Socio-economic Analysis of Cassava Marketing in Benue State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study is to analyze the socio-economics of cassava marketing in Benue State, Nigeria. Data were collected from randomly sampled 107 cassava marketers in Benue State, using a structured questionnaire. The study revealed that most of the cassava marketers had secondary education (72.9%). The study also revealed that marketing of cassava is mostly undertaken by females (57%). The result showed that married people (59.8%) were mostly involved in the marketing of cassava. The study revealed that cassava marketing is operated in a competitive market environment and the marketing margin obtained by an average cassava marketer is 31%. Cassava marketing is a profitable venture in the study area. It was also revealed that greater percentage of cassava traded in the study area was primarily obtained from the farmers. Majority of the respondents (92.5%) belong to cassava marketing association. The most pressing problem (46.73%) faced by the marketers is high taxes during transportation. Majority of the cassava marketers use the revenue generated from cassava business to train their children in schools and buildings of modern houses (57.0).There is the need to: open centralized cassava market in the study area; construct good network of feeder roads; establish processing companies/facilities; restructure the entire marketing system. Traders should be encouraged to form agricultural marketing cooperatives in order to eliminate the exploitative activities of the middlemen. Marketing agencies should be enforced by government to take care of the marketing problems that are associated with the speculative activities of the middlemen.