Download or read book Return to quality in rural agricultural markets Evidence from wheat markets in Ethiopia written by Do Nascimento Miguel, Jérémy and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2022-02-09 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many Sub-Saharan countries, farmers cannot meet the growing urban demand for higher quality products, leading to increasing dependency on imports. While the literature has focused on production-side constraints to enhancing smallholder farmers’ output quality, there is scarce evidence of market-side constraints. Using a unique sample of 60 wheat markets in Ethiopia, I examine the relationship between the price obtained by farmers and the quality supplied. Using objective and precise measures of observable (impurity content) and unobservable (flour extraction rate and moisture level) quality attributes, no evidence was found of a strong correlation between the two, suggesting that observable attributes cannot serve as proxies for unobservable ones. Transaction prices further reflect this, indicating that, markets only reward quality attributes that are observable at no cost. However, these results hide cross-market heterogeneity. Observable quality attributes are better rewarded in larger and more competitive markets, while unobservable attributes are rewarded in the presence of grain millers and/or farmer cooperatives on the market site. Both regression and machine learning approaches support these findings.

Download or read book Return to Quality in Rural Agricultural Markets written by Jérémy Do Nascimento Miguel and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Returns to Quality in Rural Agricultural Markets written by Jérémy Do Nascimento Miguel and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many Sub-Saharan countries, farmers cannot meet the growing urban demand for higher quality products. While the literature has focused on production-side constraints to enhancing smallholder farmers' output quality, there is scarce evidence of market-side constraints. Using a sample of 60 wheat markets in Ethiopia, I assess whether farmers received a price premium for supplying higher quality outputs. I exploit a unique feature of the data which precisely measures observable and unobservable quality attributes, and relate them to transaction prices. I find that observable attributes cannot serve as proxies for unobservable ones. Transaction prices further reflect this, indicating that, markets only reward quality attributes observable at no cost. However, these results hide cross-market heterogeneity. Observable quality attributes are better rewarded in larger and more competitive markets, while unobservable attributes are rewarded in the presence of grain millers and/or farmer cooperatives. Both regression and machine learning approaches support these findings.

Download or read book African Farmers Value Chains and Agricultural Development written by Alan de Brauw and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a thorough introduction to and examination of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the authors introduce the economic theory of agri-food value chains and value chain governance, focusing on domestic and regional trade in (and consumption of) food crops in a low-income country context. In addition to mainstream and heterodox thinking about value chain development, the book pays attention to political economy considerations. The book also reviews the empirical evidence on value chain development and performance in Africa. It adopts multiple lenses to examine agricultural value chains, zooming out from the micro level (e.g., relational contracting in a context of market imperfections) to the meso level (e.g., distributional implications of various value chain interventions, inclusion of specific social groups) and the macro level (underlying income, population and urbanization trends, volumes and prices, etc.).Furthermore, this book places value chain development in the context of a process the authors refer to as structural transformation 2.0, which refers to a process where production factors (labor, land and capital) move from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity agriculture. Finally, throughout the book the authors interpret the evidence in light of three important debates: (i) how competitive are rural factor and product markets, and what does this imply for distribution and innovation? (ii) what role do foreign investment and factor proportions play in the development of agri-food value chains in Africa? (iii) what complementary government policies can help facilitate a process of agricultural value chain transformation, towards high-productive activities and enhancing the capacity of value chains to generate employment opportunities and food security for a growing population.

Download or read book Farmers quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior A field experiment in Ethiopia written by Abate, Gashaw T. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adoption of quality-enhancing technologies is often driven largely by farmers’ expected returns from these technologies. Without proper grades, standards, and certification systems, however, farmers may remain uncertain about the actual financial return associated with their quality-enhancing investments. This report summarizes the outcomes of a short video-based randomized training intervention on wheat quality measurement and collective marketing among 15,000 wheat farmers in Ethiopia. Our results suggest that the intervention led to significant changes in farmers’ commercialization behaviors—namely, it prompted farmers to adopt behaviors geared toward assessing their wheat’s quality using easily implementable test-weight measures, assessing the accuracy of the equipment used by buyers in their kebeles (scales, in particular), and contacting more than one buyer before concluding a sale. The training also led to improvements in share of output sold, price received, and collective marketing, albeit with important limitations. First, farmers who measured their wheat quality received a higher price, but only if their wheat was of higher quality. Second, farmers who found that their wheat was of higher quality were more reluctant to aggregate their wheat (that is, sell their products through local cooperatives) than those who found that their wheat was of lower quality. Lastly, the training intervention led to better use of fertilizer in the following season. Our discovery that a short training intervention can significantly change farmers’ marketing and production behavior should encourage the development of further interventions aimed at enhancing farmers’ adoption of improved technologies and commercialization.

Download or read book Seed Trade in Rural Markets written by Leslie Lipper and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Markets have been found to be an increasingly important source of the seeds of crops and varieties low income farmers need to improve their livelihoods, encompassing both the formal and informal seed sector. Markets also have major impacts on agricultural biodiversity, by affecting farmers' choice of crops and varieties to grow. They are not, however, a homogenous institution, although all too frequently policies and regulations are developed as though they were. Markets vary considerably depending on the participants, on the institutions that govern how and what they exchange, and on local agricultural, economic and social conditions. Developing effective strategies to improve the way agricultural markets work, including how farmers use crop genetic resources, requires understanding of these variations. Seed Trade in Rural Markets presents a unique set of case studies from Bolivia, India, Kenya, Mali and Mexico on agricultural seed and product markets that describe three important market characteristics expected to affect farmers' access to seeds and varieties: the range of varieties on offer, the information provided about them, and relative prices. The case studies - all based around a common framework to aid comparability - also provide information on social, agricultural and economic factors which may be affecting the market availability, information, and cost of crop genetic resources, and ultimately the capacity to stimulate agricultural development Published with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations

Download or read book Handbook Of International Food And Agricultural Policies In 3 Volumes written by and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-11-28 with total page 1243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Handbook of International Food and Agricultural Policies is a three-volume set that aims to provide an accessible reference for those interested in the aims and implementation of food and farm policies throughout the world. The treatment is authoritative, comprehensive and forward looking. The three volumes combine scholarship and pragmatism, relating academic writing to real-world issues faced by policy-makers. A companion volume looking at the future resource and climate challenges for global agriculture will be published in the future.Volume I covers Farm and Rural Development policies of developed and developing countries. The volume contains 20 country chapters together with a concluding comprehensive synthesis of lessons to be drawn from the experiences of the individual countries.Volume II examines the experience of countries with food policies, including those dealing with food safety and quality and the responsibility for food security in developing countries. The chapters address issues such as obesity, nutritional supplements, organic foods, food assistance programs, biotech food acceptance, and the place of private standards.Volume III describes and explains the international trade dimension of farm and food policies — both at the bilateral and regional level — and also the multilateral rules that influence and constrain individual governments. The volume also looks at the steps that countries are together taking to meet the needs of developing and low-income countries.The volumes are of value to students and researchers interested in economic development, agricultural markets and food systems. Policy-makers and professionals involved in monitoring and regulating agricultural and food markets would also find the volumes useful in their practical work. This three-volume set is also a suitable source for the general public interested in how their food system is influenced by government policies.

Download or read book Agricultural Markets in Benin and Malawi written by Marcel Fafchamps and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys of the operation of agricultural traders in two Sub-Saharan African countries suggest that their performance would benefit from policies aimed at increasing their asset base, reducing transaction risk, promoting more sophisticated business practices, and reducing physical marketing costs.Drawing on original surveys of agricultural traders, Fafchamps and Gabre-Madhin examine how traders operate in two Sub-Saharan African countries, Benin and Malawi. They find the following:- The largest transaction costs for traders are search and transport. Search methods rely principally on personal visits by the trader, which raises search costs. And since enterprises are very small, transport represents a large share of marketing costs.- Brand recognition, grading, and quality certification are nonexistent.- Brokers and agents are not organized in commodity exchanges.- Quantities are not pooled for transport and storage so as to achieve returns to scale.- Interseasonal and interregional arbitrage is not feasible for most traders, who prefer to operate day to day in a small territory.This information provides some important insights into how agricultural trade could be improved. It suggests possible policy interventions in four main areas: increasing traders' asset base, reducing transaction risk, promoting more sophisticated business practices, and reducing physical marketing costs.This paper - a product of Rural Development, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the operation of commodity markets in rural areas. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project quot;Markets for Agricultural Inputs in Sub-Saharan Africaquot; (RPO 683-48). The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Download or read book Three Essays on Economics of Quality in Agricultural Markets written by Chia-Hsing Wang and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: I simulate growth and quality changes for pens of cattle and derive the value of pre-harvest sorting and genetic selection under grid pricing in a deterministic setting featuring animals with heterogeneous growth and quality maturation paths. The key findings are: 1) both pre-harvest sorting and increased genetic uniformity could substantially affect an individual cattle feeder's net revenues; 2) one could expect higher marginal revenue gains from the genetic uniformity than from pre-market sorting; 3) both methods exhibit diminishing marginal returns and 4) aggregate beef supply may increase as improving uniformity typically leads to later optimal marketing dates and, hence, heavier animals at slaughter. Post-slaughter quality-based pricing of cattle is increasingly common. This quality, however, is dependent upon unobservable quality characteristics of the feeder cattle used as inputs and unverifiable effort exerted by feedlot managers. Through stochastic simulation I construct incentive compatible quality risk-sharing contracts based upon final grid-quality schedules in feeder cattle markets. Darby and Karni suggest branding as means of solving the potential fraudulence problems in the credence good market. Umbrella branding is a common marketing practice to promote new product and bond the product quality to the brand reputation. However, while umbrella branding works well in the experience good market, no evidence shows it would work in the credence good markets. I set up a framework for discussing the effect of umbrella branding on the quality provision of credence good. The results show that brand reputation, product similarity, probability of detection, punishment severity, and exogenous quality noise all play important roles in determining a firm's decision on umbrella branding and fraud.

Download or read book Rice Green Revolution in Sub Saharan Africa written by Keijiro Otsuka and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-03-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book seeks effective strategy to realize a rice Green Revolution in sub-Saharan Africa based on more than ten years of research team’s inquiries into determinants and consequences of new technology adoption in rice farming in seven countries in this region. Rigorous statistical analyses are carried out by using valuable household data of rice farmers. The book is actually sequel to the two earlier books on the same subject published by Springer and edited by K. Otsuka and D.F. Larson, An African Green Revolution published in 2013 and In Pursuit of an African Green Revolution in 2016. The main message of the first book was that rice is the most promising cereal crop in SSA because of the high transferability of Asian rice technology, whereas that of the second book was that rice cultivation training programs are effective in significantly increasing rice yield in SSA. This third book has wider coverage in terms of topics, study periods, and study sites. It continues to show the significant impacts of rice cultivation training on productivity and newly demonstrates the high sustainability of the productivity impact of the training and the existence of spillover effects from trainees to other farmers by using panel data. We newly assess the important role of mechanization in intensification of rice farming, high returns to large-scale irrigation schemes, and the critical role of rice millers in improving the quality of milled rice. Based on these studies, this book provides clear pathways toward full-fledged Green Revolution in rice farming in sub-Saharan Africa.

Download or read book Unlocking markets to smallholders written by Herman D. van Schalkwyk and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-03-10 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders.

Download or read book International model for policy analysis of agricultural commodities and trade standard IFPRI multimarket model IMPACT SIMM Technical description for version 1 written by Robinson, Sherman and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-12-31 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Food Policy Research Institute’s International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) supports analysis of long-term challenges and opportunities for food, agriculture, and natural resources at global and regional scales. IMPACT is continually being updated and improved to better inform the choices that decisionmakers face today. This document describes a new country-level version of the model. IMPACT-SIMM (International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade–Standard IFPRI Multimarket Model) is a partial equilibrium, multi-market, simulation model of the production, supply, and demand of agricultural commodities within a country or group of countries. It simulates the operation of agricultural markets, solving for equilibrium prices within a country and, in multi-country mode, global markets. It is designed to be a “portable” and potentially open-source version of the IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) IMPACT3 model documented in Robinson et al. (2015). IMPACT-SIMM shares model specification, equations, and computer code with IMPACT3, but is designed to be more flexible in application. It allows users to specify a standard multi-market model at any level of aggregation by commodities and countries by changing data inputs, without any change in model code. This model system supports longer-term scenario analysis to provide researchers and policymakers with a flexible tool to assess and compare the potential effects of changes in biophysical systems, socioeconomic trends, technologies, and policies at the level of individual countries or groups of countries.

Download or read book Economic Studies on Food Agriculture and the Environment written by Maurizio Canavari and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2002-08-31 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text contains a selection of the papers presented at the Joint Conference on Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, organized by the University of Minnesota and several universities in Italy, and held in Bologna, Italy, on June 12-14, 2001. The papers are grouped into four sections: food, nutrition, and quality; land and resource assessment; agriculture and rural development; and environment and markets. Readers should gain insights concerning alternative approaches to dealing with important policy issues.

Download or read book OECD FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021 2030 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations as well as input from collaborating member countries to provide an annual assessment of the prospects for the coming decade of national, regional and global agricultural commodity markets. The publication consists of 11 Chapters; Chapter 1 covers agricultural and food markets; Chapter 2 provides regional outlooks and the remaining chapters are dedicated to individual commodities.

Download or read book China s Economic Dilemmas in the 1990s written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Promotion and Marketing of Quality Products from Disadvantaged Rural Areas written by Teagasc (Organization). Rural Economy Research Centre and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Geographical Indications and the Competitive Provision of Quality in Agricultural Markets written by Giancarlo Moschini and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The economics of geographical indications (GIs) is assessed within a vertical product differentiation framework that is consistent with the competitive structure of the agricultural sector with free entry/exit. It is assumed that certification costs are needed for GIs to serve as (collective) credible quality certification devices, and production of high-quality product is endogenously determined. We find that GIs can support a competitive provision of quality that partly overcomes the market failure and leads to clear welfare gains, although they fall short of delivering the (constrained) first-best level of the high-quality good. The main beneficiaries of the welfare gains are consumers. Producers may also accrue some benefit if the production of high-quality products draws on scarce factors that they own.