ECONOMICS OF ORNAMENTAL PLANT PRODUCTION IN JOS METROPOLIS OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study the analysed economics of ornamental plant production in Jos Metropolis of Plateau State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 270 ornamental farmers. Data were collected using questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that the mean age of ornamental farmers was 37 years. Also, most (91.9%) and (92.2%) of the respondents were males and married with an average household size of 5 persons. The result showed that the ornamental farmers had average ornamental experience of 8 years. Furthermore, the result showed that mean annual income of ornamental was ₦39,203.70. The result also showed that 30.7% of the ornamental farmers had formal education and 35.9% had horticulture as their primary occupation. The results further revealed that 28.0% had passion and love for nature while, 29.9% had availability of seedlings/flowers in the study area that leads to expansion of ornamental business. Furthermore, the result revealed that 29.2% had planned very well in meeting customer demands and 33.0% of the ornamental farmers had acquired seedling skills while 29.9% had undertook planting training. Also, ornamental plan serve as source of fruits and food for humans and animals (3.87), ornamental plants such as trees provides fresh air to the environment (3.69), ornamental plants are used for medicinal purposes (3.68). Probit results, showed that education level, age and training were found significant (p≤0.05) while, skills, length of experience and household size were found significant (p≤0.01) and sex was found significant (p≤0.001) with Psuedo R² 0.1815. The tobit regression result revealed that price, sales and experience were found to be significant (P < 0.05). The major constraints to ornamental production were low demand/poor patronage (77.8%), poor maintenance (76.7%), inadequate government support (75.6%) and pest and diseases (73.0%). The study concluded that, production ornamental was economical and productive in the study area as majority of the ornamental farmers expands their business due availability of seedlings/flowers, tools and equipment’s. The study recommends that facility assistance in form of credit package, or start up loan should be made available to farmers by agricultural financial agencies and NGO’s to enable floriculturists increase their scale of production and populace should also be stimulated to increase their flower consumption pattern through proper awareness.