WOMEN INVOLVEMENT IN CASSAVA VALUE CHAIN AMONG CASSAVA PROCESSORS AND MARKETERS IN AFIJIO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

There have been several governmental approaches and interventions to increase the production of cassava crop in Nigeria which have not been yielding desired results due to market linkage failure. This study seeks to assess women involvement in cassava value chain among cassava processors and marketers in Afijio Local Government of Oyo States. Two – stage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents for the study. Simple descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency counts and percentages were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents while Likert scale descriptive analysis was used to determine the level of participation of women involving in cassava value chain and ordinary least squares multiple regression analysis was adopted to determine the factors influencing the involvement of women in cassava value chain. The study concluded that women in the study area usually involve in promotion, publicity, fermenting the cassava flour, price reduction and packaging. Also, educational statuses, participation in cooperative activities, as well as access to farm credit were significant factors that influence women involvement in cassava value chain among cassava processors and marketers in the study area. The study urged the Government to intervene in the business by making the processing and marketing of cassava friendly through an improved technology as well as provision of easily accessed credit facilities.

Keywords

• production
• involvement
• cassava
• women
• processing
• marketing