Problems Affecting Small Scale Farmers in Marketing Agricultural Produces in Rural Area

Abstract

Agriculture production remains the major source of livelihoods for most rural families in developing countries, including Nigeria. Agriculture’s positive contributions to the economy were instrumental in sustaining economic growth and stability before and after the discovery of oil in the late 50s. The bulk of agricultural products demand was satisfied from domestic output, thereby removing the need to utilize scarce foreign exchange resources on agricultural imports. The voices of small-scale farmers are not adequately represented within international institutions that relate to food security, genetic resources, innovation, intellectual property, trade and sustainable development. Hence, this study investigated the problems affecting small scale farmers in marketing their agricultural produce in rural area. The study was descriptive in nature and adopted the use of simple random sampling techniques to select fifty (50) small scale farmers for the study. A close ended questionnaire was used to gather information from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using simple frequencies, percentage and mean statistics. The results show that the prominent marketing problem confronting the women marketers is that of inadequate credit facilities. This is closely followed by transportation problems and inadequate market infrastructures respectively. Lack of adequate agricultural marketing information was also reported in the study area. Some of the major agricultural marketing information needed by the farmers includes information on sources of credit, storage information, packaging information, and market information. Based on the findings of the study, it was hereby recommended that governments should provide clear marketing guidelines on farm produce to protect farmers against undue exploitation or loss by incorporating crop insurance as they do in developed countries where farmers are guaranteed minimum returns. Governments should also provide and revive the infrastructure including road networks, telecommunication, electricity; especially in the rural areas.