It was also responsible for licensing buying agents and the purchasing export commodities in the region.
The board's history dates back to 1949 when the colonial government initiated a statutory monopoly institution for groundnut marketing.
It also included promotion of agricultural research and development, purchase of export commodities, fixing prices for all grades of groundnuts, cotton, benniseeds, oil palm, soya beans and Cocoa within the Northern Region, appointment of license buying agents and marketing, shipping, and storage of export products.
[5][6] A key part of the initial purpose of the marketing board was price stability, fixing producer prices whereby excess surplus is saved during rainy times to be used to subsidize farmers during lean times.
[7] In the 1960s and early 1970s, the producer price was competitively lower than its competition in Niger Republic, this induced smuggling or producers shifting to plant other crops, in addition, a drought in the Sahel region affected production lowering the volume of purchase by the board.