Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 16 ISSUE 4
Written by Chioma Udo NWAOBIALA, Ikechukwu NDUKWE, Oji EKUMANKAMA

In Nigeria, low productivity of cocoa has been attributed to poor maintenance practices, planting low yielding varieties and incidence of pest and diseases. In order to address this, cocoa famers need appropriate training to increase productivity. This study therefore was undertaken to assess the training needs of cocoa farmers in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. Purposive and multi-stage random sampling techniques were used to select 90 farmers from the cocoa producing communities in the Local Government Area. Data were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (multiple regression analysis). The results indicate that 95.56% of cocoa farmers were males, with mean ages of 55.5 years, mean farm size 'of 8 hectares, mean annual farm income of N 1.3 M (10,000 USD), while 72.22% inherited their farm land and had extension contact once in a month (52.22%). The result showed that of the farmers’ sourced information on cocoa production from farm field school (96.67%) and research institutes (74.44%). The farmers assert that the needed training on Plantation establishment and control of black pod disease (x=2.9), control of swollen-shoot virus and mirad control (x=2.8), punning techniques, cocoa bean storage and processing (x=2.7). Other areas were on cocoa bean marketing (x=2.6), fertilizer application (x=2.5) and nursery establishment techniques (x=2.4).The multiple regression analysis showed that coefficients for land ownership, age, farming experience, farm income and extension contacts influenced training needs of the cocoa farmers in the study area. The study recommends review of Land Use Act of 1990, increased extension contact and training and re-training of farmers on pesticide and fungicide usage for boosting cocoa production in the study area.

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