Agriculture Extension & Rural Development
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Item Assessment of field maintenance practices of coffea arabica among coffee farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria(Green World Foundation, 2008-11) Agbongiarhuoyi, A. E.; Adeogun, S. O.; Fawole, O. P.This study was conducted to assess field maintenance practices on production of Coffea arabica among farmers in Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria during 2007. Data for the study were obtained from a systematic random sampling of eighty-eight coffee farmers through the use of well structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square. Most (44.3%) of the respondents were 50-69 years old while 56.8 % of them belonged to 3-12 range of family size. Majority (98.9%) of the respondents claimed to be engaged in clearing of coffee farms, 97.7% coppiced old unproductive plot and the same figure harvested coffee berries. Extension workers' contact with farmers (36.4%) was low. The very serious constraints to Coffea arabica production were poor marketing (97.7%) and pricing (95.5%), inadequate' market information (89.8%), high labour cost (84.1%) and weak extension services 67.1%. The significant socio-economic variables that influence field maintenance practices of Coffea arabica include family size, farming experience, coffee beans price, and number of coffee farms maintained (p< 0.05). Good marketing strategies via farmers' group and improved extension contact would sustain Coffea arabica farming among farmers.Item Constraints to production, processing and marketing of sweet-potato in selected communities in Offa Local Government Area, Kwara State Nigeria(Kalma-Raj, 2007) Fawole, O. P.Offa Local Government Area is one of the major sweet-potato growing areas of Nigeria. Sweet potato is grown mainly on smallholder farms and concentrated particularly in communities in Offa Local Government Area. This study randomly selected 90 small scale farmers purposively from 9 communities to investigate constraints to production, processing and marketing of sweet-potato. Data were collected using an interview schedule. Results indicated that yields of 4-7 tonnes per hectare obtained by smallholder farmers are about 20-35 percent of the crop's potential yield. Reasons for this low output are limited cultivated land, lack of improved practices, poor storage facilities, lack of credit facilities, lack of extension training, poor transportation and high cost of input. Also, marketing of the crop is dominated by middlemen, to whom most of the profit accrue, thereby serving as a disincentive to the smallholder farmers. There is, therefore, a need for adoption of improved production techniques, development of appropriate and affordable storage and processing technologies, more efficient distribution and marketing systems and an effective extension service to improve current sweet-potato production in Nigeria.