PROFITABILITY AND MARKETING EFFICIENCY OF MAIZE IN KWANDE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

The paper presents profi tability and marketing effi - ciency of maize in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. Stratifi ed random sampling was used to select three hundred (300) maize marketers comprising producers (210), wholesalers (32) and retailers (58) in eight (8) major markets in the study area. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, marketing margin and marketing effi ciency. It was found that maize marketing in the study area was dominated by males (64.7%) and young people (55.0%) who are energetic enough to withstand the stress involved in the business. The marketing margin of an average maize marketer in the study area was N2,012.00 per 100kg and the percentage marketing margin was 37.2%. This showed that maize marketing in the study area was profi table and 100% retail price paid by the fi nal consumer resulted in farm-to-retail price spread or marketing margin of 37.2%. The marketing effi ciency (0.28) of mai ze in the study area indicated that the marketers were ineffi cient in maize business. It was recommended that government, non-governmental organizations and the rural populace should strive hard to improve the transportation network and the marketers should belong to marketing associations so that they can collectively access loans from rural banking institutions