MARKET INTEGRATION AND PRICING EFFICIENCY OF SOYABEANS IN BENUE AND ENUGU STATES, NIGERIA

The study analysed market integration and pricing efficiency of soyabeans in Benue and Enugu States, Nigeria. Low household demand for soyabeans makes its production and marketing less popular amongst farmers and marketers which leads to marketing inefficiency. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 207 respondents. Secondary data comprising monthly retail prices (urban and rural) of soyabeans from 1999 to 2013 was also collected BNARDA and ENADEP. Descriptive statistics, regression, Herfindal Hirschman Index, Gini Coeffiient, Johansen Co-integration, Spatial price model, t-test and correlation analysis were the analytical techniques used. It was found that soyabeans marketing was dominated by married (80%), literate (91.3%) males (63.3%), with a mean annual income of N474,370. The factors that determine the volume of soyabeans marketed include price of soyabeans (-1.515), transfer and handling costs (0.345), education (0.157) and quantity of loan (0.035). Although, soyabeans market was characterized by many buyers and sellers with no barriers to entry and exit, the high value of HHI got for wholesalers and retailers (2,017.18 and 1,081.97) indicated high concentration of soyabeans in the hands of few marketers. This was further supported by high inequalities in the distribution of sales among wholesalers and retailers respectively as evident in the values (0.84 and 0.81) of gini coefficients. Whereas few marketers (6.8%) had negative marketing margins, their mean was 20.40%. Average net margin for Benue and Enugu soyabeans marketers were calculated as N405.79 and N786.26, respectively which represented about 6.24% and 10% of the cost price.The study analysed market integration and pricing efficiency of soyabeans in Benue and Enugu States, Nigeria. Low household demand for soyabeans makes its production and marketing less popular amongst farmers and marketers which leads to marketing inefficiency. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 207 respondents. Secondary data comprising monthly retail prices (urban and rural) of soyabeans from 1999 to 2013 was also collected BNARDA and ENADEP. Descriptive statistics, regression, Herfindal Hirschman Index, Gini Coeffiient, Johansen Co-integration, Spatial price model, t-test and correlation analysis were the analytical techniques used. It was found that soyabeans marketing was dominated by married (80%), literate (91.3%) males (63.3%), with a mean annual income of N474,370. The factors that determine the volume of soyabeans marketed include price of soyabeans (-1.515), transfer and handling costs (0.345), education (0.157) and quantity of loan (0.035). Although, soyabeans market was characterized by many buyers and sellers with no barriers to entry and exit, the high value of HHI got for wholesalers and retailers (2,017.18 and 1,081.97) indicated high concentration of soyabeans in the hands of few marketers. This was further supported by high inequalities in the distribution of sales among wholesalers and retailers respectively as evident in the values (0.84 and 0.81) of gini coefficients. Whereas few marketers (6.8%) had negative marketing margins, their mean was 20.40%. Average net margin for Benue and Enugu soyabeans marketers were calculated as N405.79 and N786.26, respectively which represented about 6.24% and 10% of the cost price.