DETERMINANTS OF PROFITABILITY IN SOYBEAN MARKETING IN BARUTEEN LGA, KWARA STATE

Abstract

Soybean is an important crop mostly produced in the middle belt zone in Nigeria. Baruteen
LGA is one of the largest producers of soybeans in Kwara State. Moreso, soybeans marketing
in Baruteen LGA faces numerous challenges that could significantly impact on its
profitability; hence it became imperative to carry out the study. The study analyses the
determinants of profitability in soybean marketing, it specifically describes the
socioeconomic characteristics of soybean marketers and identifies the key factors influencing
profitability. Data were collected from 110 soybean marketers through structured
questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The
findings revealed that majority of the marketers (82.7%) were male with mean age of 44years
and an average household size of 9 persons. Equally 56.4% had secondary education, with 6-
10 years of marketing experience (51.8%). While the result of the multiple regression
analysis showed that age and market experience of the respondents (marketers) are positively
significant, while labour and transport are negative but significant. Also, R2 was 0.764,
meaning 76.4% of the variables is well represented. Thus, the study concluded that
Soyabeans marketing is done predominantly by men of moderate age with high level of
marketing experience. Age, marketing experience, transportation and labour had significant
effect on the level of profit.