ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to
determine the agricultural extension needs of farmers in Telfaria
production and marketing in Enugu north agricultural zone of Enugu state,
Nigeria. Four Local Government Areas (LGAs) namely: Udenu, Nsukka, Igbo-Etiti
and Uzo-Uwani were used for the study out of the six Local Government Areas
that make up both Nsukka and Enugu zones of Enugu north agricultural zone. In
each of these Local Government Areas, two town communities were purposefully
selected based on the dominance of Telfaria production and marketing.
These town communities were Ozalla and Ohodo from Igbo-Etiti, Ede-Oballa and
Opi from Nsukka, Adani and Opanda from Uzo-Uwani and Obollo-Afor and Orba from
Udenu Local Government Areas. In each of the 8 town communities, 20 respondents
were selected giving a total of one hundred and sixty (160) respondents. Data collection
instruments used were interview schedule and questionnaire. Data collected were
analyzed using frequency counts, percentage, mean scores, standard deviation
and factor analysis. The personal characteristics of farmers, extension needs,
marketing information and channels, and production and marketing systems were
analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviation
while production and marketing constraints were analyzed with mean scores and
factor analysis. The result of the study showed that majority (58.1%) of the
farmers were females, the mean age of the farmers was 33.4 years, majority
(66.9%) were familied while majority (94.4%) of them obtained formal education.
The household size was high as majority (73.8%) had a household population of 1
– 9 persons, 63.1% were part time Telfaria producers, 55.6% produced in
a small scale while a good proportion (40.6%) had 1 – 4 years Telfaria
farming experience. The extension needs of farmers as analyzed revealed that
greater percentage (63.1%) had no extension contact and the few (36.9%) that
had did not have contacts often as majority (57.7%) indicated. Areas
information were received were mainly (54.2%) on planting and post planting
operations. However, farmers needed assistance in sourcing farm input (M =
3.62), appropriate marketing channel (M = 3.18) and other factors such as
sourcing farm credit, tools, seed processing and other areas. In the production
systems, about 50% planted between April and June, 48.12% planted on seed beds,
59.4% treated seeds before planting mainly with wood ash. The cropping system
used was mainly mixed cropping and the respondents applied various forms of
single, compound and organic fertilizers through broadcasting method at 4 weeks
interval. Majority (62.6%) controlled pests and diseases as well as weeds
mainly through cultural and biological methods. All (100%) the farmers
harvested with sharp razor blades and knives and majority (55.5%) harvested at
1 – 2 weeks interval. Most (56.9%) of the farmers marketed locally and some
marketing factors such as season of the year, quality of produce, number of
buyers, distance, weight measures and location determined the level of sales.
The major constraints to effective production and marketing of the crop included
infrastructural, technical, logistics and financial constraints. In conclusion,
the study revealed that there are extension needs of Telfaria producers.
It is therefore recommended that various extension agents posted to different
locations should embark on creating vigorous awareness on the production
practices of the crop to redirect the farmers towards appropriate strategies
for the effective production and marketing of the crop.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
information
Vegetables
are among the major dietary intake in our everyday life. Vegetables usually
augment nutritive value of most of our staple food which are
deficient in vitamin, protein
and minerals (Nwalieji, 2006). Amongst these vegetables, fluted pumpkin (Telfaria)
is one of the major tropical leafy vegetable crops grown in most parts of West
Africa, Nigeria inclusive. Ugwu (2001) reports that Telfaria is highly
valued among the vegetables produced and consumed by the West African populace.
The leaves, stems and seeds have high nutritional, medicinal as well as
economic values
Nutritionally,
the crop is highly rich in protein, oil, vitamins, iron and minerals. These food
nutrients form the basis for balanced diet. Telfaria is also noted for
curing some ailments such as menstrual disorders in women, infertility in both
men and women as well as correcting anaemia especially in children, pregnant
and lactating mothers (Umeha, 2002). Economically, it yields much income to
farmers regularly. The economic values of the crop cannot be over emphasized.
Ugwu (2001) notes that it is an important cash crop known for steady supply of
income to farmers. However, vegetables also have economic potential to give
quick turnover to farmers when compared to some other crops grown in Nigeria,
such as banana, plantain, yam, rice and so on. According to Eleke (2004) Telfaria
production as well as other vegetables help to earn much money annually with a
little start-up capital as against most arable crops.
In spite of
the numerous values of this crop, a few farmers pay little or no attention to Telfaria
production. Some of the few producers still produce at a family consumption level
neglecting commercial Telfaria farming. The marketing strategies used
for the little quantity of produce meant for sale is also poor resulting to
inability to realize much money from the production by most farmers. The
beginners are mostly affected (Bachmann 2002). According to him poor marketing
strategies make farmers to spend much time away from the farm and there is
always the possibility of having left over after each market day activities.
Also
vegetable production including Telfaria do not feature prominently in
the
development programme at the
policy making level. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2000) opines that
nonwood crops are essentially part of the local subsistence economies but has
not received the required attention in the development plan. This contributes
to the fact that the potentials of such crops remain unrealized since the level
of income yield is considerably low (Ugwu, 2001). The low income yield could be
due to some poor production and marketing strategies used for the crop because
over the years, Telfaria is usually produced at a small scale and
marketed locally considering the perishable nature of the crop (Saskachewan
2000).
Moreover,
the low productivity and poor marketing systems are the responsibilities of the
difference between how farmers are producing and marketing the crop and the
level at which they are supposed to produce it in order to satisfy themselves
and the consumers. Production is usually during the rainy season. There is
inadequate farm input, poor transportation net work and others. In this part of
the region also, large scale production is limited by some factors ranging from
logistics to.....
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