Abstract
The study focused on the determination of variances among consumer prices of rice (local white), beans (white) and garri (yellow) in Watts, Okurikang and 8 Miles markets in southern zone of Cross River State. Completely randomized design was used to test the research hypothesis. Comparing the consumer prices of rice, beans and garri in the three markets; rice and garri had insignificant differences in their consumer prices while beans consumer prices had significant differences between Okurikang market and the other two markets. The results imply perfect information flow in garri and rice markets and hence high possibility of a perfectly competitive market structure for these products. The reverse is the case for beans market. Policies on increased local production of rice, garri and beans as well as improved marketing infrastructures were recommended as these would help increase sellers profit while maximizing consumers’ benefits.KEY WORDS: price, market, consumer, garri, rice, beans.
Highlights
Agricultural production plays an important role in economic development of Nigeria
The findings revealed that consumers’ prices did not significantly differ for garri and rice markets in the zone
The occurrence of statistical significant differences in prices of beans among markets in the zone is as a result of marketing inefficiencies with regards to beans market
Summary
Agricultural production plays an important role in economic development of Nigeria. The market for agricultural commodities has shown a pattern of long- term price fall and short-term price instability (IMF, 2000). The volatility in price of agricultural commodities in Nigeria has been attributed to various factors including variances in bargaining power among consumers, cyclical income fluctuations among sellers and consumers, natural shocks such as flood, pests, diseases, and inappropriate response by farmers to price signals (Gilberts, 1999, Udoh et al 2007, Adebusuyi, 2004). Short- run fluctuations in agricultural commodity prices occur between production seasons (Cashin and Pattillo, 2000). Farmers offer to the market the minimum price for their products. Prices become high due to reduced production and seasonal changes (Akpan, 2002)
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