Welcome to University of Abuja institutional repository for research material including: journal articles, conference papers, practice research, video, audio, art works and exhibitions, books and book chapters, doctoral theses and datasets. The repository provides full text access where permitted, and full citation details where restrictions apply. Please contact the Research Support Team (repository@uniabuja.edu.ng) with any related queries.

Recent Submissions

  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ECONOMIES OF SCALE AND RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY OF RICE PRODUCTION AMONG SMALLHOLD FARMING HOUSEHOLDS, FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, NIGERIA
    (2023) ANTHONY, Luka
    This study evaluated gender differences in economies of scale and resource use efficiency in rice production among smallholder farmers in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was adopted for this study. Data were collected through the use of a well-structured questionnaires from 316 sampled smallholder rice farmers. The following statistical and econometrics tools were used to achieve the stated objectives; Descriptive Statistics, Budgetary Technique (Gross Margin Analysis), Financial Analysis, Cobb Douglass Production Function. Marginal Productivity and Resource-Use Efficiency, Economies of Scale, Stochastic Production Frontier, Stochastic Cost Frontier, Problem Confrontation Index, Principal Component Analysis, t-Test Analysis and Z-Test Analysis. The results revealed that 57.6% of the sampled smallholder rice farmers were male-headed smallholder farmers while about 42.4% were female-headed. The average age of the sampled male smallholder farmers was 44 years while the female smallholder farmers had an average age of 42 years. The smallholder male farmers had an average farm size of 3.3 hectares while female farmers had 2.6 hectares. The rate of return on investment estimated for male rice farmers was 1.03, female rice farmers 1.93. This study showed that rice production was profitable for both male and female smallholder rice farmers. The results of the Cobb Douglas production function model revealed that the statistically significant factors influencing the total output of rice production for male smallholder farmers were; seed input P<0.01, farm size P<0.01 and inorganic fertilizer P<0.1 while the statistically significant factors influencing total output of rice production for female smallholder rice farmers were farm size P<0.01, inorganic fertilizer P<0.01 and Labour P<0.01. Also the results show that the estimated return to scale for male rice farmers was 0.7207 while for female rice farmers was 0.6151 and the return to scale for the pooled data was 0.6529 which implies Decreasing Return to Scale (DRS). The study further show that both male and female rice farmers underutilized their production resources. The results of the Stochastic frontier production function show that the statistically significant factors influencing technical efficiency (total output) of rice production for male smallholder rice farmers were seed inputs P<0.01, farm size P<0.01, inorganic fertilizer P<0.05, and labour input P<0.1 while the factors influencing technical efficiency (total output) for female rice farmers were; seed inputs P<0.01, farm size P<0.01, inorganic fertilizer P<0.05 and labour P<0.1 and the pooled data show that the statistically significant factors influencing technical efficiency (total output) of rice production for female farmers were farm size, P<0.1, inorganic fertilizer P<0.01, agrochemical P<0.1 and labour P<0.01. The statistically significant factors influencing technical inefficiencies for male smallholder farmers were sex P<0.01, age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.1, access to credit P<0.05, extension contact P<0.01, farming experience P<0.01, unit price P<0.01and household size P<0.01. The average technical efficiency obtained by male smallholder farmers was 70.2% while female farmers obtained 68.9%. The statistically significant factors influencing technical efficiencies for female smallholder rice farmers were: Age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.01, access to credit P<0.01, farming experience P<0.05, unit price P<0.01, P<0.1 and cooperative association P<0.01. The statistically significant factors influencing total cost of rice production for male smallholder farmers were: Cost of seed P<0.1, total output P<0.01, cost of organic fertilizer P<0.1, cost of inorganic fertilizer P<0.1, cost of agrochemical P<0.1, and cost of labour while the statistically significant factors influencing total cost of rice production for female smallholder rice farmer were: cost of seed P<0.01, cost land rent P<0.01, cost of organic fertilizer P<0.01, cost of inorganic fertilizer P<0.01, agrochemical P<0.1 and labour 0.01 and the poled sample show that the statistically significant factors influencing total cost of rice production among sampled rice farmers were: Cost of seed P<0.01, total output P<0.01, cost of xvii land rent<0.01, cost of organic fertilizer P<0.01, cost of inorganic fertilizer P<0.01 cost of agrochemical P<0.01 and cost of labour P<0.01. The average allocative efficiency score attained by male and female smallholder rice farmers was 73.8% and 79.8% and the pooled sample was 76.5% respectively. The study further show that the statistically significant factors influencing the allocative efficiency of rice production for male smallholder rice farmers were: Age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.05, nonfarm income P<0.1, access to credit P<0.01, extension contact P<0.05 and unit price P<0.05. The statistically significant factors influencing allocative efficiency for female smallholder rice farmers were: Sex P<0.05, age P<0.01, years schooling P<0.05, access to credit P<0.01, extension contact P<0.05, farming experience P<0.05, unit price P<0.05, household size P<0.1 and cooperative association P<0.1. The statistically significant factors influencing economic efficiencies for male smallholder rice farmers were age P<0.05, years schooling P<0.05, access to credit P<0.01, extension contact P<0.1, farming experience P<0.05, unit price P<0.05, price information P<0.1 and household size P<0.01. The average economic efficiency score index obtained by male and female smallholder rice farmers was 51.6% and 55.5% and the pooled sample was 54.6%. The statistically significant factors influencing economic efficiencies for female smallholder rice farmers were: age P<0.1, years schooling P<0.05, nonfarm income P<0.01, access to credit P< 0.05, extension contact P<0.1 farming experience P<0.1, unit price P<0.01 household size P<0.1 and cooperative association P<0.1. The male smallholder rice farmers were confronted with the problems of farmer herder clashes, price fluctuation, poor infrastructure, inadequate farm inputs, high cost of labour, and inadequate capital while the female smallholder rice farmers were confronted with the problems of high cost of labour, inadequate capital, poor infrastructure, discrimination in terms of access to land, inadequate farm inputs and lack of farm machineries. Therefore, the study recommends that farm mechanization and machineries like tractors with farm implement should be provided to both male and female farmers for land preparation in order to reduce drudgery and high cost of labour to maximize high profit, irrigation facilities should also be made available by government to rice farmers as another alternative farming system for food availability all year round, inputs such as improved seed varieties, fertilizers, capital at low interest rate and agrochemical inputs should be provided to farmers by government of Nigeria or NGOs and other stakeholders at affordable price or at subsidized rate and timely, extension services should also be provided to small scale rice farmers on improved rice production, female rice farmers should be granted equal chance or opportunity of having access to land resources to increase productivity, farmers should be encouraged to join cooperative organizations in order to have access to credit facilities and to be able to adopt rice production technologies which will in turn increase their production capacity that might lead into increase in their income, improve their livelihood, food security and welfare of the smallholder farmers in the study area.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    EFFECTS OF E-LEARNING ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KUJE AREA COUNCIL, FCT-ABUJA NIGERIA
    (Kashere Journal of Education, 2025-12-31) ABUBAKAR ZAINAB
    This study explores how e-learning platforms can meaningfully improve biology learning outcomes among Senior Secondary School II students in Kuje Area Council, Abuja, during the 2023/2024 academic session. Through a quasi-experimental design, researchers worked with two schools, designating one as the experimental group where students engaged with e-learning tools and the other as the control group, which continued with traditional classroom instruction. The population of the study consisted of 1,525 SS II students (869 males and 656 females) out of which 105 (56 males and females 49) Biology students II from the two randomly selected senior secondary schools in Kuje Educational Zone, Abuja formed the sample size for the study. The instrument used for data collection was Biology Achievement Test (BAT). The reliability of the instruments was established using Pearson moment correlation coefficient for BAT which yielded a reliability index of 0.78. Data was analysed using mean and standard deviation for research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed compelling evidence of e-learning's effectiveness. Students in the experimental group demonstrated substantial academic gains, with their post-test mean scores significantly surpassing their pre-test performance Additionally, the analysis showed no significant differences in achievement between male and female students, suggesting that elearning benefits students equitably regardless of gender. These results highlight the transformative potential of e-learning platforms in biology education and recommends that their strategic integration into secondary education could contribute meaningfully to enhancing educational quality and supporting broader national development goals.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A WEB-BASED INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR CARDIAC MONITORING
    (2024) OLAMISEGBE, Paul Taiwo
    As Internet use grows, health interventions are increasingly being delivered online. Pioneering researchers are using the networking potential of the internet as a standardized infrastructure for giving access to sophisticated telemedicine applications. This project aims to fabricate a portable ECG monitor and an overall system for remotely monitoring cardiac function of a patient. The portable ECG includes an ECG signal conditioning circuit and a connected wireless communication device to receive patient ECG data and transmit the patient ECG data. ECG signals are first conditioned by the relevant circuitry and then transmitted wirelessly (using Bluetooth/Wi-Fi) to a host computer/ mobile phone that can connect to the internet and transfer the information to a remotely located medical practitioner. The implementation of the system had the hardware and software parts. The hardware stage involved the development of the data acquisition module which gets the ECG signals from the sensor and conditions it in a form that can be sent via Bluetooth/Wi-Fi. The software part entailed serial port programming to receive data via Bluetooth/Wi-Fi, developing the graphic
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,