Impact of storage management strategies on operational efficiency and profitability among smallholder onion farmers in Shinkafi lga, Zamfara state, Nigeria

This study explores how different storage methods affect efficiency and profitability among smallholder onion farmers in Shinkafi LGA, Zamfara State, Nigeria. It assesses traditional, hybrid, and ventilated storage methods to reduce post-harvest losses and enhance profitability by preserving onion quality. Using the Technology Acceptance Model, the research highlights farmers' challenges in adopting innovative storage techniques. Data were collected from 381 farmers via a Likert-scale questionnaire in May- June 2023. Most respondents were male (98.4%), aged 19-30, married, Muslim, and had secondary education. The findings revealed that the traditional and ventilated storage methods significantly decrease post-harvest losses, as indicated by their respective t statistics and p-values (traditional method: t=3.607, P=.000, P<.05; ventilated method: t=2.461, P=0.007, P<.05). In contrast, the hybrid method, which combines features of both the traditional and ventilated methods, showed no significant impact on decreasing post-harvest losses (t=1.716, P=.0.071, P>.05). The study shows that, whereas both traditional and ventilated approaches greatly reduce post-harvest losses (27% and 22%, respectively), the hybrid method does not significantly reduce onion post-harvest losses (11.5%) during storage. Adopting both traditional and vented storage methods allows farmers to reduce postharvest losses, maintain quality, and increase profits