Analysis of Farmers’ Choice among Alternative Rice Output Markets in Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzes the farmers’ choice among alternative rice output market in Kano State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 164 rice farmers with the aid of structured questionnaire. This study was conducted in three Local Government Areas of Kano State during 2015 cropping season. A multistage sampling procedure was employed for the study. Probit model was used to estimate the farmers’ choices among alternative rice output market outlets by rice farmers. The result shows majority (98%) of rice farmers are married; average age of 38 years with adjusted household size of 5. The estimated mean years of schooling of the respondents was 5 years, and largely skewed towards the non-formal education. The likelihood ratio was -113.401 and hence exceeds the critical chi-square values at p<0.01 level of significance. The Prob > chi2 was (50.03) and significant at p<0.01 level of probability. The probability of obtaining this chi-square statistic shows the effect of the predictor variables on specified alpha level. Farmers’ choices among alternative rice output market outlets was significantly determined by educational status, access to credit, cooperative membership, distance to market, quantity of output produced by the farmers and market price of rice (P<0.10). Based on the findings, it could be concluded that the most commonly used output markets was rural assembler (82.3%). Rural markets should be linked to the urban market to attract good value for rice products.