Determining the profitability level of black soap production from Cocoa Pod Husk in Lagelu local government area of Oyo State

The profitability of an enterprise determines the degree such an enterprise can retain its practitioners. This study therefore determines the profitability level of black soap production from cocoa pod husk (CPH) in the study area. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select four villages while simple random technique was used to select sixty respondents for the study. The study showed that majority of the producers (88.4%) are females and most (71.0%) of the producers have no formal education. The result of the Budgetary Analysis shows that the average profitability level of black soap production in the study area is 36.36%. Regression Analysis showed that the coefficient of multiple determination (R2) is 71.9% with standard error of 0.25887. The coefficients of all the inputs were significant at1% except those of X4 (cost of depreciated fixed input) and X5 (cost of firewood). Women had the highest percentage of house hold contributions. It is recommended that government should endeavour to grant soft loans to black soap producers and also try to make modern equipment available for the use of the producers. Producers should also be encouraged to form Cooperatives to ensure easy access to cocoa pod husk at cheaper rate.Keywords: black soap, cocoa pod husk, profitabilityJournal of Agriculture, Forestry and the Social SciencesVol 3(1) 2005: 69-8