Research Paper
Year: 2020 | Month: August | Volume: 7 | Issue: 8 | Pages: 102-109
Analysis of Smallholder Farmers’ Practices and Needs in Maize Harvesting in Benin Republic
Julus H. Vodounnou1, Emmanuel A. Ajav1, Gontrand C. Bagan2, Victorin K. Chégnimonhan3
1Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
2School of Rural Engineering, National University of Agriculture, Porto-Novo, Benin Republic
3Thermics and Energy Laboratory of Nantes, National Centre for Scientific Research, UMR 6604, Nantes 44300, France
Corresponding Author: Julus H. Vodounnou
ABSTRACT
To investigate maize harvesting practices and the needs of smallholder farmers for a maize harvester, a survey was conducted using Open Data Kit (ODK) application for data collection. The sample was selected using ranked set sampling method thereby carrying out the first three municipalities in maize production in terms of quantity through the seven (7) Agricultural Development Poles (PDA) of the country. The interviews were carried out in the three municipalities of Kandi, Ouesse and Ketou, which belong respectively to agro-ecological areas 2, 4 and 6 in Benin Republic. In the regions covered by the survey, maize harvesting remained manual and was mainly conducted by women even though they were assisted by men and children. The number of labours mobilized during harvesting for marginal, small, and medium are in that order of 6, 7 and 11 persons with an average labour requirement of 6.66 labours‧day-1‧ha-1. Also, it was observed that the small and semi-medium farmers mobilized the same average labours as well as the medium and large farmers. More so, high (85%) unavailability of labour was noted during harvesting period. Farmers usually harvest maize ears (63.3%) than maize cobs (36.7%). The harvesting maize ears were snapped basically by bending, twisting or pulling ear shanks by 88.1%, 54.2% and 8.5% of respondents, respectively. The proposed maize harvesting machine performance, by farmers, must have an hourly capacity of 0.19 ha.hr-1, harvesting loss less than 122.98 kgha-1, requiring less than 5 operators with the overall cost less than 14.16 USD‧ha-1.
Keywords: Maize harvesting, smallholder farmers, agro-ecological areas, Benin Republic.
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