The challenges faced by farmers in the marketing of groundnuts in Butebo district Kanginima sub county.

Abstract

A survey was carried out in Kanginima sub county Butebo district to assess the constraints of marketing groundnuts that farmers face. Data was collected between March 23rd -2nd April by intensive use of questionnaires, interviews and observations. The collected data were coded and fed into the SPSS package for subsequent analyses. The results obtained from the research showed that farmers in the sub-county attach a lot of value to groundnuts. This was evidenced by the great number of people who grow the crop. Most farmers preferred the red beauty variety to the serenut variety; they claimed that their preference is due to high price and its early maturity compared to the other variety. Sale of groundnuts in the sub county is mostly involved in by middle men and few farmers showed up to be involved in direct marketing. The farmers were not satisfied with the returns obtained from the sale of groundnuts. Over 83% complained that they were cheated by middlemen who tend to charge low prices and use wrong weighing scale. Some good percentage of the farmers also lamented that marketing of groundnuts in the sub county is much faced with price fluctuations. Other problems mentioned included, poor transport system, determination of price by buyers, aflatoxin infection and lack of or poor storage facilities. It was noted that despite those above listed challenges, the farmers had several perceptions on how to deal with such challenges. Such solutions included elimination of middlemen, marketing committees, construction of stores and carrying out joint marketing.