Martin Royal Okechukwu Onwunali

Ginger production is dominated by small holder low-income farmers, though experienced, yield remained consistently and relatively low. Hence the study investigated information needs of farmers using closed structured questionnaires, randomly but purposefully distributed to 120 farmers in Agunu, Gidan Tagwai, Gumel, Kurmin Musa, Kwaturu and Sabon Sarki wards in Kachia. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics, mathematical techniques(Confrontation indexes), correlation and regression analyses at p ≤ 0.05. Results showed that 80.83 % married male (66.67 %) within the ages of 31-40 years (46.67 %) dominated production with average farm size of 1-2 ha and farming experience of 6-7 years. Of the 14 identified information needs, six were needed with pest management (3.85), fertilizer (3.84), marketing information (3.59) and source of credit ranking high while seven were rarely needed but irrigation and water management were not needed. Evidently, ginger farming is basically on traditional technology as major source of information is from parents and friends (39.86 %) coupled with problems like irregular power (3.63), inadequate funds for digital information (3.44) and inadequate information dissemination (3.43). Positive and significant correlation and regression coefficient between demographic data and information needs (sex (R 2 = 0.847), farm size (R 2 = 0.728) and family size (R 2 = 0.707)) indicated strong influence. Therefore, inter alia emphasis on the use of digital knowledge, women involvement, funding, functional extension services, training and retraining of farmers are imperative to improve production and livelihood of farmers.

The study focused on the comparative effect of enrolment, school types, and gender on the achievement of Senior Secondary Agricultural Science students in West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results in Zaria and Sabon Gari Local Government Areas of Kaduna State. Twelve public and private schools were randomly but purposefully selected based on location and certification by the West African Senior Secondary Examination Board. Data were subjected to simple descriptive statistics, chi-square and analysis of variance at p ≤ 0.05. Results showed that of the 3663 candidates, 52% comprised 30.1% male and 21.9% female, and 48% made up of 28.5% male, and 19.5% female enrolled in Sabon Gari and Zaria, respectively. The high significant X 2 value of 158.5 between location and school type indicated bias in enrolment. The significance difference (p ≤ 0.05) in school types showed that, although general performance was poor, Sabon Gari out-performed Zaria students with mean grade of 46.59 and 43.36 corresponding to D7 and E8, respectively. However, quality of performance revealed that private schools in Sabon Gari were better (29.05%) than public ( 19.87%) while public schools in Zaria out-performed (22.04%) private schools (21.75%). Results also showed that gender was not a determinant factor to performance as there was no significant difference in the interaction between male and female students in both locations. However the quality of performance and mean scores were high in Sabon Gari (46.10%) compared to Zaria (44.52 %). Therefore, location and school types had a strong influence on the performance of agricultural science and not gender. Hence efforts should be geared towards providing facilities, trained and qualified teachers, regular an monitoring to facilitate students’ subject.

The study comprehensively analyzed the nexus between economic growth, health expenditures, education, and the environment in Nigeria, using data obtained from Central bank of Nigeria and World Bank. By utilizing a robust dataset spanning from 1981 to 2021, the study employed autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to uncover intricate relationships. Results, both short-run and long-run analyses, reveal that health and education spending, and gross fixed capital formation positively correlated with economic growth. Conversely, the findings demonstrated that population growth and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) exerted detrimental effects on economic growth due to the negative impact on the health of the working population. Additionally, the inverted U-shaped relationship between the macroeconomic footprint and income confirms the validity of Nigeria's Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) phenomenon. Lastly, the findings of this study hold important policy implications, emphasizing the need for technological advancements and innovative solutions to address the challenges associated with economic growth, health expenditures, education, and the environment in Nigeria. Policy measures promoting birth control through contraception and family planning should be embraced to effectively manage the country's rapidly growing population.