DETERMINANTS OF WATERMELON MARKETING IN SELECTED MARKETS OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study seeksto analyse the determinants of watermelon marketing in selected markets in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socioeconomic characteristic of thefarmers and also determine factors that influence’s net return of the watermelon marketers. The respondents werechosen using multi-stage sampling techniques involving purposive, stratification and random sampling. Data for the study were gathered from primary sources via questionnaires distributed to 41 sampledwholesalers and 149 retailers.Data were analysed usingdescriptive statistic and multiple regression analysis.The finding revealed that marketers were at their youthful age with a mean of 43 and 42 years,have large family size of 11 and 9 with educated men dominated the markets.Factors that influenced net marketing returns of wholesalers showed that initial capital was significant at 1%, marketing cost (0.517) and volume handled per month (0.921) were positive and significant at 5%, while initial capital (0.4223), age (0.330), marketing cost (0.512)and volume handled per month (1.132) were positive and significant at 1%, while membership (0.053) was significant at 5% and positively influences net return of the retailers. It was concluded socioeconomics characteristics such asinitial capital, marketing cost, volume handled per month, age and membership significantly influences net return of the marketers. It was recommended that Marketers should liaise with financial institutions to have access to credit in order to boost and strengthen their enterprise as most of them obtained initial capital.