INTRODUCTION
The major fruits produced in Nigeria include mango, pineapple, plantain/ banana, citrus, guava, pawpaw, while vegetables include onion, tomato, okra, pepper, amaranthus, carrot, melon, Corchorus olitorus (ewedu), Hibiscus sabdariffa (sobo), Adansonia digtata (baobab leaves) etc. In Nigeria, enormous quantities of fruits and vegetables are produced and staggering figures are sometimes given as estimated annual production. Fruits and vegetables play a very important role in the nutrition and health especially as they contain substances which regulate or stimulate digestion, act as laxatives or diuretics, pectins and phenoic compounds which play a part in regulating the pH of the intestines. Fruits and vegetables also contribute to the income of both the rural and urban dweller.
CHALLENGES OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA
1. Pest and diseases
Pest and diseases affect fruits and vegetables in the field and subsequently reduce their shelf lives and affect their appearance which is one important aspect of horticultural crops. Fruits and vegetables are vulnerable to bacterial, viral, fugal and nutritional diseases.
2. Poor Agricultural Pricing and Low Fertilizer Use
Fertilizer use is promoted mainly by the fertilizer subsidy policy in Nigeria. Input subsidies have been a part of Nigeria’s agricultural price policy since independence, and in spite of economic reforms in Nigeria, fertilizer subsidies have remained. In addition, under these sustained and high input subsidy programs, investments in core public goods such as research and extension, which also aim to boost productivity, are limited. Although improved crop varieties exist, low fertilizer use is a serious constraint to agricultural productivity growth, averaging 10 to15 kilograms per hectare. An important factor is low and unstable domestic production. There has been no domestic production of fertilizer since the early 2000s, because NAFCON, the dominant fertilizer producer in Nigeria, has been shut down (IFPRI, 2008). Other issues which affect domestic supply of fertilizers include high transport costs from port to inland destinations, poor distribution infrastructure, the absence of capital for private sector participation in distribution, significant business risks facing fertilizer importers, and
inconsistencies in government policies.
4.3 Low Access to Agricultural Credit
Access to agricultural credit has been positively linked to agricultural productivity in several studies. Yet this
vital input has eluded smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Banks with large loan funds are generally difficult for
smallholder farmers to access. Problems with collateral and high interest rates appear to frequently screen out
most potential rural smallholder beneficiaries. In addition, agricultural loans are often short-term with fixed
repayment periods, a loan structure that is not suitable for annual cropping or livestock production.
4.4Land Tenure Insecurity
An important institutional constraint is the absence of a clear title to land. Group ownership of land in Nigeria
has been associated with such problems as limited tenure security, restrictions on farmers’ mobility, and the
inevitable fragmentation of holdings among future heirs. It may also limit access to formal credit, since the
farmer cannot use land as collateral. This reduces incentives to invest in land quality maintenance or
improvement (IFPRI, 2008). Because poor farmers cannot afford alternative farmlands, and do not have
customary access to lands not inherited, they remain on depleted lands and further degrade these resources. Thus,
poverty and custom may constrain farmers’ ability and willingness to mitigate land degradation, leading to
declining productivity.
4.5 Low and Unstable Investment in Agricultural Research
When research is poorly funded, agricultural technologies cannot be improved, and there will be no downstream
farm income increase, rural employment generation, reduction in food prices, establishment of agro-based
industries, and economic growth. In short, the absence of new technologies in agriculture will slow the growth of
agricultural productivity and the reduction of rural poverty. Public research and development (R&D) spending in
Nigeria has been low and unstable since independence, and the government budget process for funding
agricultural research is complex (IFPR1, 2008). The time between the submission of planned budgets by
research agencies and the approval and release of funds is lengthy and often out of tune with research work plans.
The approved amounts and the disbursement processes very often fall far short of the planned budgets of the
research agencies. Private sector involvement in agricultural research has remained negligible to date.
Journal of Biology, Agriculture and Healthcare www.iiste.org
ISSN 2224-3208 (Paper) ISSN 2225-093X (Online)
Vol.5, No.2, 2015
199
4.6 Poor Market Access and Marketing Efficiency
Fruits and vegetable marketing efficiency in Nigeria is dismally low. Transport costs are high due to poor road
conditions, limiting access to inputs, credit, and output markets, and reducing the transmission of key market
information.
4.7 Infrastructure
The necessary infrastructure such as adequate water supplies and transport and marketing systems is generally
lacking in Nigeria, giving producers, processors and marketers little incentive to expand operations. An
inefficient, expensive transport system adversely affects input/output cost and supply, reducing farmers’
potential income from marketing their products
4.8 Post harvest losses of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria
Losses of horticultural produce are a major problem in the post-harvest chain. They can be caused by a wide variety of factors, ranging from growing conditions to handling at retail level. Not only are losses clearly a waste of food, but they also represent a similar waste of human effort, farm inputs, livelihoods, investments and scarce resources such as water (World Resource Institute, 1998). Post-harvest losses for horticultural produce are, however, difficult to measure. In some cases everything harvested by a farmer may end up being sold to consumers. In others, losses or waste may be considerable. Occasionally, losses may be 100%, for example when there is a price collapse and it would cost the farmer more to harvest and market the produce than to plough it back into the ground. Use of average loss figures is thus often misleading. There can be losses in quality, as measured both by the price obtained and the nutritional value, as well as in quantity.
In Nigeria, enormous quantities of fruits and vegetables are produced and staggering figures are sometimes given as estimated annual production. For example, figures like 3.8 million tonnes of onions, 6 million tonnes of tomatoes, 15 million tonnes of plantain and 35 million tonnes of citrus have been quoted as annual production levels for some fruits and vegetables, which are really large quantities of food crops (Oyeniran, 1988; Erinle 1989). However, it is the amount of the produce available to the consumer rather than the level of production that is more important.
Fruits and vegetables in their fresh forms contain high percentage of water. They are living and hence carry out their physiological function of respiration thereby absorbing and releasing gases and other materials from and to their environment. These activities lead to their deterioration in transit and storage, which is more rapid under conditions of high temperature and humidity. As a result, heavy losses are encountered in these crops. No one knows exactly how much food is lost between harvest and consumption. The supplied figure for post-harvest loss estimates for fruits and vegetables are difficult to substantiate except on limited, controlled experimental basis. Nonetheless, it is noted that losses as high as 50% are common in fruits and vegetables between rural production and town consumption in the tropics (Oyeniran, 1988). These losses, it is noted, occurred during transportation, storage and marketing (Daramola, 1998; Okhuoya, 1995).
Several factors are responsible for these damages and losses in the fresh produce. One of these factors is vibration resulting from the transport vehicles as they traverse undulation and irregularities on the roads (Jones et al., 1991). Another factor is attributed to the use of unsuitable packaging containers. To curtail or minimize these damages require detail studies to identify the specific parameters involved. Until the locations of handling losses in the system are identified, opportunities to reduce them would be limited.
In spite of various initiatives aimed at improving the horticultural sub-sector, the sector still remains relatively
under-developed. The horticultural sub-sector also reflects the problems in the agricultural sub-sector. These
problems include inadequate knowledge and technology of production, insufficient planting materials, land
tenure, poor extension services and insufficient post harvest facilities (Babatola, 2004). Horticultural crop
production in Nigeria has been hampered by the policy and fiscal constraints of the governments. It has received
very little attention in the national perspective plan for agricultural development (Oseni, 2004). In addition,
Nigeria has only one research institute, National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT) established in 1975
for all horticultural crops. Horticultural crop farming is associated with negative outcomes stemming from imperfect predictable biological, climatic and price variables. Those variables include natural adversities e.g.
pest and diseases, weather factors not within the control of agricultural producers and adverse fluctuations in
both input and output prices. In the light of the foregoing, this study examines challenges and gains of fruit and
vegetable farming in Nigeria.
CONCLUSION
The Agricultural Fresh Produce Growers and Exporters Association of Nigeria (AFPGEAN) says between 55 per cent and 72 per cent of fresh produce grown in the country perish before they can be consumed.
The Executive Secretary of the association, Akin Sawyerr, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Monday that this was because fresh produce needed to be kept in refrigerated conditions soon after harvest.
Mr. Sawyerr said fresh produce were basically fruits and vegetables.
“Fresh produce production has the same challenges as other agricultural products but its uniqueness lies in its being very perishable.
“The issue with fresh produce in Nigeria is that there is little processing, no storage in refrigerated conditions due to lack of electricity (power) for most of the produce grown by farmers.
“We also cannot move these produce quickly from farms to supermarkets or hotels or airports, where they would be used because of poor road conditions,’’ he said
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