Supply-Side Analysis of the Market for Tomato in Bauchi State, Nigeria

The benefits of tomato to human health among the vegetable family cannot be overemphasized. Tomatoes are grown for home consumption in the backyard of many households across sub-Saharan Africa. They are important sources of vitamins as well as essential cash crop for both smallholders and medium-scale commercial farmers. A number of studies have shown that tomato is grown in commercial quantity anywhere agronomic conditions allow. In Nigeria and many countries of the world, tomato has become one of the most important crops in agriculture for smallholder farmers both for processing and fresh market. This paper analyses the supply side of the market for tomato in Bauchi State, Nigeria. The data employed were purposively obtained from farmers, wholesalers and retailers from agricultural areas in 7 Local Government Areas of Bauchi State. These include Bauchi, Alkaleri, Toro, Kari, Shira, Darazo, and Ganjuwa. Analysis is mainly predicated on the weighted least squares regression in order to address the problems that may arise from having heteroskedastic errors in the models. The findings show that farm characteristics majorly affect supply of tomatoes while handling costs and cooperative membership are mainly responsible for loss of tomatoes across the marketing chain. Also, cooperative membership does not play a significant role in improving the situations of neither the farmers nor the middlemen in terms of increased profitability and supply. In addition, socioeconomic and farm characteristics are found to be key factors affecting tomatoes' profitability. Therefore, farmers should be encouraged to embrace a competitive market setting in order to achieve a free flow market interaction in the determination of price. A favourable farm-land ownership and acquisition policy should be made by government in order to increase output of tomatoes and consequently, higher profitability. This is most likely to have a positive influence on employment generation as more rural populace would be engaged in the production of farm products. Besides, infrastructural development, specifically in the area of transportations needs to be enhanced by the government in order to ease movement of agricultural produce from the point of harvest to their final destinations. Attention should also be given to government investment in storage facilities to minimize the spoilage level of farm produce in Nigeria. Farm cooperatives should be reformed so as to promote profitability of the agricultural firms.