Social norms surrounding women's and men's mobility in public spaces often differ. Here we discuss how gendered mobilities and immobilities influence women's and men's capacities to innovate in agriculture. We analyze four case studies from Western Kenya and Southwestern Nigeria that draw on 28 focus group discussions and 32 individual interviews with a total of 225 rural and peri-urban women, men and youth. Findings show that women in both sites are less mobile than men due to norms that delimit the spaces where they can go, the purpose, length of time and time of day of their travels. Overall, Kenyan women and Nigerian men have better access to agricultural services and farmer groups than their gendered counterparts. In Southwestern Nigeria this is linked to masculine roles of heading and providing for the household and in Western Kenya to the construction of women as the 'developers' of their households. Access and group participation may reflect norms and expectations to fulfill gender roles rather than an individual's agency. This may (re)produce mobility pressures on time constrained gendered subjects. Frameworks to analyze factors that support women's and men's agency should be used to understand how gendered mobilities and immobilities are embedded in community contexts and affect engagement in agricultural innovation. This can inform the design of interventions to consider the ways in which norms and agency intersect and influence women's and men's mobilities, hence capacity to innovate in agriculture, thus supporting more gender transformative approaches.

New agricultural technologies such as improved maize varieties (IMVs) promise important benefitsincreased incomes, lower workloads, and better food securityamong others. When such technologies are introduced, they can denaturalize and expose gender norms and power relations because the adoption of such technologies inevitably requires women and men to renegotiate the rules of the game. This article asks: How do women negotiate power relations and their expression in gender norms to secure benefits from improved maize varieties (IMVs), and more broadly, to expand their decision-making space? We draw on data from four Nigerian casestudies, two from the North and two from the Southwest. The findings are analyzed through a conceptual framework utilizing five different concepts of power. Findings are remarkably similar across all sites. Women are constrained by powerful gender norms which privilege men's agency and which frown upon women's empowerment. There is limited evidence for change in some contexts through expansion in women's agency. The implications for maize research and development is that an improved understanding of the complex relational nature of empowerment is essential when introducing new agricultural technologies.

No abstract

The experiment was conducted to investigate the economic impacts of fungi seed-borne pathogens and cowpea grain weevil (Callosobruchus naculatus (Fab.) BRUCHIDAE COLEOPTERA) on stored cowpea grains which include kananado, Biu-Fari, Bornoji, Kirikiri Banjara jaa, Warware-Bashi, Bonjera and Rangen. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design (CRD) in the Crop Protection Laboratory, University of Maiduguri. Blotter's paper seed plating and Agar methods were adopted for the purpose of the investigation. Each cowpea sample were surface sterilized with 10% Sodium hypochlorite for 1-2 minutes and rinsed thrice with sterile distilled water. Ten (10) surface sterilized seeds were aseptically plated per moistened Petri-dishes using a sterilized forceps and incubated at temperature of 21±2 0 C for 7 days. Results showed that there were significant differences (P≤0.05) on germination percentage, 1000 seed weight (g) and disease incidence among the Cowpea variety seeds tested. Higher germination percentage were observed among Kanannado and Bornoji, while Wareware-Bashi had the lowest from 24 to 120 hours after plating (HAP) compared to other Cowpea varieties respectively. Biu-Fari significantly recorded the highest 1000 seed weight and the highest disease incidence from 72 to 120 (HAP). Bornoji recorded the lowest disease incidence from 24 to 120 (HAP) compare to other varieties respectively. Fungal isolates which include Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Mucor racemosus and Trichoderma harzianum were isolated from the infected cowpea seeds and identified. The isolates colony pure culture on Potato Dextrose Ager (PDA) were greenish (Aspergillus flavus), black to dark brown (Aspergillus niger), whitish (Mucur recemoses) and light yellowish (Trichoderma harzianum) respectively Disease causing pathogens posed a dangerous health threat and perforation inflicted on the grains by the weevils can lower the market value. Hence, proper seed handling, disease monitoring and safe storage environmental conditions become very necessary in order to prevent seed damage and contamination by the fungal pathogens and C. maculatus.

Maize is one of the most commonly consumed crops in Maiduguri and most studies in the study area have focused on either its production or consumption with few or none that take cognizance of the determinants that affect its price. In filling this gap, this study has examined the determinants of price fluctuation of maize in Maiduguri metropolis of Borno state, Nigeria. Data was collected from sixty marketers using a structured questionnaire from four prominent grain markets in Maiduguri. Descriptive statistical tools and inferential statistics (Ordinary Least Square) were employed to analyse the data. The results showed that cost of transportation, quantity demanded and cost of storage positively influenced price fluctuation of maize in the study area. Some of the major constraints perceived to have hindered smooth maize marketing in the study area were distance to market, cost of transportation and lack of storage facilities. It is recommended, among others, that a good road network that connects areas of production to markets should be made available to provide the required market demand and curtail price fluctuation.