Economic Analysis of Plantain Marketing in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Satisfaction of consumer is one of the major aims of agricultural production. This objective is achieved
when marketers finally transfer the product to consumers after adding various utilities like form, time,
place and possession utilities to the product through numerous activities they perform on them.
Economic analysis of plantain marketing in Odigbo local government area of Ondo State was conducted.
A total of seventy five (75) plantain marketers were purposively selected from five communities.
Descriptive statistics and gross margin analysis were used to analyze the data collected. The results
indicate that the majorities (84%) of plantain marketers are women, (64%) combine plantain marketing
with marketing of other agricultural products and (85.3%) are wholesalers with marketing experience of
above 6years (81.3%). Majority (73.3%) of them has post primary education, married (86.7%), with age
range between 26-45years (73.3%) and highest (56%) household size of 1-4. The results on gross margin
analysis revealed that total revenue (TR), total variable cost (TVC) and gross margin (GM) were ₦6,962.4,
₦4,254.5 and ₦2,707.9 respectively. This showed that plantain marketing is a profitable venture. The
problems hindering plantain marketing are erratic supply of plantain fruits, storage facilities and poor
road network. It is recommended that the road linking the rural communities should be made more
motorable to enhance easy movement of goods from farms to the market.