ABSTRACT

Value addition has the potential to increase the remunerations from African breadfrubit, but unpopularity of the product can hamper the revenue obtained from it. This study assessed value addition in Breadfruit Processing in Imo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socioeconomic characteristics of African breadfruit marketers in the study area identified  the value added products obtained from African breadfruit processing, cost and returns associated with African breadfruit processing, value added through processing  and the  challenges faced by breadfruit marketers in the study area.

A three stage sampling procedure was used to select breadfruit marketers. The first stage involved a purposive sampling of four LGAs based on the predominance of breadfruit marketers, followed by a random sampling of one market each from the four LGAs. The last stage involved a simple random sampling of 110 breadfruit marketers in the study area. Data were collected using primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire and data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as T-test.

The result of the socioeconomic characteristics showed that most of the marketers were female (50.9%), most fell within the age bracket of 40-49 years (57.4%), had one form of education or the other and most were married (62.0%) . The main products of African breadfruit processing were roasted seeds, boiled seeds, fried seeds, and dried seeds, with roasted seeds (49.1%) representing the most preferred in Imo State. Total revenue from Roasted seeds was ₦146,142.07, while that of boiled seeds was ₦111,496.80. Value added through breadfruit processing was highest for roasted seeds (51.4%), followed by boiled seeds (31.2%), fried seeds (28.5%), and dried seeds (19.6%). The T test findings show that fried breadfruits commanded better profit than the fresh while fresh was rated better in terms of profit between fresh and boiled.The major challenges of African breadfruit processing in the study area were: insufficient market for the product (3.94), unstable prices for the products (3.84), unpopularity of the product (3.83), too many market charges (3.81), and inadequate transportation (3.64).