The study analyzed economic efficiency of small-holder wheat farmers around Hadejia Valley Irrigation scheme in Jigawa, State Nigeria. Multi-stages sampling procedure was used to select 346 wheat farmers from the study area. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyzed the data.  The stochastic frontier analysis results indicated that a unit increase in the use of land, fertilizer, labour and herbicide contributed to wheat output by 0.577, 0.341, 0.078 and 0.174 respectively. The predicted technical, allocative and economic efficiencies were 0.76, 0.32 and 0.24 respectively. This implies that wheat farmers were not fully efficient and output could have been increased by 24% and about 68% of cost would have been saved. Furthermore, tobit regression results revealed that age of the farmers positively affected technical (0.0012, p<0.10), allocative (0.0025, p<0.05) and economic (0.0023, p<0.01) efficiencies of wheat farmers’ production in the study area. The sex of the wheat farmers was significant (0.0472, p<0.05) and positively affecting wheat farmers technical efficiency. Education of the wheat farmers significantly (p<0.10) and negatively affected their technical (-0.0021) inefficiencies, access to extension service was influencing both technical (- 0.0223, p<0.10) and economic (- 0.0789, p<0.10) inefficiencies negatively. The study concluded that wheat farmers were not fully efficient and more output (24%) could be achieved with the same level of inputs as indicated by the increasing return to scale of 1.197. The study therefore, recommended that concerted efforts should be made towards training farmers on appropriate inputs combination by extension agents to   improve  and boost wheat production in the study area.

The study examined the socio-economic and constraints analysis of faro-44 rice farmers under fadama III additional finance II in Taraba State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents. Data collected from 500 respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages, mean scores and standard deviation). The results showed that majority (83.80%) of the faro-44 rice farmers were male; 78.80% were married; 58.20% had informal education; 33.80% acquired land through inheritance; about half (52%) had access to extension agents and a few (47.80%) had no access. Frequency of extension agent visits showed that few (28.60%) had fortnightly visits, weekly (18.60%), monthly (20.00%), quarterly (18.00%) and none (14.80%). Some (28.60%) of the respondents revealed that own sources were their main credit. Results showed a mean age of 43 years for the faro-4 rice farmers. The respondents had mean household size of 9 persons per household. The faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria had a mean farm size of 2.66 ha. Findings also revealed that faro-44 rice farmers had minimum and maximum of 1 year and 25 years experiences, respectively, with an average of 14.02 years farming experience. The major constraints faced by the farmers were pests and diseases (93.80%), inadequacy of information on improved rice production technologies (89.20%), farmer-herder conflicts (78.60%), inadequate capital (76.40%), high cost of farm inputs (70.20%), poor road network/transportation (66.20%), climatic factors, e.g., flood, ground water depletion, drought (66%), high cost of labour (64.60%), poor market outlet (44.20%), scarcity of improved seeds (39.60%), high cost of seedling (26.80%), land fragmentation (21.00%), inadequate extension services or contact (19.20%), price fluctuation (6.20%) and kidnapping/banditry (5.60%). It was concluded that faro-44 rice farmers under fadama III additional finance II in Taraba State, Nigeria is dominated by males and the major constraints faced by the farmers were pests and diseases, inadequate information on improved rice production technologies and farmer-herder conflicts. The study recommended that women farmers in Taraba State should form strong cooperative associations in order to benefit more from such laudable fadama AF-II intervention/supports taking cognizance also of the enormous benefit of the women in agriculture programmes.

The study examined the households’ consumption preference for cowpea and its products in Western zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of 210 households. Data were collected using questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. The study revealed that majority (75.7%) of households’ highly preferred alale as cowpea-based products and used kwankwasiya cowpea variety to make kosai (52.3%), alale (87%), cowpea soup (39.5%), rice and beans (53.3%) dishes, respectively.  Furthermore, 35.7% of households prefer to consume kwankwasiya cowpea variety than other varieties. The result of the multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that, age (P<0.05), educational level (P<0.1), occupation (P<0.1), income (P<0.1), price (P<0.01), time taken to cook (P<0.1), taste (P<0.05) and weevil damage tolerance (P<0.05) were statistically significant in determining the factors influencing households’ consumption preference for cowpea varieties. The major constraints to household preference for cowpea consumption include high cost of cowpea (97.1%), insect infestation (81.4%) and abdominal discomfort (70.0%) among others. The study concluded that households’ highly preferred alale as cowpea-based products and used kwankwasiya cowpea variety to make different dishes. The study recommended that effort should be made by stakeholders and breeding institutions to create policies that would be favourable to control the menace of price fluctuations of cowpeas and cowpea farmers should divert more resources to the production of kwankwasiya cowpea variety so that they can meet consumer demand and increase their level of income.

The study examined the socio-economic characteristics of cowpea-based consumers in Western zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of 210 households for this study. Data were collected using questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics. The results revealed that majority (82.9%) of the households were males with a mean age of 42years. The result also showed that 79.5% and 42.9% were married and had tertiary education, respectively. The findings revealed a mean household size and mean income of 10 persons and ₦35,485.71, respectively. Furthermore, the result showed that 34.3% of households consumed cowpea daily, 31.9% and 12.8% consumed cowpea twice a week and thrice a week, respectively. The major constraints to cowpea consumption include high cost of cowpea (97.1%), insect infestation (81.4%) and abdominal discomfort (70.0%) among others. The study recommended that government should create an enabling environment to make the prices of food items most especially cowpea reasonable and affordable by creating a favourable policies on price to tackle the menace of price fluctuations and Cowpea farmers should be encouraged to use improved cowpea varieties that are resistant to insect attacks so as reduce the damaged done by insects.

The study examined the factors influencing households’ consumption preference for cowpea-based products in Western zone of Bauchi state, Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of 210 households for this study. Data were collected using questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. The result revealed that 44.3% of the households preferred to consume alale, followed by kosai with 23.3%. The result further showed that 99.0% and 91.4% of the households considers health benefit and nourishment as reasons for using cowpea-based products. The result of multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that, age of the household heads, household size, marital status, income of the household heads, price, taste, and weevil damage tolerance significantly influenced household consumption preference for cowpea-based products. The study concluded that, households prefer to consumed alale as cowpea-based products and considers health benefit as a strong reason for used. It was recommended that, there is need to encourage more utilization of cowpea by households’ in different products in order to exploit its potential and generate income to low income families; and cowpea farmers should be encouraged to produced cowpea varieties in commercial quantity so as to meet the demand of consumers and consequently reduce the price of cowpea.