Comparative Analysis of the Level of Engagement in Oil Palm Processing Among Rural Households in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

The study provided empirical evidence of rural household’s engagement in production, processing and marketing of oil palm produce in South east Nigeria. The study specifically identified the methods of processing oil palm produce, ascertaind the level of household’s engagement in oil palm processing, identified the constraints to oil palm processing in the study area. The study made use of multi-stage random sampling procedure in selecting 540 respondents. Data for the study were collected with the use of structured questionnaire and analyzed with the use of both descriptive (frequency, percentage and mean) and inferential statistics (ANOVA model). The major result result showed that a fairly large proportion (58.1%) of the respondents used semi-modern/mechanized in processing of oil palm produce. There was high level of engagement in the processing of oil palm produce (pooled grand mean = 3.67). The result revealed that lack of modern processing equipment (86.5%), instability of government policy (80.0%), high cost of labour (76.7%), inadequate safety and healthy environments (71.5%), lack of physical and social infrastructure (69.6%), lack of storage facility (69.4%), lack of technical information (62.8%), difficulty in obtaining credit facilities (62.5%) and poor quality of products were the constraints to engagement in oil palm processing. The F-test value of 11.654 indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in the level of engagement of rural households in processing of oil palm produce across the states in South East Nigeria at 5% level of probability and the null hypothesis was rejected. It was recommended that rural household’s engagement in oil palm processing must be re-emphasized as a panacea to unemployment among rural households in Southeast Nigeria. If government at all levels are sincere in reducing unemployment in Nigeria, then youth engagement in oil palm industry is a viable solution.