The paradigm shift from value chains to value webs in the emerging bioeconomy has necessitated a review on how agricultural systems transit to value web production systems. This study examines how smallholders in the cassava system in Nigeria have been able to increase utilization of biomass in their production systems. Using a sample of 541 households, the study employed cluster analysis and ordered probit regression to examine the intensity of cassava utilization and the determinants of the intensity of utilization. The study found that over 50% of the respondents were classified as low-intensity utilization households, while ~13% were high-intensity utilization households. Land, social capital, farming experience, and asset ownership increased the probability of intensifying cassava utilization among smallholders. The study recommends strengthening assets acquisition, improving land quality and encouraging social capital development among smallholders.

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The study decomposes the Landscape of Poverty in Nigeria based on the significance of spatial contiguity using Senatorial Districts -level Data. The data used for the study were obtained fro m Nat ional Living Standard Survey and Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire Survey conducted by National Bureau of Statistics in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Exp loratory spatial data analysis and spatial autocorrelation test were carried out on poverty incidence data. Average national poverty rate of the Senatorial Districts (SD) was 56.0%. Forty nine percent of the SD had poverty rate (PR) below the national average. The global Moran's I value obtained is strongly positive (0.6657), indicating that spillover of poverty exist among SD. The study revealed that 52% of the SD with significant spatial association had low PR neighboured by low PR SD (Low-Low), 41% of the SD with high PR were neighboured by high PR SD (High-High) and 7% of SDs with low PR were surrounded by high PR SD (Lo w-High). The mean PR in high-high and low-low SDs was 82.6% and 31.8% respectively. The study recommends that for a significant poverty reduction to be achieved in Nigeria, greater attention in terms of poverty allev iation strategies should be concentrated on the senatorial d istricts that constitute the hotspots of poverty.

Relative to a no-storage regime, competitive storage of soybeans greatly reduces the variance of both annual prices and annual consumption. Variance of production is increased. Expected values of price, consumption, and production are not affected. The government could reduce price variance by about 70 percent of its competitive level through subsidizing storage activity. The research procedure is based on a model of competitive storage under conditions of uncertainty and assuming rational expectations. Farm-level demand and supply functions are estimated. Simulation is used to generate large random samples of values for soybean prices, consumption, production, and year-end stocks.A major result of recent work on the theory of competitive storage is that in periods of sut¡ scarcity, the price of a commodity such as soybeans is determined by stochastic supply and stochastic demand for current consumption or processing. In periods of sufficient abundance, on the other hand, price is determined by supply and total demand, the latter representing the demand for speculative storage, as well as for consumption. (See, for example, the recent works of Peck; Gardner 1979; Helmberger, Weaver, and Haygood; Wright and Williams.) The endogenous variables of the typical model (productionr sumption, price, end-of-period inventory, etc.) are stochastic; and of major interest are the lower-order central moments of their density functions and the manner in which these moments are affected by exogenous variables--the rate of interest, say--and by possible government price stabilization programs. Theoretical analysis of central moments tends to be intractable, however, befor their helpful comments. Sue Brunkow wrote the necessary computer programs.Review was coordinated by Oscar R. Burt, associate editor.cause expected values of endogenous variables are related to exogenous variables in ways that are very compIex. This paper presents the findings of a quantitative analysis of the tole of storage in the temporal pricing of U.S. soybeans. Soybeans were chosen for study in part because government intervention in the pricing of other commodities makes econometric analysis of those commodities relatively more difficult. The algorithm used in estimating competitive equilibria is based on the model developed by Helmberger, Weaver, and Haygood (HWH) and draws upon dynamic stochastic programming. The first section describes the main features of that model. The succeeding sections turn to estimation of the farm-level demand and supply for soybeans and the research methods used in obtaining large random samples of values of endogenous variables under alternative economic conditions. These samples form the basis for estimating lower-order central moments and for examining how estimated moments change in response to changes in exogenous variables.The lite'rature following in the Waugh-OiMassell tradition compares no-storage regimes with those in which storage is used to stabilize price completely. A more recent tendency is to compare no-storage ...

The main issue raised in this paper is the role of Data Banks in the process of generating information for public administration in a country under a Federal System of Government. The conceptual underpinning is based on a data‐information‐decision construct and, an example is drawn from an effort to operationalize the concept within the National Statistical and Information System of Nigeria, a country with a relatively large public sector. The main inference from the paper is that although the availability of data from statistical agencies are necessary ingredients for national development programming, the establishment of data banks as decision support tools, is sinc qua non for success in this direction. This is particularly true of developing countries.