International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) Volume 5 Issue 2, January-February 2021 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD38502 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 2 | January-February 2021 Page 760 Agricultural Marketing and Performance of Agricultural Firms in Anambra State Chibike Onyije Nwuba Department of Marketing, Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State, Nigeria ABSTRACT This research studied the relationship between agricultural marketing and performance of agricultural firms in Anambra State. Specifically, the study addressed the relationship between transactional marketing and performance of agricultural firms, the relationship between database marketing and performance of agricultural firms, the relationship between interaction marketing and performance of agricultural firms and finally the relationship between network marketing and performance of agricultural firms. The study adopted a survey research design in collecting data; questionnaire and personal interviews were used in collecting primary data while documentary sources were used for secondary data. The population of the study was made up of 411 agricultural firms in Anambra state, whereas 30 firms were selected as the sample size with the aid of solvin formular. The data generated for this study were presented with frequencies and percentages, while the stated hypotheses were statistically tested with Pearson motion correlation, which was computed with the aid of the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20. Findings from the study showed thattransactional, database, interaction and network marketing that were used as proxies for agricultural marketing all have a significant relationship with sales volume which was used as proxy for performance of agricultural firms. KEYWORDS: Agricultural marketing, Performance, Agricultural Firms How to cite this paper: Chibike Onyije Nwuba "Agricultural Marketing and Performance of Agricultural Firms in Anambra State" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-2, February 2021, pp.760-769, URL: www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd38502.pdf Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) 1. INTRODUCTION The Recent global fall in oil prices and other inflationary issues affected Nigeria’s foreign exchange negatively. Asogwa&Okwoche(2012) asserted that this has forced the government at federal and state levels to introduce measures geared at revitalizing the agricultural sector which will in turn improve the Nigerian economy which is currently depressed. Thus, Ikponmwosa (2016) argues that Agriculture is the most viable route with which Nigeria can successfully meander from her current economic dilemma. Agriculture happens to be seen as the “bailout” from Nigeria’s current economic recession. A lot of policies have been put in place to boost agricultural production in Nigeria as part of the nation’s diversification strategies. Agriculture which is the primary source of employment in Nigeria accounts for more than 30% of the total gross domestic product (GDP), (Ikponmwosa, 2016).The support systems and policies provided by the current leaders both in state and federal levels are to revitalize agriculture, by fostering mechanized agriculture. The campaign for the revamp of the agricultural sector of the economy and the various policies and support systems that have been put in place to revive the sector have not actually yielded the expected results. Arguably, the inability to market agricultural produce constitutes vital challenge to agricultural sector. According to the Marketing Committee of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture (1995), marketing is the crux of the whole food and agriculture problem. It would be useless to increase the output of food and equally futile to setup optimum standards of nutrition unless means could be found to move food from producer to the consumer at a price which is remunerative to the producer and is within the consumers' ability to pay. Marketing of Agricultural products has its own peculiarities. The marketing of industrial and consumer products on the other hand are relatively easier, since their end result can be co-ordinates with wants and requirements, to suit the tastes in size, colour, texture etc. The most important difference being that of the shelf life while the Industrial and consumer products enjoy reasonably prolonged life, the agricultural products are characterized by varying degree of perish ability. Unlike in the case of manufactured products, the entire production of different agricultural commodities does not come to the market for sale. The produce marketed depends on the marketable surplus, immediate need for cash, price trend, and storage capacity; perish ability, transportation facilities, size of the form etc. The marketable surplus is the total production, which depends on the area of production, inputs, price realizable, and demand conditions, market access etc. the market surplus on the other hand is the extent of produce that the farmers sell finally in the market after meeting their requirements of self-consumption, seeds, payment in kind, payment to local artisans etc.The peculiar nature of agricultural products results in the need for intermediaries who render services of assembling, sorting, grading, packaging, transportation and selling. As a farmer does not have the expertise or the time to involve him in the various activities involved in the selling of his produce, the involvement of other agencies such as Agricultural Firms becomes necessary. IJTSRD38502