Assessment of the Profitability of Improved Agriculture and Its Relationship to Poverty Status

Assessment of the Profitability of Improved Agriculture and It's Relationship to Poverty Status

Project / Seminar Material
Reference ID: PS-2876-TM

DEDICATION

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the completion of this project. Special thanks to my Supervisor (Name of your Supervisor), the Head of Department (Name of your HOD), the Lecturers in the department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Book Authors and Profound Scholars of existing or related project material on “Assessment of the Profitability of Improved Agriculture and It's Relationship to Poverty Status” for their invaluable guidance, support, and expertise throughout the journey.

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ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to assess the profitability of Improved Apiculture and its Relationship to Poverty Status in Abuja, Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was used to purposively select 140 bee farmers from three area councils namely, Abaji, Bwari and Kwaliin the FCT. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Farm budgeting techniques, Foster-Greer Thorbecke (FGT) model, stochastic frontier model and Pearson correlation.

Result revealed that all bee farmers in the study area were male and within the age bracket of 30-39 years with a mean age of 37. The average household size was 6. About 62.9% of the bee farmers had a secondary education, indicating that they are largely literates. The average years of farming experience was 4. About 62.9% of the farmers had contact with extension agents, about 35% had more than 40 beehives on their farm land.

The calculated net farm income of beekeeping per hive of 0.7m2 in the study area was N32,514.56, also the returns to naira invested of 2.67 implies that for every N 1 invested in bee farming , a profit of N 1.67 was generated. The poverty gap index shows how far bee farming households are from the poverty line, it was estimated to be 0.39; this implies that the mean aggregate food and non-food consumption shortfall of the poor bee farmers relative to the poverty line across the whole population of bee farmers was 39% and the poor bee farmers are not too far away from the poverty line.

The parameters of the stochastic frontier production function were estimated simultaneously with those of the model of inefficiency effects. Results indicated that all the variables were significant (P<0.01) except baiting material. The mean technical and allocative efficiencies were 81% and 64% respectively. Findings further revealed that none of the sampled beekeeping farms reached the frontier threshold.However, the average economic efficiency of the beekeeping farmers was 52%.

The mean annual income of the beekeeping farmers from beekeeping (N30,9671.43) was higher than that of the beekeeping farmers income from on-farm activities (N162,212.86) and off-farm activities (N16,285.71) indicating that beekeeping contributing a higher proportion to the total income of the beekeeping farmers. Constraints highlighted were inadequate capital (69.3%), problem of theft (52.1%) amongst others. It was recommended that more extension agents should be trained on modern beekeeping so that they can effectively disseminate beekeeping information to the farmers. Beekeeping farmers should leverage beekeeping association as an avenue to access finance, inputs, technical information and market.

Assessment of the Profitability of Improved Agriculture and It’s Relationship to Poverty Status

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

The increase in human population coupled with large numbers of undernourished people, especially in developing countries, have made the need for food production a major worldwide issue of concern (Okechi, 2004). Studies have showed that there is a limit to world's natural stocks of fish and shell fish, though renewable, have finite production limits, which cannot be exceeded even under the best management regimes. Hence, the maximum sustainable fishing limit in natural waters has been exceeded (FAO, 2000). Therefore, fish production will depend on aquaculture to bridge the demand-supply gap of fish.

According to (FAO 2006) production in capture fisheries is stagnating and aquaculture output is expanding faster than any other animal-based food sector worldwide, particularly in developing countries. It contributes nearly a third of the world's supply of fish products and

China and other Asian countries are by far the largest producers. Unlike terrestrial farming, where the bulk of the production is based on a limited number of species, aquaculture produces more than 220 species; of these species, catfish, carps, tilapia and related fish form the largest group in terms of quantity while other groups include aquatic plants and mollusc (FAO 2006).

Out of 35 grams of animal protein per day per person recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), less than 7 grams is consumed on the average. Many Nigerians suffer from protein deficiency due to low animal protein uptake (Emmanuel and Omotoriogun, 2010). According to Ojo (2008), a small amount of fish is an important dietary supplement for people who cannot easily afford other sources of animal protein.

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CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the review of related literature. A literature review includes the current knowledge as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. It documents the state of the art with respect to the topic you are writing. It surveys the literature in the topic selected. In this research work the literature review includes the …

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