UNLOCKING THE POTENTIALS OF TOMATO MARKETING IN NASSARAWA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Tomato is among leading vegetable crops with high economic value and market potentials, although there are several bottlenecks which affects the marketing of the crops in Nigeria. The study analysed the potentials of tomato marketing in Nassarawa local government area of Kano State, Nigeria, which the specific objectives were to examine socio-economics characteristics, estimate costs and returns from marketing, identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats of marketers, and constraints faced by tomato marketers in the study area. Multi-stage sampling procedures was employed to select 84 marketers for this study. Kobo collect application was used to elicit information marketers using trained enumerators. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Net farm income analysis (NFI), SWOT analysis and Kendall coefficient of concordance. The result shows that tomato marketers were males (above 75%), married, with an average age of 38 years. The average household size among marketers ranges from 4-6 members, and mean marketing experience of 10 years, which shows some level of experience in tomato marketing in the study area. The result for the Net farm income analysis shows that the tomato marketers make a profit of ₦59,050 per 200kg of tomato fruit baskets sold, which shows tomato marketing is profitable enterprise. The Kendal result for tomato marketers shows a low agreement among them, which shows response diversity among them. The ability to coordinate good supply chain in rural area(x̅=3.21) limited knowledge on tomato handling and storage (x̅=3.27), high demand for tomato(x̅=3.04) and glut during the peak season(x̅=3.43) were the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats identified respectively by tomato marketers. The major constraints identified were fluctuation in prices and low patronage of tomato fruits. The study concludes that tomato marketing has the economic potentials which is capable of improving tomato marketer’s livelihood status in the study area. It recommends the promotion of specific support programs by Kano Agricultural Development Programme and Government to tackle constraints among marketers in the study area.