Farmers’ constraints to production and post-harvest handling of selected neglected food crops in South-east and South-south Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine constraints to the production and post-harvest handlings of selected neglected food crops (Bambara nuts, Bread fruits and Bush mango) in South-east and South-south Nigeria. Production and post-harvest handling challenges have made some of the indigenous crops that are capable of improving food security in the nation to be neglected and underutilized by the farmers. The specific objectives of the study were to; ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of farmers of selected neglected food crops in the study area; determine the constraints militating against production of selected neglected crops; identify the challenges encounter during post- harvest handling of the selected neglected food crops and identify areas of research needs along production and post-harvest handling value chain of the neglected food crops in the study area. Purposive and snow-ball sampling procedure were used to sample 120 farmers of selected neglected crops in southeast and South-South Nigeria. A well-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the respondents and analyzed using percentage and mean. The results revealed that the mean age of the respondents in the study area was 43.3 years, majority (42.5%) of the farmers attended primary school. The mean for years of farmer’s farming experience was 13.3years.The production constraints to farmers in the study area were lack of financial support (3.8), lack of improved cultural varieties (3.6),ignorance of the crop nutritional value (3.4) and susceptibility to pests and diseases (3.1) while the constraints to farmers during drying were, rain (75.8%), Animal (29.2%) and dust (75.8%). Majority of the farmers (68.3%) mentioned mold growth on stored crops as a major storage challenge All the farmers (100%) mentioned storage problem as area of research needs, while majority of the farmers (95%) suggested improvement on post-harvest handling on neglected crops in the study area., simple and effective storage and processing innovation should be developed by research institutes and made available in the study area.