CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
In Nigeria, vegetable crops are produced in different agro-ecological
zones through commercial as well as small scale farmers both as a
source of income as well as food. However, the type is limited to few
crops and production is concentrated to some pocket areas. In spite of
this, the production of vegetables varies from cultivating a few plants
in the backyards for home consumption up to a large-scale production for
domestic and export markets (Dawitet. al., 2004). Recently,
despite the ups and downs observed, the demand for vegetables especially
for export is increasing (Tsegay, 2010). In fact, vegetables can
generate high income for the farmers because of high market value and
profitability. They also have high nutritive value compared to cereals
(EARO, 2000)
Vegetables are an important feature of Nigerian’s diet
that a traditional meal without it is assumed to be incomplete. In
developing countries, the consumption of vegetables is generally lower
than the FAO recommendation of 75kg per year in habitant (206g per day
per capita) (Badmus and Yekini, 2011). In Nigeria, vegetable
production has been on-going for decades, providing employment and
income for the increasing population especially during the long dry
season. However production is constrained by inadequate infrastructure,
agronomic and socio-economic variables (Sabo and Zira, 2008). It has
been widely demonstrated that rural women, as well as men, throughout
the world are engaged in a range of productive activities essential to
household welfare, agricultural productivity, and economic growth.
Vegetable crops are grown in many parts of the world contributing
significantly to income security and the nutritive diet of many
households. According to (Mofekeet al.2003) Vegetable crops constitute
30 to 50 percent of iron and vitamin A in resource poor diet. Vegetable
crops such as tomatoes, okra, pepper, cabbage etc. are widely cultivated
in most part of the Sub-Sahara Africa, particularly by small scale
farmers in most states of Nigeria (Adeolu and Taiwo 2009; Giroh et al.,
2010). Global production of fruits and vegetables tripled from 396
million MT in 1961 to 1.34 billion MT in 2003(International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture, 2005) and Nigeria ranked 16th on the global
tomato production scale, accounting for 10.79 percent of Africa’s and
1.2 percent of total world production of tomatoes (Weinberger and
Lumpkin, 2007)
Protective cultivation has been widely applied due to adverse
climatic conditions unfavourable to warm season vegetable production. In
many parts of the world, nets or screens are commonly used in crop
production for reducing excessive solar radiation, weather effects on
produce, and to keep away insects and birds. Vegetable production under
protective structures such as netting reduces yield losses from insects,
diseases, heavy rains and sunburn which results in higher productivity
and returns per unit area (Ramasamy,2011). Protective structures provide
protection to vegetable crops against biotic and abiotic stresses
(Palada, 2011). Mangmang in 2002, reported that the total fruit yield
and high returns of tomato crop was significantly enhanced by the
plastic net covers. The net shade greatly reduced insect population by
80% and marketable yields were 1.5 to 2 times greater under than in the
open field (Palada and Ali, 2007). Growing cabbage under nets reduced
insect incidence by 38-72 percent and resulted in significantly higher
returns (Neaveet al, 2011). Green house, the latest word in
agriculture is one of such means, where the plants are grown under
controlled or partially controlled environment resulting in higher
yields than those that are under open conditions (Navale et al. 2003).
Net houses and its variants have been used in some European, South
American and Southeast Asian countries for producing egg plants (Kaur et
al., 2004), leafy greens (Talekar et al., 2003) and cabbage (Martin et
al., 2006).
In Africa, mobile net houses made of mosquito nets (25- mesh) were
effective as physical barrier against the diamondback moths, cut-worms
and loopers providing 66- 97 percent control of moths, birds and
caterpillars (Martin et al., 2006). Netting is frequently used
to protect agricultural crops from excessive solar radiation
(shade-nets), improving the thermal climate (Kittas et al., 2009),
sheltering from wind and hail and exclusion of bird and
insect-transmitted virus diseases (Teitelet al., 2008). The
shading of crops results in number of changes on both local microclimate
and consequently crop growth and development (Kittaset al., 2009). (Takteet al. 2003)
reported that shade nets were used for protection of valuable crops
against excess sunlight, cold, frost, wind and insect/birds. They
experimented on the effects of shading on crop growth and development,
it was found that shading increased leaf area index and total marketable
yield production, reduced the appearance of tomato cracking about 50%
and accordingly, the marketable tomato production was about 50% higher
under shading conditions than under non-shading conditions. (Smith et
al. 1984) observed that under shading nets the air temperature was lower
than that of the ambient air, depending on the shading intensity. Shade
netting not only decreases light quantity but also alters light quality
to a varying extent and might also change other environmental
conditions. The shade netting determines the commercial value of crop,
including yield, product quality, and rate of maturation (Shahaket al., 2004).
Poor head formation, leaf twisting, early bolting, and reduced yields
occurred when leafy vegetables were grown under hot, high-sunlight
conditions without shade net (Sajjapongse and Roan, 1983). Water stress
caused by high evapotranspirativedemand, and high air and soil
temperatures, appear to be the main causes of poor crop productivity of
leafy crops in low-latitude regions (Wolff and Coltman, 1990).
In Nigeria, small scale irrigation systems have gone a long way to
support dry season farming of crops all over the country. Irrigation
farming is relatively low in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, with
irrigated area estimated at only 6 percent of total cultivated area,
compared with 37 percent of Asia and 14 percent for Latin America
(FAOSTAT 2009). Svendsen and Sangi (2009) observed that more than
two-third of existing irrigated area is concentrated in five countries
namely Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco, South Africa, and Sudan. Giving that
irrigated crops yields are more than double of rainfed yields in Africa
(Liangzhiet al., 2010), it is important to invest on irrigation
developments with particular focus on locations and technologies with
greatest potential for irrigation. The effort of the Federal Government
of Nigeria, with the support of World Bank and the African Development
Fund to develop irrigation systems in the country started with the
approval of the implementation of the National FADAMA Development
Project (2008- 2016). Dry season production of vegetables is common
along the river banks that cut across villages, towns, and cities in
Nigeria. Therefore in Yewa North Local Government where the research
will be carried out, one of the major activities to be conducted will be
to determine the profitability of vegetable production as well as the
factors militating against vegetable production among others.
1.2 Problem Statement
Nigeria as a country is unable to meet its domestic requirements for
vegetables, fruits, floriculture, herbs and spices, dried nuts and
pulses. Between 2009 and 2010, Nigeria imported a total of 105,000
metric tonnes of tomato paste valued at over 16 billion naira to bridge
the deficit gap between supply and demand in the country (Food and
Agricultural Organization, 2006).
Kalu in 2013, attributed this situation to socio-economic constraint
surrounding the key actors in the tomato value chain, institutional
weaknesses and declining agricultural research.
Vegetables are also highly perishable as they start to lose their
quality right after harvest and continued throughout the process until
it is consumed (Kohl and Uhl, 1985). Hence, vegetable productions are
risky investment activities. Riskiness of vegetable production may be
attributed to several factors that are beyond the control of producers.
Biological processes of plant growth and climatic conditions inherent
in agricultural production cause random production shocks (Goodwin and
Mishra, 2000; Holt and Chavas, 2002) such as harvest failure as a result
of drought, frost, floods and other adverse climatic events; policy
shocks (Dercon, 2002). Due to perishable nature and biological nature of
production process there is a difficulty of scheduling the supply of
vegetables to market demand. The crops are subjected to high price and
quantity risks with changing consumer demands and production conditions.
Unusual production or harvesting weather or a major crop disease can
influence badly the marketing system. While food-marketing system
demands stable price and supply, a number of marketing arrangements like
contract farming provide stability (Kohl and Uhl, 1985). Hence,
knowledge of small-scale crop producers perception towards risk is
important in designing strategies and formulating policies for
agricultural development (Ayindeet al., 2008).
On the other hand, lack of market infrastructure is one of the
limiting factors causing low returns in vegetable cultivation.
Profitability is not only determined by the use of input resources but
it is also dependent on the availability of proper logistic for
transporting the farm produce from farm gate to the market. Vegetable
production is also influenced by the location of the farms due to the
fact that the farms near to input market are in a better position to
purchase different inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, etc. at the
appropriate time.
In Yewa North Local Government, some of the major problems faced by
vegetable farmers include the following; lack of capital, lack of
storage facilities, climatic conditions, pest and diseases.
Another problem that I perceive farmers are facing in the study area
and in Nigeria as a whole is, the lack of standard measure for
vegetables/pricing.
The questions of interest in this study are:
What are the socio-economic characteristics of the vegetable farmers
in the study area? What is the level of profit generated from vegetable
production in the study area? What are the determinants of income
generated from vegetable production in the study area? What are the
constraints militating against vegetable production in the study area?
1.3 Objective of the Study
The broad objective of the study is to determine the profitability of
vegetable production among the rural household farmers. The specific
objectives are to:
describe the socio-economic characteristics of the vegetable farmers
in the study area; examine the level of profit generated from vegetable
production in the study area; analyse the determinants of income
generated from vegetable production in the study area; and describe the
constraints militating against vegetable production in the study area.
1.4 Justification of the Study
The agricultural sector is one of the main stay for many households
in Nigeria. On its diversity, the Nigerian agriculture features tree and
food crops, forestry, livestock and fishery. In 1993 and 1984, constant
factor cost, crops (the major source of food) accounted for about 30
percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), livestock about 5 percent,
forestry and wildlife about 1.3 percent and fisheries are accounted for
same as vegetables and fruit. Therefore, the study is aimed at the
following:
1) To the stakeholders, especially the policy makers to make the
well managed decisions about the formulation of future strategies for
the development of the livelihood of vegetable growers.
2) To the public, to know the profitability level of vegetable
production and also the cost of production in other to live standard.
1.5 Plan of the Study
This research was divided into five chapters, chapter one consists of
introduction, research problem, objective and justification. While
chapter two consists of literature review and conceptual framework,
chapter three consists of research methodology, sampling techniques,
method of data collection and method of data analysis. On the other
hand, chapter four consists of result and discussion and chapter five
was summary, conclusion and recommendation.