This study provides an overview of banana and plantain in West Africa. West Africa is one of the major plantain-producing regions of the world, accounting for about 32% of worldwide production. The major plantain-producing countries in the region include Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Guinea. Banana is also cultivated in West Africa but account for only 2.3% of worldwide production. The major banana-producing countries in the region include Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, and Liberia. Banana and plantain have become major food and cash crops in the region. Since the last decade, plantain yields in West Africa have experienced slight increases, with the largest production of 3.7 million metric tons in Ghana, contributing about 13.1% to the agricultural Gross Domestic Product. Cote d'lvoire ranks the highest producer of bananas with about 320,000 metric tons in West Africa. Although plantain production in West Africa is much higher than banana production, banana is presently of greater importance in terms of world trade. Whereas plantain marketing is characterized by small-scale, widely dispersed producers, banana production is generally more centralized, involving larger production firms and a more structured marketing and transportation system. In West Africa, the sustained production of banana and plantain is endangered by several yield constraining factors including pests and diseases, low technology adoption and environmental factors especially under smallholder management. However, there is room for progress in obtaining bigger yield of these crops. Banana and plantain production enterprises in West Africa have great prospects in the area of employment generation, contributions to national income and gross domestic product, poverty alleviation, economic and industrial growth and rural development. Recommendations are drawn for the provision of market information outfits to disseminate information timely to banana and plantain marketers, price stability, and the need for intensive research on the growth requirements for the sustained production of the crops.

The study analysed the strategies used by the rural households to cope with food insecurity in Udi local government area of Enugu state. Data were collected through household surveys using semi-structured questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were employed to analyse the data for the study. Households were grouped based on their food security status (food secure and food insecure). The study result showed that the two-group household differed significantly in some of their socioeconomic characteristics. The study confirms that the coping strategies employed by the vulnerable households were not mutually exclusive, rather a mixed approach comprising multiple strategies were adopted to cushion food insecurity shocks. Furthermore, socioeconomic factors such as income (p<0.01), marital status (p<0.1) and educational level (p<0.01) were found to negatively influence the number of coping strategy adopted by rural households while the dependency ratio (p<0.01) was positively significant. Policy implications were drawn for education promotion, poverty alleviation programs and the creation of sustainable off-farm employment opportunities.

The dynamic nature of human adaptation and coping strategies to climate change continues to arouse the interest of environmental researchers. This study contributed to this growing area of research by examining the drivers and some socioeconomic factors influencing individual and household adaptation to climate change. Data were collected through household surveys and in-depth interviews. Descriptive statistics, binomial logistic regression, multiple regression analysis, and content/discourse analysis were employed to analyse data collected. The study result shows that the majority of the respondents adopt low cost and low skill coping responses against cold spell. The comfort of the household was found to be the key driver of adaptation to cold spell. Meanwhile, government support and having previous experience of flooding increases the chances of households adopting flood defense measures. The result further shows that house type (p<0.01), house ownership (p<0.01), and income (p<0.05) were significant factors affecting the level of adaptation strategies adopted. Age, gender, and education were found not to be significant in affecting the level of adaptation strategies adopted. The study recommended that government support as well as improvement in some socioeconomic factors like income level and educational level will increase individual and household resilience against climate change.

Diversification of livelihoods is a recurrently applied approach for cushioning economic and environmental shocks on the path to improving food security. Therefore, this study was conducted to empirically analyse the effect of

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