ABSTRACT             d'

This study dealt on the economic analysis of ginger (Zirrgiher. qf~cinnleIi) marketing in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to determine the situation of the domestic market, and type of intermediaries involved; to ascertain and determine the channels and marketing margin for ginger, to determine the volume, destination and value of exports and derive policy implications based on the research findings.

Purposive sampling method was used to select three local government areas from Southern Kaduna for the study. The local government areas and markets selected were Kagarko, Kachia and Jaba. The reason being that these three local government areas were those with the largest markets for ginger in the state. Meanwhile, random sampling

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technique was used to  select 60 producers and  marketers as respondents for the study.

Instrunlent of data collection was a well structured and pre-tested questionnaire.

The result indicated that 36% of the respondents were between 3 1 and 40 years old while 63.3 percent others were between 41 and 60 years. On marital status, 81.7 percent were married while 16.7 percent others were single. Most of the respondents (60%) were literate while the remaining 40.0% others had no formal education. The average household size of the respondents was 8.4. Occupational distribution of the respondents showed that 75.0% of the respondents were farmers (producers) while 25.0% others were either traders and/or civil servants.

The market structure of ginger in areas under study was characterised by oligopolistic mode of competition. The reason being the existence of few market organisations to which most potential sellers and buyers were required to belong.

The marketing channel for ginger was a network of activities. This ranged from farmer (producer) -+ Farmgate -+ middlemen -+ wholesaler -+ Retailer and then the

CHAPTER ONE

lNTRODUCTION

1 1         BACKGROUND lNFORMATTON

Nigeria has in recent years, been involved in executing painfid economic recovery

programmes arising from recession in international oil market and changes in the macroeconomic direction of the world. This is the consequence of dependence on a monolitic (crude oil) economy at the expense of other untapped economic resources of the nation It will be recalled that in the 1960s, Nigeria relied heavily on the agricultural sector

for economic development (contributing over 70% of the GDP). But with the oil boom of the 1970s, the contribution of agriculture fell drastically to the extent that the nation became a net-importer of major agricultural commodities in the 1980s. Farming became an unattractive and non-lucrative business, but a means of survival for the aged in the rural areas. (Husseini, 1996).

Government, aware of this dangerous trend, has since put in place various policies and programmes geared towards resuscitating the sector. The introduction of the National Accelerated Industrial Crops Programme (FMAWR, 1993) is one of such programmes of