ANALYSIS OF COWPEA MARKETING AND PRICE TRENDS IN SOME SELECTED RURAL AND URBAN MARKETS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study analyzed cowpea marketing and price trend in some selected rural and urban markets in Kaduna State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for sample selection. The first stage was purposive selection of Maiganaagricultural zone in Kaduna State; namely Ikara, Makarfi, Giwa, Shika, Galadimawa and Tudunsaibu. The second stage involved purposive selection of Giwa market as a reference market while Ikara, Makarfi, Shika, Galadimawa and Tudunsaibu markets as the supplying markets from Maiganaagricultural zone markets. A simple random techniquewas employed to select 15% of the sample Frame (1474) of thecowpeamarketers obtained from the list of Marketers‟ Associations/Union. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data were collected from 221 respondents with the aid of structured questionnaire.Secondary     data     were                                            obtained         from          the       Kaduna             Agricultural Development Programme Office (KADP)and National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Service (NAERLS), Zaria which covered the wholesale monthly prices for 96 months (2007-2014). The statistical tools used to analyze the data were descriptive statistics, spatial price model and temporal price model. The results of the study shows an average age of the respondents 34 yearsand majority of the markets about 70% had formal education with an average household size of 8 persons which makes them have appreciable number of persons for family labour and marketingactvities. About 63.8% of the respondents do not join any cooperative association and the majority 71.4% of the respondents are married while 77.8% of the cowpea marketers do not have access to credit to finance their business. Analysis of spatial aspects of pricing efficiency show that the expected and actual price spreads between Giwa and five selectedsupplying markets, the positiveprice spread is substantially high, even after considering plausible levels of unmeasured transaction costs. Analysis of temporal price relationships indicated that seasonal price increases commonly exceeded cost of storage forcowpeawhich provided the opportunity to make more than normal profit. Considerable risk was involved in storage operations to achieve high profits. The constraints identified in the study area, were lack of access to credit (93.2%), inadequate market information (89.1%), inadequate market infrastructure (81.9%), provision of quality product (58.4%) and poor storage facilities (40.3%). It is recommended that marketers should form cooperatives or association that can assist them in provision of physical facilities and better dissemination of market intelligence and information.