Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the profitability analysis of cassava processing among women folks in Sagamu Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used to select a total number of one hundred and twenty (120) sampled cassava processors for the study. Primary data and secondary data were used for the study. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the socio-economic characteristics and major problems that constraint the processors while budgetary technique analysis was used to analyse the profitability of the cassava processing business. The regression was used to find the effects of loan use on cassava processing net income. The result of the analysis revealed that 37.5% of the respondents fall between 41-50 years of age and 68.3% of the processors were married with the processors having one form of education. The result of the study also showed that 50% of the women processors were engaged in trading and had household size within 4 and 6 members as the family size. The processing experience of the women respondents showed the average processing experience of the respondents was 15.18 years. The average years of participation in the cooperative activities were 4.57 years. The effect of loan use on cassava processing income show that quantity of cassava processed and the number of years spent in the cooperative were significant. Cassava processing is a viable profit making venture in the study area with a net revenue of N153,967.4, N102,772.6 and N118,403.91 for Garri, Lafun and Fufu respectively. The problems identified by the majority of the respondents included lack of processing machines and other identified problems were identified by minority. The study concludes that cassava processing is a viable profit making venture and quantity of cassava processed and number of years spent in a cooperative may cause an increase in cassava processing profit. The major problem of cassava processing was lack of processing machines. Government and development agencies should organize sensitization programmes for cassava processors on the potentials that exist in the new emerging markets for cassava products.