ABSTRACT
The retail marketing of cowpea is affected by a number of factors. Besides , the prices of cowpea vary between markets separated by just a few kilometers. Therefore, this study examined the retail marketing of cowpea in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria. Specifically it describes the socioeconomic characteristics of cowpea retail marketers in the study area, examines the costs and return of cowpea retail marketing, examine the price variation among various markets and examines the constraints plaguing the retail marketing of cowpea in the study area. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected through structured questionnaire using a multi stage sampling technique to obtain a sample size of 80 cowpea retail marketers, the secondary data were collected from journal articles, text books and the internet. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis and inferential statistics, the descriptive statistics tools included frequency counts, mean, percentages and standard deviation, the gross margin analysis was used for the cost and return structure while multiple regression was used for the inferential statistics.
Results of the descriptive statistics showed that 53.70% of cowpea retail marketers are within the age of 41-60 years, with marketing experience of 13 years, who are mainly female (72.22%),with secondary education(44.44%), married (85.19%) with an average household size of 6. The gross margin analysis showed that the average total variable cost per kg of cowpea marketed is average total variable cost per 1kg of cowpea is ₦1125.21 and an average fixed cost of ₦47.06, with a gross margin of ₦279.93 and a mean profit of ₦232.87. The regression analysis showed that there was a 42% variation in the selling price among the markets in the study area with a price difference of ₦289.69 between Ekiosa market and New Benin market, ₦241.62 between Ekiosa market and Santana market. Cowpea retail marketing in the study area is limited by high cost of transport, insufficient capital, high cost of purchase, incidence of pest and diseases, inadequate storage facility and lack of credit facility.
