VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS OF CASSAVA PRODUCTS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the value chain analysis of cassava products in Ogun State Nigeria. Multistage was used to select 180 cassava processors and marketers. Socio-economic data were obtained from respondents with the use of pre-tested questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, budgetary technique and Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study revealed that majority (84.3% and 52.8%) of Cassava peel processors and marketers were female. In addition, 60.2% of the processors have secondary education while 51.4% of the marketers also have secondary education. The value chain activities carried out by the processors were, Gari; harvesting, transportation, peeling, fetching, grating mill, sieving, toasting/drying and packaging. Fufu; harvesting, transportation, peeling, fetching, soaking, sieving and packaging. Lafun; harvesting, transportation, peeling, washing, fetching, soaking, slicing, grating mill, sieving, drying and packaging. The marketing activities includes; transportation, bagging and storage (Elegbede, et al., 2018) while marketers transported, packaged and put products in storage for future sales. The mean gross margin for gari, fufu and lafun processors and marketers along the chain were N35876.13, N120463.61 and N48098.72 respectively per annum while net farm income was estimated as N35477.85, N115259.44 and N48098.72. Also, the marketing margin for gari, fufu and lafun was estimated as N25273.07, N2982.65 and N21453.49 respectively per annum while the net marketing margin per annum was estimated as N18766.84, N22489.30 and N16203.81 respectively. Conversely, the marketing efficiency for the cassava products and by-products was estimated as 74.26%, 75.44% and 75.53% respectively for gari, fufu and lafu with lafu having the highest marketing efficiency when compared with the other cassava products (gari and fufu). From the results of the net farm income and marketing margin, it was discovered that fufu is more profitable along the cassava product value chain when compared to the other products (gari and lafu). This study therefore recommends that processing and marketing of lafun and fufu is efficient and their trade is profitable. Also, cassava processors and marketers should form cooperative groups to increase access to credit for higher output and trade of products.   &nbsp