SOCIOECONOMIC AND PERFORMANCE OF AGRIPRENEURS: A CASE STUDY OF DRIED MELON VALUE CHAIN IN OWO LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the socioeconomic and performance of the dried melon value chain in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. The data for the study were collected primarily using a well-structured questionnaire. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly select 120 respondents. Descriptive statistics, budgetary techniques, and multiple regression models were used to analyse the data. The results of the socioeconomic characteristics revealed that male dominates the producers’ chain while female dominates the processors’ and marketers' chains. All the actors were still in their economic active age with a mean age of around 40 years old. Many of the actors were married and had good years of experience with the producers being the highest (18 years). Apart from the producers, many of the actors were educated with at least a primary school education. Processors made more income (N190,374.7) than the producers (N175,709.3) and the marketers (N132,374.4). Despite that, the budgetary techniques confirmed that each chain was profitable, the return on investment was at the highest (0.59) for the processors followed by the producers (0.44) and then, the marketers (0.40). The market margin results showed 0.31, 0.37, and 0.29 for the processors, producers, and marketers, respectively. The results of the multiple regression indicated that costs of labour, transportation, and fixed input significantly influenced producers’ volume of sales. The variables like education, unit price, and labour cost significantly influenced processors’ volume of sales, while age, sex, income, experience, and unit price significantly influenced the marketers’ volume of sales. Therefore, it can be recommended that government intervention is crucial in the melon value chain by subsidizing the inputs to reduce the cost of production and processing. The government should also provide credit facilities and other infrastructure, such as roads, which will reduce the high cost of transportation. Keywords: Gross Margin, Market Margin, Melon, Profitability, Volume of Sales, Nigeria