Abstract

The evaluation of the prospects of value addition in small-scale rural enterprises in North-eastern Adamawa State, Nigeria, was conducted in order to determine the profit potentials among the entrepreneurs. Data gathered through group discussions and interviews schedule with members/owners of enterprises in the communities were analysed using descriptive statistics and value-addition model. Results revealed that, majority (60.00%) of the small-scale entrepreneurs were males who were within the age range of 18 to 40 years (56.67%) with most (60.00%) having formal education ranging from primary to tertiary. While in the grain processing category groundnuts and maize were found to have highest margin of value addition with N3, 855 and N3, 225, respectively, fish processing recorded N220 as the most profitable in the livestock category. Hot pepper and tomato processing accounted for N2,180 each, as possessing the highest profit margin among the vegetable processors. The rural entrepreneurs reported inadequacy of markets for finished products (100.00%), limited capital for purchase of inputs (100.00%) and exploitative tax by government agencies (83.33%) as the most worrisome. It could therefore, be concluded that amidst the stated constraints, value addition on agriculture commodities in the area studied was found to possess high profit potentials. The study recommends that, small-scale farmers should be informed of the benefits of adding value to their agricultural commodities before marketing, and agencies that intend to encourage rural entrepreneurship should provide market and micro-finance linkages with absolute monitoring structures in order that beneficiaries adhere to appropriate agribusiness practices.

Key words: Community, enterprises, Nigeria, small-scale, value-addition.