Socio-economic determinants of yam post-harvest losses among farmers in Wukari local government area of Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study determines yam post-harvest losses among farmers in Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria and specifically the objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and determine the factors that cause yam post-harvest losses in the study area. Data were collected through primary sources and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. The respondents socio-economic characteristics showed that all the respondents had one form of education or the other, 94% of them were less than 60 years of age, 91% of them were households head, 67% had less than 5 members in their households and 66% were male. The results of the multiple regression showed that R-Squared value was 0.85 indicating that the explanatory variable explained 85% of changes in the dependent variable. The F-ratio was high and significant at 1% depicting goodness of fit of the model used. Household size, education level, years of experience, number of yam tubers stored and methods of yam storage were positive and significant at 1% level, while duration of yam storage was negative and significant at 1% level. It is recommended that research institutes should be encouraged to research into ways by which the natural phenomena causing deterioration in yam could be prevented and controlled, modern storage facilities should be made available for the farmers in order to reduce level of loss in yam storage and prices of yams should be standardized based on measurable scale.