There has been growing interest in the development of technology‐based systems to empower farmers in Africa. This paper determines the effect of mobile phone‐based market information services (MIS) on farmers' decisions to participate in maize markets in Lilongwe, Malawi. The study reveals insufficient evidence to suggest that the MIS influence farmers' market participation decisions. Knowledge of prevailing prices may not necessarily guarantee farmers market participation, especially when buyers determine market prices and transaction costs are high. Consequently, farmers with no access to alternative markets fail to improve their marketing outcomes. The findings suggest that channelling government's resources towards improving extension services and increasing farmers' productivity are ideal ways to promote the participation of smallholder farmers in agricultural markets. The findings also underscore the need to integrate radio and mobile phones in agricultural MIS and to provide farmers with information related to agricultural production in addition to market prices. These recommendations could be realized through better coordination of market access initiatives involving smallholder farmers, government departments, NGOs, mobile network operators, and media houses.

Maize is one of the major staples and cash crops for many Tanzanians. Excessive volatility of maize prices destabilises farm income in maize-growing regions and is likely to jeopardise nutrition and investment in many poor rural communities. This study investigates whether market reform policies in Tanzania have increased the volatility of maize prices, and identifies regional characteristics that can be attributed to the spatial price volatility. To achieve the objectives, an autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity in mean (ARCH-M) model is developed and estimated in this study. Results show that the reforms have increased farm-gate prices and overall price volatility. Maize prices are lower in surplus and less developed regions than those in deficit and developed regions. Results also show that the developed and maize-deficit regions, and regions bordering other countries have experienced less volatile prices than less developed, maize-surplus and non-bordering regions. Our findings indicate that investments in communication and transportation infrastructures from government and donor countries are likely to increase inter-regional and international trade, thereby reducing the spatial price volatility in Tanzanian maize prices in the long run. Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2008 The Agricultural Economics Society.

This study applied the stochastic profit frontier model to estimate the economic efficiency of smallscale beekeepers in the Tabora and Katavi regions of Tanzania. The results show that the profit of small-scale beekeepers is determined by changes in the cost of labor and materials such as wire and color paint for beehives. Reducing the cost of these can significantly increase profits in beekeeping production. Small-scale beekeepers were found to be economically efficient, with a mean efficiency of 92%. This implies that there is room for improvement by about 8% without changing the profit frontier. Contacts and follow-up by beekeeping extension officers and access to beekeeping training on improved management practices were the main factors that had a significant influence on the economic efficiency of small-scale beekeepers. Thus, the regular and timely provision of extension services and beekeeping training among beekeepers can improve their practices.ARTICLE HISTORY

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