SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS AND MARKETING CHANNEL OF SESAME (SESAMUM INDICUM L.) FARMERS’ WILLINGNESS TO TRADE THROUGH MIDDLEMEN IN BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

The research was carried out to determine the socio-economic characteristics and marketing channel of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) farmers’ willingness to trade through middlemen in Bauchi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 204 and 60 sesame farmers and marketers, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results revealed an average age of 40 years; majority (84.8% and 80.0%) farmers and marketers, respectively, were married. Majority (89.7% and 96.7%) farmers and marketers, respectively, were males with average household size of 7 persons. About 63% of the sesame farmers had land size range of 1-4 hectares. Almost half of the farmers (41.2%) and marketers (30.3%) have between 6-10 years of experience with a minimum of secondary education of 43.1% and 41.7%, respectively. Most (73.0%) of the sesame farmers did not belong to any cooperative society and contrary to the marketers with 91.7% belonged to various cooperative societies. Majority (58.8% and 98.3%) of farmers and marketers were purely crop farmers and agro marketers, respectively. More than half 65.2% of the farmers were willing to trade through middlemen and 34.8% of the farmers preferred not to deal with middlemen. Majority (90.0%) of the farmers sold sesame produce through village collectors before it reaches the end user. Poor pricing (70.1%), exploitative practices of the middlemen (63.2%), low profit margin (58.3%) and prolonged, deceiving and deceit bargaining (47.5%) were the major constraints faced by the sesame farmers in dealing with middlemen in the study area. The study concluded that sesame farmers and marketers were young, agile and economically productive; middlemen were found to be highly resourceful though posed serious challenge in the marketing channel of sesame. The study recommended marketing intervention by government in sesame marketing activities like involving price appreciation, reduction in the cost of marketing, formulating and implementing marketing policies and rules by government targeted at improving infrastructures such as roads and providing marketing information outfit for sustainable improving the marketing efficiency.