Assessment of problems confronting sustainable tea production along the value chain in Nigeria

Tea has great health benefit but its production in Nigeria is faced with many challenges. A survey using random sampling technique to identify tea production challenges was conducted among 86 tea farmers. Data on tea farmers' socio-economic characteristic, planting materials, agronomic practices, soil management, pest control, harvesting, processing and marketing were obtained using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Clone 143 obtained from the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria was the dominant type cultivated for its high yield and good aroma. Intercropping with food crops like maize (64.0%), cocoyam (37.3%) and pea (32.6%) was rife. About 71.0% of the farmers conformed to standard two leaves + bud harvest at two-week harvesting interval. Only 12.3% of the farmers weeded manually while about 52.3% used herbicides. About 87.0% of the farmers used fertilizers. Of these, 79.1% were organic-based but application was not based on soil test. Termite is the insect pest of economic importance. Most farmers (77.0%) adopted indiscriminate chemical control. No disease of economic importance was reported. Rehabilitation of old tea farms, good agricultural practices and adoption of regular soil testing as a guide for fertilizer application for sustainable tea production are advocated.