PROFITABILITY AND CONSTRAINTS OF PERI-URBAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

In human nutrition, vegetables are an essential protective food containing vitamins and minerals, any balanced diet should include vegetables and fruits for this reason. The study assesses profitability and constraints of peri-urban vegetable production in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Primary data collected with the aid of structured questionnaire were used for this study through farm survey in 2018. A multistage sampling procedure was used in selecting 217 vegetable farmers for this study. Descriptive statistics, net farm income (NFI) and stochastic profit frontier regression model were used to analyze the data. It was revealed that tomatoes production has the highest profit of N145,580.7 compared with that of cucumber N112,992.7 and cabbage N78,450.3, respectively. The result showed that the estimated coefficients of (-0.342), agrochemical (-0216), fuel (0.906) and fixed cost (0.233) were statistically significant. The coefficient of fertilizer implies that a 1% increase in fertilizer cost will decrease the profit made from vegetable enterprise by -0.342 units. Furthermore, the estimated coefficient of fuel cost will increase the profit made from vegetable enter by (0.906) units. The results of inefficiency model showed that the coefficient for age (0.024) was positive and statistically significant at 1% level of probability which implies that younger vegetable farmers are more profit efficient than the older ones. Conversely, the coefficient of household size (-0.027) was negative and statistically significant at 1% level of probability implying that farmers who have large household sizes are more profit efficient than those with few. Unstable market price, high cost of labour and incidence of pest and disease were the most critical constraints faced by vegetable farmers in the study area. It is recommended that; agribusiness industries and non-governmental organization should encourage and support the vegetable famers through provision of farm inputs at a subsidies rate.