Gender analysis of wholesale smoked-fish marketing in Kainji Lake Basin, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated gender in wholesale smoked-fish marketing in Kanji Lake Basin, Nigeria. Specifically, the study identified roles of individual actors in fish marketing, determined the profitability of fish marketing, analyzed the marketing efficiencies and estimated gaps in the fish marketing chain. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select 60 wholesale smoked-fish marketers from 13 communities. Primary data were collected from wholesale smoke-fish marketers using an interview schedule. Data were analyzed using percentages, net profit margin and efficiency models. The result showed that the youths perform about 60% of task in activities such as sorting and grading, fish arrangement in cartons, loading and offloading and transportation to market centers. Wholesale fish marketing was profitable with a 4.45% return on investment (ROI) for the men, 3.76% ROI for the women and 2.88% ROI for the youths while Shepherd’s marketing efficiency was 24.84 for the men, 25.65 and 26.65 for the women and youths respectively. Also, there were no glaring gender gaps in value of fixed assets, revenue, gender-based employees and wage for the men, women and youths involved in the business. Therefore, it is recommended that capacity building which targets women and youths should be adopted and implemented by government and other relevant agencies in order to enable them compete equally with men in wholesale smoked-fish marketing.