DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF GREENHOUSE TECHNOLOGIES AMONG TOMATO FARMERS IN THREE SELECTED STATES OF NIGERIA

Abstract

In Nigeria, demand for tomato exceeds its domestic supply and only about 50 percent of total production reaches the market due to postharvest loss. This causes scarcity, price inflation and importation of tomato products. Therefore, Greenhouse Technologies (GHTs) were promoted by various state governments and entrepreneurs to address the problems of fresh tomato scarcity and unfavourable pricing. However, there is lack of empirical evidence on farmers‟ adoption and associated factors influencing adoption of GHTs in Nigeria. Hence, determinants of adoption of GHTs among tomato farmers in three selected states of Nigeria were investigated. A three-stage sampling procedure was used to select 240 respondents for the study. Plateau, Lagos and Ogun states were purposively selected based on wide acceptability of GHTs by governments and entrepreneurs. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 70% of GHTs farmers from a list of Greenhouse Farmers‟ Association of Nigeria and major Greenhouse service providers in each state to give 158 registered GHTs users: Plateau, 59; Lagos, 65; Ogun, 34. A list of unregistered GHTs farmers was generated through snowball technique and simple random sampling was used to select 70% from each state to give 82 users: Plateau, 32; Lagos, 37; Ogun, 13. Interview schedule was used to obtain data on the respondents‟ personal and farm enterprise characteristics (age, sex, greenhouse farming experience, type of greenhouse structure used and yield), sources of information, knowledge, attitude towards use of GHTs, GHTs management practice, level of adoption and constraints to use of GHTs. Indices of knowledge (low: 1.00-10.42; high: 10.43-19.00), attitude (unfavourable: 56.00-89.45; favourable: 89.46-108.00), GHTs management practice (poor: 0.00-4.50; good: 4.51-7.00) and adoption of GHTs (low: 23.00-58.99; high: 59.00- 75.00) were generated. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and linear regression at α0.05. Respondents were aged 35.73±10.85 years, male (72.7%), had 3.06±2.38 years greenhouse farming experience, used high-cost type of greenhouse structure (48.1%) and obtained yield of 7.34±4.23kg/plant. Fellow farmers: ̅=1.27; and greenhouse service providers: ̅=1.26, were most preferred information sources. Proportion of respondents (P) with high knowledge of GHTs was 62.5%. Attitude to use of GHTs was favourable: P=56.9%, management practices was good: P=51.9% and GHTs adoption was high: P=53.2%. Constraints to use of GHTs were high initial investment in construction of greenhouse: ̅ 1.58; and fluctuation in prices due to glut in the market ̅=1.55. Significant difference existed in the GHTs management practices based on type of greenhouse structure used: high-cost GHTs (5.17±1.17) had better management practices than medium-cost GHTs (4.39±1.19) and low-cost GHTs (4.36±1.22). Farmers differed significantly in their adoption of GHTs across the states: adoption was significantly higher in Lagos (63.65±7.31) and Ogun (61.70±9.79) than Plateau (52.49±8.52). Farmers yield were similar across the different types of greenhouse structure used for tomato production. The GHTs management practices` (β=0.33), attitude (β=0.28) and constraints to use of GHTs (β=-0.13) significantly influenced adoption of GHTs. Adoption of greenhouse technologies was higher in Lagos and Ogun than in Plateau state. Its adoption was determined by good management practices, favourable attitude and constraints to use of greenhouse technologies.