FACTORS DETERMINING PROFIT IN WATER MELON (Citrullus lanatus) MARKETING IN GOMBE AND BAUCHI STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study determine the factors influencing the net income of wholesale and retail water melon marketers in Gombe and Bauchi States, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 300 water melon marketers from 18 markets, 135 and 165 marketers were selected from Bauchi State and Gombe State, respectively. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. The regression analysis result revealed that retail Water melon marketers in scarcity period recorded the higher number of significant variables with the R² value of 0.520 and F-statistics of 34.309 significant at P< 0.001. The wholesale, results indicated that surplus and scarcity periods gave the best results with only marketing costs and education having positive relationship with net income and significant at P< 0.05 each. Conclusively, the socio-economic variables of marketers at retail category were found to influence more in determining the net income of water melon marketers in the study area. It was recommended that that marketers should ensure to get less marketing cost to purchase large quantity of water melon at a minimum cost, hence, maximise profit in return.