Analysis of the determinants of plantain supply by small holder farmers in Osun state, Nigeria

This study analyzed the determinants of supply among plantain farmers in Osun State, Nigeria. A four-stage sampling technique was adopted for this study. The first stage involved a purposive selection of Ife Agricultural zone due to its high plantain production and marketing activities in the area. The second stage involves the random selection of Ife North and Ife South Local Government Areas (LGAs) from the four LGAs that make up the Agricultural zone. The third stage involved the random selection of six) villages from each of the selected local governments making a total of 12 villages. Thereafter, 10 plantain farmers were randomly selected from each of the 12 villages. In all, 120 farmers were used for the study and data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Ordinary Least Square Regression model. The results of the study revealed that 69.2% of the sampled farming household heads were male. The significant factors influencing the decision to supply plantain in the study area were distance to market, current market price, household size, quantity processed and farm size. The current price of plantain, quantity processed and farm size were positively significant suggesting a direct relationship while household size and distance to market were found to be negatively significant suggesting an inverse relationship with supply. It is therefore recommended that farmers should be encouraged to increase the supply of plantain by providing adequate and easy means of processing and disposing their product to curb loss as well as making up a centralised price both at the farm-gate level and at the market.