AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION NEEDS OF FARMERS IN TELFARIA PRODUCTION AND MARKETING IN ENUGU NORTH AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to determine the agricultural extension needs of farmers in Telfaria production and marketing in Enugu north agricultural zone of Enugu state,  Nigeria.   Four Local Government Areas (LGAs) namely: Udenu, Nsukka, Igbo-Etiti and Uzo-Uwani were used for the study out of the six Local Government Areas that make  up both Nsukka and Enugu zones of Enugu north agricultural zone.  In each of these Local Government Areas, two  town  communities  were  purposefully  selected  based  on  the  dominance  of  Telfaria production and marketing.  These town communities were Ozalla and Ohodo from Igbo-Etiti, Ede-Oballa and Opi from Nsukka, Adani and Opanda from Uzo-Uwani and Obollo-Afor and Orba  from  Udenu  Local  Government  Areas.    In  each  of  the  8  town  communities,  20 respondents were selected giving a total of one hundred and sixty (160) respondents.   Data collection instruments used were interview schedule and questionnaire.  Data collected were analyzed  using frequency  counts,  percentage,  mean scores,  standard  deviation  and factor analysis.  The personal characteristics of farmers, extension needs, marketing information and channels,   and   production   and   marketing   systems   were   analyzed   using   frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviation while production and marketing constraints were  analyzed with mean scores and factor analysis.   The result of the study showed that majority (58.1%) of the farmers were females, the mean age of the farmers was 33.4 years, majority (66.9%) were familied while majority (94.4%) of them obtained formal education. The household  size  was high as majority  (73.8%)  had a household  population  of 1 – 9 persons, 63.1% were part time Telfaria producers, 55.6% produced in a small scale while a good proportion (40.6%) had 1 – 4 years Telfaria farming experience.  The extension needs of farmers as analyzed revealed that greater percentage (63.1%) had no extension contact and the few (36.9%) that had did not have contacts often as majority (57.7%) indicated.   Areas information  were received were mainly  (54.2%) on planting and post planting operations. However,  farmers  needed   assistance   in  sourcing  farm  input  (M  =  3.62),  appropriate marketing channel (M =  3.18) and other factors such as sourcing farm credit, tools, seed processing and other areas.  In the production systems, about 50% planted between April and June, 48.12% planted on seed beds, 59.4% treated seeds before planting mainly with wood ash.   The  cropping system used was mainly mixed cropping and the respondents  applied various forms of single, compound and organic fertilizers through broadcasting method at 4 weeks interval.   Majority  (62.6%) controlled  pests and diseases as well as weeds  mainly through cultural and biological methods.  All (100%) the farmers harvested with sharp razor blades and knives and majority (55.5%) harvested at 1 – 2 weeks interval.  Most (56.9%) of the farmers marketed locally and some marketing factors such as season of the year, quality of produce, number of buyers, distance, weight measures and location determined the level of sales.   The major constraints  to effective  production  and  marketing  of the crop included infrastructural, technical, logistics and financial constraints.  In conclusion, the study revealed that there are extension needs of Telfaria producers.  It is therefore recommended that various extension agents posted to different locations should embark on creating vigorous awareness on the production practices of the crop to redirect the farmers towards appropriate strategies for the effective production and marketing of the crop.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background information

Vegetables   are   among   the   major   dietary   intake   in   our   everyday   life. Vegetables  usually  augment  nutritive  value  of most  of our staple  food  which  are deficient   in  vitamin,   protein   and   minerals   (Nwalieji,   2006).     Amongst   these vegetables,  fluted  pumpkin  (Telfaria)  is one of the  major  tropical  leafy vegetable crops grown in most parts of West Africa, Nigeria inclusive.   Ugwu (2001) reports that Telfaria is highly valued among the vegetables produced and consumed by the West African populace.  The leaves, stems and seeds have high nutritional, medicinal as well as economic values

Nutritionally, the crop is highly rich in protein, oil, vitamins, iron and minerals. These food nutrients form the basis for balanced diet.  Telfaria is also noted for curing some ailments  such as menstrual  disorders  in women,  infertility  in both men and women as well as correcting anaemia especially in children, pregnant and lactating mothers (Umeha, 2002).  Economically, it yields much income to farmers regularly. The economic values of the crop cannot be over emphasized.  Ugwu (2001) notes that it is an important cash crop known for steady supply of income to farmers.  However, vegetables also have economic potential to give quick turnover to farmers when compared to some other crops grown in Nigeria, such as banana, plantain, yam, rice and so on.  According to Eleke (2004) Telfaria production as well as other vegetables help to earn much money annually with a little start-up capital as against most arable crops.

In spite of the numerous values of this crop, a few farmers pay little or no attention to Telfaria production.  Some of the few producers still produce at a family consumption level neglecting commercial Telfaria farming.  The marketing strategies used for the little quantity of produce meant for sale is also poor resulting to inability to realize  much  money from the production  by most farmers.   The beginners are mostly affected (Bachmann 2002).  According to him poor marketing strategies make farmers to spend much time away from the farm and there is always the possibility of having left over after each market day activities.

Also vegetable production including Telfaria do not feature prominently in the development   programme   at  the   policy   making   level.      Food   and   Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2000) opines that nonwood crops are essentially part of the local subsistence economies but has not received the required attention in the development plan. This contributes to the fact that the potentials of such crops remain unrealized since the level of income yield is considerably low (Ugwu, 2001).  The low income yield could be due to some poor production and marketing strategies used for the crop because over the years, Telfaria is usually produced at a small scale and marketed locally considering the perishable nature of the crop (Saskachewan 2000).

Moreover, the low productivity and poor marketing systems are the responsibilities of the difference between how farmers are producing and marketing the crop and the level at which they are supposed to produce it in order to satisfy themselves and the consumers.  Production is usually during the rainy season.  There is inadequate farm input, poor transportation net work and others.  In this part of the region also, large scale production is limited by some factors ranging from logistics to managerial as well as marketing problems.   Bachmann (2002) opines that the major problems in large scale vegetable production are land acquisition, inadequate labour and capital.   Some marketing strategies also pose a big problem to the producers. Farmers could boost leaf and pod yield through fertilizer application, availability of other  farm  input,  using  appropriate  planting  and  post  planting  techniques  and  by having adequate processing and good storage facilities.   Through these means, the problem of the perishability nature of the crop could be solved.  It is unfortunate that most producers are not well informed resulting in low productivity and low income yield from marketing the crop.

Giving technical advice on important issues involved in efficient production and  marketing  of  Telfaria  is  imperative  to  help  farmers  address  the  problems militating against increased production and efficient marketing of the crop.  There is extension   needs   to  identify   and  solve   various   problems   of  Telfaria   farmers. Agricultural extension seems to be one of the effective means to alleviate farmers from these problems.   Extension is increasingly being asked to analyze and address controversial  issues  that are of much agricultural  importance  to their stakeholders (Bailey, 2002).

1.2      Problem statement

Telfaria has become one of the popularly consumed vegetable crops as well as a lucrative farming business in Nigeria especially in Igbo land comprising Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.  The popularity gained by the crop is due to the medicinal, economic and nutritive values.  Nutritionally, the crop forms one of the major components of human diet in many parts of Nigeria and may rank next to soya bean if properly processed (Achinewhu and Isichei, 1990).  Economically, a huge sum of money is realized from commercial Telfaria production.   Medicinally, the leaves and juice are good for preventing anaemia, solving gynecological problems as well as curing various diseases. Not minding the numerous values obtained from the crop, only a few farmers within the zone are involved in the production indicating that the rate of production is inadequate to meet up with the high demand of the crop by the consumers.

Greater  proportion  of  the  farmers  mainly  produce  during  the  rainy  season (Abua, 2004).  This indicates that the crop is not usually produced at off seasons under irrigation  practices.    The production  technologies  used  in some  planting  and post planting operations are still poor.   These groups of farmers have little access to the required  farm  input  and  lack  required  technical  knowledge  in  record  keeping, processing and storage of the crop as well as evaluation of the entire farming business. These facts indicate that the level of production by majority of the farmers is still unsatisfying.

Apart from the low level of production, the marketing system is still poor. This could be attributable to poor marketing channel.   There are no standard weight measures in relation to the price of products.  Also, there is a problem of perishability of produce and poor transportation net work.  The result is that farmers produce and sell at a give away price and on credits in various localities.

The situation is worse by the fact that it attracts little or no attention to both private  and  public  extension.     A  little  effort  made  by  the  Fadama  Project  of Agricultural  Development  Programme  (ADP)  in  various  parts  of  the  state  is  to develop and popularize the production and marketing of the crop at all seasons of the year in order to meet up with some of the needs of the producers and consumers.  It is a well known fact that the impact of the efforts made so far is not well felt.  One of the major issues is that most farmers don’t have enough information on the marketing strategies (Hermele, 1995).   Moreover, the information received on the production techniques is still minimal (Ugwu, 2001)

The situation is worsened by the fact that these farmers don’t have much access to extension services.  The production and marketing needs of the producers could be identified  and  met  through  agricultural  extension.    Agricultural  extension  plays  a major role in taking farmers’ problems to and from the research stations.  Having this in mind, the questions to be asked are: What are the extension needs of the producers in the zone?  What are the personal characteristics of the Telfaria farmers in the zone? What  production  technologies  do  the  producers  in  the  zone  use?    What  are  the marketing  channels  used  by  the  Telfaria  farmers  in  this  zone?    What  are  the production  and marketing  constraints  of Telfaria  production  and  marketing  in the agricultural zone?

1.3      Purpose of study

The general purpose of the study was to determine the agricultural extension needs of farmers in fluted pumpkin (Telfaria) production and marketing in Enugu North Agricultural Zone of Enugu State, Nigeria.  The specific objectives of the study were to:

1.        describe the personal characteristics of Telfaria farmers;

2.        ascertain the extension needs of Telfaria producers;

3.        determine the production systems used by the producers;

4.        ascertain available marketing channel of the crop for the producers;

5.        identify Telfaria farmers’ production and marketing constraints.

1.4      Significance of the study

The result of the study will help all categories of Telfaria producers to boost their production as it will provide information on good production systems suitable for the crop.   It will also help to equip them with the proper marketing  channel  and strategies and also serve as a guide to overcome various production and marketing constraints of the crop. The result of the study will also help to arouse the interest of the school leavers and job seekers in Telfaria production.   This is based on the fact that the study will assist in informing them that commercial Telfaria production is lucrative and can provide a high level of economic empowerment to the dealers. To the policy makers and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the study will sensitize them and serve as a guide to the inclusion and placement of market gardening in general and Telfaria production in particular in the development  and economic plan of the country.

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