Determinants of post harvest economic losses of pineapples among farmers in Nazigo sub county Kayunga district

Abstract

The study investigates the causes and economic effect of post harvested losses among the pineapple farmers in Kayunga District. The aim of the study is to identify causes of losses among pineapple farmers. The study looks at characteristics, causes and impact of losses among the farmers. The research applied a cross sectional research design among the farmers in Kayunga .a purpose method of sampling was used to select the sub county and random sampling technique was used to select 72 farmers in the Subcounty. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics on the first two objective and the regression was used to show the marginal effect of causes and social economic characteristics on the quantity of losers. According to the results we conclude that the average age of farmers is 46 and that 44% of the farmers are above 45 years. The business is mostly composed of men who have enough land or rights to land and a few females who can that is only 38%. Most farmers about 40% of total farmers had attained secondary education and at least 34% of farmers had degrees and diplomas. This shows that at least the farmers are literate and 26% only of farmers have spent 1ess than 8 years in school. The highest number of farmers’ start their farming business using personal savings, about more than half 54% of Farmers depend on their own income. Only 16% of the total farmers started farming business-using loans. About 82% of the farmers had families or married and only 18% of total farmers are not married. From the results obtained from the analysis the most significant cases of postharvest losses is perish ability. The other causes of post-harvest losses were poor handling at 30%, weather at 20% and theft at 10%. According to the regression model The results showed only theft among the causes of losses was not significant. gender, education level experience of a farmer, marital status and transport were the significant social economic characteristics. All the three causes of losses were also significant. Farmers who suffered losses due to poor handling lost 56 pineapples less compared to other farmers who suffered losses due to other causes. Farmers who lost pineapples due to perish ability lost 51 pineapples compared to farmers who lost pineapples due to other losses The research recommended for the government’s intervention to introduce credit facilities and strengthen other finance interventions to encourage farmers buy or setup better storage facilities to prevent postharvest losses