Risk management strategies adopted by small-scale arable-crop farmers in Khana Local Government Area Of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated risk management strategies adopted by small-scale arable crop farmers in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Crop farmers grapple with clusters of factors on climate change, environment, pests and diseases consequent upon poor yield, post-harvest loses and food insecurity. Adequate risk management strategies are required to forestall the above problems among small-scale crop farmers in the study area. Two-stage random sampling procedure was used to select 17 communities out of 28 communities that constitute the local government area and 6 arable crop farmers from each of the selected communities to give a total of 102 sample size for the study. Structured questionnaire validated by the researchers was used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistical tools namely, frequency, percentage and mean. Result on sources of risks encountered by the arable crop farmers showed that storage losses (Mean = 3.74), poor farm maintenance (Mean = 3.59), changes in price of farm inputs (Mean = 3.53) are the highest among others. It was found that maintaining health and safety culture (Mean = 3.69), monitoring market prices (Mean = 3.27), direct sales of farm produce without storage (Mean = 3.22) ranked the highest among the other risk management strategies adopted by small-scale arable crop farmers covered in the study. It was concluded that though small-scale arable crop farmers in the study area faced farm risks arising from several factors, they adopted some risk management strategies to mitigate the risks. It was recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant Research Institutes should invest in storage facilities as a solution to storage losses and storage pest for farm produce in the study area.