Analysis of postharvest losses in mango marketing in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the postharvest losses in mango marketing in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. Data for the study were  collected from 120 respondents in four different markets (Modern, Wurukum, Railway and Northbank market), through the use of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis and likert scale rating technique were used to analyze the data. The finding showed that the mean age of the marketers was 36.1 years, mean household size was 6.0, majority (43.3%) of the marketers completed secondary school, majority (88.3%) of the respondents were females, majority were married with a percentage of (63.3%), also majority (56.7%) of the marketers sold broken variety of mango. The result further indicated that the amount of basket of mango bought is significant at 5% level of probability and positively affects the number of 7litre buckets of mango lost. Finally, the constraints with the highest mean values suggested the most essential constraints. The result showed that high degree of perishability (mean=3.8), lack of storage facility (mean=3.6), and inadequate grading and standardization (mean=2.9) were some of the major constraints. The study therefore recommends that efficient storage facilities  should be made available to mango marketers in order to encourage large purchase of the produce and decrease postharvest losses government should rehabilitate the bad roads and create good road networks to solve the transportation problems of marketers, lastly, there should be  provision of processing plant in strategic locations by the governments or non-governmental organization which will help to reduce postharvest losses.

Keywords: Mango, Post harvest loss, Markudi LGA