Evaluation of Income and Employment Generation from Cassava Value Chain in the Nigerian Agricultural Sector

Population in poverty and related statistics such as unemployment and income inequality in Nigeria is quite unacceptably high. In 2012, the country has unemployment of 23.9 per cent broken down to 17.1 per cent in the rural areas and 25.6 per cent in the urban centres. Cassava is now one of the priority crops to be used as a springboard to wriggle out of the menace of unemployment in the country. While cassava production is increasing at 3per cent every year, the country continues to import various industrial products that can be made from the crop. Therefore the paper analyzed the capacity of cassava value chain to create new jobs and generate increased income and employment in the economy. Framework of analysis of collected primary data was based on the concept of value chain. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages and measures of central tendency were employed in the analysis and presentation of results. Results showed that in the cassava value chain, increased income and employment can be generated through development of the chain especially at the stages of production, processing and industrial utilization. The implication is that increased generation of employment which is required for growth lies with increased industrial processing and utilisation of cassava for expanded production of non-food and non-traditional industrial products of cassava that are competitive to penetrate export markets. In this way, opportunities to generate increased income and employment will be enormous and diversified. Policy recommendations towards development of the cassava chain included efficient investment in infrastructure in the rural sector.