SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BANANA FRUITS (Musaparadisiacal) MARKETERS IN UMUAHIA AGRICULTURAL ZONE, ABIA STATE,NIGERIA

Abstract

The study centred on the socio-economic analysis of banana fruits marketers in Umuahia Agricultural Zone of Abia State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from  100  banana  marketers  who  were  selected  using  a  multi-staged  random  sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings showed that banana marketing was dominated by females with a mean age of 40 years. Majority of the marketers were married and most of them had primary and secondary education. Their sources of finance for banana marketing was mostly from personal savings. Their sources of banana fruits for marketing was from the producers and wholesalers while their source of market in formations was principally from personal observation. Most of the marketers do not belong to any  market  union.  Seven  channels  of  distribution  of  banana  was  discovered  with  most dominant channel composed of producers, commissioned agents, wholesalers, retailers and consumers.  Transportation was  the major problem  encountered by  the marketers  in their marketing of banana fruits. It was recommended that good road network should be provided to ease transportation of the product and marketers should be encouraged by relevant bodies to form marketing cooperatives.