They study analyzed the profitability of groundnut production in Ardo-kola Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria. Despite the fact that Nigeria has been one of the leading producer of groundnut in the world, the demand for the product to meet up nutritional requirement in the country is still high. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of groundnut farmers, determine the factors influencing groundnut production, estimate profitability of groundnut production and identify the constraints in groundnut production in the study area. Primary data were collected from 150 groundnut farmers using multi-stage and purposive sampling techniques. The data were analyzed using frequency and mean, farm budgeting techniques and regression analysis. The results revealed that majority (67%) of the respondents were male. About 48% of the respondents were youths of 31-40 years old, majority (60%) of the respondents were married while 93% of the respondents had formal education. The gross margin analysis shows that groundnut farmers incurred a total variable cost of ₦102, 000, fixed cost of ₦33, 000 and a total revenue of ₦ 220,000. The regression result indicated that 3 variables regressed were statistically significant. The variable X1 and X4 were statistically significant at 1% level of significance while X2 was statically significant at 5% level of significance. The result further revealed that the business of groundnut farming is a profitable venture. Based on the finding, it is recommended that farmers should organized themselves into groups for easy access to formal sources of credit to provide needed farm implement and quality seed.

This study analyzed the economics of cow milk production in Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Despite the importance of pastoral milk in the provision of nutritional requirement of Nigerians, the supply from the local production to meet up with the demand is still low. The specific objectives of the study were, to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, determine the profitability of the respondents and determine the factors influencing milk production. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The analytical techniques used for the study were the descriptive statistics, net farm income and inferential statistics. The results revealed that about 87% of the respondents were married and most (34%) of the respondents were in their active age. Profitability analysis showed a net farm income of N 40,125 with an average rate of return of 0.46k per every naira spent from an average of 28 lactating cows. This implies that the business is a profitable venture. The regression analysis result shows that R2 value is 0.74, this implies that 74% of variation in the output of milk was explained by independent variables in the model. The regression model is statistically significant at F-statistic of 76.6 and prob. (F= 0.0000).The variables X2, X3 and X6 were statistically significant at 1% while X1 is statistically significant at 5%. The study recommends that the use of improved milk technology should be encouraged among small scale milk producers.

Southeast Asia is a region that produces high amounts of key food commodities and includes areas of divergent socio-economic status. Food security is a high-priority issue for sustainable global development both quantitatively and qualitatively. In recent decades, adverse effects of unexpected contaminants on crop quality have threatened both food security and human health. Public concern about the adverse environmental and human health impacts of organochlorine contaminants led to strict regulations on their use in developed nations two decades ago. Nevertheless, DDT and several other organochlorine insecticides are still being used for agriculture and public health programs in developing countries in Asia and the South Pacific. As a consequence, humans in this region are exposed to greater dietary levels of organochlorines. Heavy metals and metalloids (e.g., Hg, As, Pb, Cd, and Cr) can jeopardize human metabolomics, contributing to morbidity and even mortality. Those during crop production include soil nutrient depletion, water depletion, soil and water contamination, and pest resistance/outbreaks and the emergence of new pests and diseases.

Genetic variability and inter-character association in 25 accessions of cowpea were studied through their expression of qualitative morphological traits. Accessions were collected from the Genetic Resources Centre of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan and assessed in the field in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three (3) replications. Twelve (12) qualitative traits were evaluated utilizing 10 plants for each accession per replication. Heritability and Genotypic correlations were estimated with Plant Breeding Tools (PB-Tools) version 1.4. The information were exposed to cluster and Principal Component (PC) analyses utilizing Palaeontological Statistics Software Package for Education and Data Analysis (PAST). All the 12 qualitative traits separated accessions successfully. Heritability for all traits was 100 percent, which showed that in cowpea, the effect of environment on manifestation of qualitative traits is insignificant. The most variable trait was immature pigmentation (84.24%) and the trait with the least variability was leaf colour (20.92%). In the bi-plots, accessions in group I and II which differed to accessions in group IV in important traits such as growth pattern, plant hairiness, pod attachment to peduncle and leaf colour are recommended together with these important traits in cowpea improvement programmes. Conclusively, combination of PCA, bi-plot, cluster analysis and genotypic correlations were efficient in revealing significant relationships among characteristics of cowpea accessions for selection purposes, and are therefore recommended.

This study on farmer’s perception and determinants of insecurity management of the farm enterprise was carried out in Bauchi State, Nigeria. It among others identified farmers’ perceived insecurities in the farm enterprise, adopted measures for mitigation of their effects and determined factors that influence farmer’s management strategy towards insecurities. Three hundred and ten (310) farmers were selected using both the random sampling and snow balling sampling techniques for both crop farmers and the nomadic pastoralists where data was collected from them using well structured questionnaire complimented with personal interview methods. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as table, frequency, percentages, chi-square and binary probit model. The results obtained from the analysis showed that herders/farmers clashes, drought, fire outbreak, diseases, inadequate technologies, ill health, policy inconsistency, pricing/hedge out, kidnapping, pests, cultural/social taboos, theft/roastling and soil erosion as insecurities experienced by the farmers. The most perceived insecurity was herders/farmers clashes and the least perceived was soil erosion. The socio-economic determinants of the farmers that significantly influenced their management strategies to farm enterprise insecurity include: education (p<0.01), farming experience (p<0.01), farm size (p<0.05), household size (p<0.05), distance (p<.0.01), household income (p<0.10) and perception level (p<0.05). Based on these findings, the study recommended that farmers should be encourage to take up formal insurance policy against losses, ranching should be encouraged with the formation of local vigilante, and socio-economic capacity building of farmers in effective management of security challenges towards sustainable agricultural development and food security.