REGRESSIONAL ECONOMIC VALUE ANALYSIS OF POST HARVEST LOSSES (PHL) OFCASHEW NUTS IN BENUE AND KOGI STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

Cashew production had risen in Nigeria for three decades but this increment has not translated to proportional growth in farmers’ income or export earnings. Farmers experience substantial losses which reduces the quantity produced. Data were collected from the 600 farmers across Benue and Kogi States using structured questionnaire and interview. A cross sectional survey was conducted in the study area using multistage sampling, questionnaires and direct measurements to quantify PHL at harvest, processing, storage and transportation stages. Regression analysis in R Programming was used to determine the factors influencing the magnitude of PHL cashew nuts in the area. The results reveal that Total PHL has a strong positive relationship with Quantity Harvested (r = 0.922) implying that farmers producing larger quantities of cashew tend to record higher PHL. Processing Loss exhibited the strongest positive correlation with Total Loss (r = 0.902), Storage Loss (r = 0.704), Harvest Loss (r = 0.671), and Transport Loss (r = 0639) respectively. Correlation between Quantity Harvested and the individual loss components is strong. Quantity Harvested correlates with Processing Loss (r = 0.847), Storage Loss (r = 0.815), Harvest Loss (r = 0.802), and Transport Loss (r = 0.763) implying that as production increases, losses per stage of the post harvest value chain also increases. Processing Loss is positively associated with Storage Loss (r = 0.704), Harvest Loss (r = 0.671), and Transport Loss (r = 0.639). Similarly, Storage Loss is positively correlated with Harvest Loss (r = 0.618) and Transport Loss (r = 0.594).