ABSTRACT
An increasing demand for fresh agricultural produce at the right prices and availability is likely to move small scale farmers from subsistence to commercial scale farming. The greatest challenge constraining rural households from attaining commercial farming status is the quality deterioration experienced in the production and marketing cycle of fresh produce. Hence this study was conducted to analyse postharvest losses of plantain marketing in Egor Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of plantain marketers, estimate the quantity and financial value of losses incurred during plantain marketing; determine the causes of postharvest losses in plantain marketing and measures used by respondents to reduce losses; evaluate costs and return, profitability of plantain marketing in the study area; examine the market structure, conduct and performance of plantain marketing and identify the constraints facing plantain marketing in the study area.
Two-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 100 respondents for the study. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources and primary data were collected through questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results showed that 60% of plantain marketers were average age of 31 – 50 years, 69% of them females and 58% were married having no formal education. An average of 4.14kg, 3.60kg, 1.33kg, 2.67kg of plantain was lost during transportation, storage, marketing and to insect respectively during marketing of plantain/marketing operation. The total quantity loss was 0.88(11.74kg) bunches which amounted to ₦1584. The selling price of a bunch of plantain was estimated at ₦1800. The major causes of postharvest losses were poor road network, poor transportation means and Shelf life. The measures used by respondents to manage postharvest loss was use of ripening agents. The cost and return analysis gave a total variable cost of ₦36844.31. The total revenue generated was ₦106933.49 and the gross margin was ₦70089.18per marketing operation. The analysis of benefit-cost ratio gave a value of 1.51 (BCR>1). The Gini-coefficient estimate (0.47) was obtained from the computation. This value indicated that there is inequality in the income distribution among the plantain traders since its less than 0.35 which is the baseline. The study concluded that Plantain trading is quite profitable with high gross margin which is subject to increase depending on the source and distribution of the produce also marketers experienced postharvest losses during marketing operations. It was recommended that Problem of infrastructural facilities such as bad roads should be address by all tiers of governments. Bad road should be renovated and new ones constructed especially those that link the rural areas with urban areas. This will help in getting the produce to the market places in good quality. It will bring about a reduction in transportation cost and hence the cost of marketing.
