PORTERAGE OPERATION IN RURAL MARKETS - A PIVOTAL LINK AND TRANSFORMATION IN AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM: CASE OF SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Due to poor infrastructure, unmotorable and heavily congested many urban and rural market spaces in most African societies, Nigeria inclusive, and consequent use of head porters in transporting market goods and wares, this paper seeks to explore porterage operation in rural markets with a view to establishing the pivotal linkage between porterage, market and agricultural commodities transportation system in south-western Nigeria. Specifically, the porterage, market and transportation linkage were conceptualized; socio-economic statuses of the porterage workers were profiled; types of agriculturally based porterage activities and porterage workers’ levels of involvement identified; reasons motivating and constraints limiting their involvement; and transformation in porterage operation in agricultural commodities transportation were discussed. Pre-tested and validated interview schedule was used to elicit information from 190 porterage workers randomly selected from across 10 agricultural commodity markets in the study area. Key informant interview was used to elicit qualitative information from their association leaders. Also, on-site photographs were captured to reinforced transformational innovation in rural porterage. Data collected were processed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. The paper established porterage as a sub-system in rural market transportation system. It also revealed that majority of porterage workers are young people (about 70%) under 40 years of age with a very low socio-economic status with no or little education. They earn an average income of ₦264,505.26 ($734.74) annually. They operate on an average of 6 days/week and about 21/2hrs/day without requiring any special skills and initial capital. They are mostly exposed to harsh weather condition and diverse physical risks. It noted the current transformational innovation the sub-system is undergoing with gradual migration from head carriage to wheelbarrow (34%), advancement into cart pushing (16%) and very few motorized tricycles. This is observed to be a strategic way of reducing stress and energy involve in the traditional porterage operation without losing the purpose of connecting the rural transportation system.