Effect of Road Transportation Mode on Marketing of Tomatoes in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effect of road transportation mode on marketing of tomatoes in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue state. The questionnaire was utilized as the instrument of primary data collection. The study was a descriptive survey design which used a sample of 396 respondents selected through non-probability purposive random sampling technique. Simple percentages and tables were utilized to answer the research questions and inferential statistics (Pearson Correlation Moment) used to test the hypotheses at 0.5 alpha level of significance. Findings from the study showed that many of the respondents were male (61.1%), mostly between the ages of 31-40 (44%), who were educated up to secondary school (34%) mostly traders (44%) who could earn up to 20,000-25000 Naira income sales per week (34%). The study further revealed that motorcycle was the widely transport system (44%), while loose of products dues to bad roads (41.4%) was strongly agreed as the major effect of road transportation on the quality of products. It was agreed that many of the farmers had lower marketing cost and gained access to wilder markets (41.4%) delay on road due to vehicular break down (89.9%). Based on the findings, it was recommended that road transport should be improved upon so as to improve agricultural production in the study area and vehicles with appropriate cooling systems should be provided to transport perishable goods to the markets to avoid spoilage. Also, tomatoes processing factories should be provided by government in rural areas to save farmers the cost of transporting their tomato products to long distances.

Keywords: Effect, road transportation mode, well-being, sustainable development, socio-economic development, marketing of tomatoes, Nigeria