CONTEMPORARY MARKETING STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL MARKETING FIRMS IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study:The importance of the agricultural sector in developed and selected developing economies, including Nigeria, is generally well known. Most public policy makers, since independence, expected the agricultural sector to satisfy national food requirements, supply most of the agricultural raw materials needed by the manufacturing sector, provide adequate employment and income as well as earn substantial foreign exchange for the country (Daramola, 2004). All national development plans in Nigeria since 1962 recognised that planning can be used, among other things, to achieve a higher growth rate for the economy and ameliorate certain structural deficiencies inhibitive to development process (Otokiti, 2007). The various policies and measures designed for the actualisation of the objectives in various plans(1st Plan:1962-1968; 2nd Plan: 1970-1974; 3rd Plan:1975- 1980;4th Plan:1981-1985, e.t.c.) included various attempts at raising the level of public sector participation in the Agro-sector and provision of basic necessities of life like food, opportunity for education, employment and reasonable health and sanitation condition, even distribution of income, change and amendment of social structure, community development and increased per capital income of the citizenry as well as better attitude to work and conducive environment for the citizens.There was also the establishment of specialised agro-institutions responsible for loan management, input subsidies and producers’ price setting through various marketingboards such as Cocoa Marketing Board, Oil Palm Produce Marketing Board, Groundnut Marketing Board and the Cotton Marketing Board.All these were followed in later years by the abolishment of commodity boards and the adoption of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986. In the same vein, a unified system of agricultural extension was adopted to quicken the dissemination of improved husbandry practices and research findings to farmers while more universities of agriculture and research institutes at national levels joined these establishments to broaden and strengthen agricultural research. The challenges received international attention, as more institutes of global reach were established. These included International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT). The IITA is an international non-profit research for development organisation established in 1967 under United Nations Joint Collaborative Effort on Food Problem in Tropical Africa.The CGIAR, established in 1971, is a strategic partnership, whose donors support 15 international centres, working in collaboration with several government and civil society organisations as well as private businesses around the world. The CGIAR generates cutting-edge technology to engender sustainable agricultural growth to the benefit of the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources.CRIN, was established in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria, on December 1, 1964 as a successor autonomous research organisation to the Nigerian substation of the defunct West AfricanCocoa Research Institute (WACRI) (through the Nigeria Statute, Act No. 6 of 1950). Thiswas sequel to the establishment in 1944 of the WACRI headquarters at Tafo, Ghana with the responsibility of conducting research to facilitate improved production of disease-free, or disease-resistant cocoa.
CONTEMPORARY MARKETING STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL MARKETING FIRMS IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA