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Open Access Journal ; Résumé Facteurs socio-économiques et accès au crédit des petits producteurs de manioc dans le sud-ouest du Nigeria L'accès au crédit est un facteur important pour l'augmentation de la productivité agricole. Le modèle " Tobit" a été utilisé pour évaluer les facteurs qui influencent l'intensité de l'accès au crédit des petits producteurs de manioc du sud-Ouest du Nigeria. Les données primaires utilisées ont été collectées, auprès de 856 ménages, lors d'une enquête conduite par l'International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) en 2011. Les résultats du modèle empirique Tobit indiquent que seules sept des 11 variables sont statistiquement liées à l'intensité de l'accès au crédit. Cependant, seules les variables cheptel, production totale de manioc, valeur monétaire des actifs productifs du ménage et taille du ménage ont une influence positive et statistiquement différente de zéro sur l'intensité de l'accès au crédit. L'augmentation de ces variables permettrait d'augmenter le montant du crédit auquel un agriculteur pourrait avoir accès. Les politiques qui mèneront à l'amélioration de la diversification par l'élevage, l'augmentation de la production de manioc et l'accumulation d'actifs des agriculteurs sont recommandées pour cette région. Abstract Access to credit is an important factor in the attainment of agricultural productivity increase. We adopted a Tobit model to assess the factors that influence the intensity of rural smallholder cassava farmers' access to credit in Southwest Nigeria, using primary data collected from 856 rural households by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 2011. The results of the empirical Tobit model indicate that seven out of the 11 variables included in the model are statistically related to the intensity of access to credit. However, only total livestock unit, cassava output, monetary value of the households' productive assets and household size are positively and statistically significant. This implies that increase in output, diversification of households' income sources into livestock production and accumulation of assets are important variables that have the potential to enhance farmers' access to larger amounts of credit. Therefore, policies that will lead to improve farmers' outputs and/or increase diversification and assets accumulation are recommended for this region. ; Peer Review

In Africa, there have been successes in cassava research in terms of the development of production technologies, particularly improved varieties with high yield potential. The study addresses the question of whether and to what extent adoption of improved cassava varieties has led to rural poverty reduction in four African countries, namely Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Zambia. Data for the study come from a household survey conducted in the above-mentioned countries through a multinational-CGIAR support to agricultural research for development of strategic crops (SARD-SC) project in Africa. Given the observational nature of the data, a parametric approach (endogenous switching regression model) is applied. The results indicate that the model detects selectivity bias. Accounting for the bias, we fi nd that adoption of cassava technology has resulted in an approximately 10 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate. Given an adoption rate of 34 per cent and a 10 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate, an estimated 24,309 households (equivalent to 194,469 individuals) have managed to move out of poverty in these four countries as a result of adoption of the technology. We also fi nd that adoption of the technology has benefi tted non-poor and female-headed households, relative to poor and male-headed households. The results present important evidence in favour of promoting cassava technology in a targeted fashion as part of an effective poverty reduction and sustained agricultural growth strategy in Africa. Considering the large realised and even more pronounced potential impacts of the adoption of cassava technology on poverty reduction, it is vital that regional and global development organisations should continue supporting the existing cassava improvement programme to sustain the technology development efforts in the continent.

This study was initiated to contribute to the debate on the relationship between gender and adoption of innovations. It aims, under a participatory varietal selection, to identify the preferences of men and women farmers on maize varieties tolerant to drought in northern Benin. The methodology used is a comparison of two approaches to identify the best varieties according to gender. The first combines criteria weighting and a comparison of varieties. The second is based on the principle of democratic vote. Sixty farmers have participated in this study. The results of this work show two keys points. At the stage of criteria selection, women identified the organoleptic quality as a preferred seed characteristic. By comparing the results of the two methods of choice, it appears that both methods lead to the same results in the case of women's preferences, while in men groups, the results vary according to the methods. It contributes to the literature by showing how distinctly women can prioritize criteria that are not the top concern of the men and by the way, can contribute to increase the adoption of varieties that contains both preferences of men and women. ; Peer Review

This paper analysed the baseline productive efficiencies of the cereal–legume farmers in the Sudan Savanna of Nigeria. The paper also investigated the factors that affected the technical efficiency of the sampled farmers. Baseline data collected on cereal-legume farmers who belong to four Innovation Platforms were used for analysis. Results showed that sorghum-legume farmers obtained higher crop output, which is higher than the average for the total sample. There is decreasing return-to-scale in farming operations in the study area, however, unit increases in cultivated area, seed use and fertilizer/chemical application will improve the output by 17%, 20% and 29%, respectively. The mean technical efficiencies for the maize-legume, sorghum-legume farmers and for the pooled sample were found to be 85%, 74% and 79%, respectively. The frequencies of occurrence of the predicted technical efficiencies indicate that the highest number of farmers (for the total sample) have technical efficiencies between 80% and 90%. The sample frequency distribution indicates a clustering of technical efficiencies in the region of 0.8-0.9 efficiency range, implying that the farmers are fairly efficient. Given the variation in the level of technical efficiency, there appears to be considerable room for effecting improvements in the technical efficiencies of the farmers in the study area. Factors influencing technical inefficiency of farmers in the study area are age of farmers, farming experience, credit access, extension contact and interaction with other farmers and farmers' groups, implying that being an IP member will help improve productive efficiencies. The results of this study have clearly demonstrated that almost all the hypothesized factors affecting the productive efficiencies of the sampled farmers are significant; an improvement in farmers' productivity will be recorded if a reinforcement of the IP activities that are aligned with the findings here is ensured. This will increase the potential of the IAR4D to help in improving the productive efficiencies of the farmers, which is one of its key objectives. ; European Union ; Department for International Development, United Kingdom ; Government of Italy ; Government of Norway ; Peer Review

To address the problem of the continued deterioration of livelihood and food security in the sub Saharan Africa, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) through the sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) is implementing the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D). The IAR4D is a multistakeholder agricultural research approach which is currently being implemented at Pilot Learning Sites (PLSs) in three regions of Africa: (I) the Kano-Katsina-Maradi (KKM) PLS in West Africa, (2) the Lake Kivu (LK) PLS in East and Central Africa and (3) the Zimbabwe-Malawi-Mozambique (ZMM) PLS in Southern Africa. The objective of this paper was to employ some baseline data of the Sudan Savanna Task Force of the KKM PLS in West Africa, in a linear discriminant analysis to investigate some of the factors that characterised the farmers based on some starting conditions. The study was also to show whether the farmers that have been baselined have common characteristics that can hypothetically separate them on the basis of belonging to three distinct groups for the implementation of the IAR4D. The sampled respondents were initially classified into three groups of baseline farmers. The grouping was done on the basis of whether the farmers are IAR4D (intervention) or conventional (ARD) or clean sites farmers. This is necessary for the end line survey and for the impact evaluation of the programme. Data on a sub-sample of 300 baselined respondents were used for analysis (92-IAR4D/intervention farmers, 96-ARD/conventional farmers and 112-clean farmers). Results indicated an overall rate of 99% of farmers correctly classified into their respective sites. A number of indicative baseline variables (about 67% of the hypothesized variables) which can be regarded as those which distinguish farmers into those which predictably belong to IAR4D/intervention farmers, ARD/conventional farmers and clean farmers were identified to be significantly important. The different villages chosen for the program evaluation are also correctly identified within their groups. Therefore, three distinct categories of villages are available for evaluating the programme impact. ; European Union ; Department for International Development, United Kingdom ; Government of Italy ; Government of Norway ; Peer Review

Open Access Journal ; The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and collaborating partners have been introducing and disseminating short season soybean varieties among farm households in the Sudan savannas of Northern Nigeria since 2008. Yet, there is no empirical information on the profitability and technical efficiency of soybean production. This study estimated the profitability and efficiency of production of the early maturing soybean. Nine hundred soybean farming households in thirty communities from three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Kano State were sampled for the study. Partial budget technique and stochastic frontier production function were used to analyze the data elicited from the sampled farm households. Results from the study established the profitability of soybean production in all the three LGAs of Kano State. The highest profit of N178,613/ha and returns per naira invested of 2.5 respectively was earned by the soybvean producing households of Dawakin-Tofa LGA. Net profit was N157,261 in Shanono with a returns of 1.75 per naira invested. In Bunkure, net benefit was N143,342 with returns of 1.66 per Naira invested. The mean technical efficiency was highest for the Dawakin-Tofa LGA soybean growing households (87%), followed by Bunkure LGA (68%), and Shanono LGA (59%). This result implies that given the current level of resources available to the soybean producing households, they can increase their soybean output in the short run by a margin 13%, 32% and 41% in Dawakin-Tofa, Bunkure and Shanono LGAs respectively through efficient utilization of their available resources. FArmer-specific efficiency factors, which comprise age, education, access to credit, extension contact and farming experience, were found to be the significant factors that account for the observed variation in efficiency among the farmers in the 3 LGAs. It was recommended that the soybean farmers through the assistance of extension agents should be encouraged to adhere strictly to the recommended soybean production practices towards ensuring efficient utilization of their available resources so that they can improve their technical efficiency and increase their profit level towards enhancing their household food security. ; Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa ; Peer Review

Maize is one of the three most important staple foods in Mali. Zones in the country with high potential for producing maize are limited to areas where the probability of drought risk is between 20 and 40%, meaning that recurring droughts have long handicapped maize production. In an attempt to alleviate drought stress on maize production, a household survey was conducted in the two Local Government Areas of Bougouni and Koutiala, both in the Sikasso Region, during the 2007/2008 production period. These two districts were selected following an environmental characterization of drought zones in Mali. The survey was mainly oriented towards maize based farming systems. Six sample villages were selected within each of the two districts. The sample population was defined as maize farming households. A total of 150 households were randomly selected and interviewed with structured questionnaires. Interviews were conducted by trained enumerators using a formal household survey. The purpose of the study is to provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback from farmers to researchers and to the B&MGF on the impact that improved maize varieties developed in the past have had upon the livelihoods of households and to provide a detailed database for the projection of expected outcomes with the deployment of new drought tolerant maize varieties under the B&MGF drought tolerant maize project. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to extract from our set of variables those orthogonal linear combinations of the variables that best captured the common information. Most successful was the one proposed by Filmer and Pritchett (1998; 2001) called the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). To assess the variables affecting the adoption of improved maize varieties, the Tobit model was used. The results show that 99% of household heads are male. The size of a household is 22 persons, on average. About 47% of the household's members are available for farm work. About 59% of household heads are illiterate, an important factor concerning the adoption of new technology. These household heads make decisions about 84% of farming activities; 86% of the households involved in the study belonged to at least one farmers' organization in order to have easy access to inputs. ; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ; Peer Review

In many African countries south of the Sahara, farmers depend on the cultivation of vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) for both consumption and commercial purposes. Yet yields for these crops remain at low levels due, in part, to the persistent use of low-quality planting material. Efforts to improve the quality of planting material exchanged in markets or through other channels are often hampered by the unique biological and economic characteristics of vegetative propagation—characteristics that distinguish VPCs from the major cereal crops that drive and shape the policy and investment choices made in many of these countries. This suggests that continued investment in new technologies and systems to produce, package, and distribute VPC planting materials will require customized policies and policy support if these systems are to supply farmers with quality planting material at any significant and sustained scale. This paper explores these issues in the context of the cassava seed system in Nigeria by drawing on (1) prior research, public policy documents, and government statistics; (2) key informant interviews and focus group discussions with seed system actors; and (3) a unique dataset from the 2015 Cassava Monitoring Survey of Nigeria (CMS). The paper examines the production and supply of cassava planting material, the influence of various quality assurance systems on production and supply, and the implications for smallholder farmers in Nigeria. We describe the market, non-market, and regulatory systems that shape the cassava seed market in Nigeria, focusing on effectiveness, influence, and reach. We then explore the ground realities—how farmers actually acquire and use cassava planting material—given the (weak) state of markets and regulation. This is followed by a discussion of alternative policy and regulatory approaches to managing and expanding the cassava seed system, emphasizing a more decentralized approach that prioritizes investment in innovative capacity at the community and enterprise levels. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI5; CRP2; CRP3.4; Genetic resources and seed systems policy; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM); CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tuber, and Bananas (RTB)