EFFECTS OF POST-HARVEST LOSSES ON FOOD SECURITY STATUS OF TOMATOES VALUE CHAIN ACTORS IN KANO AND KADUNA STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Post-harvest losses in tomatoes reveal key value chain inefficiencies that weaken handling, storage and marketing systems, thereby reducing incomes and food security among tomato value chain actors. This study assessed the effects of post-harvest losses (PHL) on the food security status of tomato value chain actors in Kano and Kaduna States, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 380 respondents comprising 308 producers, 35 marketers, and 37 processors for the study. In the first stage, four Local Government Areas (LGAs) were purposively selected from each of Kano and Kaduna States for their prominence in tomato production. In the final stage, 25 respondents were randomly selected from each village, yielding 197 farmers in Kano and 183 in Kaduna. Primary data were obtained through structured questionnaire covering socioeconomic characteristics, production, post-harvest practices, and food security. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics (frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation), Post-harvest Loss Index (PHLI), Two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation, Tobit and Ordered Logit Regression (OLR) models, and the United States Household Food Security Scale Module (US-HFSSM). The results reveal that 93.2% and 94.3% of producers and marketers were male, respectively, while 81.0% of processors were female. The mean age of tomato value chain actors was 45 years for producers, 47 years for marketers, and 43 years for processors. Most (87.3%) of the producers, 94.6% of processors, and 91.4% of marketers are married with a mean household size of 9,8, and 9 persons respectively. Also, 14.3% of producers, 32.4% of processors, and 28.6% of marketers had access to credit. Market structure analysis showed a highly concentrated market (CR4 = 1.0, HHI = 6,462), while a lerner index of 6.85% indicated low price markups and weak market power among the actors. The 2SLS results revealed robust and theoretically consistent supply-demand relationships, with strong instrument validity (F = 24.5), showing that PHL, inadequate storage, and poor market access significantly affect market performance. PHLI shows that 51.3% of producers experienced moderate post-harvest losses while all (100.0%) processors and 94.3% of marketers had low post-harvest loss indices. Tobit results indicate that post-harvest training significantly reduces losses for producers (β = -0.048, p<0.01), processors (β = -0.042, p<0.05), and marketers (β =-0.013, p<0.01) while higher transportation costs significantly increase losses for producers (β = 0.023, p<0.01), processors (β = 0.052, p<0.01), and marketers (β = 0.363, p<0.05). US-HFSSM reveals that 23.7%, 16.6%, 20.5%, and 39.3% of the producers were food secure (FS), moderately food secure (MFS), low food secure (LFS), and very low food secure (VLFS), respectively. However,35.1%, 5.4%, 5.4%, and 54.1% of processors were FS, MFS, LFS, and VLFS, respectively, while 14.3%, 2.9%, 14.3%, and 68.6% of marketers were FS, MFS, LFS, and VLFS, respectively. The OLR results show that higher post-harvest losses significantly (p<0.01) reduce FS among producers (0.073) and processors (0.021) while for marketers, losses slightly raise the probability of being moderately food security by 0.7% and moderate food security by 10.0%. The study concluded that tomato post-harvest losses weaken value chain performance and food security among actors in the study area. Hence, the study recommends improved storage, training, and market access to reduce losses and enhance food security.