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Despite huge investments in the educational sector, many countries in Africa have not fared well in the education indices. This study examined the effect of teaching equipment and teachers' effort on learning outcomes in 744 Nigerian primary schools using Stochastic Frontier and Ordinary Least Square regression. The mean technical efficiency was 0.43 which showed most of the surveyed schools were technically inefficient. Also, 42.8% of public primary schools operate below 20% efficiency level as against 12.3% in private primary schools. Factors influencing efficiency include school ownership type, visits from the Local Government Education Authority Student-Teacher ratio, and school hygiene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was carried out to examine asset ownership and income as determinants of household poverty in South Africa. The specific objectives were to determine the poverty status of the households and, investigate the influence of asset ownership and income on household poverty in South Africa. Secondary data was sourced from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) 2014/2015 data. A sample size of 9619 households was selected for this study. The poverty status of the households was determined using the poverty line. The poverty line was calculated as two-third of the mean-per-capita household expenditure. Households with expenditure above the poverty line were considered to be 'non-poor' and those with expenditure below the poverty line were considered 'poor'. For the purpose of this study, assets were divided into monetary and non-monetary assets. Binary logistic technique was further used to analyse the influence of ownership of monetary and non-monetary assets, household income, household size (as a control variable), and provincial locations on the household poverty status. An investigation into the assets owned by households indicated that real estate assets, business assets, vehicle assets, financial assets, superannuation assets, livestock assets and possessions, were assets owned by South African households. The results showed that 59.49% of South African households experience poverty, particularly in Kwazulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces. The results of the logistic regression further revealed that ownership of non-monetary assets, income and household size had a positive influence on the household poverty status. The Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, and Gauteng provinces had high probability for improving the household poverty status, while Kwazulu-Natal province showed a negative influence on the poverty status. It was recommended that policies should focus on income redistribution through employment generation, which will lead to enhanced income. This can, in turn, be used to acquire assets, especially in the most affected provinces like Kwazulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo province. JEL Classifications: 132, O15, R2 Keywords: Asset ownership, Income, Household, Poverty, South Africa Corresponding Author's Email Address: isaacoluwatayo@yahoo.com, INTRODUCTION The number of people living in extreme poverty in the world has dropped by more than half--from 1.9 billion in 1990, to 836 million in 2015. However, a sizeable [...]

Low productivity, modest production and large-scale importation characterize Nigeria’s rice subsector despite government intervention through trade policy measures since independence. Studies on Nigeria’s trade policy and rice productivity are scanty in the literature. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of the country’s rice trade policy on rice productivity from 1961-2017, employing the Vector Error Correction Modeling approach. The results show that protectionist trade policy reduced rice productivity in the short run but was not significant in the long run. Producer price and domestic consumption improved rice productivity in the short run although, the latter reduced productivity in the long run. Similarly, fertilizer consumption and exchange rate reduced productivity in the short run but exchange rate increased productivity in the long run. Thus, government should focus on exchange rate, liberalized trade policy and appropriate fertilizer policy to improve Nigeria’s rice productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African agricultural sector plays an important role in creating jobs, alleviating food insecurity and poverty, and contributes to exports. Agricultural commodities from smallholder farmers are often lost after production due to numerous marketing constraints which make it challenging for smallholder farmers to survey full lucrative markets. This, among other challenges, reduces smallholder farmers’ motivation to participate in formal (commercial) or lucrative markets. The study examined factors hindering marketing among smallholder vegetable cooperative farmers in the Polokwane Municipality. Data used were collected through structured questionnaire from a random sample of one hundred and twenty smallholder cooperative vegetable farmers. Descriptive statistics, the Marketing Hindrance Index and Tobit model were employed as analytical tools to accomplish the objectives of the study. Results of the data analysis revealed that some of the factors hindering marketing among smallholder vegetable cooperative farmers include source of water and types of vegetables grown. The result of Tobit regression analysis revealed that access to credit, access to reliable information about marketing, age, access to storage and farming experience in years were significant variables influencing marketing.In view of the research findings, the study recommends encouragement of youth participation in agriculture, improved access to agricultural information and formal market access and enabling accessibility through the development of better infrastructure as critical to enhancing marketing in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Table grape production plays an important role in the economy of many countries in Africa. It serves as a source of income for the people who are engaged in its production and being one of the enterprises that is labour-intensive, thereby providing employment for more people. The main purpose of this study was to analyse the economic efficiency of table grape production in Waterberg and Sekhukhune Districts of Limpopo province, South Africa. The study used primary data collected through administration of structured questionnaires on a sample of 12 farmers by employing a snowball sampling method. Analytical tools employed include descriptive statistics (such as tables and frequencies), Stochastic Frontier Model and Technical Inefficiency Model. Results from data analysis revealed that in terms of efficiency, farming experience (p<0.01), educational level (p<0.05), household size (p<0.10) and age of farmer (p<0.10) were associated with increased efficiency indicating that these factors play important roles in ensuring that resources used in the production of table grapes enhanced productivity and were not wasted. Also, technical efficiency among farmers was found to range from 0.8 to 1, with a mean of 0.89, thus implying a major possibility for improvement in production. However, the allocative efficiency was found to range from 0.47 to 1, with a mean of 0.68. This indicates that some farmers were finding it difficult to allocate their resources efficiently. Again, economic efficiency ranges from 0.56 to 1, with a mean of 0.73, an indication that most of the farmers were economically efficient. Meanwhile, some of the constraints faced by these farmers include high electricity bills and labour costs, water shortages as well as instability around land policy. The study therefore recommends capacity building of farmers through education and other skill enhancement programmes. Also, provision of incentives to encourage youth participation in farming through internship programmes is very important to increase farm productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa produce the bulk of the food consumed by inhabitants of these countries despite their poor working conditions in terms of access to inputs, improved technology and basic infrastructure. Climate change, unstable micro- and macroeconomic conditions coupled with the rising poverty situation have even made the matter worse for them. This has aggravated their living conditions and dwindling interest in agriculture. In Nigeria, agriculture remains the largest employer of labour providing livelihood for over 70% of the population. The paper relied on primary data collected through structured questionnaire on a random sample of 360 smallholder farmers in southwest Nigeria using a multistage sampling procedure. The data were collected in March and September, being the peak of dry and raining seasons in the country. Respondents' distribution by age indicates average age to be 45 years with about one-third having tertiary education and 36% having no formal education. Also, about two-thirds were estimated to be vulnerable going by the vulnerability benchmark constructed using the consumption expenditure data collected in both seasons. A probit analysis employed shows that respondents' age, gender, years of formal education, household size, membership of cooperatives, access to inputs, access to extension services, distance to markets and price situation are major determinants of vulnerability to seasonal fluctuations in production and marketing in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is no gainsaying the fact that the increasing awareness and penetration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into the developing world has transformed the economy of these countries. In fact, the banking sector in many of these countries is not spared. In Nigeria for instance, there has been a lot of awareness and transformation brought about by the ICTs' revolution. Notable among these is the introduction of mobile and e-banking especially into the banking industry. This paper was based on the study conducted to examine the extent to which mobile phones have aided financial services among farming households in rural southwest Nigeria. Data for this study were collected from a random sample of 360 farming households in Ekiti and Osun States. Descriptive analysis of socioeconomic characteristics of respondents showed their average age to be 45 years with only about one third (34.7percent) of them having tertiary education. While about 38.3 percent had no formal education, the rest had primary (15.8 percent) and secondary (11.2 percent) education. Distribution of respondents by the kind of services conducted through their mobile phones indicated credit acquisition in the form of transfer of recharge cards which are later converted into money as the most priotized. Next to this is getting information about personal account information (debiting and crediting) while making business transaction through mobile phones was the least patronised of all the services provided. A tobit analysis performed to ascertain the correlates of usage of mobile phones as mobile banks and credit outlets revealed age, years of formal education, membership of cooperative society/social groups, gender, poverty status, household size, location and access to power (electricity) as important determinants. While the coefficients of age (p<0.10), years of formal education (p<0.01), membership of cooperatives/social groups (p<0.01) and were positive, those of gender (p<0.05), poverty status (p<0.01), household size (p<0.00), location and access to power were negative. Thus, as the years of formal education increases, the more the usage of mobile phones as mobile banks/credit outlets and membership of cooperative society enhances the likelihood of farming households' usage of mobile phones for these services. However, as household size increases, income per-capita declines (poverty level soars) and this to a large extent reduces the likelihood of using mobile phones as outlet for financial transactions. It is therefore suggested that effort should be geared at building capacity of farming households through education. This is because education enhances earning potentials of farmers through adoption of modern farming practices and technologies. Also, cooperative activities should also be encouraged among farming households to increase awareness since cooperative societies and social groups provide avenues for training on new inventions and other technologies that can better enhance the living conditions of members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]