Assessment of post-harvest losses in marketing of leafy vegetables in Oriade local government area of Ilesa

Implications for food security

Abstract

Leafy vegetables offer both nutritional benefits and great economic potentials in boosting food security, yet their perishable nature may lead to huge post-harvest losses and food insufficiency. The study assessed post-harvest losses in the marketing of leafy vegetables in Oriade Local Government Area (LGA) of Osun State. It describes the socio-economic characteristics of the leafy vegetable marketers, causes of post-harvest losses of leafy vegetables and compares the mean post-harvest losses by socioeconomic characteristics of the leafy vegetable marketers. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 120 leafy vegetable marketers from four purposively selected markets in the LGA (Ilo, Ijebu-Jesa, Ijeda and Iwoye). Primary data were collected with the aid of a structured interview schedule. Independent t-test and One-way analysis of variance were used
to compare differences in mean losses. Results show that the respondents’ mean age, household size and monthly income were 41.2 years, 4 people and N8,547.50, respectively. Majority of the respondents were female (70.8%) and had no formal education (62.8%). The three causes of post-harvest losses with highest weighted mean scores were the problem of insects and pests (2.39), the perishable nature of leafy vegetables (2.38) and the bad state of rural roads (2.35). The mean post-harvest losses during the dry seasons were significantly lower than the mean post-harvest losses during the raining seasons (t=5.78; p<0.01). In conclusion,
pests/insects, bad roads and perishable nature of leafy vegetables were the most significant causes of postharvest losses. Hence, extension officers should encourage farmers to use insecticides/pesticides to control pest and diseases on their farms; government should make rural roads accessible for easy transportation of vegetables and marketers should buy the quantity of vegetables they can sell in a day at a time.