Structure, Causality and Price Transmission Tests in Marketing of Irvingia Seed (Ogbono) in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the marketing of Irvingia seeds (ogbono) in Enugu state, Nigeria, especially as it concerns margins, structure and causality as well as price transmission tests. Primary data were collected from 180 respondents composed of 36 producers, 54 wholesalers and 90 retailers. Data were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistical tools including the Gini coefficient. Irvingia seed marketing margins were generally high, apparently due to poor socioeconomic environments of the actors. The margins were, however, on the average, lower than the producer's share of the consumer spending. The result of the analysis also suggests a competitive market structure for Irvingia seed in the study area. Prices were determined at the production level of the chain, but producers were asymmetric in their price transmissions to the wholesale level. These observations suggest that policy intervention in the form of improving the socioeconomic environment under which marketing agents operate and facilitation of market information flow (which could reduce the asymmetric behaviour of producers) could improve Irvingia seed marketing in the study area.

The Future of Food: Domestication and Commercialization of Indigenous Food Crops in Africa over the Third Decade (2012–2021)

“…The annual economic value of 16 food-based NTFPs involving 283,000 people has been estimated at USD 64.7 million, with an added value of USD 13 million or 0.2% of the national GDP [218,265]. The contribution of NTFP income to rural livelihoods depends on many ecological, social and economic variables, including the availability and accessibility to forest resources and to markets, as well as gender [179,187,190,213,214,[266][267][268]. The distribution and use of revenues vary according to gender and wealth, with harvesters in remote areas earning less than traders and processors in more accessible sites.…”