ABSTRACT
The study analyzed the economics of pineapple production in Ovia South West Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socio-economic characteristics of the pineapple farmers in the study area, determined the profitability of pineapple production in the study area estimated the technical relationships between inputs and output of pineapple production, and identified the constraints limiting pineapple producers in the study area.. A two-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting the respondents for the research. One hundred (100) copies of questionnaire were sent to the field to collect primary data and 78 were retrieved back and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and quantitative statistics. The study showed that the pineapple producers were mainly male (83.3%), who were above 40 years (47.4%) with a mean of 47.39. Pineapple was found to be profitable to farmers in the study area with a gross margin of N4,793,402.86 with an estimated total cost of N2,923,248.10 which brought about a net profit of N3,847,914.56. The return on investment was 1.32, which means that for every N1 invested, a profit of 32 kobo is earned. The adjusted R-squared value of 0.984 indicates that around 98.4% of the variability in the dependent variable, which in this case is the pineapple output, was accounted for by the independent variables used in the regression analysis.. Major constraints include Inadequate land, lack of funds, Difficulty in obtaining credit facilities, Lack of improved planting materials, lack of inputs, Unfavourable climate , High cost of labour, Poor yield, Poor marketing, Pest and disease attack, Rate of sucker death , Lack of extension contact, poor access to good roads in transporting products. Rate of sucker death showed the least problems faced in the study area.
