The study examined the economics of small-scale maize production in Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling technique was adopted for the data collection. Descriptive statistics, regression and gross margin analyses were used to analyse the data collected. The study revealed that majority of the respondents were within the active working age and most of them (83%) were male. The majority of the respondents were married and had a household size of five persons and farm size of 1-2ha. Results of the regression analysis revealed that the output of small-scale maize farmers was influenced by farm size, marital status and annual income at 1% and 5% respectively. A gross margin of N170,594.50 was earned from one hectare of maize farm with a return per naira invested of 2.40. The cost of labour constituted a greater proportion of the costs of production, accounting for about 58.38% and 39.52% of the total variable cost and the total cost respectively, the total cost. The problems militating against maize production in the study area were high cost of labour, pests and diseases, inadequate storage facilities, inadequate capital, marketing problems, transportation, poor access to credit facilities and high cost of inputs. The study, therefore, recommends that farmers should be properly educated by the extension agents on pest and disease control measures. Moreover, inputs should be made available to farmers at subsidized rates by relevant stakeholders.

This study evaluated the economic empowerment potentials of groundnut processing by women in rural areas of North
central Nigeria state using a sample of 100 women processors randomly selected from the study area. Data analysis was
done using Descriptive statistics, Net Farm Income Model and Data Envelopment Analysis (D.E.A). An average net
returns of N10, 586.6 was obtainable within a processing cycle. The average pure technical and scale efficiency scores
were 80 and 83 percent respectively. The major constraints confronting the processing of groundnut include inadequate
capital for expansion and lack of processing machines. A significant opportunity exists for empowering rural women
through groundnut processing

The outbreak of Avian Influenza in Nigeria has led to job losses, health problems, reduction in expected income of poultry farmers and a decrease in the demand for poultry products. This study was designed to determine the monetary value of stock lost, identify the determinants of the future employment decisions and the constraints faced by poultry farmers in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. Data for the study was collected from 40 poultry farmers who have suffered losses due to the outbreak of the disease. The total monetary value of the stock lost in the study area as at 2007 was N142, 741, 000. 45% of the respondents have abandoned poultry production while 32.5% have reduced the size of their poultry business. Furthermore, only 22.5% have restarted their poultry business without reducing the quantity of the initial stock before the outbreak of the disease. The determinants of the decision to abandon were; amount of compensation received, educational level of the poultry farmer and total number of stock lost. The factors influencing the decision to reduce the scale of operation were; level of education of the farmer, years of experience in poultry production and the amount of compensation received from government. The post Avian Influenza outbreak constraints faced by the farmers were; inadequate compensation, low patronage by customers and low level of accessibility to agricultural credit institutions.

Abstract-This present study was focused on the assessment of youth involvement in agricultural production activities in Obi Local

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