SELF EMPOWERMENT THROUGH THE PROCESSING AND MARKETING OF LOCUST BEANS FOR EXPORT

SELF EMPOWERMENT THROUGH THE PROCESSING AND MARKETING OF LOCUST BEANS FOR EXPORT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0    INTRODUCTION

          Locust beans popularly called “Dawadawa” in Hausa language; Yoruba call it “Iru”, Ogiri (Igbo) and parkia biglobasa (botanica name). it is most important food condiment in the entire savannah region of West and central Africa. Some of the of the countries where locust beans are used for food ingredient include Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Chad, Sierra Leone, Mali, Upperi Volta, Gambia, Cameron, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Semi desert country of Niger. A locust beans constitutes a significant part of the diet of many other West Africa

          However, history has it that locust beans can be traced back to several centuries when locust beans trees were traditionally, first planted around communities in Africa.

Summary of Project

          The project is primarily aimed at empowering the growth through processing of locust beans for export. This will deliberately focus on the typical processing of locust beans. This condiment involved boiling for 12 hours soaking the seeds in water, dehulling, boiling for another 6 hours and fermentation for 3-4 days. The use and efficiency of locust beans dehullet machine is to reduce the amount of time and labour required. In the traditional manual dehulling of African locust beans seeds; boiling, soaking in water and dehulling of locust beans resulted in reduction of ash, crude fibre (C.F) and removal of shaft. After which different ideas of packaging for distributions. Nutritional value such as low sugar, amylase, sucrase, protease, fat and free amino acid, shall be fully considered. At the end, this product  shall be able to provide proper and reliable information on how to empower youth or self in making of locust beans for export .

Summary of the contents

          Summary of the contents are introduction objectives of the study, significance of the study, statement of the problem, scope of the study and limitation of the study.

1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

          Several constraints are attached to the production and consumption of the condiment

i)             Low production due to the use of the rudimentary equipment, high wood fuel consumption and poor manufacturing practices

ii)           Dehulling of the locust beans is time consuming laborious and inefficient

iii)          Consequently, the production of the food condiment has not increased substantially

1.3    OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

          This study will effectively look into the  following objectives

i)             To generate a scope the which one can be effectively involved in the production of locust beans for export.

ii)           To know how prosperous is processing and production of locust beans are to the life of youth

iii)          To induce the economic effect it has on the economy

iv)          To determine how profitable it is to embark on production of locust beans for both local national  and international markets

v)           To know how sustainable the business of locust beans can empower Nigeria Youth economically and socially

vi)          To know it can create more job opportunities for individual e.g. youth that is secondary school leaves and graduates

vii)        To know some nutritional values and humanity

1.4    FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESIS

          Here are the hypothesis postulated to be tested in this work. It stands as a suppose statement which answer the research or find solution to the research problems.

1a.     H0: There is no significant relationship between self employment and processing and marketing of locust beans

b.       H1: There is significant relationship between self employment and processing and marketing of locust beans.

2a.     H0: Processing and marketing of locust beans does not have impact or effect on self employment

b.       H1: Processing and marketing of locust beans has impact or effect on self employment    

1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

i)       The researcher will gain lots from this study at the end and it will increase the knowledge of the researcher

ii)       This research work will assist individual or numerous youths most especially in this locality who will want to embark on the processing of locust beans for business

iii)      Public: The entire public and industrialist will also benefit in the sense that more initiatives and ideas will be disseminating and much benefit that can be derived

iv)      It will help the government to know more of added value attached to the processing of locust beans in the nations economy

1.6    SCOPE OF THE STUDY

          For the purpose of this study the research will dwell on how individual or self can be effectively and efficiently empowered in the processing and exporting of locust beans and fulfilling its procedures. Also, the study will look at the plantation or farming of locust beans tree for exporting purpose at the end.

Limitation of the study:

1.      Scarcity of producers: in the course of this study, we hardly locate a potential producer of locust beans which actually leads to the adoption of what we see we made use

2.      Season or weather: During the exercise of this research work, it was discovered that the period of harvesting locust beans is between April/May

3.      Plantation or Farming: It was virtually discovered that there is no single farmer of locust beans in the community where this research is been carried out unlike cocoa and maize farmers.