Low adoption of modern agricultural technologies amongst farmers in Nigeria has been identified as one of the main reasons for the low agricultural productivity and increase in poverty level. The general objective of this study is to examine the welfare impact of farm households adoption of improved cassava varieties in Southwestern (SW) Nigeria using poverty as an indicator. It utilizes cross-sectional farm household level data collected in 2013 from a randomly selected sample of 312 cassava producing households (186 in Ogun State and 126 in Osun State). The data obtained were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis such as Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure and Logit regression model. The results revealed that adoption of improved cassava varieties increases the annual income and the annual consumption expenditure of producing households' thus increasing welfare in the SW Nigeria. An analysis of the determinants of adoption with logistic regression model showed that access to improved cassava cuttings within the villages, use of radio, farming experience and farming as a major occupation are significant factors influencing adoption of improved cassava varieties in the study area. In order to achieve the much desired poverty reduction and generate an improvement in farming households' welfare in SW Nigeria, efforts should be intensified in ensuring that farmers have access to adequate improved cassava cuttings at the right time and place. All programs, strategies and policies that would promote farmers' education on the technology and consequently lead to improved adoption should be pursued.

The study was conducted to determine the impact of farmers' membership of cooperative societies on rice production. Against the backdrop that the promotion of membership of cooperative society among farmers would give them better access to agricultural inputs and consequently improve their income. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select a total of 310 rice farmers. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and inferential statistics. The results revealed the mean age of the rice farmers as 48 years. Majority (92%) of the farmers produced upland rice, with a single harvest per year using mainly owned resources. Family labour was the most important source of farm labour in rice cultivation and about 60% of the members of the farm families participated in the family rice farm. The results further showed that 38.9% of rice farmers had primary education, 27.4% had secondary education, while 25.1% had no education. A total of 71% of the rice farmers were members of rice farmers' cooperative societies, while 29% were not. The average farm size cultivated was 1.72ha and 1.64ha for cooperative and non-cooperative members respectively. The result also showed that there is no significant difference in the gross margin per hectare realized by farmers that were cooperative members (N90, 222) and the non cooperative members (N92, 986). The input-use structure showed that cooperative members were more intensive users of purchased inputs like fertilizer and pesticides valued at N124,555 per ha (about 41% of variable cost) compared to the non cooperative members valued at N57,647 per ha (about 22% of the variable cost). Almost all the groups were established to serve as receptacles for subsidized agricultural services and inputs rather than real producer organizations that seek to attract commercial providers of services and ensure efficient marketing of their farm outputs. Further revelation from the study is the fact that membership of cooperative society was found to be influenced by household size, access to extension services, number of rice farms owned, access of rice farmers to herbicide and quantity of rice output. The non-significant difference in the gross margin of cooperative and non-cooperative members despite the greater intensity of use of purchased inputs (fertilizer and pesticide) by cooperative members suggests the need for monitoring of rice farmers who are cooperators in order to ensure that the substantial inputs are rightly channeled.

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Cassava is a very important crop in Nigeria by reason of its comparative production advantage over other staples.This study estimated the relative profitability of cassava producers and determined the effects of farm inputs on the level of profit of various scales of cassava producers in Ogun and Oyo States, Nigeria. Cross-sectional data were collected from 265 cassavabased farmers using a multistage sampling technique and were analysed using normalized profit function and budgetary analysis. Results showed that cassava/cowpea enterprise had the highest net margins of N127,249.63/ha and N122,325.73/ha in Ogun and Oyo States respectively. While the use of herbicides had a positive and significant effect on the profitability of small-scale cassava farmers in both states, cassava-cuttings had a positive and significant effect on medium-scale cassava farming in both states. Similarly, labour and farm size had a positive and significant effect on large-scale cassava farming in both states. The study recommends that small and medium-scale farmers should increase the application of herbicide, large-scale cassava operators in Oyo State should increase the use of labour, while those in Ogun State should also increase the cultivated acreage of land.

This study estimates community willingness to contribute for an ecotourism improvement project and its determinants in the Okwangwo Division of the Cross River National Park, Nigeria. Personal interviews were conducted with 150 households in three communities located in the proximity of the park. The study showed that the respondents were willing to contribute an average of about one percent of their mean annual income per year. Determinants of the respondents' willingness to contribute amount was estimated with the aid of the ordinary least squares and tobit models. The results showed that willingness to contribute were influenced by factors such as income, distance of respondents' residence to the park, post-high school education, occupation and membership of an environmental conservation group. The results generated from this study will contribute to the knowledge of sustainable management of ecotourism projects.