If a climate signal could be detected at state or regional level, it would be useful to policy planners, agricultural authority and farmers to prepare for climate change. This study, therefore, employed a statistical model to investigate the relationship between the yield of cowpea and temperature (in centigrade) and precipitation (in millimeters) for the period 1961 -2006 at state levels in Nigeria. The analyses were based on all the twenty major cowpea producing states for the main period 1961 -2006. Data for annual yield of cowpea for all the time period were collected from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (N.B.S). Data on the two important climate variables required for crop growth -temperature and precipitation -at state in Nigeria were obtained from the Nigerian Metrological Agency. The response of cowpea yield to climate change varied from one geographical location to the other. The results indicated negative and significant relationship between cowpea yield and temperature in six of the twenty states producing cowpea in the country. Five of the six states are in the northern part while the remaining one is in the south. The results of the relationship between the yield and precipitation were similar to those of temperature in the northern states, except Sokoto. There was a negative correlation between rainfall and cowpea yield in Adamawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Niger Plateau and Yobe. On the contrary, increase in precipitation will lead to increase in yield in the southern part except Kwara. The time trend is positive and significant in all the cases except in Adamawa, Bauchi and Jigawa where time trend was non significant though positive..These results also show that as the years pass by and climate factors run contrary to agricultural productivities, cowpea farmers were adopting new measures to cope with the negative effect of climate change. Through adaptation, the negative effects of climate change on cowpea yield could be reduced and the positive influences enhanced. Examples of potential adaptive measures include the introduction of drought or heat resistant varieties, early sowing, mixed cropping, alteration of the tillage system and utilization of land that has been considered too marginal for agricultural cultivation.The hottest cowpea producing state is Sokoto with average temperature of 34.30 o C followed by Kebbi state (figure 3). Other cowpea producing states with greater than 30 o C average annual temperature include Bauchi, Benue, Yobe and Kaduna. They are all in the northern part of the country. The coldest is Plateau state with the average annual temperature of 24.2 o C.

Cameroon is covered by about 20 million hectares of forests. Timber exploitation is the second source of external income after petroleum. Besides, Cameroon's forest has several other functions. Yet the threat to the very existence and survival of this forest is rapidly increasing due to overexploitation by logging companies and for firewood. Despite its usefulness, a substantial volume of the wood felled by timber exploiters is abandoned as waste to rot. This waste can be used as firewood by households even for building and making of furniture by small-scale users like carpenters if they had access to it.This paper encourages the use of timber waste as an alternative to kerosene, which has become very expensive and unaffordable due to the general rise in the price of petroleum products in recent years. The overexploitation of forests can therefore be limited by putting the waste timber into use. It will go along to reduce freshly cut wood which is usually cut illegally and uncontrollably and which is a major source of depletion of forest resources. This project, once achieved will forever last because it will always generate revenue to the groups involve in the collection and the distribution of forest waste which will make money from sales even if they were to sell cheaper since the major cost is transportation and the waste wood is also cheap to obtain from the logging companies or even costless since they have less interest in it.

Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the economic implication years after an outbreak of armyworm among the smallholding farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Methodology: A combination of purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select 60 respondents in four communities of the State. Thematic information from the semi-structured questionnaire related to the socio-economic characteristics of respondents, their enterprise characteristics, farmers’ perception of significant constraints militating against maize production in the study area, as well as the efficacy of management strategies adopted by the respondents. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics and Tobit regression. Results: The study revealed that maize farming was mostly on smallholdings owned by males within the active age of 35 years. These farmers practised mixed cropping system whereby maize is planted with other crops in a shifting cultivation pattern. Also, the respondents identified lack of inputs, lack of fund and credit facilities, climate change, disease and pest outbreak, inadequate storage and processing facilities, and imperfect information dissemination as significant constraints militating against self-sufficiency in maize production. The most debilitating of these constraints was the outbreak of the Fall armyworm, which ravaged maize farms. Information gathered revealed that higher percentages of the respondents combated this notorious pest with the use of synthetic chemicals alongside other management approaches. The result of the gross margin revealed that net return per hectare to maize production was N27, 510. The Tobit results revealed that only pests’ infestation in the previous year and age were significant with maize output loss. Conclusion: The Fall armyworm outbreak resulted in an economic downturn for maize farmers in Ekiti State.

The study examined the impact of privatization on efficiency of water use in selected irrigation schemes under the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority of Nigeria. Government policy is aimed at achieving food self-sufficiency through the proposed privatization of these schemes hence making water an economic good whose use will thus be levied more rationally. Data was drawn on 414 small-scale irrigation farms under the two existing tenure Systems in 7 irrigation schemes in the basin.The DEA results showed that on the average, substantial overall inefficiencies characterized the farms in both the User Allocation and Farmer Occupier tenure systems. Unlike the situation in the rice farms, vegetable and maize farmers under the Farmer Occupier System demonstrated considerably higher levels of efficiency than those in the other system. For the vegetable farmers, it was a switch of value dominance between the CRSTE and the VRSTE. The result of the price simulation showed an irregular pattern of marginal efficiency change in all the DMUs of both systems. This result frowns at the proposed privatization, should the new investor transact resources in a way that is not at par with the prevailing open market condition thereby overshooting the margins of farm-level efficiency.