Assessment of Constraints to Cassava Value-Added Enterprises in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined constraints to cassava processing in Kwara State,Nigeria. A 2-stage sampling technique was used to randomly select 160cassava processors in the 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of thestate from the list of registered processors obtained from KwaraAgricultural Development Programme (ADP). Structured interviewschedule was used as instrument to elicit primary data from therespondents. The socio-economic characteristics were subjected todescriptive statistics, while the constraints were rated on a 4-point Likerttypescale. Chi-square (X2) was used to test the relationship betweenselected socio-economic characteristics and constraints to cassavaprocessing. The result of analysis revealed that 36.3 percent of therespondents were within the age range of 41 and 50 years, majority(87%) were women, and 55.6 percent had household sizes of between 6and 8 members. Those without formal education constituted 40 percent,44.4 percent had less than 10 years experience in cassava processing,while majority (68%) sourced funds for cassava processing from personalsavings. The severe constraints of cassava processing were lack offunds, high cost of processing equipment, and scarcity of cassava tuberswith respective mean scores ( X ) of 3.44, 3.35 and 3.23. The chi-squaretest of independence revealed that positive and significant relationshipexisted between socio-economic characteristics such as gender,educational status, marital status, membership of cooperative society,age of processor and experience in cassava processing at 5% level ofsignificance. Subsidy on cassava processing equipment, reduction ofinterest rates and a buy-back policy of processed cassava products bygovernments were recommended.