“Food and nutrition security and its resilience to global crises” Stakeholders and Marketing Analysis of African Nutmeg (Monodora myristica) in Cameroon

Monodora myristica Dunal is an edible fruit belonging to Annonaceae family that plays a crucial role in household economy in Cameroon as the seeds of this fruit are widely consumed for his nutritional value. The characteristics of the stakeholders in the value chain and their benefit derived from it are under investigated. Hence, to better understand the value chain of the seeds, the research investigated the socio-demographic characteristic of producers and traders and the marketing channels used. Purposive sampling method was used to select the region and communities due to the large production of the species in Nde district. A sample of 15 producers and 57 traders were randomly selected and semi-structured questionnaires were administrated to respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data collected and one-way ANOVA was used for analysing the differences among wholesalers, resellers and retailers actors’ groups. Profit margin was calculated to estimate the percentage of benefit perceived by traders. Results revealed that men (93%) were predominantly involved in the production, while majority of the women (73.7%) were involved in the trade of seeds. Producers, wholesalers, resellers, retailers and final consumers were the main actors identified and involved in the value chain of the species. Wholesalers gathered the highest quantities of seeds per production cycle (875 kg) compared to resellers (105 kg) and retailers (32 kg). The profit margin obtained by resellers was higher than other actors and varied between US31.07toUS 50.82 per bucket of 15 liter according to the abundance and scarcity period. However, women are marginalised in the production process by men due to land ownership control which is in the hands of the men. Similarly, along the value chain despite majority of women involved in the process, the wholesaler actors discriminate women involvement. Therefore, policies that will support resources allocation and gender equality will help to mitigate the challenges.