The Roles of Middlemen in the Marketing of Paddy Rice in Kwande LGA of Benue State Nigeria

The study assessed the role of middlemen in the marketing of paddy rice in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue state. Simple random technique was used to select respondents. 140 copies of questionnaire were administered with the aim of reaching out to 70 rice farmers and 70 middlemen in the four major markets of study area. Frequency distribution, percentage, ranking, mean, the matrices correlation and the student t-test were used to analyze the data collected. The studies revealed that majority (66.4%) of the respondents were male whose major occupation was farming. 78.6% of the respondents had formal education (Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Their major source of capital for rice production and marketing was through personal saving and informal sources of credit. Majority (60.0%) of the middlemen determined the time of sales, they (middlemen) also determined market price of rice through haggling and haggling (Bargaining). Majority 84.3% of middlemen determined storage place for paddy rice in the area as personal house they also formed market associations to problems of rice marketing in the area. It was also revealed that, rice production in the area was on a small scale with 67.2% of farmers cultivating less than 21bags of rice per season. The t-cal of 5.337> t-tab of 1.96 at (p