Tag: Nigeria

This study examines the impact of access to bank and non-bank credit on rice productivity and output. It employed the coarsened exact matching (CEM) model and qualitative methods for primary data on a purposive sample of 450 rice farmers across three Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Pre-matching results suggest that access to non-bank credit and access to total credit significantly affected labour productivity and output, while access to bank credit significantly affected output. However, the post-matching results show that access to all three categories of credit has no significant effect on either output or capital, labour, and total factor productivity. This study therefore recommends that for an improved production and productivity yield among rice farmers in the state, policies should focus on the issues of improved quality of education and constraints in accessing loans/credits.

Many studies have explored the impact of macroeconomic factors on the growth and output of the agricultural sector in Nigeria with focus on the aggregate output. Some studies narrowed down focus on the crop subsector while neglecting the fisheries subsector which is an important source of cheap protein for our increasing population, a source of employment for the unemployed and also key to achieving the first three sustainable development goals 2030. In this study, we investigated the influence of FDI on agriculture and exchange rates on the output of the fisheries subsector using time series data that spans from 1980-2018. A Vector Autoregressive Model was also used alongside a growth model. The findings indicate positive growth in the fisheries subsector. FDI to agriculture and exchange rate movements were both found to affect the fisheries subsector positively in the long run, whereas only FDI to agriculture was found to exert a positive influence in the short run. Policies to attract FDI to the sector are thus advocated for, while macroeconomic policies to stabilise the Nigerian currency (naira) against the US dollar are also advised.