TY - THES A1 - Tem Beng, Donald T1 - The Root and Tuber Crop Value Chain in Cameroon: An Analysis of its Structure and Performance N2 - The aim of this study was to analyse the structure and performance of the root and tuber crop value chain in Cameroon. The study area included the North-west, Southwest, Littoral, Central and West regions of Cameroon. Data was collected through surveys and interviews with key informants and between the months of March and August 2021. A sample of 457 Value chain actors com-prising 163 farmers, 105 traders, 70 processors and 119 consumers was se-lected through a simple random sampling procedure. Secondary data was col-lected from published studies and from some officials of the Ministry of Agricul-ture. Data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel. Social Network Analysis, Functional institutional Analysis and the French Systematic method were used to analyse the structure of the value chain. Demographic and production char-acteristics were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. Profitability analy-sis was used to determine the profit margins of value chain actors. The results of the study revealed that 47% of farmers were males and 53% were females and that 77.1 % of traders and 65.3% of processors had attained at least sec-ondary level of education. Farm sizes ranged from 0.4 – 3 hectares and 81% them practiced mixed cropping. The shortest marketing (from farmers – con-sumer) was the most used channel. The calculated average yield of cassava was 9.25 t/ha and that for sweet potatoes was 7.65 t/ha. Pre-harvest loss stood at 4.7% and the total post-harvest loss was 17.6% for sweet potatoes and 5.8% for cassava. The gross profit per hectare for cassava farmers was 63,069 FCFA and for sweet potato farmers it was 697,134 FCFA. The monthly gross profits for cassava traders (469,342 FCFA) were greater than that of processors (212,587 FCFA). The overall performance of the value chain was considered low due to poor record keeping, low profit margins, high percentage of post-harvest losses, few number of processed products, and poor chain governance KW - Root and tuber crops KW - Cassava KW - Sweet potatoes KW - Value chain KW - Agricultural value chain KW - Agriculture in Cameroon KW - Cassava-based products in Cameroon Y1 - 2021 ER -