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The study was conducted to investigate the economics of dry season vegetable production in Ogun state, Nigeria.

Descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and regression analysis model were used to analyze the data collected from 120 respondents using multistage sampling technique.

Descriptive statistics showed that while the mean age of the farmers was 62.1 ± 38.78, the mean farming experience was 17.3 ± 12.84. Majority (56.7%) of the respondents were uneducated. Vegetable enterprise in the area was male-dominant. The result of budgetary analysis revealed that the average net and total income were ₦ 55,405.29 and ₦ 131,514, respectively. While the average total variable cost was ₦ 64,767.29, average total cost was ₦ 76,108.70. Benefit cost ratio and rate of returns were 1.73 and 0.73, respectively. The regression analysis revealed that revenue from vegetable production in the study area was influenced by farm size, seed quantity, farming experience, quantity of labor and fertilizer used.

It is therefore imperative for policymakers to encourage dry season vegetable farming as a viable enterprise option for the unemployed and upcoming entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the government should design and implement policies that would improve access to land, labor, quality seed, water and fertilizers.

The study adds to the growing body of literature on inherent prospects for labor and entrepreneurs as regards the opportunities latent in dry season farming activities.

The quantitative understanding of the safe input management practices of vegetable producers is essential for both food safety and environmental protection. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of safe production in vegetable enterprises and examine the key risk factors affecting the safe production of vegetables from the perspective of agricultural inputs.

Based on the theory of risk analysis, a framework of safe vegetable production risk analysis is constructed from the perspective of production input behaviour. Based on 202 valid questionnaires in Beijing, China, this paper identifies direct risks in input management through statistical descriptive analysis; determines weights through an expert elicitation process and calculates weighted safety values accordingly; and finally uses a categorical regression model to explore the indirect risks affecting corporate safety production.

The results show that direct risk factors include seed treatment risk, pesticide and fertilizer use criteria risk, pesticide and fertilizer operation risk, and pesticide application object risk. The production safety value of Beijing's enterprises is found to be high in the north and south regions, and low in the central region. Finally, some indirect risk factors, namely the cognition of agricultural product safety laws, the cognition of pesticide safety intervals, the cognition of prohibited pesticides and the possession of brands, are found to have positive and significant impacts on the safe production behaviour of enterprises.

These findings provide entry points for interventions aimed at reducing dependence on pesticides and fertilizers and promoting input management for safe vegetable production in enterprises, thus avoiding vegetable safety incidents due to improper practices in the production chain.

The purpose of this paper was to analyse the demographic, crop choice, institutional and environmental factors that will influence the vegetable growers in Bono and Ahafo regions of Ghana to produce organic vegetables. The study also assessed the knowledge level of vegetable growers on organic certification processes.

Primary data were collected with the help of a structured questionnaire from 120 vegetable growers via a multistage sampling technique. The Heckman selection model was used to analyse the factors that influence farmers' willingness to adopt organic production as well as the intensity of adoption.

In this study, pepper (Capsicum spp) production, residential status, knowledge of organic certification processes, perceived negative environmental effect of conventional farming on the soil, and climate change positively influenced willingness to produce organic vegetables. Likewise, pepper production perceived negative environmental effect of conventional farming on the soil positively influenced the intensity of adoption. Household headship status, garden egg (Solanum integrifolium) production, perceived knowledge on grading and standards of vegetables, as well as the perception that only pesticides can be used to control vegetable pests negatively influenced the willingness to produce organic vegetables however perceived expertise of the farmer on grades and standards influenced intensity of adoption negatively.

In Ghana, even though most vegetable farmers do not have the requisite knowledge in the safe handling of pesticides, usage is widespread. Subsequent to this, is a health risk to farmers, consumers and the environment. As a result, there is a growing awareness that organic agriculture has a role to play in addressing problems associated with agrochemical use and over usage. However, most studies are consumer oriented with limited empirical research on the willingness to produce organics by farmers.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2019-0723

Malnutrition is widespread and affects about one-third of humanity. Increasing production and consumption of vegetables is an obvious pathway to improve dietary diversity, nutrition and health. This chapter analyses how climate change is affecting vegetable production, with a special focus on the spread of insect pests and diseases. A thorough literature review was undertaken to assess current global vegetable production, the factors that affect the spread of diseases and insect pests, the implications caused by climate change, and how some of these constraints can be overcome. This study found that climate change combined with globalization, increased human mobility, and pathogen and vector evolution has increased the spread of invasive plant pathogens and other species with high fertility and dispersal. The ability to transfer genes from wild relatives into cultivated elite varieties accelerates the development of novel vegetable varieties. World Vegetable Center breeders have embarked on breeding for multiple disease resistance against a few important pathogens of global relevance and with large evolutionary potential, such as chili anthracnose and tomato bacterial wilt. The practical implications of this are that agronomic practices that enhance microbial diversity may suppress emerging plant pathogens through biological control. Grafting can effectively control soil-borne diseases and overcome abiotic stress. Biopesticides and natural enemies either alone or in combination can play a significant role in sustainable pathogen and insect pest management in vegetable production system. This chapter highlights the importance of integrated disease and pest management and the use of diverse production systems for enhanced resilience and sustainability of highly vulnerable, uniform cropping systems.

This paper is intended to investigate the economic, organizational and social factors affecting the receipt of advance payment by greenhouse vegetable producers from commission agents operating in the wholesale market.

The data were gathered through questionnaire forms developed for this specific purpose through face-to-face interviews with 180 producers growing greenhouse vegetables in the central district and Serik, Antalya in the Western Mediterranean Region of Turkey. A logistic regression model was employed to analyse the factors affecting the likelihood of greenhouse vegetable growers getting advance from commission agents.

A good financial status of enterprises producing greenhouse vegetables and the fact that their production input needs are met by cooperatives reduce their dependence on commission agents, thereby increasing their bargaining power when selling their products. Since producers can readily meet their need for the capital required for the vegetable production process from commission agents, they do not prefer to borrow from lending institutions making agricultural loans with requirements such as collateral. The fact that greenhouse vegetable farmers receive technical and market information and advice from commission agents strengthens their relationship with them.

It is the first study that evaluates in detail the financial aspect of the relationships between producers and commission agents in the greenhouse vegetables wholesale market. It contributes significantly to agricultural policymakers regarding the functioning of the greenhouse vegetable market, and in particular, the regulations on agricultural loans for production processes.

Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the farmers’ selection behavior of vegetable marketing channels, and to determine the key factors which affected farmer’ decision making.

A total of 191 valid questionnaires were collected from 50 villages in seven main vegetable production districts in Beijing urban areas from September to December 2015, yielding a response rate of 86.8 percent. The multinomial logit model was used for analysis in this study.

The results revealed that the farmers mainly selected farmers’ market, cooperative, and wholesaler to sell their vegetables, which comprised 96.57 percent of total vegetable sales. Estimation results showed that cooperative, vegetable acreage, price satisfaction, and slow sales were most important factors which influence positively the probability of opting to sell vegetables at a cooperative rather than at the farmer’s market. For wholesalers, gender of the household head and cooperative had most significantly negative effect, and age had a positive impact on farmer’s choice of market channels.

The results and implications obtained in the present study could help policymakers to establish a scientific-based and reasonable policy to encourage vegetable producers to participate in the circulation of vegetables in Beijing and guarantee their income in vegetable supply chain. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of the vegetable sector in other cities facing similar issues.

In Nepal, not much is known about the adoption of improved vegetable varieties. Also, there are reasons to expect that the determinants of adoption may vary between subsistence and commercial farmers, given their different production/market orientations. Therefore, the paper aims to examine the adoption intentions of commercial and subsistence vegetable farmers.

A logistic regression model was used to empirically test the determinants of the intention to adopt and recommend improved vegetable varieties. The paper also uses propensity score matching (PSM) to assess the causal effects of production/market orientation on household dietary patterns. Cross-sectional data of 600 Nepalese vegetable farmers are analyzed.

Compared to subsistence farmers, commercial vegetable farmers obtain seeds mainly from formal sources and use hybrid seeds. The most consistent covariates of vegetable adoption intentions were risk preferences and experience growing vegetables. Overall, adoption intentions were higher among commercial farmers, and commercial vegetable households tend to consume more vegetables.

Considering that vegetable farming provides an important supplementary food production system for the household, adopting improved vegetable varieties is pivotal to increasing productivity and improving household level dietary diversity in developing countries. Actions to promote wider adoption of vegetable varieties and encourage healthier dietary patterns could be successful if these efforts also focus on subsistence farmers. The findings in this paper will be useful to policymakers to better prioritize dissemination strategies.

The paper highlights the differences in characteristics and adoption intention towards new vegetable varieties between subsistence and commercial farmers. The impact of commercial production on healthier household dietary patterns is accentuated.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficiency of vegetable farmers within the tree-crop based rainforest agro-ecological zone in Southwest region of Cameroon.

The non-parametric data envelopment analysis method was used to evaluate technical and scale efficiencies while the Tobit model was used to identify factors affecting efficiency of vegetable production.

An econometric analysis result indicates that family size, education and extension service have significant impact on both technical and scale efficiencies, whereas credit service has significant impact on scale efficiency.

Future agricultural policies could include measures to improve the capacity of farmers to efficiently use existing resources.

The study highlighted that encouraging more people to engage in farm labor and facilitating smallholder access to microcredit could render vegetable farmers more efficient.

In Cameroon, only a few studies have been conducted on technical efficiency. These encompass mainly cash and food crops. To the best of our knowledge, no single study has measured technical efficiency of vegetable farmers in forest-based farming of Cameroon.

Presents an analysis of the domestic market for field vegetables and comments on the nature of the market changes and the role of market intelligence. Concludes with a discussion of how British producers can use their competitive advantages to exploit current opportunities and to build new markets.

The purpose of this paper is to assess consumer motivation and willingness to pay (WTP) for “safer” vegetables from the use of non-treatment options of wastewater use in urban/peri-urban vegetable production.

As a theoretical basis, consumer theory of maximizing utility being an indicator of individual preference was examined through choice experiment (CE) method to measure the WTP for value of safety within the context of health reduced risk (pathogen reduction) of illness. WTP was tested empirically using survey data from 650 households in the two largest cities in Ghana (Accra and Kumasi) that are characterized by a number of well-established vegetable producers who use wastewater in their production and a large urban and peri-urban vegetable consumer market.

Experience of vegetable borne diseases drives the need for safer vegetables and income and gender are key demographic factors influencing WTP. It was further found that consumers are willing to pay an average amount of GH¢ 4.7 ($2.40) per month for a technology change that would result in the production of “safer” vegetables.

Understanding WTP offers insight into consumer concerns, behaviour and their readiness to pay for safer vegetable options. However, a further consideration of the impact of the combinations of the various non-treatment options on pathogen reduction and the assessment of the financial viability of each option will collectively ensure an efficient and cost-effective implementation of the technologies.

WTP insight gained has implications for vegetable production, marketing and public health policy. The understanding from the findings forms a solid basis to canvass for certification system for urban/peri urban vegetables. The information provided also helps to formulate effective public education on the safety of vegetables.

Measuring WTP for safer vegetables by Ghanaian urban/peri-urban consumers is novel. The CE approach is robust and the findings can inform vegetable production and marketing decisions as well as public health policy formulation.