Agri-Business coordination: A Systems Approach To Yam And Cassava Marketing In Bende Agricultural Zone Of Abia State

The main objective of the study is to examine the “Systems Approach” to yam and cassava marketing in Bende agricultural Zone of Abia State, Nigeria. Data were collected from sixty (60) yam and cassava marketers randomly selected from two popular yam and cassava marketers in the local government area. The significant difference in the prices of yam and cassava was determined using the t-test statistics. The result showed that the value of the facilitating functions such as storage, transportation, processing, grading and other standardization functions affect product pricing and supply by traders. The findings indicated that these facilitating functions promote the marketing of yam and cassava, showing a clear marked-out difference in the cost and returns from the two products. The study also indicates among other things that the provision of loans to marketers to increase their volume of production, government involvement in yam and cassava processing to provide more tradable by-products, and deployment of extension agents to train traders on modern techniques and provision of information to product marketing are the major ways of improving the efficiency of traders as well as enhancing increase returns on their labour and investments. Key words: Agri-business, co-ordination, systems, marketing, approach. Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and the Social Sciences Vol.2(1) 2004: 65-7