Volumen 50 (2017): Heft 3 (September 2017)

Though smallholder goat enterprise has been a major source of livelihood in most African communities for ages, yet little efforts exist to explore its full potential through commercialization. While much has been done to improve agricultural production in the small-scale sector, little is known and documented about the current state of goat production and marketing in most parts of Nigeria. Using proportionate sampling, data were collected from 160 smallholder goat producers and 220 consumers making a total of 380 respondents for the study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, budgetary analyses, multiple regression and Likert Scale Technique. The study showed that smallholder goat enterprise was female-dominated with majority aged between 51 - 60 years. The average cost, average revenue and gross margin per production season were ₦12,471.78, ₦16,755.51 and ₦4,904.61, respectively. The farmers realized ₦430.20, ₦450.80, ₦252.00 and ₦363.50 on a kilogram of buck, doe, male and female kids, respectively. Smallholder goat enterprise was profitable in the study area because the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) showed that every ₦100 invested per goat yielded ₦34.00 more and above the money invested. The multiple regression model analysis showed that management practice (P < 0.01), gender (P < 0.1), age of cost of medication (P < 0.01) and flock size (P < 0.05) significantly influence the profitability of smallholder goat production in the study area. The result of Likert’s scale indicated that 66.8 % of the consumers preferred goat meat to other meats because of its availability (56.8 %) and taste (22.3 %). Therefore, it is recommended that efforts should be put into commercializing goat enterprise in the tropics using the intensive system.

This study explains volatility as a measure and interaction of the possible movement in a particular economic variable. Prices change rapidly in adjustment to market circumstances. Food prices hike experienced overyears has resulted in widespread menace which led to increase in food price volatility. However, volatility and co-movement had generally been lower for the past two decades than for the previous ones. Wide price movements over a short period of time connote high volatility, rendering the producers and consumers vulnerable. Excess volatility can be subjected to sector ineffectiveness and is commodity specific. Producers and processors are mostly concerned about increased price volatility, which greatly exposed them to unpredictable risks and uncertainty associated with price changes. This study examined the volatility and co-movement of food commodity prices in Nigeria using price series data on rice, maize, sorghum, cassava and yam for the period of 1966 to 2013. The data were analysed using Vector Autoregressive Model to forecast food price volatility and to examine the food commodity prices that Granger cause food price volatility in other food commodities. The GARCH regression model is used to estimate the magnitude of volatility which revealed that, food commodity prices exhibit high volatility and there is persistent increase in prices over the period of study. The Nigerian food commodity prices have experienced high fluctuations over the period; therefore, the study recommends proper storage facilities and infrastructure for the food distribution corporations in Nigeria.

The study evaluates the effect of the socioeconomic variables and income on farmers risk attitude in Sokoto State. Data were elicited with the use of a structured questionnaire. The primary data used were obtained from structured questionnaire administered to 120 randomly selected farmers. Binary Logistic regression model was used in the analysis of data. The results showed that farmers’ age, farm size and access to extension service significantly influenced the farmers’ risk attitude. These were found to be statistically significant at (P < 0.05) level. The study therefore suggests that there is an apparent need for serious extension work to raise the awareness level of the farmers and to identify solutions to their problems as well as suggest ways on how such solutions can be achieved.

Globalization era starting in full in the 1990s brought entirely new conditions for epizootic disease spreading and control at global level. Significantly intensified global trade in animals and their products without any effective sanitary filter has facilitated mass worldwide spreading of the pathogens. Huge daily flow of exported non-pathogen-free animal commodities has led to rapid deterioration of global epizootiological situation. Never in the history did global occurrence of animal infections worsen as in present time when the amount of scientific knowledge is the largest in human history. Thus an important gap occurred in the structure of life sciences. No institution has yet started to fill this gap with missing scientific branch dealing with planet-wide epizootiological triad (animals - pathogens - environment) as with one compact dynamic biological system within the biocoenosis envelope surrounding the Earth. There has been an urgent need to develop new epizootiological methods in order to achieve desirable results in the protection of animal population health covering our entire planet. The author therefore used the opportunity provided by ResearchGate network. This made it possible to start a “Global Epizootiology” project as a new scientific branch dedicated to population health and epizootic disease control of all species of animal kingdom in the whole world. Its definition, objectives and content have been formulated. In conclusion, anthropocentric priorities have to be the protection of world human population against diseases transmissible from other species and global production of safe food of animal origin. During the first year ResearchGate Global Epizootiology Project reached 1,159 publications and update reads.