The system of cattle marketing at the Maiduguri stock-yard

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Periodical article

Title:	The system of cattle marketing at the Maiduguri stock-yard
Author:	Famure, O.D.
Year:	1986
Periodical:	Annals of Borno
Volume:	3
Pages:	153-163
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Northern Nigeria
Subjects:	marketplaces animal husbandry
Abstract:	Based essentially on primary date derived from interviews with 143 people with various cattle holdings, comprising 62 buyers and 81 sellers, the author examines the procedure by which cattle are traded at the Maiduguri stockyard, Borno State, Nigeria. Specifically he looks at the size distribution of the participants in the market, the facilities and infrastructures for marketing, and the price-making mechanism. The participants in the market comprise the buyers, the sellers, the licensed buying agents, and a series of middlemen. The market shows more competition among sellers than among buyers, and pricing and exchange is done exclusively by private treaty. Cattle sold are not standardized by weight, grade, backfat, or any other measure. Visual inspection is mostly used to determine their market value. The author analyses the implications of the pricing and exchange procedure at the stockyard market and suggests several measures to improve marketing efficiency, including government intervention in the provision of cattle-marketing facilities and infrastructure, the creation of livestock marketing cooperatives or boards, and the adoption of sale by auction. Bibliogr., notes.