Vol. 2 No. 3 (2011)

The study examined the degree of market power in the export demand for Nigerian Cocoa with focus on the Dutch Market. The study covered the periods of 1961–2007 and data comprised published national aggregates on specific trade and macroeconomic variables from reputable sources. Two Stage Least Squares (2 SLS) approach was used in the estimation after instrumenting for simultaneity and establishing stationarity alongside cointegration relationship. Findings, on the demand side, showed that the demand for cocoa increases as income of Netherlands (importing country) increases. Total production of the non– participating countries traced out a positive relationship with demand for cocoa by the importing country while the coefficient of price of Coffee (substitute crop) possessed a negative sign. On the supply relation side, the demand for the export crop has a negative sign, indicating decreasing marginal output with respect to cost while the proxy for ocean freight rate with its negative sign, imply increasing export cost. The result further showed that there is relative competitiveness in the Dutch market on the strength of a market power coefficient -0.712 with a Lerner index of 0.122. Based on the findings, the study calls for government intervention in the agricultural export subsector with the aim to revitalize the country’s agricultural export capacity and enhance her market power via increased market shares. These interventions could be in the form of input/production subsidies, targeted export promotion programs, farm settlement, expanded export processing zones to mention but a few.

The present study is an effort to investigate the patterns of female labor force participation in case of Pakistan. In particular, the study analyzed the determinants of female labor force participation decision. The study utilized Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2007-08 data of Punjab. Education is used as a direct human capital variable while; age is a proxy of human capital. The variables used in the analysis are female labour force participation, age, age square, marital status, area, female monthly income, family monthly income, family size, household head education, different classes of female education and employment status. To remove the selectivity bias, the study used Heckman’s (1979) two step procedure. Results of Logit model depicts that household head education, primary, middle, matric & mudrassa education level negatively related with the decision of female labor force participation while, decision towards participation is strong if female belonged to urban area, if she is married, if she has higher education, and if she has large family size. By using ordinary Least Square Method we estimated the earning function. Coefficient of age shows a substantial increase in the wages with each additional year spent. The sign of age square is negative which is according to our expectation and implying the concavity of earning function. Moreover, as the level of education increase the returns to each year of education also increases. In different occupational status females earns more if they are employee, employer or self employed than labourer (a reference category); while female earns less if they belonged to agricultural sector or other sectors than labourer. Married females earn more than others. The respondents’ belonged to urban areas earn more than rural respondents. Moreover, household head education and family size are positively significantly related with female earnings.

It has been claimed that organic agriculture is the fastest growing agriculture based industry in the world. The land devoted to organic agriculture worldwide has increased over the past decade from 15.8 million hectares to 37.2 million hectares exhibiting a compounding rate of growth of 8.9% per annum. This paper disaggregates the global growth in organic agriculture land over the past decade using country as the unit of analysis. For each country, two indices of organics sector growth are derived, firstly, the actual hectares increase, and secondly, the hectares-multiplier, that is the factor by which the organic hectares have changed over the decade. Growth over the past decade is presented for 71 countries which taken together account for 35.3 million organic agricultural hectares, that is 94.8% of the total global organic agriculture area and 58.2% of the total global agriculture area. The analysis reveals that, underlying what appears at the global level to be steady incremental growth over the decade, the growth appears very uneven when disaggregated by country. The decadal increase in organic hectares ranges from Australia’s gain of 4.3 million organic hectares and China’s gain of 1.9 million organic hectares through to Costa Rica’s decrease of 1549 organic hectares. Globally, the organic hectares total has multiplied by 2.3 in the decade from 2001 to 2011, but this has varied greatly by country. Uruguay increased its organic hectares dramatically with a hectares-multiplier of 716.1, and India with a multiplier of 689.7. In contrast, Denmark has barely increased with a hectares-multiplier of 1.07, while Suriname exhibited the greatest shrinkage with a multiplier of 0.03. China and India are the only countries that rank in the top ten countries for both of the indices of organics growth, namely, the decadal organic hectares increase and the decadal organic hectares-multiplier.

This paper explores the significance of transformational and political leadership in strengthening the capacities of truth commissions as effective mechanisms for democratization in transitional polities. First, the paper sets out to trace some of the conflicting goals and political compromises that attend to the establishment of truth commissions in Africa as well as lack of political will on the part of political leadership. The paper then identifies and discusses major problems that confront the institutionalization of truth commissions as veritable instruments of post-conflict transformation and democratic consolidation in the continent. Drawing insights from South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, the paper argues that national reconciliation processes in Africa are characterized by a paradigm shift from the primary concern of leadership choices to those of justice, truth-seeking, granting of amnesty and forgiveness. In conclusion, the paper stresses the role of transformative leadership as crucial to enhancing the capacities of truth commissions in consolidating democracy in post-conflict states.

Poverty and hunger are the two foremost concerns of all the developing and underdeveloped nations and in order to eradicate the menace of those, Govt. of India planned to develop and implement strategies to tackle issues resulting from extremity of poverty and its consequent hunger based on UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Self Help Group (SHG), being one of those strategies brought about a reduction in poverty and hunger after linking rural banks. This endeavor has positively mobilized the rural economy by decreasing poverty hurdles of socio-economically deprived section of the society. This paper highlights here the importance of such groups in the district of Birbhum in the state of West Bengal, India and seeks to spread this innovative programme at each and every corner of the underdeveloped and developing countries with utmost care considering it as exclusive strategy of poverty eradication.

The study examined determinants of agribusiness investment in Nigeria. Data for the study are time series collected on quarterly basis from publications of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and National Population Commission (NPC). Some firms’ specific data were collected from published and unpublished records of forty (40) agribusiness enterprises randomly selected in Nigeria. Vector Auto Regression (VAR) model was used to analyze the data. Among the determinants of agribusiness investment in Nigeria analyzed by the study, tax paid, market size and exchange rate were found to be statistically significant at 5% probability level. Based on the results, it was recommended that government should enforce the policy on five-year tax holiday for young agribusiness firms and also establish Agribusiness Investment Protection Agency which will be charged with the responsibility of liaising with other relevant agencies to create enabling environment for agribusiness firms.

During the primitive civilization and the agricultural civilization, human beings had limited understanding of nature, while the industrial civilization has created unprecedented material wealth and great convenience, the natural resources and ecological environment have been depleted and damaged. This paper illustrates that eco-civilization is the integral product of material, spiritual and regulation achievement; it’s the cultural and ethical manifestation of the harmonic co-existence of human and nature, balanced development, sustainable prosperity. The major characteristics of eco-civilization are studied in this paper, the essence of eco-civilization is to pursue the harmonic co-existence between human and nature and the goal of which is to realize the all-rounded, harmonic and sustainable development of human society. At last, the strategies to construct eco-civilization in China are explained, such as construction of ecological government, establishment and improvement of the laws and regulations to protect the ecological environment, developing ecological and circular economy, utilizing the traditional eco-ethics culture and nurturing the sense of eco-citizen, etc.

This study attempts to investigate whether there could be food insecurity incidence in an "oil city" of Warri, Nigeria. The paper also examines the determinants of food insecurity among the households studied. The socio-economic characteristics of 260 households were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. A food insecurity index was constructed and was used to assess household food insecurity incidence. The results obtained were analysed by means of tables and percentages and found that on the average the incidence of food insecurity is high in the study area, implying that the benefits of oil and gas activities in Warri do not actually benefit all in the communities studied Also, a logit model was specified and tested to determine the factors that affect food insecurity in the study area. The results of the two approaches used in this study reveal that the age of household heads, sex of household heads, the type of occupation of household heads and dependency ratio all exacerbate food insecurity in the study area. The level of educational attainment of household heads, the nature of occupation of household heads and income of house heads tend to reduce the probability of households being food insecure. The study recommends food aid and food subsidy to the vulnerable in the area. It also recommends expanded educational facilities to enable inhabitants attain higher levels of education.