The development of dynamic agricultural value chains has been acknowledged to offer considerable scope in improving the livelihood of the value chain players. This study analyzed the profitability and marketing margins obtained by actors at various nodes of the yam value chain; and examined the organizations of the value chain, linkages among the key actors as well as the challenges faced by actors in the value chain in Baruteen Local Government Area (LGA) of Kwara State. A three-stage sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents consisting of 40 producers, 20 processors, and 60 market sellers who were accordingly served with three different sets of the study structured questionnaires. The collected data were subjected to four analytical tools including; descriptive statics, budgetary, marketing channels and Chi Square analyses. Findings revealed significant difference in the net income of the value actors, with the processors having the highest share ?3,558,630, followed by the marketing agents ?1,426,497 and the least ?26,773.34 by the producers. It was also revealed that marketing margins differed among the actors with yam marketers obtaining higher marketing margins per kg of yam. The identified constraints affecting yam value chain were inadequate market information, inadequate storage facilities, inadequate transport facilities, unfavourable government policies, high cost of production, and inadequate record keeping. The study recommends the need for capacity-building among yam value chain participants to promote yam value addition, inclusion of smallholder farmers in the value chain by scaling up their level of awareness. Extension training on record keeping for effective resource management and increased income and encouragement on formation of Yam farmers’ cooperative society to improve access to affordable agricultural inputs to reduce cost of production.

Keywords: Yam, Value Chain, producers, processors and marketing agents