3. Result and Discussion
3.1. Socio-economic Characteristics of Investors
The socioeconomic characteristics of plantain farmers were presented in Table 1. The average age was 52.2 (±11.19) years, 41.8 (±10.78) years and 33.42 (±11.99) years for plantain farmers, processors, and marketers, respectively. This implies that the processors and marketers are relatively young. This could indicate that they are energetic and innovative. The result further implies that an average farmer in the study area is relatively old. This could be attributed to the fact that older people generally stay in the villages and relatively younger people go to cities for education, learning of trade and in search of white-collar jobs. Distribution by gender revealed that about 93.3% of the farmers are male. This could indicate that plantain farming is masculine in nature. The processors (100%) and marketers (92.1%) are majorly female indicating the feministic nature of the job. It also shows suggest that the plantain processor and marketers is gender biased in favour of women. Only few of the plantain investors had tertiary education with 15.8% for the marketers, 6.3% for the processors and none for the farmers. This implies that majority of the respondents are illiterates. Though education is not a prerequisite to invest in plantain business, it could provide the investors with enough skills and innovation to improve their plantain business. About 93.3% of farmers, 100% for processors and 73.7% of marketers are married. This implies some level of responsibilities into farming business to meet up with family needs. The average farming experience was 26.9 (±10.88) years, 12.47 (±10.78) years and 5.84 (±19.12) years for plantain farmers, processors, and marketers, respectively. This indicates that the respondents have many years of experience their respective businesses. This could have a positive effect on the plantain business. Only 6.7% farmers, 15.6% processors and 13.2% marketers had access to credit facilities. This implies that the investors have limited access to credit facilities. This reiterated the fact that plantain enterprises are maintained by personal funds and cash remittance from friends.
3.2. Profitability of All Investors in Plantain Value Chain
The distribution of various costs incurred and returns to all investors in plantain value chain were presented in Table 2. The analysis was computed on twelve (12) months basis for farmers. Budgetary analysis encompasses cost components such as average fixed cost and average variable costs of variable cost of various categories and production income i.e. total income or total revenue. In this study, the monetary value of the outputs was obtained. From the computation, the average total variable cost was $66.783, $90.079, $30.653 for the farmers, processors and marketers, respectively. While, the average fixed cost was $25.76, $1.004, $ 3.961 for the farmers, processors and marketers, respectively. The total revenue was $128.165, $118.489, $41.268 for the farmers, producers and marketers respectively. The gross margin to each enterprise were $61.382, $28.392, $10.615 for the farmers, processors and marketers, respectively. This shows that all the investors (farmers, processors and marketers) along the plantain value chain were making profit. This indicates that the investors were able to cover all variable cost incurred in course of production. The average net income was $35.622; $27.388 and $6.654 for the farmers, processors and marketers, respectively. This could indicate that the plantain business is profitable at each stage of investment. The benefit ratio was $1.38, $1.30 and $1.19 for the farmers, processors and marketers respectively. This implies that every $100 invested in the enterprise yield additional $138, $130 and $119 for the respective investors. This implies that investors were making profit at each level along the value chain. However, the most enterprising sector in plantain value chain is production followed by processing, while marketing is the least in the study area.
4. Conclusion and Recommendation
This paper investigated profitability of investment in plantain value chain in Osun State, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics showed that majority of the respondents are illiterate, experienced and married. Majority of the farmers are male, while plantain processor and marketers is gender biased in favour of women. The investors had limited access to credit facilities. Budgetary estimates revealed that plantain business is profitable at each stage of investment in the study area. However, the most enterprising sector in plantain value chain is production followed by processing, while marketing is the least in the study area. Insecticide used (p<0.1) and numbers of plantain harvested (p<0.01) significantly influenced the profitability of the plantain farmers, while age (p<0.1), level of formal education (p<0.05), amount invested into the business (p<0.01) and household size (p<0.05) significantly influenced the profitability of the plantain marketers. Only household size (p<0.01) significantly influenced the profitability of the plantain processor. All these significant variables must be considered in an effort to increase profitability of investors along the value chain. Since the investment in plantain processing is labour intensive and highly profitable, efforts should be made to reduce the labour intensive through introduction of mechanization to avert inefficiencies resulting from use of labour. However, subsidized cost of inputs and better access to credit among the investors along the value chain would increase the level of return to the investment.