Assessment of post-harvest challenges of small scale farm holders of tomotoes, bell and hot pepper in some local government areas of Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

The survey assessed the post harvest challenges of small scale farm holder of three different vegetables, tomatoes (Solanium lycorpesicum), bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) and hot pepper (Capsicum chinense) in four (4) Local Government Areas namely Danbatta, Bunkure, Kura and Dawakin Tofa of Kano State. The primary data used for the investigation were obtained through the use of questionnaire. One hundred and twenty (120) farmers were randomly sampled and selected for the study; the farming experience of respondent, stage and time of harvest of produce, percentage loss of produce during harvesting and transportation, on-farm storage facilities utilized by respondents and mode of transportation and packaging materials utilized by the respondents were looked into. Investigative Survey Research Approach (ISRA) and descriptive statistics were employed in the analysis of the data. The results obtained revealed that most of the tomatoes, ball and hot pepper farmers experience losses of 10-30% during harvesting and transportation stages. The farmer harvest mostly when they have buyer, harvest at fully ripe stage (90%) and most still use the traditional basket and sacks as their packaging material in conveying produce resulting into massive post harvest losses (62.5%). Theses practices by the farmers often result in reduction of profit and in-availability of these products all through the seasons. Based on these findings, it was concluded that farmers in these areas require proper and extensive training on how to reduce their losses especially through proper pre-harvesting, harvesting and post-harvesting practices like primary processing in times of glut and the introduction of some important easy-to-use technologies that will reduce if not eliminate fruits and vegetables wastages in the areas.

Key word: Tomatoes, postharvest, pepper, losses, assessment.