MARKET STRUCTURE OF PADDY RICE IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The Study analyzed the structure of paddy rice marketing in Kano state Nigeria. A sample of 120 paddy rice marketers comprising retailers, wholesalers and wholesaler-retailers was purposively drawn from four markets within three local government areas of Kano state where paddy rice was predominantly marketed. Structured questionnaires were administered to the paddy rice marketers. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Gini coefficient. Paddy rice marketing was a male dominated business in the study area with majority of the marketers being literate and within the ages of 20-50 years. There was very high inequality among the marketers as the Gini coefficient was 0.8767, 0.8503 and 0.8691 for the retailers, wholesalers and wholesaler-retailers. Insufficient funds for paddy rice marketing was ranked first as the major constraints by both the retailers and wholesalers, while seasonal supply was the first major constraints for the wholesalers. It was recommended among others, that the paddy marketers should access formal loans through their cooperative associations to mitigate the problems of insufficient funds they were confronted with.