Factors influencing the adoption of improved tomato post-harvest loss management practices among farmers in north-west zone of Nigeria

The study assessed the factors influencing the adoption of improved tomato post-harvest loss management practices among farmers in the North-West zone of Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: assess farmers’ rate of adoption of improved tomato post-harvest management practices and determine the factors influencing the adoption of improved tomato post-harvest management practices by farmers in the study area. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the total of 540 farmers selected. Descriptive statistics and logit regression model were used to analyze the data. The study found that of the 10 practices disseminated, 78% of farmers were aware of proper harvest timing, 72% were aware of proper harvesting time, and 63% were aware of improved sun-drying. The practices with the highest adoption levels were proper harvest timing (77%), proper harvest time (77%), and improved sun-drying (75%). The rate of adoption was moderate with 53% of the farmers adopting between 7 and 10 of the practices. Furthermore, the factors affecting adoption were found to be labour supply (2.1638) which was significant at 1% level of probability, while farm size (1.0698) and education (1.0180) each had a significant influence on the adoption of the practices at 10% level of probability. The technology-specific factors that were significant to adoption include attitude towards the technology (1.9961) and the cost of technology (1.7608) which were significant at 1% probability level. The study concluded that, the levels of awareness and adoption of the improved tomato post-harvest management practices were not adequately sufficient to improve the outcomes of farmers in terms of loss reduction and income. The study, hence, recommended that there should be increased efforts directed to encourage greater awareness and adoption of post-harvest loss management practices among tomato farmers, and smart programmes aimed at availing farmers with incentives should be offered to address cost factors in technology adoption.