Vol.2 , No. 2, Publication Date: Mar. 25, 2015, Page: 34-41
[1] | Agbugba Ikechi Kelechi, Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa. |
[2] | Thompson Dorothy, Department of Human Ecology, Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria, West Africa. |
Tropical leafy vegetables (TLVs) in South-East of Nigeria was evaluated in line with the objective of describing the socio-economic features of the farmers; describing the economic benefits of the TLVs; and determining the profitability of TLVs farming. Multi-Stage sampling technique was adopted for the study. In the first stage, two agricultural zones were selected from each of the two South-eastern states making it four agricultural zones in a whole. In the second stage, two blocks were randomly selected from each of the zones already selected. In the third stage, four cells were also randomly selected from the two blocks; this gave a total of eight (8) cells. In each of the cells, 10 farmers were purposively selected based on their interest in vegetable farming or marketing. This gave a total of 80 farmers for the study. Majority of the respondents were married, fell within the ages of 30 and 60 years with household sizes of 6 as the mean value, had formal education till secondary school level and were engaged in business/trading activities while the mean years of farming experience possessed by respondents is 9 years of age. Public enlightenment programmes that will improve the knowledge and education of women should be encouraged and embarked upon as the nutritional, health and medicinal benefits of TLVs should be enhanced.
Keywords
Economic, Tropical Leafy Vegetables, Rural, Women, Farmers, Nigeria
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