Ecological and Socio-economic Factors Affecting Agricultural Intensification in the West African Savannas: Evidence from Northern Nigeria

I O Okike, Mohammad Jabbar (), Victor M. Manyong and J W Smith

No 182991, Research Reports from International Livestock Research Institute

Abstract: Agricultural intensification in West Africa is at an early stage and the process is taking place through various pathways. Population pressure and market access are generally considered as major factors driving intensification and crop-livestock interaction. In this paper both ecology and economic factors and their interactions are hypothesised as driving forces in intensification and crop-livestock interaction. Analyses of a survey involving farming households in Nigeria confirm the hypothesis and show that the degree of intensification is higher in the Sudan savanna than the Northern Guinea savanna. Intensification is occurring mostly through higher land and labor use intensity, higher livestock stocking rates and application of more manure per hectare. It is concluded that policies to enhance market access will facilitate the process and that different technological options need to be pursued in the two agroecological zones to facilitate intensification.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Farm Management; Production Economics; Productivity Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/182991/files/2 ... geria-Okike--JSA.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ilrirr:182991

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.182991

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Reports from International Livestock Research Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().