SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF IRRIGATED UPLAND TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum) FARMERS IN GOMBE STATE, NIGERIA

The study was carried out to examine the socio-economic characteristics of irrigated upland tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) farmers in Gombe State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling procedure was used to select 461 farmers as sample size for this study. The result revealed that majority (68.8%) of the farmer in Gombe State representing are male and 73.1% are married; majority (82.9%) of the respondents in Dukku LGA were married. Furthermore, in Nafada LGA, 75.0% are married while in Funakaye 64.3%, and in Yamaltu Deba 80.1%, however more than the half of the farmers in Kaltungo LGAs 55.9% married. Many (22%) of tomato farmers acquire their production through gift mean age of the respondents to be 43.7 with minimum age of 35 and maximum being 42 years with standard deviation of 8.55096. The mean household size in Gombe Stae at Dukku, Nafada, Funakaye, Yamaltu Deba and Kaltungo were 8.5, 6.9,7.5, 8.8, and 7.7 persons, respectively. Mean years of the farming experience of dry season tomato farmers in Gombe State was 12.3 years. The mean farm size of the respondents for dry season tomato production in Gombe State was 3.3ha. The results showed that majority (64.3%) of respondents in Dukku LGA have attended formal education. Majority (25.59%) of the farmers procured their seeds from the open market. Half (59.19%) of the farmers prefer using seedlings while the rest 48.81% used seeds. In Gombe State most (47.1%) of the farmers use hand tools (hoe, rake, shoves) and many (38.6%) of the farmers used hand tools. Furthermore, many (34.7%) respondents use tractor representing.  The field report of Yamaltu Deba LGA the revealed reveals that the respondent using tractor, hand tools and animal traction were represented as 32%, 30.9%, and 37.0%, respectively. The source of labour in Gombe State at Dukku LGA included family labour, hire labour, exchange labour, contracted labour and all of the above, which represent 24.3%, 21.4%, 17.1%, 15.7% and 21.4%, respectively. The distance of farm to resident project were Funakaye 6.1 km; Dukku 5.7 km, Kaltungo 5.0 km, Yamaltu Deba 4.0 km, and Nafada 3.4 km. The study concluded that all the respondents fell within the economically productive active age group, which means that the respondents in the study area has the capacity and ability to enhance the production of dry season tomato and can easily adopt new technology. It was recommended that government should support the farmers with more farm implements to reduce drudgery of labour in irrigated upland tomato production in Gombe State.