| The broad objective of this study was to examine the structure, performance and efficiency of plantain marketing system in FCT Abuja and to determine its profitability. Data for this study were collected using well-structured questionnaire. Three Area Councils and 20 markets were purposively selected for the study using systematic random sampling. The 120 plantain traders sampled comprised of wholesalers and retailers that has a point of selling plantain in the selected markets. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Gini-coefficient, marketing efficiency ratio, marketing margins and return on capital invested. The results revealed plantain market to be characterized by many plantain sellers and buyers thus reflecting a pure competitive market structure. There were no restrictions to entry into or exit from plantain trading and there was easy flow of market information among the traders. The result of the calculated Gini-coefficient was 0.38 which indicate low concentration of the volume of plantain trading in few hands and an even distribution of the market share among the plantain traders. The marketing efficiency was calculated to be 234% and 196% for the retail and wholesale plantain traders indicating an efficient market. The return per capital invested showed that for every N1.00 invested, the retail trader realizes 55k while the wholesale trader realises 22k as profit. The marketing margin was calculated to be 44% and 33% for the retail and wholesale traders respectively. These findings reveal a pure to near perfect market structure, high efficiency ratio and the good profit margins which are indications of good performance in market. Analysis of the socioeconomic data equally revealed that over 90% of the plantain traders had formal education and all respondents were within the active or productive age, with a mean age of 39.3. Plantain wholesalers are dominated by male traders while female traders dominated the retail trade. Most of the traders source their capital for plantain business from personal and family savings. The major challenges facing plantain traders are high cost of transportation, problem of deterioration in quality/spoilage, seasonal price fluctuations, lack of sufficient capital for most of the traders and lack of standard means of grading and valuing plantain by quality and quantity. The study has been able to determine plantain marketing to be competitive, efficient and profitable in FCT Abuja. It has therefore recommended that more Actors come into the value chain to boost production, processing and marketing while all levels of government should address the transportation challenges associated with agricultural produce marketing. |
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