Distortions to agricultural incentives: Evidence from Nigerian value chains

Abstract

Understanding how policies affect price transmission and incentives for producers and consumers along the complete value chain is a relevant research question due to the more globalized structure of agricultural value chains. In particular, Nigerian agricultural value chains have been targeted by a number of policy decisions. We analyze the import‐oriented palm oil value chain and the export‐oriented cacao value chain, estimating the price distortions from policies and their implications for production incentives at the regional level. For palm oil, due to protective trade policies and domestic initiatives, the nominal rate of protection (NRP) at the farmgate for palm oil producers shows that producers have been protected. NRPs at the border for cacao beans and cocoa products are negative, which may be due to a quality gap, the export market structure, and the concentration of buyers in global markets. Negative NRPs at the farmgate are seen for all regions, showing disincentives in the cacao beans export market reverberate through the domestic market despite domestic support policies. In both value chains, NRPs at farmgate vary across regions partially due to regional policy frameworks and partially due to local conditions impacting price transmission.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Relationship between Digital Technology Use and Agricultural Productivity in EU Countries

“…The findings regarding Hypothesis H2 align with the existing literature, underscoring the positive impact of digitalization on farmers' incomes and rural poverty reduction [55][56][57][58][59][60]. Tokgoz et al [55] and Ehlers et al [56] highlight the potential of digital agriculture to enhance efficiency and access new markets through digital platforms. Establishing appropriate policy and legal frameworks is crucial to facilitating a sustainable digital transition in agriculture [62,63].…”

“…Digitalization in agriculture serves as a compelling tool for enhancing farmers' incomes by streamlining agricultural processes, boosting efficiency, and tapping into new markets via digital platforms. Consequently, research and policies focusing on these facets can play a pivotal role in alleviating rural poverty and fostering prosperity in agricultural communities [55][56][57]. Moreover, digitalization can facilitate the diversification of agricultural activities and pinpoint specific avenues for income growth across various agricultural sectors and regions [58][59][60].…”

Can agricultural digital transformation help farmers increase income? An empirical study based on thousands of farmers in Hubei Province

“…In this context, exploring whether agricultural digitization can help farmers to increase income, through which path to achieve, to guide the development direction of agricultural digitization has an important guiding role. At present, scholars’ research on agricultural digitalization and digital rural construction mainly focuses on policy-making (Ehlers et al, 2022 ), strategic value (Donati & Tukker, 2022 ; Tokgoz et al, 2020 ), driving factors (Maria et al, 2021 ), planning evaluation (Newton et al, 2020 ), financial support (Abu-Nowar, 2020 ; Khan & Ali, 2022 ), high-quality rural development (Liu & Yu, 2018 ; Rossetto et al, 2019 ) and poverty alleviation for characteristic industries (Erling & Wei, 2019 ). The construction of digital rural infrastructure is necessary to realize digital dividends, establish a multi-market subject-sharing income system, and build a digital village compatible with the market, to actively promote the production and transformation of inclusive digital agricultural products (Aleixo et al, 2019 ).…”

Guest editorial

“…cities, provincial, globalare massive as a result of rising population and urbanisation. It also relates to the issue of agricultural incentives that have limited the development of the value chain, gaps in quality and low productivity as the agricultural sector in most African countries are characterised by smallholder farmers (Togkoz et al, 2020).…”