Abstract:
This study aimed at assessing the effects of the North Mill processing factory in improving the lives of sheanut farmers in Buipe with specific reference to the factory’s role in providing ready market, job creation, infrastructure development and credit availability to farmers. The study seeks to draw a comparison between poverty situations in Buipe community before the establishment of the factory with the present when the factory started its operations. A descriptive research design was used where survey questionnaires were administered to female sheanuts farmers and also a focused group was conducted withfemale’s sheanuts farmers in Buipe. The study community was Buipe with a population of 8347 and household size of 2264. The sample size of the study was 88 which were obtained using the multi-cluster systematic sampling method. Data collected were entered and analyzed using the SPSS software. Some of the key findings that emanated fromthis finding are that, majority of the participants (92%) can now save with proceed from sheanuts prior to the establishment of the factory, majority of participants (96%) attested to the fact that the factory has provided permanent jobs to some people in Buipe and majority of participants (75%) admitted being able to access bank loans with the help of the factory. Based on the key findings of this study, it was concuded that, the North Mill sheanuts processing factory has helped reduced poverty in Buipe by providing Jobs for the people and giving farmers easy access to market their sheanuts. However, it was concluded that, it is incumbent on government to create the necessary environment for the Agro-processing factory fester.
