Profitability of Red Pepper Marketing in Adamawa State, Nigeria

This study examined the profitability of red pepper marketing in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The study was based on primary data collected with the aid of questionnaire; administered to one hundred and four respondents using multi stage sampling procedure. The tools of analysis were Descriptive statistics to analyze the socio-economic characteristics and Marketing margin analysis was employed to determine the margins. The study revealed that 38.5% of the sampled pepper marketers were within the age range of 31 to 40 years’ males dominated (73.1%) the occupation and 55.8% of the total respondents were married. Majority had family size of 1 to 5. Most (77.9%) of the respondents had no formal education and 65.4% of the respondents sourced their initial capital from personal savings. Average total revenue was estimated at N4296.4 with gross margin of N977.2 and net income of N943.7. Thus, pepper marketing was found to be a profitable enterprise considering the profit realized by the marketers in the study area. The study recommended that policies should be implemented by Government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide financial assistance to marketers in order to enhance pepper marketers bargaining power through cooperatives and market intermediaries. It is also important to improve their technical knowledge and skills in marketing through training so that the marketing system will become more responsive to consumers’ demand.