ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to examine the Utilization of information and technology on post-harvest loss reduction in cassava among farming household in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo state, Nigeria. This study adopted a two-stage random sampling technique. Primary data was used for the study. The primary data was conducted through the aid of structured research questionnaire.Descriptive statistics such as frequencies (F), percentages (%), and means (x) were used to describe information on the socio-economic characteristics, the constraints to cassava post-harvest management, information and technology awareness, used and training needs in post-harvest loss reduction in cassava and role/involvement of household in post-harvest management system in the study area.
Logit regression was used to test the relationship between household member’s socio-economic characteristics and information need on post-harvest management. The result indicates that 77.5% of the respondents in the study area were females with Age bracket of 40-50 years and family size within the range of 1-5 persons. The result reveals that 57.5% of the respondents are married and majority (37.5%) acquired primary education. Farming experiences in the study area indicates 15 years experiences. The result showed that Inadequate funds (M=3.3), Inadequate credit accessibility (3.2), Lack of modern processing facilities (2.7), Poor market network (2.8), High cost of labour (3.1) and Poor mechanization (3.0) were serious constraints to cassava post-harvest management. Finally, the regression analysis showed that the coefficient of education, household size, years of experience, level of awareness of post-harvest management, involvement and marital status were positively significant at 5% level.
This means that a unit increases in these variables will lead to increase in information need of cassava post-harvest management. It could be recommended that government should support farmers with fund to purchase equipment for maximum post-harvest management.
