Determinants of Commercialisation of Staple Crops among Small-holder Farmers in South East Nigeria

Abstract

Small holder commercialisation is part of an agricultural transformation process in which individual farms shift from highly subsistence oriented production towards more specialised production, targeting markets for input procurement and output supply. The study, therefore, analysed the determinants of commercialisation of staple crops such as cassava, maize, rice and yam. Data were collected from 408 randomly selected registered farmers using a structured questionnaire. These were analysed using descriptive statistics, household commercialisation index and multiple regression analysis. The results show that farmers mean age, education and farming experience were 47 years, 9 years and 17 years respectively. The result also show a mean household size of 8 members, farm size of 1.64ha and income of N259, 267.40 per annum. The commercialisation index indicates that the extent of commercialisation is highest in cassava (57%) and rice (49%). The determinants of commercialisation are gender, household size, processing cost and market distance. Favourable indices for commercialization with their mean values are; high sales of products (2.89), improvement in crop farming and processing (2.85) and relevant policy formulations (2.60). Although the crops have potentials of being transformed into different products, they are limited to mainly gari (a processed form of cassava) and milled rice for paddy rice. Major challenges identified include inadequate processing and storage facilities and poor access to credit facilities with mean value of 4.82 and 3.83 respectively.