Effect of Marketing Channel on Market Performance of Ware Yam in Abia State Nigeria

The study on marketing channel to determine market performance for ware yam (yam tuber >1.0 kg) Dioscorea spp was conducted in Abia State, Nigeria. Both purposive and random sampling techniques were used to collect the data used to assess the marketing channel in terms of its structural framework, marketing margin and mark-up policy of traders. The Allen’s (1959) simple ordinary least squares (OLS) linear regression model was used to determine the mark-up policies of the traders in the study area. The results of the study showed that the marketing channel is semi-decentralized with socio-economic significance for efficient transfer of product from the farm to the consumer. The marketing margins between the different marketing levels are positively related, and the traders use both the fixed and percentage margin policies to determine the selling price of their product, to reflect the utility created in the product, in order to maximize consumer satisfaction and farmer share relative to marketing share of consumer expenditure on the product. The marketing margins and mark-up policies of the traders are significantly related based on the measure of fitness of the market prices R2’s at the F0.01 level. The results of the study have implications for sustainable increases in the levels of employment, output, consumption, better income distribution and poverty reduction in the study area.Key words: Yam tuber, ware yam, mark up, marketing margin