Investor Presentaiton

IIFET 2012 Tanzania Proceedings bulkiness, perishability, small quantities of production on small farms, non-consumable nature of some agricultural products in the raw farm. These functions include that of assembling the products from various production centres, processing the commodities in the form that will be suitable for consumption, and then making every arrangement to get them distributed to consumers. [4] further stated that some services are essential and must be carried out efficiently for marketing functions to be accomplished. These services are called marketing services and they include transportation, storage, grading and standardization, packaging, bringing sellers and buyers together, financing and risk bearing. According to [5] defined marketing channel as path between production and consumption. The author also classified it as either centralized or decentralized. A centralized marketing channel is one in which commodities are assembled in large central terminal market where they are purchased by wholesalers or processed or from farmer agent, while decentralized channel doesn't have such large assembly-marketing facilities and traders buy directly from farmer. A list of suitable criteria for defining an adequate market situation, optimizing social welfare and maximizing the efficiency of agricultural marketing systems includes the market structure, its conduct and performance [4]. Structure is defined as the significant economic variables that characterize the organization [20]. It refers to certain characteristics of the market, which are believed to influence its nature of completion and the process of price formation. [4] defined market conduct as certain behaviours of firms in the market. They also added that market conduct is more or less influenced by market structure. [11] stated that performance is the outcome of the behavior of interaction of structure and conduct. It is the assessment of how well the process of marketing is carried out and how successfully its aims are accomplished. The elements traditionally classified under performance are profits, operational efficiency, pricing efficiency and stability and progressiveness, price stabilization of information, cost of sales promotion. Artisanal fishermen operate in the nation's Rivers, Lagoon, Lakes, brackish waters and in the coastal waters not beyond 3 nautical miles of the territorial waters. According to [18], 'traditional', 'small-scale' or 'artisanal' fishery is used to characterize those fisheries that are mainly non-mechanized with low level of production. In Nigeria, the coastal artisanal fishers use the traditional dug-out canoes or pirogue ranging from 3-18 metres in length while the gears used include cast nets, handlines, basket traps, longlines, set gillnets and beach and purse seines. The operating range of small-scale fisheries is around the 20 metres depth contour, with operations extending occasionally to a maximum depth of 40 metres [16]. Fish production in Nigeria is practiced in two environments namely fresh and salts waters. The fresh water fish production is classified into three major subsectors; artisanal captured fishery, industrial captured and Aquaculture. The artisanal captured fishery, production is achieved by individual or by small groups by the use of labour intensive gears. This is the most important subsector as it represents between 85-90% of domestic production and providing means of economic support and livelihood for millions of rural dwellers, particularly in Niger Delta, Northeast and Middle belt regions of the country [15]. 2

View entire presentation