The Impact of Public Libraries on Tiv Management Strategies for Postharvest Losses of Cassava in Benue State

Abstract

The cultural heritage of any people can be redressed through the preserved cultural values tangibly stored and preserved in media and forms retrievable and usable. Audiovisual heritage are quite essential that the public library system must not afford to elude its storage not only for users but also for posterity. Cassava has played an important role as a staple crop in the feeding of the Tiv people. Cassava is the principal source of dietetic food energy for a significant portions of world populace particularly those living in the lowland tropics, and much of the sub-humid tropics. Incidentally, cassava is the sixth most important crop after wheat, rice, maize, potato and barley and is the primary staple for more than 800 million people in the world and it plays a crucial food security role to the populace due to the fact that its matured edible roots can be left in the ground for up to 36 months. Moreover fresh cassava has a very short postharvest storage lifespan and as such, the Tiv people developed different ways of processing it into durable forms soon after harvest, as well as organizing their local markets where the cassava products would be sold. This study therefore, looks at the impact of the public library through the storage of audiovisual materials on Tiv Management Strategies of Postharvest losses of Cassava for the Development of Agriculture in Benue State of Nigeria. The study sampled 377 out of the population of 20,000. The snowball sampling technique was used in selecting the subjects for the study. Mean and standard deviation statistics was used in answering the research questions. The study found that the Tiv people had various strategies they adopted in managing postharvest losses of cassava. However, the public library failed to acquire and store audiovisual materials on these management strategies for postharvest losses of cassava; information that would have been used for improving and reducing postharvest losses of cassava by farmers. It was therefore, recommended that concerned policy makers should make policies that will allow public libraries to acquire store and preserve audiovisual materials on various indigenous knowledge for development to ensue; and for posterity; and that governments and other stakeholders should ensure that the public library sector is adequately funded and manpower is adequately provided as well.