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This study investigated the effect of charcoal(biochar) and crop veil on the growth of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentus Mill) in Jos, North central Nigeria. Four Super Vegetable Garden growingbeds and four traditional vegetable beds each measuring 15 m2 (12.5 m by 1.2 m) and 1 m gap between beds were laid out.The soil on both SVG and traditional beds were mixed with the same quantity of inorganic and organic fertilizer for plant development. After preparing the subsoil, 30 kg of biochar was spread on the four SVG beds as evenly as possible.Tomato seedlings were raised in the nursery for the period of 4 weeks after which they were transplanted on the SVG and traditional beds at 30 cmspacing. Data werecollected using systematic random sampling technique by creating small plots of 2.5 by 1.2 cm on the beds at 2.5 cm intervals between plots. The stem growth was recorded twice at 4 and 6 weeks after transplanting using a 100 cm rule. Fruits were counted on each plant within plots and recorded. Results obtained from this research showed that stem growth was very significantly higher in tomatoes grown on SVG beds treated with charcoal and covered with veil than traditional beds without charcoal and veil covering. Fruit yield in tomato plant was also significantly higher on beds with charcoal than beds without charcoal. This finding is important in improving food security through increase in soil fertility and crop yield in Nigeria and Sub Saharan Africa at large.

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Millet is a staple food mainly from local varieties, throughout the Sahel and in parts of the Sudan Savanna. Improved millet varieties are higher yielding and of better quality than the local varieties. This study was carried out after the Yobe State Agricultural Development Program had carried out series of extension services to assess the determinants of adoption of the improved varieties. Multistage systematic and purposive random sampling techniques were used to select 300 farmer respondents. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers while logit regression analysis was used to determine factors that affect the adoption of the technology in the study area. The result showed that household size, farm size, farming experience, maturity period of millet, yield of millet, and access to credit were positively significant in predicting the farmers' probability of adopting improved pearl millet variety. On the other hand, distance to source of technology (improved pearl millet seeds) negatively influenced the probability of adoption. The study recommends improving the funding of the extension organizations and making concerted effort to increase the quantity and quality of human resources available if food security is to be guaranteed in the region.

This study assessed the effects of marketing costs on the gross margin of guinea corn retailers in Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria. The main aim of the study is not to only obtain precise costs and margins estimates for the conventional marketing functions of guinea corn, but rather to make the result of the analyses usable to devise a policy framework for an effective marketing strategy and improvement in the efficiency of guinea corn marketing and agricultural produce/products markets in Taraba State and Nigeria in general. Structured questionnaire was used to illicit response from forty guinea corn retail marketers across six local government areas of the state during the 2017 marketing season. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected, while Ordinary Least Squares Analytical Procedure was used to determine the parameter estimates of marketing costs. The average retailers' gross margin per 50 kg bag stood at N1,036.16, while price and transportation cost per 100 kg bag is N17,472.00 and N249.00, respectively. Storage cost for six months period stood at N163.00 per 100 kg bag. The results showed that retailers' selling price, transport cost, storage and cost due to perishability have significant effects on retailers' gross margin, at 8, 5, 10 and 9% levels, respectively. It is recommended that transportation facilities should be sustained by government, private individuals and corporate groups in addition to intensification of research into post-harvest storage and processing techniques. Again, funds and storage facilities should be made available to the marketers to enable them take advantage of bulk purchasing during harvesting seasons to ensure market expansion that will improve guinea corn marketing cum retailer gross margin like in the study area.