Baker’s Willingness to Utilize High Quality Cassava Flour (Hqcf) for Bread Production: Experience From Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

One of the major reasons for introducing High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) inclusion in bread is to reduce its cost of production. The study thus evaluated baker’s willingness to utilize HQCF for bread production in Ogun State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to elicit information from 187 selected bakers. Results showed that 79.6% of the bakers were male, with a mean age of 39.5 years. The average year of bakery establishment was 10.7 years, with an average bread production period of 5 days per week, mean bread production of 361.0 loaves. Majority, 96.1% of the bakers were willing to utilize HQCF in bread production. In addition, 79.0% of the bakers would accept HQCF if it is readily available and 72.6% were willing to utilize readily mixed HQCF with wheat flour. Pearson Product Moment Correlation revealed a significant relationships (p<0.05) between willingness to utilize and quantity of bread loaves produced per day (r = 0.280); year of bakery establishment (r = 0.253); awareness of cassava inclusion policy (r = -0.273); awareness of potential value of HQCF inclusion in bread production (r = -0.340) and the bakers’ willingness to utilize HQCF. The study concluded that bakers were willing to utilize HQCF for bread production in the study area.