Effect of socio-economic characteristics of greenhouse farmers on vegetable production in Ogun state, Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, vegetable production is adversely affected by climate change, pest and diseases attack and unfavourably environmental condition which have made resourceful farmers and government to embark on vegetable production under greenhouse technology. Hence, this study was conducted to assess socio-economic importance of greenhouse technology for sustainable vegetable production in Ogun State, Nigeria. One hundred and twenty (120) vegetable farmers were purposively selected for this study while descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were used for the data analysis. The results showed that the respondents were 32 – 40 years of age; predominantly male (90.8%), and had formal education (28.3%). Socio-economic importance of greenhouse technology includes increased yield (94.3%), available supplies all the year round (85.7%), cluster marketing formation (72.9%), higher income generation (75.7%), and rural development (91.4%). Paradoxically, greenhouse vegetable production has not been widely spread due to difficult to establish it by individuals and high cost of construction (98.3%); it is too expensive for the low peasant vegetable farmers (86.7%); and awareness of greenhouse vegetable is low in the public markets (85.8%). So also, chi-square results showed that significant relationship existed between the major limitations and socio-economic importance of greenhouse technology at p < 0.05 level of significance. This study recommends that cost of raw materials for constructing greenhouse should be subsidized by the Federal Government of Nigeria while wealthy individuals, farmers’ groups and cooperative societies should invest in greenhouse technology for large scale vegetable farming.