ISSN 2360-7963
Abstract
Accepted 24th November, 2015
The study assessed the structure, conduct and performance of beef marketing, the socioeconomic characteristics as well as the constraints faced by the beef marketers in Katsina local government, Katsina State. A Multistage sampling technique was used to select 60 respondents from the target populace. The data was collected using pre-coded questionnaires. The study used a combination of Gini Coefficient, descriptive statistics and marketing efficiency ratio to achieve its aims. Analysis of the responses obtained revealed that all the respondents were males, of whom 67% were under forty years (with a mean age of 38.4 years), 75% were married with 60% of them having household sizes between 1 and 10 (with a mean household size of 10). Furthermore, 63 % of them had Qur’anic and 13% had primary education, respectively. More so, 47% of the respondents have other occupations than beef marketing. The market structure characteristics discovered by the study consisted of product homogeneity, absence of barrier to trade, numerous buyers and sellers, full awareness on information on market conditions among market participants and a Gini Coefficient of 0.23 (index of 23%). Market Conduct on the other hand discovered by the study consisted of absence of exclusionary measures against existing and incoming firms, sales promotion by selling on credit, and price determination using cost price as a measure. The study also revealed a marketing efficiency ratio of 2.20 depicting a well performing market. Intervention in livestock marketing through addressing the marketers’ infrastructural needs such as storage and credit facilities to better up their situations will go a long way in improving viable competitions between actors within the beef market.
Keywords: Analysis of Structure, Conduct, Performance, Beef Marketing, Katsina, Katsina State