The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) is pleased to announce a new publication from the International Food Policy Research Institute's HarvestPlus program entitled "Determinants of adoption of improved cassava varieties among farming households in Oyo, Benue, and Akwa Ibom states of Nigeria"  by Abdoulaye Tahirou, A.S. Bamire, Adewale Oparinde, and A.A. Akinola as the 20th publication of the HarvestPlus Working Paper Series.

Abstract: Biofortified pro-vitamin A cassava varieties are being developed and deployed in Nigeria and other countries. Understanding the adoption pathways of already released non-biofortified improved cassava varieties can inform decision makers on how best to disseminate the newly developed varieties. This paper empirically investigated factors influencing adoption of the improved cassava varieties in Akwa Ibom, Benue, and Oyo states in Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a sample of 1,609 farming households. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Probit regression model. The results* showed that Oyo State had the highest reported rate of improved cassava use (69 percent of farmers surveyed), followed by Benue (52 percent), with the lowest in Akwa Ibom (38 percent). The variables that significantly influenced adoption of improved cassava varieties include education (p<0.01), livestock ownership (p<0.05), access to extension services (p<0.01), farmers’ organizations (p<0.05), participation in demonstration trials, and location-specific variables (p<0.01). The positive influence of the location-specific variable in favor of Oyo compared with Benue could be linked to proximity to, and the activities of, international and national research institutes. Within states, regression analysis reveals significant differences across agricultural extension zones. This suggests the need to develop localized strategies that account for applicable socioeconomic and institutional conditions. To increase adoption, an intensive program for farmers’ participation in on-farm demonstration trials should be considered. This can be achieved by facilitating group formation to encourage increased knowledge sharing among members, thereby promoting uptake of newly developed pro-vitamin A cassava varieties.

The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) is pleased to announce the release of the 2015 Global Nutrition Report: Actions and Accountability to Advance Nutrition and Sustainable Development recently released by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Children whose growth is stunted, people who don’t get enough vitamins and minerals for a healthy life, adults who are overweight and obese—malnutrition takes many forms and affects every country on earth. A problem of staggering size, malnutrition is widespread enough to threaten the world’s sustainable development ambitions.

The Global Nutrition Report 2015 is a report card on the world’s nutrition—globally, regionally, and country by country—and on efforts to improve it. It assesses countries’ progress in meeting global nutrition targets established by the World Health Assembly. It documents how well countries, aid donors, NGOs, businesses, and others are meeting the commitments they made at the major Nutrition for Growth summit in 2013. And it spells out the actions that proven effective in combating malnutrition in all its forms.

The 2015 report makes it clear that global progress to reduce malnutrition has been slow and uneven. Nearly half of all countries face multiple serious burdens of malnutrition such as poor child growth, micronutrient deficiency, and adult overweight and obesity. No country is on track to achieve the global nutrition targets established by the World Health Assembly. Some countries, however, have made notable progress and the Report seeks to understand the factors that contributed to improvements.

The second in an annual series, the Global Nutrition Report 2015 also highlights the critical relationship between climate change and nutrition, as well as the pivotal role business can play in advancing nutrition. It considers how countries can build food systems that are more nutrition friendly and sustainable.
With a wealth of data and analysis, the report aims to improve accountability among the governments, institutions, businesses, and others whose actions affect people’s nutrition. It is accompanied by extensive supplementary online data, including nutritional profiles for 193 countries, 6 regions, and 22 subregions.

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The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) is pleased to announce the release of the 2015 Global Hunger Index: Armed Conflict and the Challenge of Hunger by Klaus Von Grebmer, Jill Bernstein, Alex De Waal, Nilam Prasai, Sandra Yin, and Yisehac Yohannes. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally and by country and region. Calculated each year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the GHI highlights successes and failures in hunger reduction and provides insights into the drivers of hunger. By raising awareness and understanding of regional and country differences in hunger, the GHI aims to trigger actions to reduce hunger.

The level of hunger in developing countries as a group has fallen by 27 percent since 2000. While the world has made progress in reducing hunger in recent decades, the state of hunger is still serious or alarming in 52 countries.

These findings come from the 2015 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, the tenth in an annual series that tracks the state of hunger worldwide, regionally, and by country, turning a spotlight on those regions and countries where action is needed most to address hunger.

This report's GHI scores are based on a new, improved formula that reflects the multidimensional nature of hunger by combining four indicators related to undernourishment, wasting, stunting, and child mortality.

The report features an essay, "Armed Conflict and the Challenge of Hunger: Is an End in Sight?" In it, Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation, shares a scoop about a historic achievement. Calamitous famines—those that cause more than 1 million deaths each—seem to have disappeared. He analyzes the reasons behind the famines as well as what needs to be done to prevent them from coming back.

Although hunger and armed conflict have often traveled hand in hand, history has shown that hunger can be averted. If humanitarian responses in the modern world are effective, conflict need not necessarily lead to the extreme hunger that is famine.

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The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) is pleased to announce the publication of “Characteristics of private-sector tractor service provisions: Insights from Nigeria” by Hiroyuki Takeshima, Hyacinth O. Edeh, Akeem O. Lawal, Moshud A. Isiaka in The Developing Economies (Vol. 54 Issue 3).

Abstract: Agricultural mechanization has been integral to agricultural transformation during periods of development. Mechanization-service provisions can be constrained by economies of scale, seasonality, limited mobility, or heterogeneous inputs quality. However, information has been scarce regarding how the private sector has overcome these constraints especially in countries like Nigeria that are at low agricultural development stages. We present the results of a small survey of tractor owner-operators conducted in Nigeria. We find that existing private-sector tractor-hiring services in Nigeria are indeed constrained. However, we also find heterogeneity among these owner-operators. In particular, those who buy tractors from private markets or from private individuals are more efficient than those who receive tractors through government programs, providing services to a greater area at lower costs, including during off-peak seasons, sometimes selecting machinery types according to soil types. We conclude with a discussion of some policy implications.