Influence of land tenure and property rights (LTPRs) on farmers’ willingness to accept (WTA) incentives to embrace climate-smart agriculture (CSA) to combat land degradation was examined with choice experiment data collected from 1,138 farmers drawn across 16 States in Nigeria. Data analysis within random-effect and mixed logit framework revealed the existence of strong linkages between the payment vehicle, LTPRs and farmers’ CSA preferences. While farmers who were dependent on leased and/or communal lands expressed implicit dislike for CSA-related investments, the majority with freehold titles, particularly those with registered titles, expressed positive WTA incentives to embrace CSA and combat land degradation.

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Malnutrition in children is one of the most serious public health problems in Nigeria and also in the world. Therefore, the objective of the study was to measure the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight and to assess the socio economic factors that influence the anthropometric indicators among children residing in rural farm households of Ogun State Nigeria.  A cross sectional study was employed and 206 farm households were interviewed using a structured, personally administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic factors, maternal characteristics, farm production characteristics and anthropometric measurement was used to gather data for 100 children. Nutri-survey, SPSS and Stata software was used to perform descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses. The summary statistics of nutritional status of children in the study area revealed that the prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was 70%, 25 % and 8%, respectively. In view of World Health Organisation recommendation into two age disaggregated groups, male children were found to be more stunted and wasted than females in the study area. Age(p<0.05) and sex of the child(p<0.05), Farm size(p<0.01), household size(p<0.05), access to safe water(p<0.05), years of formal education of the household head (p<0.05) and access to health services (p<0.01) are factors that significantly affect the incidence of stunting, underweight and wasting in the study area. Thus, efforts should be made to improve the health services and also provision of safe water to farm households for reducing malnutrition among children.

Background Empowering women, land tilting to enhance the security of Land Tenure and Property Rights (LTPRs) in agriculture vis-a-vis food and nutrition security are crucial in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. The main goal of this paper is to examine the crucial roles of women’s empowerment and LTPRs as they affect household food security among smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Methodology Cross-sectional data were obtained from 1152 maize and rice farmers, selected by multistage random sampling across 192 communities, 16 States and the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The data were collected on households’ socio-economics, food security situations, empowerment and LTPRs on parcels cultivated during the 2016/17 farming season by interviewing the adult members of the farmers’ households. HFS was assessed using the United States Department of Agriculture’ HFS Survey Module and Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines for measuring Household Dietary Diversity Score. LTPRs were measured in terms of tenure type and title registration to farmlands. HFS modelling was within the framework of Poisson, Instrumental Variable Poisson (IVP) and Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression methods, with endogeneity concerns and choice of specification addressed within Hausman specification tests. Results The results of the study show that households that have a share of farmland on purchase and also participate in off-farm activities are likely to be certainly food-secure in all regards. Crop diversity, households that cultivate maize only, the share of farmland on purchase and access to extension contact significantly reduce the severity of food insecurity while an increase in farm size increases the severity of food insecurity. Similarly, IV Poisson and ZIP Count results show that increase in the farm size results in the severity of food insecurity. The evidence with respect to women’s empowerment reveals that gender parity and female achievement in group membership, income control, as well as workload; reduce the extent of food insecurity among the farming households in Nigeria. We, however, discover that the female achievement in the productive decision and credit increases the severity of food insecurity among the smallholder farmers. The analyses also reveal that education of the household head, female achievement in the asset; group membership and workload are the major factors that positively influenced household dietary diversity. Conclusion The study suggests the adoption of climate-smart practices to overcome the issue of marginal farmlands, promotion of crop and livelihood diversification among the smallholder farmers, effective extension services delivery, and improving women’s access to productive resources to enhance household food security status in Nigeria.

This study investigated the impact of agricultural innovation technology on poverty and the feedback effect of widespread poverty on agricultural development in West Africa. The study used 25year (1991-2015) panel data from the Statistics on Public Expenditure for Economic Development, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Penn World Table, and the World Bank's World Development Indicators. The study's data set included information on agriculture's value added (as a percentage of GDP), the headcount ratio of people living in poverty at $1.9 per day, farm mechanization, government agricultural expenditure, irrigation, human capital, and telecommunications technology. The results of this study show that, despite an increasing trend in agricultural technology improvements, poverty is still a regional problem in West Africa. It was noted that the value added by agriculture (as a percentage of GDP) was increasing at a decreasing rate. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that West Africa's high rate of poverty has a significant linear influence on agricultural development, and that on the other hand, agricultural development significantly contributes to the continent's effort to eradicate poverty. The study concluded that development of agriculture sector is a crucial first step in creating efficient approaches to poverty alleviation in West Africa. However, the right agricultural innovation technologies, such as irrigation, mechanization, and human capital, must be pursued in order to optimize the effects on poverty reduction.