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This study focused on creation of market opportunities of instant fufu powder for smallholder women farmers in Oriire local government, Oyo state, Nigeria. The purpose of the project at the rural level was to ensure creation and encouragement of more of off-farm activities like processing, storage and marketing. A multistage random sampling technique was adopted to select 240 farmers/processors involved in development of value chains for Cassava flour to improve their livelihoods and incomes as direct beneficiaries. Demonstration /training were done with the assistance of trained personnel for better understanding. Physical and live practices were used for the demonstration. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The result of the study showed that 90.8% of the farmers take their products to the market with the enthusiasm of selling all, but often these products are not fully sold due to higher supply of the same products with lower demand in the market places. The adoption of fufu powder processing by the rural women did not result in acquisition of new assets although 88% of the beneficiaries reported increase in their capability to meet expenditure on food, children education, and meeting social obligations like naming ceremonies. Currently a 1 kg of mechanically processed odourless powder ‘fufu’ retails for N250 in Nigeria. The study concluded that, the powdered cassava ‘flour’ packaging business is a potentially acceptable business that prevents post-harvest losses. It is still calling for massive investment by aspiring entrepreneurs. This will ensure capabilities to meet food requirements of a growing population by eliminating losses, making more nutritive food items from raw commodities. |
