EFFECTS ECONOMIC OF CASSAVA VALUE ADDITION ON THE INCOME OF SMALL SCALE FARMERS IN OSHIMILI NORTH, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examined the effect of cassava value addition on the income of
small scale farmers in Oshimili North, Delta State. Structured
questionnaires were used to collect primary data from 312 small scale
cassava farmers and analytical techniques employed were descriptive
statistics, independent sample t-test and Probit regression model. Results
on socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents indicated that
majority (67%) are males, 48.7% are between 38-47 years, 72.7% were
married and about 58.3% do not have access to credit facility. In the study
area, the most processed cassava by-products are garri, fufu, cassava flour
and cassava chin chin, with 17.1%, 16.1%, 12.9% and 10.9% respectively.
Also, there was a statistical significant difference between the income of
farmers who practice value addition and the income of farmers who did
not. Probit regression results revealed that gender (5%), farm size (1%),
farming experience (1%), education (1%), access to credit (1%) and
membership of cooperative society (5%) are the socio-economic factors
influencing the practice of value addition in the study area. Furthermore,
11 constraints were found to pose severe threat to cassava value addition
in the study area. These include lack of capital for business expansion
(93.1%) high cost of processing inputs (91.8%), preference for close
substitutes such as wheat and semolina (88.4%). The study, therefore,
recommended that extension service agents be empowered to effectively
create awareness of the importance and practice of cassava value addition,
provision of credit and basic infrastructural facilities to ease cassava
production and practice of value addition.