Institute, 2014, p. 17). Yield and fertiliser use in Nigerian agriculture are far below the global benchmarks in places such as China, Indonesia, Brazil, India and Ghana, and this is largely as a result of farmers’ lack of access to finance (McKinsey Global Institute, 2014, p. 17).

Although the share of agriculture in Nigeria’s GDP has fallen significantly, agriculture still remains an important source of livelihood for many Nigerians. Agriculture is the largest employer of labour, with 30.5% of employed persons engaged in agriculture (National Bureau of Statistics, 2010). There is an even greater percentage of young people engaged in agriculture, as 44% of youths are employed in agriculture (National Bureau of Statistics, 2013). Thus, agriculture features prominently in the lives of Nigerians, and there is hardly any family that does not have someone involved in agricultural activities.

However, despite agriculture’s prominence in economic activities and employment, the sector still suffers from a chronic inability to obtain finance from financial institutions. In the second quarter of 2019, agriculture received only 4.2% of commercial bank lending, while manufacturing received 15.3%, oil and gas received 22% and services broadly received 36.5% (National Bureau of Statistics, 2019). This suggests that agriculture is largely excluded from formal finance. This is supported by recent statistics which show that farmers are the largest group of financially excluded persons in Nigeria, as 37.6% of farmers are financially excluded (EFINA, 2017). Thus, agriculture is largely excluded from formal finance in Nigeria.

These facts highlight the supply shortfall in finance to agriculture in Nigeria which has contributed to the underinvestment in this sector recorded over the years. Availability of finance would go a long way in improving output and productivity in agriculture. Estimates suggest that availability of finance for African farmers could lead to an increase of over 300% of agricultural output, from $280 billion to $880 billion by 2030 (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010). Nigerian agriculture is dominated by small-holder farmers, who contribute over 75% to agricultural output. These small-holder farmers are characterised by simple techniques of production and bush fallow system of cultivation, thereby leading to low yields and minimal investment in seeds and fertiliser (McKinsey Global Institute, 2014; Aregheore, 2009). Availability of finance would go a long way in improving yields and output of Nigerian agriculture.

While considerable research has been conducted to examine how finance affects broad macroeconomic aggregates, little is known about the effects of finance at the household and individual level. Prior to this time, research has made use of variables measuring financial development, and there has been limited empirical research using variables measuring financial inclusion. This has largely been due to difficulties in measuring financial inclusion across countries and over time, while data are readily available on financial depth (CGAP, 2012). However, results from studies that make use of financial development measures cannot be generalised to cover financial inclusion. This is because, for example, high credit in a financial system could be skewed in favour of the wealthiest individuals and largest firms in the society, thus leading to a situation where the popular measures of financial development are capturing financial inequality, and not financial inclusion (GFDR, 2014). The implication of this is that financial depth and financial inclusion are distinct dimensions of financial development, and financial systems can become deep without delivering access for all (Demirguc-Kunt and Klapper, 2012). This has indeed been borne out by the data where use of formal accounts by the poorest group in the population is not correlated to private credit (Demirguc-Kunt and Klapper, 2012). Thus, it is important to explicitly account for financial inclusion when examining the effects of finance on individuals and households.

This study improves on existing research and offers new insights into the effects of financial inclusion on the economic activities of agricultural households in Nigeria. Since a large proportion of the Nigerian population is engaged in agriculture and are rural dwellers; and since there is a higher incidence of poverty in rural areas, an examination of agricultural households will be particularly insightful in understanding poverty in Nigeria. Also, rather than using broad macroeconomic measures of financial development, we will use new data that explicitly measure access to and use of financial services by households, thus providing a proper measure of financial inclusion. This study makes use of the Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), which provides data on households, to examine how financial inclusion has affected agricultural productivity of households in Nigeria. This will provide important insight concerning whether financial inclusion affects agricultural productivity in Nigeria, and the results will prove useful in designing policies aimed at low agricultural productivity and ultimately poverty in Nigeria.

Introduction

Ginger production has not been an exception to Nigeria’s falling agricultural performance, as it has not been able to reach its full potential as an export crop and a key foreign cash generator. According to Sunday et al. (2014), one of the problems restricting higher productivity was the lack of scientific studies on the supply system to back up farmers’ efforts. The trend and output supply reaction to price and other variables may have a detrimental impact on Nigerian ginger production. According to Emmanuel (2008), in response to the declining fortunes of ginger production in Nigeria, governments have implemented a variety of policies, programs, and projects targeted at revitalizing ginger output. There has been no research.

Research Questions

1. Do climatic constraints  poses as a challenge to  ginger production in Nigeria?
2. Do Environmental constraints affect the performance of ginger production in Nigeria?
3. Do Seed constraints affects ginger production in Nigeria?
4. What are the Institutional problems that act as hindrance to ginger production?
5. To analyze the Marketing problem facing ginger production in Nigeria
6. To understand whether Extension problem affects ginger production in Nigeria

Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this research work is to Examine Problem Affecting Small Scale Ginger  Farmers (Zingiber Officinale) . The specific objectives of the study are to:

1. To examine the climatic constraints that poses as a challenge to ginger production in Nigeria
2. To analyze the Environmental constraints that affect the performance of ginger production in Nigeria
3. To examined Seed constraints affects ginger production in Nigeria
4. To examine the Institutional problems affecting ginger production
5. To analyze the Marketing problem facing ginger production in Nigeria
6. To understand whether Extension problem affects ginger production in Nigeria
7. To analyze the Marketing Constraint affecting ginger production

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Nigeria has suffered from food insecurity and poverty as indicated in a recent estimate that put the number of hungry people in Nigeria at over 53 million, which is about 30 percent of the country’s total population of roughly 150 million; and 52 percent live under the poverty line (Ajayeoba, 2010). These are matters of serious concern largely because Nigeria was self sufficient in food production and was indeed a net exporter of food to other regions of the continent in the 1950s and 1960s (Ajayeoba, 2010). He stated that things changed dramatically for the worse following the global economic crisis that hit developing countries beginning from the late 1970’s onward. The discovery of crude oil and rising revenue from the country’s petroleum sector encouraged official neglect of the agricultural sector and turned Nigeria into a net importer of food. By 2009 for example the Federal Ministry of Agriculture estimated that Nigeria was spending over $3billion annually on food imports.

Although agriculture contributes 42 percent of the GDP, provides employment and a means of livelihood for more than 60 percent of the productively engaged population, it receives less than 10 percent of the annual budgetary allocations. Underfunding in this regard is central to the crisis of food production, and food security in Nigeria (Ajayeoba, 2010). This explains the persistence of poverty. According to the author, the loss of food sovereignty and the dependence on food importation is also making the country quite susceptible to fluctuations in global food crisis. This is why Nigeria was also strongly affected by the global food crisis in 2007/2008 leading to food insecurity, thus a need for food security.

Food security happens when all people at all times have access to enough food that is affordable, safe and healthy and is culturally acceptable, meets specific dietary needs, obtained in a dignified manner and produced in ways that are environmentally sound and socially just. Food security is not just a poverty issue, it is a much larger issue that involves the whole food system and affects everyone in some way (FAO, 2001). According to the World Bank (2007), the global food security crisis endangers the lives of millions of people, particularly the World’s poorest who live in countries already suffering from acute and chronic malnutrition. They further lamented that fundamental considerations are to underscore the human dimension of the crisis, monitor its impact on nutrition, health and poverty, plus its effect on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) including providing sound information and analysis to target the most vulnerable groups.

A nation is food secured when food is available and accessible in sufficient quantity and quality for a productive livelihood for every individual. The increasing issue of food insecurity, particularly in Africa has been greatly attributed to wars, conflicts, natural disasters and bad governance.

Globally, there is enough food for all, but more than 780 million people are chronically undernourished (FAO, 2001). Millions of people in developing world simply cannot obtain the food they need for a healthy and productive life. Much of the scholarly debate on agricultural growth and poverty in Nigeria have followed the general trend of regressing measures of poverty against agricultural output per head and a time trend (World Bank, 2009). This is based on the knowledge of agricultural production landscape in Nigeria. These resource poor farmers are also characterized by a strong dependence on agricultural labour market, little or no forms of savings or storage facilities and cultural practices adopted are highly labour intensive (Okuneye, 2002).

The socio-economic and production characteristics of the farmers, inconsistent and unfocussed government policies, the poor infrastructural base, all interact in a synergism to asphyxiate the sector, resulting in low production, high prices of food items, inflation, underdevelopment and concomitant poverty. The place of agriculture in an agrarian society cannot be overemphasized given its importance in the life of human beings. Agriculture is expected to ensure adequate supply of food to the people. Millions of people in developing world simply cannot obtain the food they need for a healthy and productive life. Similarly, agriculture is expected to produce a high level of agricultural raw materials for the industries, save the industry and the nation from high costs of importation, produce excess for the local demand ( for food and raw materials) for export. Agriculture should continually generate employment for the people as well as a high level of returns for the farmers.

The performance of agriculture in Nigeria has not been able to match the expectation ascribed to the sector in the development process. At independence, agriculture sustained the Nigeria economy and held the promise of a vibrant agrarian economy (Akpan , 2009). In fact, according to Adeboye (1991), agriculture contributed in the 1960/61, 67% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the 1999 – 2000, agriculture contributed between 40 –42 percent to the GDP. The Civil War (1967-70) and the emergence of petroleum in the early 1970s scuttled the production foundation of agriculture through lack of visionary planning for sustainable development. The sector is yet to regain its central role in the economy. Therefore, based on the voluminous human, material and financial resources expended on agriculture in the last 40 years, the country ought to have done much better to address the fight against the mysteries of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and ill-health.

The Global Hunger Index, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 2004, ranks developing countries according to their performance on three indicators: proportion of undernourished as a percentage of the population, prevalence of underweight children under five and child mortality . On a scale of 0-100, with 0 indicating the absence of hunger in a given country, Nigeria’s 2008 ranking was in the 10-19 range, labelled “serious” The population segments with the highest vulnerability to food insecurity include poor farming households in the Sudan- Sahelian zone of Northern Nigeria and the humid forest zones of Southern Nigeria, and pastoralists scattered over Northern Nigeria. The Sudan-Sahelian zone is particularly drought-prone, the humid forest zones are particularly flood-prone, and pastoralists commonly face fodder and water deficits due to low rainfall situations in the North (World Food Prize, 2010).

In 2008, Nigeria introduced its National Program for Food Security (NPFS), laying out dozens of constraints to food security in Nigeria and adopting a “value chain approach” to address these constraints. The vision of the NPFS is “to ensure sustainable access, availability, and affordability of quality food to all Nigerians and to be a significant net provider of food to the global community.” Considering Nigeria’s current position as a net importer of food products, this vision will take time to be realized. The short-term objectives of the NPFS are doubling the domestic production of cassava, rice, tomato, sugar and cotton, and increasing the production of millet, wheat and poultry by 50 percent. The medium-term objectives include increased processing and storage capacity as well as development of the market and physical infrastructure required to achieve food security (World Food Prize, 2010).

IMPACT OF ROAD NETWORK IN THE TRANSPORTATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to assess Impact of road network in the transportation of agricultural products. The cross-section survey research design was adopted in this research work. Purposive sampling was used to select 4 rural communities while questionnaires were used to collect data from 200 farmer households by means of simple probability sampling technique. Data collection was based on primary sources with a 100 percent response rate. Descriptive statistics technique such as percentages, frequencies, means and chi square was used to highlight the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers in the study area. The SPSS package aided in the analysis of the data. The result revealed that almost all the respondents agreed that road networks play a vital role in marketing of agricultural produces. It also showed that road networks create market for agricultural produces so improving road condition allows for better access to a wider market and reduce losses and delays in moving the farm produce. Again, nature of road network affects the cost of transporting agricultural produce to the market centres and hence influences the prices of produce. Also, another impact of road network on the marketing of agricultural produce is that effective and efficient road network increases the availability of agricultural produce in the market. Most of the road networks linking the various communities to the main market were unpaved and immotorable during the rainy season. Farming in the district was characterized by farmers who owned small portions of farm size and used rudimentary methods of agriculture. The study revealed that, the type of road connecting the communities to the market had a significant relationship with the estimated travel time, cost of transportation, where farmers sold their farm produce. It did not however find a statistically significant influence of road transport infrastructure on farm size of the farmers in Etche LGA. The study recommended that as Nigeria is fighting to abolish extreme poverty and hunger which is one of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the government should help in the construction of the road network connecting this communities so they can produce more and make food available in the market

FOOD INSECURITY IN NIGERIA AND IT EFFECTS:THE ISSUE OF CATTLE RANCHING IN BENUE STATE

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FACING CATTLE RANCHING SYSTEM IN NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION

The extensive movement of animals in search of pastures and water is known as “PASTORALISM”. Pastoralism, as it relates to open grazing in Nigeria, has become very controversial. This highly divisive subject follows years of deadly ethnic clashes between herdsmen and local farmers, resulting in thousands of deaths.

 

The predominant and widely known rearing cattle method in Nigeria is the nomadic approach, where herds of cattle are free to roam the country, including on farmlands, searching for pasture and water. In recent times, this approach has resulted in issues relating to cattle rustling, destruction and damage of cultivated farmlands, communal clashes between herders and farmers with consequent losses of lives and properties – generally leading to low yield and productivity in the industry.

In exploiting the pastoral agro-ecosystem, cattle ranching, an intensive form of pastoralism, supports controlled grazing. This changes pastoralism’s mobility nature where grazing of available pasture is limitless.

Ranching involves separating an area of land, including various structures, principally for raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat, milk, wool and other livestock products. This practice exposes cattle to paddock grazing with improved varieties of forages and fodders all year round and modern livestock management practices such as feedlot fattening, artificial insemination and others. Cattle ranching may be a solution to address the growing crisis threatening the national security of Nigeria.

 

The practice of cattle ranching in some areas across Nigeria is an improvement over the traditional cattle (livestock) management system that supports open cattle grazing. removal and conflicts over natural resources access. Also, controlled grazing contributes significantly to addressing these challenges and supports the effective management of environmental and natural resources.

 

In the long run, ranching may be a more sustainable form of pastoralism. However, a sudden switch may be difficult to implement due to the current lack of a consensus between Nigeria’s Federal Government and affected north-central and southern states’ governments.

 

Even though some states have already enacted an anti-open grazing law, many states in Nigeria are yet to address ongoing issues/tensions triggered by pastoralism. This may be because open grazing and nomadic cattle grazing practice has been known to nomadic pastoralists for centuries.

 

In conclusion, Nigeria offers a massive opportunity in the livestock industry, occupying the 14th position in the world with an estimated 20 million herds of cattle compared to Brazil, India and China – the top three nations with the highest herds of cattle in the world with 212,189 and 114 million herds of cattle, respectively.

Background of the study

A ranch is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep.

It also changes the common property character of the pastoralist land where all land is open for pastures without any individual ownership. Ranching is now the dominant system of ruminant livestock production in North America, Australia and parts of South America. This is because the advantages of cattle ranching and it importance cannot be over emphasize Some European systems could also be described as ranching, though enclosures are often small and animals are frequently given supplements in the field (Ibid). In countries like United States, (Ibid), communal grazing pastoralism was prevalent in the 19th century, but now the grazing systems are fully enclosed (Ibid) From 1990 to 2003, the cattle herd in the Northern part of the country grew by 140% from 26.6 million to 64 million heads. Increasing demand and the sector’s advantages in the region suggest that ranching will continue to grow in the region. Nevertheless, the growth of extensive ranching in the region is worrying especially because of increased deforestation. Scientific and modern economic intervention into pastoralism has generally targeted the mobility and communal grazing characteristics of the system which results into sedentarized and most likely the enclosed, ranching system. This intervention has implication that the pastoralist ecosystem is a limited and valuable resource. The traditional pastoralist perception is contrary to this implication, and considers and wishes to consider that pastoral land is essentially vast wilderness with no instituted limitation of use (no use limits except the availability of pastures). This obviously contradicts most intervention outlook. Even with most prominent advocates for promotion and improvement of pastoralist resource exploitation strategy, the baseline seems somewhere to be based on sedentarization or predictable location prior to other proposed measures like nutritional and veterinary assistance for livestock, services such as education (schools) and health; and setting up emergency grazing areas [Ibid]. There has been extensive scholarly analysis of the livelihood and sustainability of pastoralism as a way of life of a significant proportion of the human population. Much criticism exists arguing that mobility of large herds of livestock is stressful to the environment as it would cause extensive removal of vegetation. Repeated uncontrolled grazing often ends up into bare land where vegetation is completely removed. Due to livestock trampling topsoil of an area usually becomes much pulverized while the immediate subsoil beneath becomes severely compacted. Pulverized soil is prone to extensive loss of soil through wind erosion while when it rains sheet erosion sweeps away very easily most of the pulverized soil. The surface run-off becomes much enhanced by the compacted soil condition. Therefore, while rainfall would be stimulant for vegetation re-growth, because of extensive vegetation removal and compaction the rainfall instead becomes an enhancer of bareness of the soil after washing away all the soil that would support vegetation re-growth. In the Sahel in Africa, it has been reported that vegetation removal by livestock in the area is believed to have increased soil surface albedo to the extent of causing reduction of rainfall and rapid desertification. The worst thing about the unlimited mobility is that it can extend its impact beyond limits. Another criticism on pastoralism is centered on the system’s tendency against limited use rights of pastureland In this context all pastureland is communal and open to limitless grazing. Since communal use of pasturelands prevents any sense of ownership of the land, no individual pastoralist can think of expansion of his activities within the locality in which he is existing at any particular time. At the same time the pastoralist cannot intuit any idea of intensification because under communal ownership there is no ground on which this intensification can be exercised. Under the communal setup, for example, a pastoralist cannot think of possibility of substituting some of the livestock for more pasture land. This is the dilemma of the communal land tenure system of traditional pastoralism. In his much referred “Tragedy of the commons”, criticizes very categorically the communal grazing characteristic of pastoralism and insists privatization as a way to correct imbalances of the pastoralist practice. In his article he described how common property resources shared by pastoralists eventually become over-used and ruined. He argued that the pastoralist land use strategy is unstable and a cause of environmental degradation. Earlier more than a century ago, also criticized pastoralism and argued observing that as far as common grazing land is concerned there is everything against it. He asserted that where there is communal grazing, every peasant in the village would tend to maximize the opportunity within the same limited area, with the result that grazing lands become always overstocked, never given rest, and usually become little more than exercise grounds for cattle (Ibid). Facts about this are difficult to totally refute even though some more recent literature elaborate contrary opinion and argue for a more interdisciplinary apprehension.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

When ranching was introduced, the economic contribution of the livestock was the major consideration. This consideration relegated the multiple functions and non-economic uses of livestock, which might be more important to the Fulani. Ranching capitalized on enhanced production output, but overlooked the potential use of animals as self-reproducing wealth, symbol of prestige, medium of social exchange, and insurance policy (Cisse 1980; and Schneider 1981). A major policy mistake was that of failing to understand that traditional pastoralism was an important source of food and employment on a continuous basis to most of the household members (Sandford 1982; and Cossins 1983). It is against this backdrop that the researcher intends to investigate the problem and prospect of cattle ranching in Nigeria

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main the objective of the study is to ascertain Food insecurity in Nigeria and it effects: the issue of cattle ranching in osun state. To aid the successful completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following specific objective;

1.  to examine whether ranching systen will end communal/ethnic clashes between farmers and herdsmen
2. to examine whether ranching system will Increasing yield in cattle/livestock production
3. to eaxamine whether rancing will help in Less risk of disease transmission
4. establish whether raching system will help  in National Security
5. to examine the impact of ranching towards the Effective management of environmental resources

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the house committee on agriculture and federal ministry of agriculture as the study seek to enumerate the numerous benefit of cattle ranching over open grazing as this will help in policy formation, the study will also be of importance to the security operative as the findings of the study will help them strategize to curb the menace of herdsmen farmers conflict in Benue state, the study will also be useful to researchers who intend to embark on a study in a similar topic as the study will serve as a reference point to further studies. Finally, the study will be of great importance to reporters, academia’s, students, teachers and the general public as the study will add to the pool of existing literature and also contribute to bank of knowledge in the subject matter.

Definition of The Terms

Conflict: is a psychic struggle between opposing or incompatible impulses, desires, or tendencies in order words, conflict means to come into collision or disagreement be it contradictory, at variance or in opposition.

Security: is the protection of a person, building, organization or country against threat such as crime or attacks by either external or internal factor.

Insecurity: the state of being open to danger or threat i.e lack of protection.

National: relating to or characteristic of a nation, common to a whole nation or typical of the people or customs of a particular country or nation

Farmers: a person who own and manage a farm or a person engaged in agriculture, raising living.

Fulani herdsmen:  are nomadic or semi nomadicfulani people whose primary occupation is raising livestock. Fulani herdsmen or Fulani pastoralists are nomadic or semi-nomadic Fulani people whose primary occupation is raising livestock. The Fulani herdsmen are largely located in the Sahel and semi-arid parts of West Africa, but due to relatively recent changes in climate patterns, many herdsmen have moved further south into the savannah and tropical forest belt of West Africa. The herdsmen are found in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. In Senegal they inhabit northeastern Ferlo and the southeastern part of the country. In many of these countries the Fula often constitute a minority group

Analysis of commercial Bank loans on agricultural output in Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Agriculture also called farming or husbandry is the rearing of animals and cultivation of land to produce food, biofuel and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies.

As confirmed by Ugochukwu (1999), agriculture is the first and most thriven occupation of mankind. From its early form of wild fruits, leaf, root, snail and insect gathering, fishing and hunting, to its present mechanized and almost automated form, it has undergone a lot of development

Okah (2007) conceived agriculture as the cultivation of land, raising animals for the purpose of production of food for man, feed for animals, and raw materials for our industries. It also consists of crop production, forestry, livestock and fishing. It is also essential for expansion of employment opportunity, reduction of poverty and improvement of income distribution,

 

speeding up industrialization and easing the pressure of balance of payments disequilibrium.

The role of agriculture in transforming both the social and economic frame work of an economy cannot be over emphasized. Anyanwu (1997) posits that ―agriculture has been the main source of gainful employment from which Nigeria nation can feed its population, providing the nation‘s industries with local raw materials and as a reliable source of government revenue. Corroborating the above is Reynolds(1982) who asserts that agricultural development can promote the economic development by increasing the supply of food available for domestic consumption and releasing the labour needed for industrial employment.

The major agricultural export commodities in Nigeria include cocoa, coffee, cotton, groundnut, groundnut oil, palm kernel, soya beans, ginger rubber, and chili pepper (CBN,2003). There are other commodities that are being demanded in the world market such as cassava and cassava products, banana, plantain and so on. The Nigerian economy until today is still dependent on primary products both as foreign exchange earner and as major component  of its gross domestic product (GDP). Olurosunsola (1996) attributes this to the fact that the main interest of the colonial masters was and still is the exportation of products needed for their home industries.

 

The continuous production and exports of the agricultural product played a dominant role in attracting foreign exchange to boost economic activities from independence to the early 1970s. Obadan (2000), observed that palm oil accounted for 96.4% of total exports earnings while non- oil export product accounted for 97.3% for total export then. He observed further that from the 1970^s, the Nigerian economy became mono-cultural, having been transformed from one dependent on fairly diversified portfolio of agricultural products to an economy heavily dependent on crude oil for growth and sustenance. Oyo (1994) observed that the advent of crude petroleum production and related activities especially in the early 1970‘^s changed radically the structure of Nigeria economy. The huge foreign exchange earnings from crude oil export encouraged importation of finished foods to the detriment of domestic manufactured ones, while the agricultural sector was rendered less competitive over time through over-valued currency, inappropriate pricing policies and scarcity of farm labour caused mainly by the migration of youth to urban areas in search of paid employment.

Nigeria‘s agriculture is divided into two types, the subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture-: the subsistence agriculture is the type of farming which involves only the farmer and his family i.e the farmer produces for himself and his family with little or none to sell in the market. It is practiced in small scale system. It requires only a little amount of money to practice unlike

 

commercial farming that involves huge amount of money to operate. It does not require machinery or heavy equipment, since the land is very small and fragmented (Ameachi 2004).

The second type is commercial agriculture, and this is where a farmer produces his crops and sells them in the market. It is carried out in large scale with enough land and machineries. These machines are used in cultivating crops. It involves a lot of capital and time, and also increases the farmer‘s income.

Credit is considered as a catalyst that activates other factors of production and makes under-used capacities functional for increased production, Ijere (2013). Thus farm credit plays a crucial role in agricultural and rural development as it enables farmers reap economies of scale, venture into new fields of production, employ new technologies and empower them to provide utilities for a widening market.

Agricultural credit is often seen as any of several credit vehicles used to finance agricultural transactions, including loans, notes, bills of exchange and bankers acceptances. These types of financing are adapted to the specific  financial needs of farmers, which are determined by planting, harvesting and marketing cycles. Agricultural credit enhances productivity and promotes standard of living by breaking vicious cycle of poverty of small scale farmers. Adegeye and Ditto (2005) described agricultural credit as the process of obtaining control

 

over the use of money, goods and services in the present in exchange for a promise to repay at a future date.

Ogunfowora (2003) reported that credit is not only needed for farming purposes, but also for family and consumption expenses; especially during the off season period. Credit has also been discovered to be a major constraint on the intensification of both large and small scale farming (Von – Prischike 1991).

Nigeria is blessed with lots of natural and human resources, yet, the citizens live in abject poverty for several known and unknown reasons. The country discovered oil in 1959 at Oloibiri in today‘s Bayelsa State, over fifty years ago, but over 70% of the country‘s earnings come from oil, paying little or no attention to other sectors of the economy and that is why Nigeria is said to be suffering from the ―Dutch Disease‖.

Over the years, government has been able to come up with policies, schemes and palliative measures to assist rural farmers in enhancing productivity. Some of these schemes include the agricultural credit guarantee scheme established in 1977, the agricultural credit support scheme, commercial agriculture credit scheme and the licensing of Micro Finance Banks.

In agriculture, fund is needed to enable the farmer purchase more land, buy his inputs at the appropriate time and to pay for hired labour or farm machinery. Unfortunately, credits are not easily available for most of the

 

farmers because of collateral and other things that are usually required by the commercial banks and other credit institutions. This makes difficult for large scale agricultural investment in Nigeria.

With the recent move by the leading country of the world to diversify their economy, Nigeria is conscious of the danger signal this portray and this underscores the need to move away from total reliance on petroleum related revenues. These signals according to Soludo (2009) include the on-going global economic crisis that is threatening the growth and development agenda of the present administration, the crisis in the Niger delta which has interrupted petroleum operations in the past few years, and the frightening revelation that the United States of America, the highest buyer of Nigeria crude oil, Brazil and several other countries are seriously engaged in research for an alternative source of energy.

Hence, the need to diversify Nigerian economy, especially Agricultural sector that has for long, been neglected.

The structure of the Nigerian economy is multi-sector in which the banks and the agricultural sectors have roles to play. Long before now, the relationship between the banking industry and the agricultural sector in Nigeria has been a contentious issue. If one were to take a census of all the pronouncements on the matter by various governments since independence and classify them into those praising the efforts of the banking industry and those castigating them as

 

regards granting credit to agriculture may likely notice that the ratio of those in favour of the later will be in the ratio of four or more is to one. This could further be reflected in the legislation of governments and the directives of quasi government institutions like the CBN on the issue. The setting up of a wholly government owned bank in the name of the Nigerian Agriculture, Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) with an aim of solely lending to agricultural endeavours on short, medium and long-term basis is predicated on the philosophy that the mainstream banking industry does not adequately cater for the urgent need of credit required for rapid transformation of the agricultural sector of the economy.

Antimicrobial effects of extracts of orange peels and ginger on local clinical isolates

Abstract

A noticeable potency of many species of plants present against bacterial and fungal pathogens. Bacterial resistance against antibiotics is consider one of the common problems in the medical world, so one of the most important steps in microbiological researches is to find a new antimicrobial compound with minimal side effects. So the aim of this study is to investigate the antimicrobial activity of Citrus sinensis (orange) peel aqueous and organic solvent extracts on some medically important animal pathogens and to determine some phytochemical compounds to be recycled to added in animals ration. Hot and cold aqueous in addition to ethanol extracts of Citrus sinensis (orange) peel were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against some medically important pathogens isolated from animals and poultry farms (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aerogenes, Bacillus cereus and Candida albicans) by agar well diffusion method. Both hot, cold aqueous and ethanol peel extracts showed high antibacterial and antifungal effect against the all examined pathogenic samples. Also, phytochemical compound of aqueous and ethanol peel extracts were determined, results of the chemical tests explain the extracts of Citrus sinensis (orange) peel contain alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins and saponin compounds while glycosides not found. So it could be concluded that the Citrus sinensis (orange) peel extracts possess remarkable antibacterial activity against gram positive and gram negative bacteria in addition to its antifungal activity against Candida albicans and to be introduced as an alternative to chemical antimicrobial drugs, is required wider investigation also ecologically as recycling of fruits peel can be used as food additive in animal ration