Effect of Marketing Strategies on Post-Harvest Loss of Fruits in Osun State, Nigeria

Fruits are essential part of human diets but are highly perishable, and the post-harvest loss is on the rise in Nigeria, with consequent food insecurity. To achieve zero hunger (SDG II) and responsibleconsumption and production (SDG XII), a lot needs to be done to reduce the menace of post-harvestloss. One of such is the adoption of proper marketing strategies by fruit farmers and marketers. The study assessed the effect of various marketing strategies adopted by fruit farmers and marketers on post-harvestloss. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 farmers and 60 marketers for this study. Data were collected through structured interview schedule.
Farmers had; mean income of N236,333±90,320.93, average fruit farm size of 1.51±0.58 hectares, while marketers had mean income of N497,200±266561.07, with some (48.4%) of them belonging to market association. Respondents had very little access to extension services, as their main sources of information were; fellow farmers marketers (x = 0.81 for farmers and x =0.37 for marketers) and friends, families, Neighbours (x = 0.62 for farmers and x =0.95 for marketers. Majority of the farmers(53.3%) and marketers (61.7%) recorded low fruit loss, and selling fruits by major roads (x = 1.82) and selling on market days (x = 1.82) were found to bevery effective amongst fruit farmers, while Hawking (x = 1.95) and Peeling and cutting of fruits (x = 1.95) were the effective strategies among marketers. Effectiveness of marketing strategies (r= 0.97, r = 0.55, p< 0.05) was significantly related to level of postharvest loss of farmers and marketers. The study concluded that the respondents made low income from fruits sales, they bothused various marketing strategiesthus, albeit, conventional ones, and recorded low level of fruit post-harvest loss.It is recommended that, extension workers should be empowered to train fruit farmers and marketersregularly on improved marketing strategies and value addition. Also, cottage fruit processing firms should be established across the federation to further reduce level of postharvest loss and achieve Sustainable Development Goals II & XII.