Marketing extension needs for sesame farmers in Sheikan locality of North Kordofan State, Sudan

The main objective of this study was to determine marketing extension needs for sesame farmers in Sheikan locality in Sudan. Two stage sampling technique was used. The first stage was the selection of eight villages and the second stage wass the selection of 150 headed households from a list of farmers in the Sheikan locality included all different administrative units. The study tested the negative hypotheses of relationship between marketing information and farmer’s experience, and marketing information available to farmers. This study used two sources of data, primary data collected from target beneficiaries by using a questionnaire which was designed and randomly distributed among them while secondary data were obtained from scientific publications, books, previous studies, reports and available documents from relevant authorities, Data collected through interview were analyzed using statistical tools, frequency distribution and percentage and were used to indicate the proportion of responses to certain variables; chi square test was performed to test relationship between farmers Experience and marketing Information. The study findings revealed that 49.3% of the respondents were aged more than 50 years, 58.7% had no education, majority (92.0%) had farming as their primary occupation, 79.3% having farming experience of more than 11 years; 11.7% of the respondents had access to marketing information from other farmers, majority (84.4%) from traders and (3.9%) obtained information from the Extension agents. Also the study revealed that the majority (74.7%) of the respondents needed assistance in marketing information and on farm planning 48.0%. Chi square results showed significant (p≤ 0.05) relationship between farmers’ experience and marketing Information.