Socio-Economic Study of Cassava Value Chain in Rwanda

Abstract

The study was undertaken to analyze socio-economic study of Cassava value chain in Rwanda. Data for this study were collected from a sample of sixty-one Cassava actors randomly selected at Kinazi sector. The objectives of the study were to evaluate impact of Cassava production, to analyze the structure and coordination of Cassava value chain, to assess Cassava marketing constraints, to determine profitability of Cassava smallholder farmers and to recommend possible strategies that policymakers can use to assist small-scale producers in their efforts to access high-value markets in cassava value chain. The hypothesis of the research was to test if Cassava value chain activities can maximize the return over total cost to farmers, using the Cobb-Douglas production function to test some statistical hypotheses. Socio-economic factors include age, educational background, sex, labour force, family size, land size and gross margin of Cassava farmers. Data collected for the study were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.865, suggesting that the used model has a high goodness of fit. Furthermore, the result of the statistical analysis shows that investing in cassava production enterprise is profitable. Therefore, farmers’ participation in profitable Cassava value chain networks by strengthening coordination, using improved Cassava varieties and introduction of Cassava processing technologies was recommended.