Ilemobayo Olufunke O.¹ , Adesina Jacobs M.² , Ojumu Segun¹

1. Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, P. M. B. 1019, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria
2. Departments of Crop, Soil and Pest Management Technology, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, P. M. B. 1019, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2014, Vol. 4, No. 4   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2014.04.0004
Received: 07 Feb., 2014    Accepted: 18 Feb., 2014    Published: 21 Feb., 2014

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study examines the profitability of eggplant under insect pest management in Owo local government area, Ondo State. Data used for the study was obtained using structured questionnaire administered to 80 randomly selected eggplant farmers in the study area. Descriptive statistics and budgetary analysis was used to estimate socio economic characteristics and the profitability of the respondents. Results showed that 72% of the farmers were male, and the average age of between 31~50 years constitute 61%, with little or no formal education and 60% having family size of 4 children and above. The study also revealed that majority of the farmers intercropped eggplant with yam and cocoyam, it was also discovered that 92% of the farmers indicated that there is pest infestation and 67.5% have experience above 5 years. The budgetary analysis showed a positive gross margin indicating eggplant production is profitable in the two categories of producers, though those with pesticides recorded higher yield vis-à-vis return on investment with a average gross margin of N12, 266/ ha and N5,125/ ha respectively in the study area.

Eggplant; Production; Insect pest management; Profitability; Budgetary; Gross margin