RURAL EMPLOYMENT GENERATION AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH SMALL SCALE CASSAVA PROCESSING VENTURES IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

The study was conducted on rural employment generation and poverty alleviation through small scale cassava processing ventures in Niger State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire and the analtical techniques involved the use of ordinary least square, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty index and binary logit regression models. The study revealed that four cassava products namely garri, cassava flour (lafun), fufu and starch were the major products from cassava processing in the area and that it provided full employment for 81% of the cassava processors in the area. The study showed that cassava processing was profitable in the area. The logit regression result revealed that age and amount spent on feeding by the processors were statistically significant at 5% and 10% probability level, respectively but negatively related to the poverty status of the processors. This implies that the probability of the cassava processor living above poverty line decreased with age and amount spent on feeding while the probability of the processors living above poverty line increased with increased in assets (p ? 0.05), quantity of cassava processed (p ? 0.01) and years of experience (p ? 0.01). The mean income/day/processor was ?275 which implied that cassava processing alleviated poverty in the area. The results of partial elasticity revealed that quantity of cassava processed, years of experience, value of assets and amount spent on feeding were elastic. In conclusion, cassava processing was a source of employment for majority of the processors and also had ability of alleviating poverty among the rural folks in the study area.