ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF CASSAVA PROCESSING IN EGBEDA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Cassava is one of the most important crops that can be cultivated all year round yet there is inability to meet the quantity demanded by industries and other end user of the product. This study was carried out to analyse cassava value chain in Egbeda local government area of Oyo state, Nigeria. Primary data needed for the study were collected through the administration of questionnaires. A total of 85 questionnaires were administered. Descriptive (Table and Frequency) and budgetary analysis was used. Well-constructed questionnaires were administered to major actors in the chain (farmers/producers, marketers and processors.). The result revealed that there are three major cassava processed products in the study area; garri, cassava dough(fufu) and cassava chip (lafun).The result also revealed that females are more involved in the marketing(71.14% ) and processing(85.71% ) of cassava. Also most of the respondents were betweeen the age range of 31-50. The study also revealed that to every one tonne of fresh cassava 275000(garri), 34500 (wet fufu) and 45000(cassva chip) are produced respectively. While the average gross margin estimated for the producer/farmers was N706111. Also it was discovered that poor marketing information is a major challenge faced by the processors. It is therefore recommended that cassava processors should organize to form an association and a cooperative society to strengthen the marketing network.


INTRODUCTION
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an essential food for over 600 million people in large parts of sub -Saharan Africa, South America and Asia. It is a tropical perennial crop cultivated mainly for its edible root. More than half of the world"s cassava is produced in Africa. It is a major source of calories for over 40% of the population (Arthur et al., 2009). Cassava is one of the most important crops for Nigerian farmers; it is the most widely cultivated crop and largely cultivated by small-scaled farmers that depend on seasonal rainfall (Ganeshkumar et al., 2017). The crop is preferred by most resourceconstrained farmers because of its low input requirements, tolerance to low rainfall and ease of propagation by use of vegetative stem cuttings. It provides food and income to over 30 million farmers and large numbers of processors and traders.
Over 90% of cassava produced in the country is consumed locally with less than 10% utilised for industrial purposes. Cassava roots constitute an important source of employment and income. It can be transformed into a considerable number of commodities varying from conventional and innovative food products, to livestock feedstuffs, ethanol and starch and its many derivatives. Cassava root can be processed locally into products like Garri, Chip, lafun, Tapioca, Starch, fufu, Chips etc, to sell in their local markets and communities Garri is a form of carbohydrate food gotten from processed cassava root, it is the most widely consumed and traded of all food products made from cassava roots. It is processed by peeling, washing, grating and fermenting the mature cassava roots. After a few days fermentation, say three to five days depending on preference, the grated mash is bagged, de-watered and grated again. grating will make the granule smaller and friable. Garri can be consumed by soaking in cold water or making pasta with it and eating with delicious soup. The market structure of garri is characterized by perfect competition in the sense that there are many buyers and sellers who are not in a position to influence the market. Another product gotten from cassava root is sticky dough (fufu) .It is known by many names; fufu, Akpu (in Igbo), loi loi, Santana and Mr White. The origin of fufu is from the Ibo land where is popularly called Akpu. Sticky dough (fufu) is prepared by peeling roots, washing, cutting into pieces and steeping in water to ferment for three to four days. There are other cassava products, fermented chip (lafun). Cassava chain is an elaborate but essential food production system that require so many actors to maintain sustainability and food security. Despite the role of cassava in Nigeria economy, the value addition mechanism is inadequately utilized. Processing is predominantly done on small scale, resulting to inability to meet the quality and quantity demand of the industry and other users of the product. The main objective of the study is to carry out the economic analysis of cassava processing in the study area with a view to providing strong economic performance and significant improvement on the income of the respondents.

STUDY AREA
The study was carried out in Egbeda, It is one of the Local Government Area in Oyo State, comprising of many district and villages of Ayede/Alugbo, Egbeda, Erunmu, Olodo/Kumapayi, Osegere,Owobaale/Kasumu, Adeyadi, Alagbo, Ayede, Buramo, Fatade, Fayo and others. It is located to the East and North East of Ibadan city. It is bounded on the west by Irewole local government area in Osun state Nigeria. Its headquarters is Egbeda town. It lies on geographical coordinates 7 0 22 1 0 " North and 4 0 3 1 0" East. The local government area has a total area measuring 191square kilometers and witnesses two major seasons which are rainy and dry seasons. Farming is one of the major economic activity in Egbeda local government area.

SAMPLING PROCEDURE AND SAMPLING SIZE
Purposive sampling techniques was used to select eighty-five respondents. A total of 85 questionnaires were administered to the respondents in the study area. Thirty-six(36) of the respondents were farmers/producers ,thirty-five(35) were processors and fourteen (14) were marketers.

DATA COLLECTION
Data were collected through the administration of a well-structured questionnaire and personal interview on the socio-economic characteristics, cost and return on each activities of the actors in the study area. The questionnaire were divided into three categories; the farmer/producers, the marketer and the processors.

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and budgetary analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to assess demographic characteristics of the respondents, while budgetary analysis (Gross margin) was used to determine income of the actors in the chain. The Gross margin can be expressed as follows; GM= TR-TVC Where, TR= Total Revenue TVC= Total variable cost livelihood of individuals. Also among the actors in the chain, 36.11% (farmers) had secondary education, 31.4% (marketers) had tertiary education while 50% (processors) had secondary education. This is an indication of some level of literacy in the chain. Also 50% of the farmers in the chain had 6-10years experience, 54.29% of the marketers had 6-10years experience in the business while 57.14% of the processor had less than 5 years" experience.  Table 3 above is the income contribution analysis for cassava producers in the study area. From the table, the Gross Margin of the producers was estimated as N758,000 per hectare. Therefore cassava farming can be regarded as a profitable venture in the study area. This is in line with (Tim-Ashama, 2016) that farm business is more profitable and lucrative with efficiency of production transforming into more profitability. The table 4 reveals the challenges faced by cassava producers in their course of production. The major constraints faced by the producers, in order of importance, were unavailability of inputs, high cost of production, poor market information, poor market network; while weak linkage between cassava farmers and processors, low returns from business and high cost of labour were considered as less constraints by the producers.  Table 6 shows the income generated from cassava processing.

Result and Discussion
The study revealed that cassava processing is a profitable enterprise. This is in line with the findings of Lawal et al. (2013) and Ehinmowo et al.(2015) who found that cassava processing to garri, cassava chip and cassava dough(fufu)are profitable. It was also revealed that cassava chip contribute more 45000/tonne among the processes, followed by garri 34,500/tonne. Though the profitability of cassava chip is more but the demand and rate of turn of garri is more than cassava chip. This contrasts the findings of Okeowo(2015) who found that fufu had the highest gross margin .It should be noted that cassava chips is further milled into lafun. Lafun is similar to fufu the difference is that lafun is a dried product that has a good shelf life and fufu is a wet product that has a much lower fiber content. It is often considered that consumer preference for fufu is low this may be due to its inherent undesirable characteristics short shelf life, and odour .Though its production is concentrated more in the eastern part of the country. Garri is mostly consumed possibly due to the fact that it is a pre-cooked convenience food and is commonly consumed by soaking in cold water  Table 7 reveals the challenges faced by cassava processors in the study area. The major constraints faced by the processors, in order of importance, were poor market information, high cost of production, high cost of hired labour, inadequate capital, poor extension service, low returns from business; while weak linkage between cassava farmers and processors, poor market network and poor access road were considered as less constraints by the processors.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study analyzed the economic contribution of cassava processors into the garri, cassava dough (fufu) and cassava chips and it was revealed that cassava processing is a profitable enterprise. It was also revealed that cassava chip contributed more 45000/tonne follow by garri 34,500/tonne. Though the profitability of cassava chips and cassava dough (wet fufu). Also the study revealed that poor market information is a major constraint faced by cassava processors.