Impact of Cocoa Pod Husk Fertilizer on Cocoa Production in Nigeria

The inherent problems associated with inorganic fertilizer such as scarcity and high cost informed the invention of cocoa pod husk based organic fertilizer. The impact of the fertilizer on cocoa output is hereby investigated in this study. The study was conducted in Cross-River State, Nigeria and purposive random sampling technique was used to select fifty cocoa farmers including the user and non-user of cocoa pod husk fertilizer. Structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the respondents and the data retrieved from the information was analyzed with budgetary analysis and percentages. The study revealed that the percentage of cost of materials to total cost of production per hectare by the user and non-user of cocoa pod husk fertilizer was 20.99% and 23.12% respectively while the percentage of operational costs to total cost was 71.79% and 60.92% for the user and non-user of cocoa pod husk fertilizer respectively. A revenue of N178,980 and N91,200 per hectare was realized by the user and non-user of cocoa pod husk fertilizer, respectively, while the net revenue per hectare by the user and non-user of cocoa pod husk fertilizer was N145,874 and N52,840 respectively. The economic efficiency indices show that the user of cocoa pod husk fertilizer has an index of 4.41 while the non-user has an index of 1.38. The study therefore recommended that cocoa pod husk fertilizer technology should be widely introduced among cocoa farmers and that the farmers should be encouraged to adopt it.