ASSESSMENT OF POST HARVEST LOSSES OF LEAFY VEGETABLES AMONG RURAL FARMERS IN KANO AND JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study focused on the assessment of post-harvest losses of leafy vegetables among rural farmers in Kano
and Jigawa State, Nigeria. Three (3) research questions and one (1) hypothesis guided the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprises of Leafy vegetable farmers, marketers and extension agents in Kano and Jigawa States. Purposive sampling method was used in selecting 120 respondents for the study. Three sets of questionnaires were developed from the reviewed literature and were used for data collection from the respondents. The questionnaires were face-validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instruments and a reliability coefficient of 0.71, 0.73, and 0.89 were obtained for the three sets of questionnaire respectively. 120 copies of the questionnaires were administered to the respondents by the researcher with the help of five research assistants and all the copies were retrieved. The data collected were analyzed using frequency distribution table and simple percentage to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses of no Significance difference at the probability of 0.05 at relevant degree of freedom. It was found out that inadequate pre-harvest production practices, poor planning of harvesting time, inadequate storage and processing facilities causes post-harvest loss of leafy vegetables, On the use of technology, majority of the farmers and marketers lack skills for effective re-use of the vegetables for other purposes and it has affected socio-economic status of the rural farmers in the area of income generation, high cost of food items and farm input leading to diversification in production activities. The study recommended improvement in the periodic training of farmers, and extension agents, subsidizing farm inputs and storage and processing facilities towards minimizing post-harvest losses and wastages of leafy vegetables in the study area.