Assessment of Orange (Citrus Sinensis) Supply Chain Activities in Kano State

Abstract

The study focused on the handling system of orange in Yanlemo Market of Kano State. A field study was conducted with structural questionnaires that targeted the orange supplies, traders and agricultural equipment suppliers/fabricators. Result obtained reveals that the orange handling activity is dominated by male traders. Average of 2 to 5 bags of oranges are usually handled by about 53.3% of the respondents, while 8.3% handle more than 10 bags of the oranges daily. Dan Tivi was found to be the commonest orange variety in the study area. Some other varieties established in the study area are; Dan Nassarawa, Dan Ondo and Dan Delta representing about 8.3, 1.7 and 1.7% of the varieties handled in the study area respectively. The mode of transportation, sorting, and washing was found to be manual with a lot of challenges. The predominant manual handling of the orange established in the study area could be amongst the major reasons for the high losses usually recorded by the traders on a daily basis. Thus, useful suggestions that could be employed by researchers and policymakers to provide improvements in the supply chain activities to prevent such losses are presented.  Keywords— Orange, Assessment, Supply Chain, Handling