Structure, Conduct and Performance of Rice Marketing in Kebbi State, Nigeria (Published)
The Study examined the Structure, Conduct and Performance of rice marketing in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Data were generated from a sample of 240 rice marketers using a well structured and pretested questionnaire between January and August 2018. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis, return on investment, Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve. Results of the study revealed that marketing of rice was highly concentrated having a Gini Coefficient value of 0.70 in terms of structural distribution of the commodity among rice traders in the study area. Strategies utilized by the traders in their market conduct include; selling long grain rice (92%), treating customers well (90.42%), selling non-adulterated rice (81.67%), distributing rice to customers location (78.80%), selling rice on credit (72.90%) among others. The findings further revealed that marketing of rice is profitable realizing an average of N 316. 503.00 as profit. With an investment turnover of 1.17, the study indicates that rice marketing in the study area is efficient. This suggests that rice marketing is a viable business. It is recommended that investments should be tailored towards having more rice processing mills to ensure timely purchase and sales of rice.
Keywords: Conduct, Market Efficiency, Structure, profit