Prospects of Gum Arabic Marketing: A Strategy for Poverty Alleviation

Marketing of Gum Arabic in Northern Nigeria is practiced since early 1940s; yet poverty prevalence was rated second highest among the six geopolitical zones in the country. This necessitated the study to know the reason despite the high demand of gum arabic worldwide which is very much available in the zone. The study thus covered some of the highest gum arabic producing states in Nigeria, namely Yobe, Taraba and Adamawa as a case study. Findings revealed that gum arabic marketing is profitable; however, the action of high income earners and middlemen in the business of gum arabic made the entry of low and medium income earners who are bulk in the marketing of gum arabic not benefiting much from it. This could have been the cause of poverty prevalence in zone.The study recommends that the three tiers of government should embark on enlightenment campaign for gum arabic production and marketing in the zone as the business is profitable except that the distribution of the benefits is poor as shown by Gini-Coefficient and General Entropy Models analyses in this study.