MARKETING OF FADAMA PRODUCED TOMATOES, PEPPER AND ONION: A CASE STUDY OF KANO AND JIGAWA STATES OF NIGERIA
MARKETING OF FADAMA PRODUCED TOMATOES, PEPPER AND ONION: A CASE STUDY OF KANO AND JIGAWA STATES OF NIGERIA
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Date
1996-11
Authors
ALAMU, JOSIAH FOLA
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Abstract
Since the attainment of political independence, successive
governments have initiated various programmes aimed at
accelerating food production and improving the welfare of the
rural farmers in Nigeria. However; most of these efforts have
not been successful in realizing their objectives. Some
people are of the opinion that the neglect of the marketing
component was in part responsible for these failures.
This study made use of a wide range of information, some
from secondary source and mostly from primary sources by
interviewing. Fadama farmers and marketers were interviewed.
Storage and processing of crops produced appear to be a
problem. For the highly perishable crops such as tomatoes and
sweet pepper, the most common form of processing is the sundrying
method, albeit done unhygenically. Besides, most
respondents agreed that the fresh vegetables bring them more
financial returns because the sun dried tomatoes and pepper
have not gained total acceptability as the fresh ones.
Investigations further reveal that fadama produce
especially tomatoes, pepper and onion have the bulk of their
consumption centres in the southern markets. The cost of
transportation is usually enormous which therefore accounts
for the reduction in the margins that would have been accruing
to fadama farmers. One other factor affecting the margin of
highly perishable fadama crops is poor and improper
handling. This is because farmers and marketers pay little
f
attention to handling, processing and storage of fadama crops.
To prevent losses, the handling of these crops would need to
be undertaken with caution.
The study identified two types of markets - rural and
urban. The rural markets are located in villages and are held
periodically while the urban markets operate on daily basis.
Five types of market intermediaries were observed in the study
area; namely; rural selling agents, rural assemblers; rural
retailers, urban wholesalers and urban retailers.
The distributive marketing margin figures indicated that
middlemen received 32%, 38% and 46% of consumers expenditure
on onions, tomatoes and sweet pepper respectively in Kano
State. The gross marketing margin for the three crops in
Jigawa State are 36%, 48% and 19% respectively.
Three hypotheses were tested. The first showed that in
Kano State the mean prices at various markets were
signficantly (P<0.05) different for the three crops - onion,
tomatoes and sweet pepper. In Jigawa State, it was observed
that the mean prices at various markets were significant.
(P<0.05) different for onions and tomatoes, but prices were
not significant for sweet pepper.
The second hypothesis showed that there was no significant
(P>0.05) difference between the profits wholesalers and
retailers made in Kano State, but there was in Jigawa State.
The third hypothesis showed that there was enough evidence to
show that traders in fadama crops would sell at lower than
market price to allow them sell more and earn more profit in
both Kano and Jigawa States.
The study identified six major marketing problems. They
are transportation, storage, finance, packaging and grading,
education and marker information problems. Based on the
marketing problems identified, the study made recommendations
that could enhance the efficiency of the marketing system of
fadama perishable crops. These are: improved transportation
system; adeguate provision of storage facilities while the
sun-drying method is improved upon. The use of fibre board
cartoons and moulded plastic containers for packaging should
be encouraged: government should also encourage private
initiatives in agro-processing industries through incentives.
Information about prices of produce should be wide,
disseminated by radio and T.V. and Government should fund more
research on agricultural marketing.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL OF AHMADU BELLO
UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PH.D)
IN
(AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS)
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND RURAL SOCIOLOGY
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA, NIGERIA.
Keywords
MARKETING,, FADAMA,, TOMATOES,, PEPPER,, ONION,, KANO,, JIGAWA, NIGERIA