ASSESSMENT OF RURAL MARKET PARTICIPATION AMONG FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN KWARA STATE
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Marketing, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Abstract
Farming households participate in the rural markets to commercialize their farm
produce. Rural market participation thus, improves welfare of the rural poor through the exchange of agricultural based goods for money. Inadequate knowledge about the
factors affecting the decision whether or not farmer engages in rural market and the lack of
information about the intensity of non-participation of farmers in rural markets may hinder
effective planning for welfare of farming households. The study therefore determined the level
of market participation among rural farming households, the determinants of decision to
market participation among farming households and the factor affecting the intensity of nonparticipation
of farmers in rural markets. Three-stage sampling technique was used for the
study where 160 farming households were randomly selected across selected eight rural
communities. Data were collected through personal interview using structured
questionnaires. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and double hurdle model.
The results of the study revealed that 58% of the respondents were in rural markets with less
than 30% of farm produce. This implies that, more than halve of respondents are involved in
selling small quantity of farm produce at rural market. The decision to participate in the
markets is determined by educational status (p<0.01), access to credit (p<0.01), market
information access (p<0.05), commodities prices (p<0.05) and market surplus (p<0.01).The
study further revealed that educational status, access to credit, market information access,
commodities prices and market surplus reduced the intensity of non-participation in rural
markets by 69%, 100%, 2.2%,0.09% and 0.04 % among the rural households respectively. On
the other hand, household size increased the intensity of non-participation in rural markets by
3% among the households.The study concluded that access to credit, market information and
education can significantly increase the extent of market participation among poor farmers
while households size would hamper the participation. Therefore, the study recommended
that, farmers should be educated on the importance of commercializing more farm produce
through rural market participation. Also, farmer should be encouraged to form cooperative to
ease access to credit and market information. Besides, there is the need for awareness on the
significance of family planning to improve market participation among farmers.
Description
Keywords
Farmers, Market surplus, Household size, Welfare and Double hurdle model