Effects of post harvest losses on income generated in citrus spp in Ife adp zone of Osun state, Nigeria.

Effects of post harvest losses on income generated in citrus spp in Ife adp zone of Osun state, Nigeria.

Ayandiji Adebamiji

Department of Agricultural Economic and Extension, Bowen University, Iwo Osun State. Nigeria

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Received  28  August, 2010;  Accepted  15 September, 2010

The improvement of product quality and reduction in post-harvest losses became the main concern of producers, middlemen, marketing specialists and consumers. This study intends to examine the effect of post harvest losses on income generated from sale of citrus fruits. Random sampling technique was employed where 10 villages each were selected from Ile-Ife town.  Agricultural Development Project (ADP) Zone Osun state, and a total of 100 respondents were examined. The data of the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Result shows that 75.6% of the respondents were male, 66.7% of the respondents had formal education, 61.1% of the respondents were middle aged, and 61.1% had household size of 6-8. The result also shows that the labour cost for harvesting operation constituted 43.4%, while the transportation cost constituted 51.8% of the total variable cost.  The result from the loss analysis revealed that the highest loss (44.6%) was incurred in transit. Losses from harvest technique, market and transportation constituted 14.4% of the potential total revenue. The regression analysis revealed that pre-harvest working days, number of days that citrus fruits spent on the ground before being collected for transportation, number of days citrus spent in the market before sales were the significant determinant of losses in Citrus spp. Hence this study recommends that farmers should have more access to micro-credit to reduce losses.

Key words:  Post Harvest, Losses, Income generated, Potential Total Revenue.