POST- HARVEST HANDLING OF COWPEA; A CASE OF BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

B.Sc. Fatihi Sidi Adamu, BSc

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This study was conducted to examine the cowpea post-harvest handling practices in Bauchi state Nigeria. Data was collected from the sample of 126 registered cowpea farmers selected through multi-stage sampling procedure using a semi-structured questionnaire and analysed using simple descriptive and Logit regression Model. The result showed that majority of the respondents (85.70%) are male with one form of formal education or the other (80.20%) and are in their productive age (98.10%). They have an average farming experience of 16.29 years, cultivating an average farm size of 1.98 hectare within an average income of N 33,373.02 (91.43 USD). Most of them (65.10%) have access to extension service at least once a year. With regards to post-harvest handling practices of cowpea, all of them threshed cowpea manually and sun dry it (100%). While majority of them sort the cowpea before storage (94.4%), store it in sacks (65.10%) in a period between 3-6 months (55.6%). Majority use pesticide to store cowpea (70.63%). Gender, Education, Access to extension service and cost of pesticides were found to be the significant factors that determine the respondents’ choice to use pesticide in storing cowpea as shown by the result of regression analysis (P<0.05), (P<0.01), (P<0.05) and (P<0.1) respectively. The study revealed that the cowpea handling operations in the study area, particularly the use of chemical pesticides by farmers is found to be within the recommended level. However, massive awareness campaign should be lunched in order for farmers to reduce the use of chemicals in storage and switch to Hermetics storage alternatives such as PICS bags that are found to be safe and effective in storing cowpea.

Keywords

Post-harvest handling, Cowpea, Storage, Use of chemical pesticides, Percieved effectiveness

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 2. 5. 2019

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: Ing. Klára Urbanová, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / odbor:
Tropical Agriculture / Sustainable Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics