Abstract

Postharvest management practices utilisation is crucial if losses of fruits were to be curtailed by farmers. This study examined utilisation of postharvest management practices among sweet orange farmers in Osun State, Nigeria. A total 61 sweet orange farmers that harvest and sell their oranges were sampled. Structured interview schedule was used for data collection. Data analysis was done using descriptive (percentages and means) and inferential (Chi square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation) statistics. Most of the respondents were male (73.8%), married (91.8%) and had formal education (63.9%). The mean age was 52.0?10.0 years, while the mean household size was 7.0?2.0 persons. Major sources of information on postharvest management were associations (1.80?0.401), marketers (1.66?0.476) and farmers (1.15?0.628). The knowledge of postharvest management practices was high for 72.1% of the farmers. Utilisation of harvesting management practices (x ?=10.10) ranked 1st, while marketing management practices (x ?=8.85) ranked 2nd. The level of postharvest management practices? utilisation was high among 49.2% of the respondents. Age was inversely significant with utilisation of postharvest management practices (r=-0.278, p<0.05). However, there was no significant relationship between knowledge and utilisation of postharvest management practices (r=0.116, p>0.05). The study recommend the need to encourage farmers to intensify use of postharvest management practices in order to maximise profit.

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