CONSTRAINTS TO YAM (DIOSCOREA SPP) PRICE FORMATION IN THE URBAN AND RURAL MARKETS OF THE CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL ZONE OF NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Price formation of yam in the urban and rural markets of the Western agricultural zone of Nassarawa State, Nigeria has been an issue as many factors has been found to be contributing factors in the formation of yam price in the study area. Well-structured questionnaire was used to source for data from 141 hundred randomly selected yam marketers from the urban and rural markets in the zone, the rural markets were Andaha, Anguwan Zaria, Sabon Gida and Gudi while the urban markets includes Garaku, Akwanga, Nassarawa Eggon and Wamba. Descriptive statistic such as frequency, mean, and percentages was used to analyze the data. The result obtained revealed that majority (60%) and (62.5%) were male in the urban and rural markets respectively, with the mean ages of 47 years and 43.9 years respectively. The mean household size was 7 and 6 members for the urban and the rural households respectively. The average yam prices in ₦/kg in the urban /rural markets shows that the highest price was recorded in the urban market (Nassarawa Eggon) and the least price recorded in the rural market (Andaha), the Jarque-Bera test of normality shows that the prices of yam were normally distributed, of all the constraints to yam price formation, poor feeder roads, few number of buyers ranked most in the urban while  poor feeder roads, and inadequate access to credit facilities ranked topmost in rural markets. Therefore the research suggests a deliberate government policy towards rehabilitation of roads linking the rural and urban markets, and this may enhance trade between urban and rural markets.