Production Constraints, Postharvest Losses and Farmers’ Responses to Innovations in the Cassava Value Chain in Cameroons’ South West Region

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Production Constraints, Postharvest Losses and Farmers’ Responses to Innovations in the Cassava Value Chain in Cameroons’ South West Region

Ngoe Fritz Eseokwea^1*, Manu Ibrahim², Fon Dorothy Engwali³

¹National Centre for Education, Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovations
²Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
³Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Dschang, Cameroon
*Corresponding author

Abstract:- This study was carried out in Cameroons’ South West region where farmer produce cassava for household consumption and income generation. Most of the production is undertaken by peasant farmers in rural areas with inadequate infrastructure for production, storage and marketing despite the vulnerability of the staple to postharvest losses. In addition majority of farmers have inadequate access to technologies that reduce food losses and increase farm incomes: while most cassava farmers operate under precarious economic, environmental and financial constraints that grossly affect production and farm incomes. In spite these constraints cassava farmers still depend on rudimentary approaches that increase postharvest losses and reduce farm incomes. It is obvious that cassava products cannot sustain demand without innovations which increase output and reduce food losses. The objective of this study is to examine the various constraints affecting cassava production, methods of storage, and reasons for farmers dependence on rudimentary approaches rather than innovation that increase farm output. A sample population of 406 farmers was selected from twenty villages using Glenn Israel (2009) estimates for determining population samples. According to the study farmers’ choice of innovations are based on how adaptive or beneficial the innovations are in various socioeconomic and cultural environment in which production takes place.

Key words: constraints, value chain, actors, food sufficiency, extension agents, poverty alleviation

I. INTRODUCTION

Farmers and sellers of food have been concerned about losses since the beginning of agriculture. Yet the problem of how much food is lost after harvest to processing, storage, insects and rodents, or other factor takes greater importance as population growth continues to increase accompanied by growth in food demand(FAO,2013; Njukwe et al.,2014). Postharvest loss creates a gap between what farmers actually produce for the market and the quantity supplied in the market. This gap has been increasing for roots and tuber crops like cassava which is highly consumed though highly vulnerable to postharvest losses.

Read More