Perceived Relevance of Cassava Bread Initiative of the Government among Selected Stakeholders in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

The need to rethink Nigeria’s food importation burden and consider local content options gave rise to the current initiative of the government on cassava bread production. Policy effectiveness and sustainability however requires that government’s actions and decisions be guided by the interests of stakeholders. Perceived relevance of cassava bread initiative of the government among selected stakeholders in Ekiti State, Nigeria was therefore investigated. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 89 stakeholders comprising of master bakers, consumers and marketers from Ekiti State and data was collected using structured questionnaire on respondents’ awareness, responsiveness and perceived relevance of the initiative. Data was summarised using frequency distribution, mean, percentages, Chi-square, PPMC and ANOVA. Mean age of the respondent was 37 years. About 55.1% had high awareness of government policy on cassava bread. Radio (100%), television (94.4%) and newspaper (87.6%) ranked highest among respondents sources of information on the policy. Majority of stakeholders (master bakers, 63.3%; marketers 82.8%; and consumers, 66.7%) indicated high level of responsiveness to the cassava bread initiative.  While more than half of master bakers (73.3%) and marketers (51.7%) perceived the initiative as relevant, 56.7% of the consumers indicated otherwise. Significant relationship existed between respondents level of education (X²=9.279, p=0.026), awareness (r=0.054, p=0.014) and perceived relevance of the initiative. No significant difference existed in stakeholders’ perception of the relevance of the initiative. Study concluded that the stakeholders are well prepared for full implementation of the cassava bread policy in the study area.

Keywords: Cassava bread initiative, government’s policy, perceived relevance, policy responsiveness.