The purpose of this study is to analyze the socio-economics of cassava marketing in Benue State, Nigeria. Data were collected from randomly sampled 107 cassava marketers in Benue State, using a structured questionnaire. The study revealed that most of the cassava marketers had secondary education (72.9%). The study also revealed that marketing of cassava is mostly undertaken by females (57%). The result showed that married people (59.8%) were mostly involved in the marketing of cassava. The study revealed that cassava marketing is operated in a competitive market environment and the marketing margin obtained by an average cassava marketer is 31%. Cassava marketing is a profitable venture in the study area. It was also revealed that greater percentage of cassava traded in the study area was primarily obtained from the farmers. Majority of the respondents (92.5%) belong to cassava marketing association. The most pressing problem (46.73%) faced by the marketers is high taxes during transportation. Majority of the cassava marketers use the revenue generated from cassava business to train their children in schools and buildings of modern houses (57.0).There is the need to: open centralized cassava market in the study area; construct good network of feeder roads; establish processing companies/facilities; restructure the entire marketing system. Traders should be encouraged to form agricultural marketing cooperatives in order to eliminate the exploitative activities of the middlemen. Marketing agencies should be enforced by government to take care of the marketing problems that are associated with the speculative activities of the middlemen.
This study examined agricultural marketing information usage among soybean farmers in Nigeria using data from randomly sampled 150 soybean farmers in Benue State. The soybean farmers get agricultural marketing information mainly through other soybean producers (83.33%), family (70.00%), neighbours (67.33%), farmer's cooperative organization (65.33%) and extension agents (62.67%). Other soybean producers (83.33%), family (81.33%), neighbours (80%), farmer cooperative society (80%), extension agents (66.67%) were highly evaluated as USEFUL by the farmers. Other soybean producers, cooperative society, off-farm employment, extension services and access to markets significantly influenced the probability of producers evaluating their agricultural marketing information as adequate. The greatest constraint to access to agricultural marketing information by soya bean farmers included inadequate access to extension services (22%), ineffective communication (20%), distance from other soya bean producers (16.67%), middlemen (16%), lack of capital (13.33%) and illiteracy (12%). Information sources and marketing information usefulness were not independent of one another among the respondents. Information sources and marketing information adequacy are not independent of one another among the respondents. More extension agents should be deployed to where the farmers are residing so as to reach a large number of the farmers and teach them on their areas of critical needs. Other methods of extension information dissemination should be used to transfer current, adequate and useful marketing information to the farmers. It should be ensured that any extension method being used to disseminate marketing information to the farmers is such that the farmers understand the message and marketing information being communicated to them.