PRICE VARIATION OF GREEN LEAF VEGETABLE BETWEEN MARKETS IN BENIN METROPOLIS

ABSTRACT

Green leaf vegetables are perishable in nature, seasonal, bulky and experience over production and short production. This research was undertaken to examine price variation in green leaf among markets in Benin metropolis of Edo State, Nigeria. To achieve this, the specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the green leaf marketers, estimate price of green leaf in markets in the study area and examine price variability of the green leaf vegetable between markets. A two stage sampling procedure was used in selecting respondent for the study, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (which were mean, frequency counts, percentages and standard deviation). The result revealed that the average age of respondents in the in the study area was 51 years with 65.45% of the respondents being married with an average household size of 5 persons. The result also revealed that the average marketing experience in the study area was 13 years with an average of 6 visit per week to the market. The highest cost of transportation between market was Uselu market to Santana market with an average cost of (₦695.65), the lowest cost of transportation was Oba market to Uselu market with an average of (₦150). Furthermore, the result revealed that in markets of Benin metropolis, Uselu market experienced the most inconsistency in price with a co-efficient of variation (0.240). No variation was observed in the price of green leaf in Santana market. A regression analysis was carried out, result revealed that the difference in prices of green leaf between markets using Oba x Market as baseline was significant, the pairwise comparison of marginal linear predictions revealed difference between each pair of markets in comparison of prices in the respective markets.