THE LOCUST BEANS VALUE CHAIN: PROFIT SHARING OF THE KEY ACTORS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

The study has shown the economic values available along value chain of locust beans, the various activities which were performed in the links of chain and the profit sharing along the essential intra-link. Multistage sampling technique was employed. Three local Government areas (LGAs) were purposively selected for collectors, with 15 collectors from each of them, making a total of 45 respondents. In the case of the marketers of raw locust beans 102 respondents were snowballing selected from different major markets in Oyo State. The processors/marketers of processed locust bean were purposively interviewed in 5 LGA in Oyo State having 102 valid respondents. The study discovered profit sharing potentials along the linked activities from harvesting to consumption. The gross margin for the collector is ₦25,848.89 and contributed 33.57% to the value chain of locust beans. The gross margin for the marketers is ₦7,806.3366 making the raw locust bean to be lucrative. The marketing contributes most to locust bean value chain (43, 02%). The processor contributed 23.40% to locust bean value chain. The study found that there were income share along chain from harvest to final selling of the processed locust beans. It is therefore recommended that technology for different stages should be provided to create wealth and source of livelihood for the people.