Abstract:
The study was carried out to determine the Government (Management), Employees, Producers and Consumers perceived effects of disintermediation in palm oil distribution in Rivers and Bayelsa States. Four research questions were developed and answered by the study while four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at P ≤ 0.05 level of significance and 276 degree of freedom (df). The study was carried out in Rivers and Bayelsa States. It made use of survey research design. The population of the study was 1,393; made up of 21 management (government) staff, 125 employees, 1127 producers and 120 consumers respectively. The sample on the other hand was 278 which was also made up of 12 management (government) staff, 23 employees, 221 producers and 22 consumers respectively. Proportionate sampling technique of twenty percent (20%) was used to draw the sample from the population. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the respondents for the study. The questionnaire was validated by three experts from Business Education unit of the Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach’s alpha method was used to determine the reliability coefficient in which a coefficient of 0.93 was obtained. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of two research assistants across the two States. The entire 278 copies of the questionnaire administered were retrieved representing 100% retrieval of the questionnaire. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used for testing the null hypotheses (Ho) at P ≤ 0.05 level of significance and 276 degree of freedom (df). Analysis of Variance was used to analyse the mean rating of the various groups. The study found out that on the whole, the three groups of the respondents agreed on 33 out of the identified 36 as perceived effects of disintermediation in the distribution of palm oil in Rivers and Bayelsa States. It was therefore recommended inter alia that the government of the two States should make efforts to formulate policies through their state ministries of commerce to reduce the number of middlemen in the distribution of Agricultural produce especially palm oil at the advantage of the poor rural farmers in the area.
