Evaluation of Factors affecting Participation of Actors in Charcoal Value Chain in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the factors affecting participation of key actors in charcoal value chain (CVC) in Benue state. A multistage sampling technique was used for the selection of 739 respondents, comprising charcoal producers, transporters, off-taker and consumers in seven local government areas and 14 communities. Descriptive statistics and principal factor analysis were used for data analysis. Results showed male dominance (62.47%) in the entire CVC, especially at the production (86.5%) and transportation (100%) nodes whereas female were mostly active at off-take (55.3%) and consumption (81.3%) nodes. Further, CVC sector was dominated mostly by young people (64.27%) averaged 37 years and about 66% of the respondents were married with 7.8 years of experience in the CVC. Results of factor analysis depicted that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure (KMO) value of 0.882. Five common factors were extracted with cumulative variance proportion of 63.85% of the total variance, above the recommended percentage of 50-60% for social science research of 50-60% and Eigenvalues above 1. The five factors were labelled as ‘Institutional and policy constraints’ (accounted for 37.76% of the total variance), ‘Production constraints’ (8.29%), ‘Financial and marketing constraints’ (6.90%), ‘Infrastructural constraints’ (6.55%) and ‘Technological constraint which accounted for 4.65% of the total variance. The study concludes that charcoal value chain in the State is open to both genders and is constrained mostly by institutional and policy factors. It was recommended that involvement of government agencies and community leaders in CVC would ensure effective policy formulation and implementation for a sustainable charcoal exploration.