Abstract
Cassava, an edible root crop and a reliable and relatively inexpensive source of carbohydrate, is widely grown and processed into different foods such as cassava flour and garri. The study analyzed the costs and returns in cassava flour and garri production and also determined the factors influencing its production in the study area. A two- stage sampling technique was used to generate primary data used for this study. The first stage involved the purposive selection of Ibarapa North Local Government Area (LGA), because it has more cassava producers and processors than other LGAs. The second stage involved the random selection of 15 villages out of the 23 in the LGA. From the selected villages, 170 respondents were randomly selected while only 150 copies of the structured questionnaire administered were retrieved. Results from the primary data shows that 28.3% of garri producersproducers had no formal education and 46.7% were between the ages of 30 and 39years. The regression analysis shows that the quantity of garri sold (ß =5.4099), transportation cost (ß =-0.2994), peeling cost (ß = -0.4249), and grating cost (ß = 0.6878) were all significant to the total revenue of cassava flour sold. Price, inadequate capital, transportation, land tenure and markets were factors influencing garri and cassava flour production. Analysis of the costs and returns revealed that processing cassava into garri gave a higher gross margin even though processing of cassava was profitable, indicating that there is a significant difference between flour and garri production. Inputs, market, good and infrastructural facilities should be provided so as to increase production capacity and hence food security.
 Keywords: Cassava, Cassava flour, Garri, Gross margin, Nigeria
Highlights
Cassava, an edible root crop and a reliable and relatively inexpensive source of carbohydrate, is widely grown and processed into different foods such as cassava flour and garri
Cassava is processed into garri within a production cycle that takes an average of five to seven days this is applies to cassava flour
Socioeconomic characteristics of the respondent's: Table 1 reveals that 70% of the respondents were female while 30% were male this shows that garri production was a female dominated agribusiness in the study, majority (46.6%) were between the ages of 30 and 39 years, 53.3% of them were married and 11,7% are single, most of the respondent's (71.7%) had one form of formal education while only 28.3% had no formal education, been educated is likely to increase the efficiency of the garri producers in the study, 35.0 % had family size between 4 and 6, 31.7% had between 1-3 and 23.3% had family size between 7 and 9 persons this shows that the respondent’s
Summary
An edible root crop and a reliable and relatively inexpensive source of carbohydrate, is widely grown and processed into different foods such as cassava flour and garri. Cassava is a drought resistant crop grown mainly in dry areas; contribute significantly to the nutrition and livelihood of man. It is widely cultivated in Nigeria and is predominantly grown by smallholder farmers. Cassava roots must be processed into a storable form soon after harvest Various processing methods such as grating, sun drying and fermenting are used to reduce the cyanide content. They are versatile in the processing and marketing of garri and cassava flour, and in most cases, they do it simultaneously to diversify their processing and marketing This peculiarity is common with processors in Ibarapa North LGA. The study sought to evaluate the profitability or otherwise of cassava flour and garri production in the study area
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