RESEARCH DATA ON IMPACT OF IMPROVED HERMETIC STORAGE (PURDUE IMPROVED CROP STORAGE TECHNOLOGY) (PICS) ON THE FOOD SECURITY, INCOME AND POVERTY OF COWPEA FARMERS IN NORTHWESTERN, NIGERIA

This research was carried out in response to a situation where cowpea farmers in Nigeria, especially Northwestern Nigeria had to embark on the massive use of chemicals to store their cowpea as a result of great post harvest losses they experienced from the attack of cowpea bruchid [Callosobrochus maculatus (Fab)]. In the process of using these chemicals the farmers usually abuse and misuse them, often resulting in human and environmental hazards. There were reports of whole families dying as a result of the consumption of contaminated cowpea. This led to a clarion call and advocacy for a radical shift from chemical storage to non-chemical hermetic storage in order to ensure food safety in the region. This led to the improvement of the triple bagging system by Purdue University, in Lafayette, USA. The PICS technology was introduced to Nigeria in 2008 with demonstrations of its use by IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. Since then, the adoption and use of PICS has been on the increase in Nigeria especially in Northwestern, Nigeria where cowpea is massively cultivated on account of favourable climatic conditions for the crop there. Since 2008, not much work has been done on the impact of PICS on the food security, income and poverty of farmers in the region, hence this research was carried out. A sample of 480 farmers from three states of the region were used for the study. Analytical tools used for the study included t-test for the social and demographic characteristics of the farmers, Food Security Index, FGT Poverty Index, Logistic Regression for PICS adoption and Propensity Score Matching was used to measure the impact. The results of the analysis showed that PICS has had a positive impact on the food security, income as well as reduced the poverty of cowpea farmers in the region who adopted the technology.