An appraisal of the efficiency of fish marketing system in Lake Chad basin

Fish products from the Chad Basin Lake play important role in meeting fish protein needs of Nigeria: they contribute not less than 25% of the total domestic fish supply and are significant in determining the availability of processed products and reduction of post-harvest losses. Processors, marketers and consumers are the major actors in appraising a marketing system. The results show that most sellers (4-7.5%) are within the age range of 30-39 years. Desires for more earnings led the markets to diversify their business activities to food stuff trading (37.5%), dried meat/livestock sales (37.5%), farming (12.5%), and transportation (12.5%). 65% of traders dispose off their products mostly in the mornings and evenings, 70% of the products are sold smoked while 50% of products are sold to individual consumers. Lake Chad fish products have a long distribution chain. There is also a high degree of buyers and sellers concentration in the primary fish markets and secondary (urban) markets. The products have a vertical regional movement with southern traders (82.5%) dominating the business, thus making the products popular all over Nigeria. Product differentiation with imperfect pricing policy is common occurrence. Lake Chad fish marketing system has distortions that impede its efficiency, recommendations are made on how to ensure a better efficiency of the system

Adapting to climate change: Combining economics and geomorphology in coastal policy

How is climate change affecting our coastal environment? How can coastal communities adapt to sea level rise and increased storm risk? These questions have garnered tremendous interest from scientists and policy makers alike, as the dynamic coastal environment is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Over half the world population lives and works in a coastal zone less than 120 miles wide, thereby being continuously affected by the changes in the coastal environment [6]. Housing markets are directly influenced by the physical processes that govern coastal systems. Beach towns like Oak Island in North Carolina (NC) face severe erosion, and the tax assesed value of one coastal property fell by 93% in 2007 [9]. With almost ninety percent of the sandy beaches in the US facing moderate to severe erosion [8], coastal communities often intervene to stabilize the shoreline and hold back the sea in order to protect coastal property and infrastructure. Beach nourishment, which is the process of rebuilding a beach by periodically replacing an eroding section of the beach with sand dredged from another location, is a policy for erosion control in many parts of the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts [3]. Beach nourishment projects in the United States are primarily federally funded and implemented by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) after a benefit-cost analysis. Benefits from beach nourishment include reduction in storm damage and recreational benefits from a wider beach. Costs would include the expected cost of construction, present value of periodic maintenance, and any external cost such as the environmental cost associated with a nourishment project (NOAA). Federal appropriations for nourishment totaled $787 million from 1995 to 2002 [10]. Human interventions to stabilize shorelines and physical coastal dynamics are strongly coupled. The value of the beach, in the form of storm protection and recreation amenities, is at least partly capitalized into property values. These beach values ultimately influence the benefit-cost analysis in support of shoreline stabilization policy, which, in turn, affects the shoreline dynamics. This paper explores the policy implications of this circularity. With a better understanding of the physical-economic feedbacks, policy makers can more effectively design climate change adaptation strategies. (PDF contains 4 pages)