Oluwadara Pelumi Omotayo, Abiodun Olusola Omotayo, Mulunda Mwanza and Olubukola Oluranti Babalola. ToxicolRes 2019;35:1-7. https://doi.org/10.5487/TR.2019.35.1.001

The diverse range of indigenous fruit trees in Africa is a source of untapped potential for food and nutrition security. Here, we review information on 10 indigenous fruit trees that are considered to be underutilized and explore their occurrence, distribution, nutritional components, phytochemicals, and medicinal potentials, as well as their associated challenges and prospects. The indigenous fruit trees, which occur across different ecological zones in Africa, are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, protein, and valuable phytochemicals. They also have recognized medicinal value and used as diverse therapeutic remedies by many ethnic groups in Africa. The key challenges to fruit tree sustainability include indiscriminate and illegal logging, low accessibility, and low acceptability, as well as inadequate research on their cultivation. We proposed a scheme to increase the value chain of underutilized fruit trees, which can contribute to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and other stakeholders mainly through income generation. In addition to the concerted efforts of multidisciplinary research teams encompassing plant breeders, botanists, molecular biologists, food scientists, and horticulturists, there is an urgent need for governments and other international stakeholders to provide incentives and encourage the domestication, commercialization, and agro‐processing of underutilized fruit trees for future economic prosperity of Africa.

Agriculture is the leading sector that is responsible for global climate change through its significant contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Intriguingly, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is experiencing higher temperatures and lesser rainfall due to climate change enhanced by anthropogenic GHG emissions. Agriculture and energy use in the SSA predominantly influence the anthropogenic GHG leading to global warming. Therefore, reducing agricultural GHG emissions (such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) plays a significant role in climate change adaptation. This paper reviews the potential implication of agriculture and energy use on climate change and its implications on environmental sustainability in SSA. Herewith, we explored various GHGs emitted through agriculture-energy use, their effects on climate change, as well as several climate change adaptation mechanisms, and gaps in existing knowledge that necessitate more research, were also explored. We found that agriculture had negative implications on climate change impacts in the SSA countries and that a more focused strategy that is both economically and technically feasible in terms of preferences for land use, effective energy use, and food supply would aid in GHG emission reduction and environmental sustainability. Adapting to the projected changes in the short term while investing in long-term mitigation strategies might be the only way toward a sustainable environment in this region.

Issues relating to food availability, accessibility/affordability, and food utilization remain paramount among different stakeholders such as policymakers and academics. Using data from 250 maize farming households in Nigeria, the study used Foster–Greer–Thorbecke and probit regression model to investigate the factors determining households food security. The food insecurity measure shows that 23.2% points of the households express the incidence of food insecurity while 5.5% points and 1.8% points were found to have depth and severity of food insecurity, respectively. After controlling for households’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics, the probit regression model suggested that, among others, value of output sold, education, credit access and participation in government safety nets program significantly influenced food security among the maize farmers in the study area. Based on our findings, effort should be intensified to enhance the productivity of land through improved production practices. There should be high-level awareness that will increase farmers’ participation in safety net programs. Thus, government at all levels (local, state, and federal) should have adequate budget allocation to this course in order to improve the livelihood outcomes of the farming households.

The formation of agricultural cooperatives has been widely promoted as an agricultural development policy initiative to help smallholder farmers cope with multiple production and marketing challenges. Using a nationally representative survey dataset of smallholder maize producers from rural Nigeria, this study assesses the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on technical efficiency (TE). We based our estimation approach on the combination of a newly developed sample selection stochastic production frontier model with propensity score matching to control for possible selectivity biases from both observables and unobservables. We estimate stochastic meta-frontiers to examine TE differences between cooperative members and non-members. Our results reveal that TE levels of members are consistently higher than that of non-members. This calls for continued policy incentives targeted at encouraging farmers to form as well as participate in agricultural cooperatives.