ABSRACT

The study provided empirical evidence of rural household’s engagement in production, processing and marketing of oil palm produce in Southeast Nigeria. The specific objectives were to ascertain the level of engagement of rural households in oil palm production, ascertain the level of household’s engagement in oil palm processing, ascertain the level of household’s engagement in marketing of oil palm produce among others. 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, mean and gross margin) and inferential statistics (ANOVA and multiple regression models). The major results revealed that the respondents in the study area were moderately engaged in the production of oil palm produce (pooled grand mean = 3.35). There was high level of engagement in the processing of oil palm produce (pooled grand mean = 3.67). More so, the result revealed that the respondents had high level of engagement in the marketing of oil palm produce (pooled grand mean =3.80). F-test value of 1.525 indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the level of engagement of rural households in production of oil palm produce across the states in the study area. 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. More so, the F-test value (1.4290) indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the level of engagement of rural households in the marketing of oil palm produce across the states in the study area. Again F-test value (1.1697) indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the level of engagement of rural households in the production, processing and marketing of oil palm produce in the study area. The coefficients of age (0.756**), level of education (0.188***), production experience (0.089**), distance (-0.006**) and transportation cost (-0.107***) significantly influenced level of engagement oil palm production in Southeast Nigeria. The coefficients of household size (0.117**), level of education (2.003**), processing experience (0.071**), income (0.844***) and labour cost (1.324***) significantly influenced level of engagement the processing of oil palm in Southeast Nigeria. The coefficients of household size (1.149***), level of education (0.068***), marketing experience (0.370**), income (0.113***) and distance to market (0.089**) significantly influenced level of engagement the marketing of oil palm produce in Southeast Nigeria. The study concluded that if rural households are adequately empowered to engage in production, processing and marketing of palm products, it will create employment, satisfy local and export demand as well improve the welfare of the rural dwellers. It was recommended that rural household’s engagement in oil palm production, processing and marketing must be re-emphasized as a panacea to unemployment among rural households in Southeast Nigeria.