Marketing of processed seeds of Parkia biglobosa (Keay) in some selected markets in three Local Government Areas of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates the marketing of the processed seeds of Parkia bigloboa in some selected markets in three local government areas of Oyo state. The three local government areas were purposively selected based on the high number of Parkia biglobosa marketers present there, and seven markets were randomly selected in the three local government, namely, Eleyele market, Ogunpa market, Bodija market, Ojoo market, and Moniya market. Structured questionnaires were randomly administered on respondents and there were also interviews for respondents. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis and the result showed that the marketing of the processed seeds of Parkia biglobosa in the area is dominated by females (100%), it also showed that most of the people involved in the marketing had no formal education were 44.3% and most of them are between the age ranges of 41-50year. Also, the study revealed that 52.9% of the marketers are married

      From the result obtained, it was observed that marketing of Parkia biglobosa is profitable and efficient in the areas, and further study showed that the marketing have two channel namely, Major channel and  Minor channel. Finally, the study showed that the marketers of Parkia biglobosa processed seeds usually face some unavoidable problems like high cost of transportation, seasonality of seeds, stressful method of processing, inadequate capital, and storage problem. It is therefore recommended that adequate storage facilities should be made available, cooperative societies and other financial institutions should give out loans to these marketers so that they can produce in large scale and also research institutions like Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) should carry out more research work to improve seed availability and pipe borne water should be made available.