Assessment of the attitude of women rice processors to adoption of available value addition technologies in Benue and Kogi States, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was necessitated by the fact that value addition technology is the thrust of the rice value chain needed by women rice processors to improve their commodities to meet the demand of quality assurance standard by the local and international markets.   The aim of this study is to bring to fore the analysis of the attitude of women rice processors towards value addition technologies available and used in the rice value chain in the study area. Data were obtained from 358 women rice processors using the multistage sampling procedure and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.  The result of this study showed that most of the women rice processors in Benue and Kogi State (94.96%) were in their active and productive ages and most (90.21%) of them had one form of education or the other. The result of the Ordered Probit indicated that age, marital status, year spent in rice processing and extension visit significant and statistically influenced processors adoption of the methods of rice value addition technologies. The challenges faced by women rice processors in adopting value addition technologies include: Lack of processing skill centers (.700), Irregular extension visit (.653), Lack of technical knowledge (.639), Inconsistency and lack of implementation of government policies on value addition (.628), Lack of readily organized market for products (.576). These results imply that women rice processors need technical knowledge and skills to add value to rice through the adoption of improved technologies. The study therefore recommends that extension should ensure that attitudinal changes required of women towards positive improvement in rice processing and value addition is achieved by adoption of technologies friendly to women rice processors.