Abstract
This study assessed the small-scale farmers' education needs in tomato processing and marketing for profitability and sustainable development in Taraba State. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. A population of 438 respondents comprising 315 small-scale tomato farmers, 61 tomato marketers and 62 Agricultural Extension agents was used in the study. A 45-item questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The instrument was divided into two categories of needed and performance. The needed category had a 4-point response option of highly needed (4), averagely needed (3), slightly needed (2) and not needed (1). The performance category equally had a 4-point response options of high performance (4), average performance (3), low performance (2) and no performance (1). To determine the farmer education needs of small-scale tomato farmers, the mean (Xn) of the needed category were determined for each item, the mean (Xp) of the performance category were also determined for each item, the performance gap (PG) was determined by finding the difference between Xn and Xp for each item. That is, PG = Xn – Xp. Where the PG is negative (that is, Xn
Publication Date: 2025-07-15