AGRICULTURAL MARKETING STRATEGIES AND SALES PERFORMANCE OF CROP FARMERS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study examined agricultural marketing strategies and sales performance of crop farmers in Rivers State. The study adopted the positivism research philosophy and the correlational research design. The population of this study consisted of crop farmers in Rivers State. The Cochran’s formula was used to determine the sample size for the study. A sample size of 384 crop farmers was determined using the Cochran’s formula. The sample size was drawn from the population randomly. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed in tabular form while the hypotheses were tested using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient (rho). The SPSS version 24 was used to perform the bivariate analysis. The findings revealed that agricultural pricing strategy has significant relationship with sales volume of crop farmers in Rivers State. Agricultural pricing strategy was also found to have significant relationship with sales turnover rate of crop farmers in Rivers State. The study equally found a significant relationship between agricultural distribution strategy and sales volume of crop farmers in Rivers State. The study also revealed that agricultural distribution strategy is significantly related to sales turnover rate of crop farmers in Rivers State. From the findings, it was concluded that the agricultural marketing strategies (agricultural pricing strategy and agricultural distribution strategy) significantly enhance the sales performance of crop farmers in Rivers State. Therefore, it was recommended that crop farmers in Rivers State should adopt agricultural marketing strategies such as agricultural pricing strategy and agricultural distribution strategy as it would improve their sales performance.