DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

Catfish processing is an important household income activity in many Nigerian communities, providing income, food security, and employment for women and low income households. Despite its growing relevance, the sub sector remains largely informal and under supported, particularly in semi urban areas such as Ikorodu LGA of Lagos State. Hence this study was conducted to assess how extension services influence income among catfish processors and examined the challenges affecting service delivery and utilisation. The study specifically aimed to: describe the socioeconomic characteristics of catfish processors in Ikorodu LGA; assess the current state of extension service delivery to catfish processors; evaluate the effects of extension services on income;and identify the challenges faced by catfish processors in accessing and utilising extension services. A two stage sampling technique was used to select 120 catfish processors from five communities in Ikorodu LGA. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and means) were used to address Objectives 1–4, whilemultiple regression analysis examined the hypothesis regarding the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and the effects of extension services on income. A 5 point Likert scale rating was used to interpret respondents’ ratings of service delivery, benefits, and challenges. Findings showed that both males and females were involved in catfish processing women, with varying levels of education, income, and years of experience. The assessment of extension service delivery produced mean scores slightly above 3.0, indicating moderate but inconsistent access to services. The perceived benefits of extension services on income were positive but not strongly pronounced. Major challenges identified included irregular visits from extension agents (mean = 3.59), long distance to service centres (mean = 3.64), and limited follow up support (mean = 3.66). Regression analysis revealed education level (t = 2.824; p = 0.005)., a significant relationship on the benefits derived from extension services. It was concluded that extension services contribute to improved knowledge and practices among catfish processors. The study recommends Extension
training programmes should be design considering farmers level of education.

One of the media through which Lassa fever spread or contracted in recent time is rats through Garri consumption. Garri is an household staple food in Nigeria that is consumed by all. There documenting the information needs of Garri consumers in a State like Edo in Nigeria will help in identifying the pattern of spread of this disease and how it could be curbed. Therefore, this study was conducted to assessed the safety practices information needs among Garri Consumers in Edo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, identify the information sources available to the respondents and their preference for the sources, examined safety practices carried out by gari consumers, document safety practice information needs of gari consumers, and analysed constraints faced by gari consumers. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 150 r spondents in Edo state. However, 148 of them eventually formed the valid sample size for the study. Data were obtained through structured and validated questionnaire and interview schedule and analysed with frequency counts, percentages and Binary Logistic Regression Model and Pearson’s Product Moment Correction. Some of the results of the descriptive statistics showed that 37.2% of the respondents were within the age of 40-49, majority (73.6%) were married, most (46.6%) had a household size of less than 5, 34.5% acquired secondary education, and 36.5% had a monthly income between ₦60000 - ₦89000. Results further showed that almost all the viii consumers got their information friends and family (95.3%), while the most preferred source of information was from fellow consumers. The most imbibed safety practice by the consumers was to cover their gari properly to prevent contamination from rats, while the highest information need of the consumers was on orthodox or herbal treatments for lassa fever. In addition, it was observed that selected socioeconomic characteristics regressed on information needs, sex (wald =2.134), and age (wald =3.968), were statistically significant at p≤0.05 while household size (5.044) was statistically significant at p≤0.01, while a positive, medium correlation (r =0.519) was observed between the lassa fever safety practices and the information need of the consumers. It was concluded that respondents had high information needs for Lassa fever but the available information sources available to them may present unverified information which is not healthy to the society.

This study assessed the financial inclusion and welfare outcomes among rural women in Edo South Agricultural Zone, Edo state, Nigeria. The research examined individuals' social and economic circumstances, assessed their knowledge and use of financial services, evaluated their well-being, and identified the social, organizational, and cultural challenges they encounter. We used a multi-step process to select 180 women for the study. The results were examined using basic statistics and other methods to draw conclusions, with a 5% significance level. The results show that the average age of the people surveyed was 48 years. On average, there were 3 people in each household, they had 6 years of formal education, and their income was $55,473. 833% of the people asked identified as Christians, and 57. 8% of them worked mainly in farming. More than half (63. 3%) of the people surveyed knew a lot about financial services. About 506% had good access to these services, and 58. 3% used them a lot. Garrett listed the main reasons why people have trouble using financial services. The biggest issues are a lack of infrastructure, high interest rates, and gender inequality in financial matters. These are serious challenges related to structures, institutions, and social culture. The HFIAS results showed that 50. 4% of the people surveyed were very worried about not having enough food. The results from the study using multiple linear regression showed that structural barriers (β=1. 3911, p ≥005) have a positive and important connection with the welfare of rural women in the area being studied. According to the study, although people were aware of and often engaged with financial services, their lives weren't necessarily improved by them. This might be due to the difficulties the person faced in getting and using these financial services. This study suggests that the government, non-profit groups, banks, and other important organizations should work hard to improve people's understanding of money and create support systems that will help more people access financial services in the area being studied.

The main aim of this study was to examine the economics of rural households broiler meat consumption pattern in Ovia North-east Local Government Area Of Edo state, Nigeria. Specifically to describe the socio-economic characteristics of households in
the study area, examine household broiler meat form consumption preference of respondents, examine households preferred meat substitute consumption pattern in the study area, estimate the expenditure on broiler meat in the study area, examine
factors affecting demand for broiler meat and identify constraints facing the demand for broilers. A two-stage sampling method was used to select one hundred and twenty households for this research. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentage and mean score was used in this study. Findings of the study shows that majority of households respondents were men. A
change in the price of broiler meat will lead to a change in quantity demanded. The results shows that for every ₦1 spent on meat 37 kobo is spent on broiler meat. Change in the income of the consumer will also lead to a change in quantity
demanded. It can be concluded that male respondents are more in the study area, broiler meat is one of the most consumed meat in the study area. Quantity demanded of broiler meatVIII is highly dependent on consumers income, price of broiler meat and healthy benefits of broiler meat.

Millions of tropical forest inhabitants rely on wild meat (or bushmeat) as an essential source of protein and income, which in turn result to unsustainable harvest of these animals, thus putting both human food security and ecosystem
functioning at risk. This study was carried out to analyse the demand for bushmeat in Edo-south agro-ecological zone, Edo state, Nigeria; with specific objectives to ascertain the socio- economic characteristics of bushmeat consumers in the study area, the level and frequency of their demand for bushmeat, identify factors influencing household demand for bushmeat, determine the effect of these factors on household demand for bushmeat, estimate the price and income elasticity of demand, estimate the household expenditure for bushmeat in the
study area, as well as identifying the closest substitute for bushmeat in the study area. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to obtain 88 respondents (bushmeat consumers) for the study. Data was collected through the use of well-structured questionnaire and interview schedule, and analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistics such multiple regession. The result revealed that 86.36% of the respondents were male, 62.50% were married with mean age of 36 years. Larger percentage (59.09%) had tertiary education and had small family size of 1-5 members (90.91%). Also, Majority of the respondents (75%) do business with mean monthly income of ₦262267, and mean monthly household income of ₦349733. Most of the respondent consumes bushmeat week in, week out (55.68%), preferred it smoked (93.18%) and consume it majorly because of its unique taste (79.55%). The the major factors influencing household demand for bushmeat were taste (94.3%) which was significant at 5% with a positive coefficient (312.56), price of bush meat (79.6%), 10 11
income of consumer (77.3%) which was significant at 1% with a positive coefficient (4049.60) and availability of bush meat (76.1%), was significant at 10% with a positive coefficient (1398.60). The positive coefficient of the factors indicated that increase in those factors will lead to increase in the demand for bushmeat. 65% of the variation in the demand for bush meat was explained by the factors in the regression model (R2 = 0.65, F-value = 4.64). The result also
showed bushmeat was inelastic to its price (-0.44), but tending to elastic for income elasticity (0.58), which was significant at 1%. The mean result showed that the respondents spends ₦71795.45 on food items monthly, accounting 20.5% of the household mean monthly income (₦349733), and having mean household budget share of bushmeat as 0.27. Chicken was the closest substitute to bushmeat with a cumulative preference frequency of 44.45% (very high-23.86%, high- 20.45%), in the study area, followed by frozen fish (44.32%). There is urgent need for wild species domestication in the study area to meet the increasing market demand for bushmeat, as well as development and enforcement of policy interventions geared towards sustainable harvest of wild animals.