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This study aims to explore possible ways to promote uptake and integration of climate-smart agriculture (CSA)-Technologies, Innovations and Management Practices (TIMPS) into policy and practice in Nigeria through the development of actionable roadmaps to facilitate the process.

Two hundred and fifty-two stakeholders for the policy discourse and survey were purposively drawn from both government and private agencies, NGOs and community-based associations from the six geo-political zones of the country. Data collection was done using a mixed method comprising questionnaire administration, in-depth interviews and panel discussion. Data collected was summarised using descriptive statistics.

The major findings were lack of existing policies on CSA, lack of farmers’ awareness of CSA-TIMPs, neglect of extension programmes that can help to enlighten farmers on the importance of CSA and insufficient extension personnel to cater for farmers’ needs. Challenges to CSA-TIMPs uptake in Nigeria were: insufficient funding and support by government in programme planning and implementation, policy inconsistencies and poor farmers’ attitude and resistance to change.

This research will facilitate CSA uptake and integration through the provision of data for informed decision and action by the responsible agencies.

Suggested actionable roadmaps across the zones were robust awareness campaign and advocacy on uptake of CSA-TIMPs through e-extension, community TV/radio in local dialects; revitalisation of policy programmes such as monthly meetings should be reintroduced and creation of CSA Departments/Stations in each state; increased budget allocation to a minimum of 10% for agriculture, revitalisation of Researchers-Extension Agents-Farmers Linkage, employment of qualified extension agents and retraining of extension agents.

While there is an urgent need for clean water in Ghana and Nigeria, governments lack the financial means to do much to address this need. This does not mean that improving access to clean water is impossible. On the contrary, this paper argued that engaging citizens through co-production, as is already being done in developed countries in the fields of care-giving, waste management, healthcare and community policing, could provide a successful strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine how public water facilities are being managed to improve and sustain access to clean water for domestic use in rural areas in Ghana and Nigeria.

A survey interview with households and in-depth interviews with water professionals were conducted in Ghana and Nigeria to help the authors understand the practicalities of the co-production of clean water and how this is improving and maintaining access to clean water sources. The paper draws on a philosophical framework of “deep” citizen engagement to describe the merits of co-production and how it works in practice in developing countries.

Based on the interviews with officials and surveys among the population of rural areas in the two countries studied, the authors found that the two countries vary significantly in their approach to water management decisions and the extent to which citizens are involved. Ghana’s approach seems much more successful than Nigeria when it comes to maintaining boreholes for water supply with the help of the population. In Nigeria, three-quarters of the public water facilities are non-functional, while in Ghana, community involvement in maintaining public water facilities has resulted in the sustained use of boreholes and eliminated the lack of access to clean water in many communities.

This paper contributes to the practical understanding of co-production in developing countries and the potential of such co-production in improving clean water access. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous scientific research has studied how co-production can improve and sustain access specifically to clean water sources in developing countries, and this paper aimed to fill this gap.

This paper aims to shed light on gender inequality in Nigeria exploring new available data. It makes a case for attention to women empowerment and likely economic outcomes. The general objective of the research work is to ascertain the direction of gender inequality and show the pattern of inequality. Also, sectoral trends are obtained by analyzing and examining income inequality in Nigeria.

The paper obtained data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey Wave 3, published 2017 with emphasis on the earnings that accrued to both male and female. The study employed the ordinary least square (OLS) method to show the relationship between the mean income and other parameters such as the sector of employment, marital status and education level. Theil’s entropy index was used to measure the within and between inequality that exist in the economy and across regions and sectors while adopting the overcrowding theory.

The result shows that gender inequality is more pronounced across the region, location and in some sectors of employment than the others. Geographical area has a higher effect on earnings disparity but is more pronounced among females. Also, the result showed that gender within inequality was high in the regions, education, location, and marital status while a higher level of education contributes to high wages for women. However, married women are more deprived.

This study has further revealed the need to bridge the gap gender inequality has caused in Nigeria, especially related to income, education and geographical location, with a focus on both opportunities and outcomes.

This study analyses income inequality and distribution patterns among key actors in the cassava value chain. The study also identifies factors that influence profit of key actors in the cassava value chain.

The study was conducted in Oyo State, Nigeria, using primary data from 620 actors, consisting of 400 farmers, 120 processors and 100 traders in the cassava value chain. The Gini coefficient was used to estimate income inequalities within and between actors. Multiple linear regression was applied to identify factors that influence the profit of the actors in the cassava value chain.

The result shows a gender pattern in the participation in the cassava value chain: men dominate in the production, whereas women mostly engage in processing and marketing of processed cassava products. We also find that incomes are unequally distributed among actors, favouring traders and processors more than farmers in the value chain. Women are better off in processing and trading of value-added products than in the raw cassava production. Spatial differences also contribute to income inequality among farmers in the cassava value chain. An increase in farmers and processors’ incomes reduces inequality in the value chain while an increase in traders’ income widens inequality. Age is significantly negatively correlated with actors’ profit at 1%, while educational level significantly increases their profit at 5%. Processors and traders with large households have a higher profit. We also find that farm size, experience and labour input have significant positive effects on farmers’ profit only at 5%. Membership in an association increases farmers and processors’ profit at 1 and 10%, respectively.

The study recommends that agricultural policies that promote agrifood value chains should aim at minimizing income inequality by targeting vulnerable groups, particularly female farmers to achieve sustainable development in rural communities.

Existing studies recognise income inequality in agricultural value chains in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there are few rigorous quantitative studies that address this pressing issue. Our paper fills this knowledge gap and suggests ways to minimise income inequality in the agri-food value chain, using the example of the cassava value chain in Nigeria.

The implementation of mobile health (mHealth) in developing countries seems to be stuck in a pattern of successive pilot studies that struggle for mainstream implementation. This study addresses the research question: what existing health-related structures, properties and practices are presented by rural areas of developing countries that might inhibit the implementation of mHealth initiatives?

This study was conducted using a socio-material approach, based on an exploratory case study in West Africa. Interviews and participant observation were used to gather data. A thematic analysis identified important social and material agencies, practices and imbrications which may limit the effectiveness of mHealth apps in the region.

Findings show that, while urban healthcare is highly structured, best practice-led, rural healthcare relies on peer-based knowledge sharing, and community support. This has implications for the enacted materiality of mobile technologies. While urban actors see mHealth as a tool for automation and the enforcement of responsible healthcare best practice, rural actors see mHealth as a tool for greater interconnectivity and independent, decentralised care.

This study has two significant limitations. First, the study focussed on a region where technology-enabled guideline-driven treatment is the main mHealth concern. Second, consistent with the exploratory nature of this study, the qualitative methodology and the single-case design, the study makes no claim to statistical generalisability.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to adopt a socio-material view that considers existing structures and practices that may influence the widespread adoption and assimilation of a new mHealth app. This helps identify contextual challenges that are limiting the potential of mHealth to improve outcomes in rural areas of developing countries.

Betting games have become a global industry worth billions of dollars providing employment to millions and contributing to the gross domestic product (GDP) of several countries. While there are debates and controversies surrounding betting games discourse, a growing body of literature shows that it has been exacerbated by growing unemployment rates. This paper aims to examine the nexus between the increasing involvement of youth in betting games and unemployment from the Nigerian perspective.

The study adopts simple random and stratified sampling techniques to select participants for the study. Three hypotheses were tested for this study and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

The three hypotheses tested in this study were coined from previous literature. The study established a direct link between technology advancement, promises of winning big coupled with bonuses while unemployment was not significant to youth involvement in betting games. The study also showed that playing betting games provides another source of income to the youth, who are already engaged in one form of work or another. Finally, youth involvement in betting games has created awareness regarding different sports in the world, while contributing to Nigeria’s economy.

As betting games centre as a business in Nigeria has contributed substantially and positively to unemployment in Nigeria; the Government of Nigeria are encouraged to streamline and regulate the activities of the sector such that they can contribute significantly to the country GDP and provide employment opportunities to the youths.

The research shows that the reason why betting games have a massive turnaround of youths in Nigeria is not majorly because of unemployment but as another means to a substantial financial individual/family income. Thus, Nigerian youths see betting games as an avenue to make more money. The study is the first of its kind to examine the nexus between betting games, technology and unemployment hence, its contribution to knowledge.

The interconnections between climate change and health are well studied. However, there is a perceived need for studies that examine how responses to health hazards (e.g. cardiovascular diseases, ozone layer effects, allergens, mental health and vector-borne diseases) may assist in reducing their impacts. The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence on health responses to climate hazards and list some measures to address them.

A mixed literature review, bibliometric analysis and an original online survey were undertaken on 140 participants from 55 countries spread across all geographical regions.

The bibliometric analysis identified that most climate-related health hazards are associated with extreme weather events. However, only one-third of the investigated papers specifically analysed the connections between climate change and health hazards, revealing a thematic gap. Also, although Africa is highly affected by climate change, only 5% of the assessed studies focused on this continent. Many respondents to the survey indicated “heat distress” as a significant vulnerability. The survey also identified social determinants relevant to climate-induced health vulnerabilities, such as socioeconomic and environmental factors, infrastructure and pre-existing health conditions. Most respondents agree that policies and regulations are the most effective adaptation tools to address the public health hazards triggered by climate change. This paper presents some suggestions for optimising public health responses to health hazards associated with climate change, such as the inclusion of climate-related components in public health policies, setting up monitoring systems to assess the extent to which specific climate events may pose a health threat, establishing plans to cope with the health implications of heatwaves, increased measures to protect vulnerable groups and education and awareness-raising initiatives to reduce the overall vulnerability of the population to climate-related health hazards. These measures may assist the ongoing global efforts to understand better – and cope with – the impacts of climate change on health.

The combination of a literature review, bibliometric analysis and an original world survey identified and presented a wide range of responses.

Farmers are the largest group of financially excluded persons in Nigeria, thereby highlighting the supply shortfall in finance to agriculture in Nigeria. Availability of finance would go a long way in improving output and productivity in agriculture, and consequently help in reducing poverty. This study conducts an empirical investigation of the effects of financial inclusion on agricultural productivity in Nigeria.

This study makes use of the Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). This is a new data set on agricultural households which contains information on agricultural activities and various household activities, including banking, savings and insurance behaviour. Considering the data are such that there are observations for households over three time periods, the study exploits the time series and cross-section dimension of the data by using panel data estimation.

The empirical results of the study show that financial inclusion, irrespective of how it is measured, has exerted positive and statistically significant effects on agricultural productivity in Nigeria.

While considerable research has been conducted to examine how finance affects broad macroeconomic aggregates, little is known about the effects of finance at the household and individual level. It is important to explicitly account for financial inclusion when examining the effects of finance on individuals and households. This study improves on existing research and offers new insights into the effects of financial inclusion on the economic activities of agricultural households in Nigeria.

We study five exogenous shocks: climate, violence, price hikes, spoilage and the COVID-19 lockdown. We analyze the association between these shocks and trader characteristics, reflecting trader vulnerability.

Using primary survey data on 1,100 Nigerian maize traders for 2021 (controlling for shocks in 2017), we use probit models to estimate the probabilities of experiencing climate, violence, disease and cost shocks associated with trader characteristics (gender, size and region) and to estimate the probability of vulnerability (experiencing severe impacts).

Traders are prone to experiencing more than one shock, which increases the intensity of the shocks. Price shocks are often accompanied by violence, climate and COVID-19 shocks. The poorer northern region is disproportionately affected by shocks. Northern traders experience more price shocks while Southern traders are more affected by violence shocks given their dependence on long supply chains from the north for their maize. Female traders are more likely to experience violent events than men who tend to be more exposed to climate shocks.

The data only permit analysis of the general degree of impact of a shock rather than quantifying lost income.

This paper is the first to analyze the incidence of multiple shocks on grain traders and the unequal distribution of negative impacts. It is the first such in Africa based on a large sample of grain traders from a primary survey.

Despite the potential for co-operatives to improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods, membership in the co-operatives is low. This study examines factors that influence smallholder farmers' decisions to join agricultural co-operatives.

This study involved a survey of 1,274 smallholder chicken farmers. The data were analysed through a two-sample t-test of association, Pearson's Chi-square test and binary probit regression model.

The results suggest that farming as the main source of income, owning a chicken house, education attainment, attending training or accessing information, vaccination of goats and keeping a larger herd of goats are the key factors which significantly influence co-operative membership. However, gender, age, household size, distance to the nearest agrovet, vaccinating chicken and the number of chickens kept do not influence co-operative membership.

The survey did not capture data on some variables which have been shown to influence co-operative membership. Nevertheless, the results show key explanatory variables which influence membership in co-operatives.

These findings have implications for development agencies that seek to use co-operatives for agricultural development and improvement of smallholder farmers' livelihoods. The agencies can use the results to initiate interventions relevant for different types of smallholder farmers through co-operatives.

This study highlights the influence of smallholder farmers' financial investments in farming and the extent of commercialisation on co-operative membership. Due to low membership in co-operatives, recognising the heterogeneity of smallholder farmers is the key in agricultural development interventions through co-operative membership.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2022-0165.