ANALYSIS OF LOCAL PARBOILED RICE MARKETING IN Taraba State.

Abstract

The study analyzed local parboiled rice marketing in Taraba State. The specific objectives were to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of the local parboiled rice marketers; analyze the profitability of local Parboiled rice marketing in the study area; determine the effects of socio-economic characteristics; and identify major problems faced by local Parboiled rice marketers. Multistage techniques were adopted for the study. Data were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result revealed that 79.47% of the parboiled rice marketers were male, mean age of parboiled rice marketers in the study area was estimated at 35 years. The mean household size of the respondents was 5 persons. The result also indicated that literacy level among the respondents was high (97.37%). The mean years of marketing experience were estimated at 5 years, with a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 17 years of marketing experience. Gross, marginal, and net profits were computed to be N56,400 and N55,215, respectively; this implies that parboiled rice marketing in the area was profitable. The result of multiple regression analysis revealed that the coefficients of five out of the eight explanatory variables used in the model were significant at varying levels of significance and had the expected signs. The value of the coefficient of determination (R2), 0.79, indicated that 79% of the variation of gross margin of the respondents was explained by the variables used in the model. The study recommended that the local parboiled rice processors should form a cooperative to access credit facilities and solve the problem of high taxation.