PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS OF TELFAIRA OCCIDENTALIS VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN THREE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF ENUGU STATE

Abstract

The study analyzed the profitability of Telfaira occidentalis vegetable production in three local government areas in Enugu State namely Igbo Eze-North, Nsukka and Udenu LGAs. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for research. A total number of 96 respondents were interviewed. Results revealed the age range of 31 to 40 had the highest percentage with 37.5% suggesting that the farmers are still experienced and younger farmers, females 61.5% were major producers while majority of the respondents were married (47.9%), with those of 6 to 10 persons (38.5%) having the highest household sizes. Education-wise, a few percentages possess tertiary qualifications (12.5%), and just (21.9%) lack formal education, implying a relatively high level of basic education access.  Approximately 30.2% have 1 to 5 years of farming experience. Profitability analysis revealed that the total revenue generated by the vegetable farmers was ₦247,680,000, net revenue was ₦82,848,000 and gross margin was ₦111,936,000. The Benefit Cost Ratio of ₦1.50k indicated that for everyone naira spent, ₦1.50k will be realized as revenue implying vegetable production was profitable. For the factors affecting vegetables production in the study area, most of the variables were all positive and significant with R² value of 0.756 implying that the model accounted for 75.6% of the variability in vegetable production. Major constraints encountered by vegetable farmers were destruction of farms by cattles, lack of available labor, lack of credit and fluctuation in prices and if all of these were taken care of, vegetable production will be profitable in the study area.