Determinants of Level of Commercialization among Horticultural Crops (Okra and Maize) Farmers in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the determinants of level of commercialization among horticultural crops (okra and maize) farmers in Southeast Nigeria. It specifically estimated the profitability of the two enterprises; and established the determinants of level of commercialization of the enterprises. Multistage and random sampling techniques were used to select 300 farmers, however 240 (120 maize and 120 okra) farmers with properly completed copies of the questionnaire were used in data collation. Primary data were collected by means of structured questionnaire, which were administered to the farmers by personal interview. The collected data were analyzed using budgetary method and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis. The result of enterprise budgeting indicated net return on investment values of 0.55 for maize and 0.73 for okra farmers. This implied that the two enterprises were profitable, however the okro enterprise was more profitable than the maize enterprise having returned 73kobo against the 55 kobo returned by the maize enterprise per Naira (100kobo) investment. The significant determinants of level of commercialization among the maize farmers were marital status, education, years of experience and union membership while those for okra farmers were quantity produced, gender, age, marital status and years of experience. Government in collaboration with private initiatives should ensure the provision of soft loans to the farmers to enable them operate at minimal cost and earn more profit.