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The study was on effects of banditry on income and livelihoods of yam marketers in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. Banditry is one the major confronting production and marketing of yam in Shiroro Local Government of Niger State. The activities on banditry over the years have paralysed economic activities since majority of the populace derived their livelihood from farming. The menace posed by banditry has affected rural populace income livelihood thereby making them sojourning in the neighbouring Local Government Area. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 197 of yam marketers. Data were collected using structured  questionnaire and interview scheduled. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (percentages, frequency, count and mean), multiple regression and livelihoods status index. The results revealed that majority of respondents were male with long year of experience in yam marketing. The coefficient of low participation on weekly contribution (Adashi) (1.9823.93) was negatively significant at 10% level of probability. Also, 84.8% of the respondents in the study area were of very low livelihood status. Displacement of yam marketers from their native markets to nearby markets (x̅=2.42) and rising of the price of yam stead (x̅=2.20) were the major constraints faced by yam  marketers. It was recommended that yam marketers should diversify into other income generating activities in order to improve their livelihood status and government should collaborate with village heads for provision of security for yam marketers.

In order to determine the capacity building needs of farmers for safe agro-chemical use in Niger State, the study examined awareness of safety measures for agrochemical usage, sources of awareness, practice of safety measures and training needs of farmers. One hundred and twenty farmers were randomly selected from three local government areas in the state. Validated interview schedule with reliability coefficient of 0.89 was used to collect data. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. All the respondents were aware of wearing of protective clothing and avoiding drinking/eating during spraying, safety measure such as avoiding off label use (7.50%) had low awareness level. The major sources of awareness were friend/relatives (55.00%). The most widely practised safety measure was avoiding ingesting or inhaling chemicals (91.67%), while the least practised safety measure was avoiding off label use (2.50%).Reasons given for not practicing some safety measures include heaviness of protective clothing (17.50%) and unreadable nature of instruction labels (14.17%). Major areas of training needs of the respondents were application (61.67%) and handling (52.50%) of agro-chemicals. A positive significant correlation existed between education (r = 0.461), farming experience (r = 0.337), farm income (r = 0.307) and practice of safety measures. It was therefore recommended that enlightenment campaign should be carried out in the State to raise awareness level for safe use of agro-chemicals in the agricultural transformation programme, while the characters of the instruction labels should be boldly written to facilitate reading and practice of safety measures.

The title of the study is Probit analysis of women's access to agricultural inputs in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to identify the socio-economic characteristics of the women farmers and examine their sources of agricultural inputs as well as their accessibility to these inputs, including problems they faced in accessing the inputs. To achieve these, a total of 140 women farmers were purposively selected from 10 wards of the LGA. Validated Interview Schedule with reliability coefficient of 0.87 was used to collect relevant data from the respondents. Findings revealed that majority of the women farmers were within active productive age of between 21 and 50 years, mostly without formal education (64.3%) and married(81.4%).Also, most of the women engaged in farming either as a full or part time farmers. Similarly, few women had regular access to credit facilities and fertilizer .The problem adduced by the women farmers were discrimination against them and poor rural roads. Furthermore, probit analysis showed that 64% variation in the adequacy of inputs purchased by the women farmers was significantly explained by their access to labour, fertilizer, agro-chemicals and distance between individual farms and points of sales of agricultural inputs .It is recommended that women farmers should be encouraged to form co-operative groups in order to enhance their access to relevant inputs. Similarly, the Local Government Authority should try and rehabilitate the existing rural roads in addition to the construction of other roads with a view to linking the various villages and towns for easy transportation.