The geography of agricultural input markets in rural Tanzania

Abstract

The expansion of agro-dealers into remote areas can be seen as conducive to more smallholders adopting new technologies and inputs, to include improved seed and fertilizer. However, lower travel costs may be offset by agro-dealer decisions on stocking and pricing, reflecting both travel time from wholesale markets as well as the level of competition in localized areas. This paper investigates the geographical distribution of agro-dealers and related patterns of local market competition on the availability and prices of maize seed and fertilizer. We use a unique census of agro-dealers in eight districts of Tanzania (n = 299) which maps distribution points for agricultural inputs in these areas. Results suggested that despite a high number of agro-dealers, almost 30% of farmers lived more than an hour travel time from at least one agro-dealer. Instead of wide geographical coverage, agro-dealers tended to be found in clusters, with strong variation in cluster sizes between different districts. Overall, more remote agro-dealers faced less competition, resulting in fewer stocked product choices and charging higher prices to customers, even after controlling for travel time from district headquarters. Remote farmers are disadvantaged in their uptake of new technologies and critical production inputs due to lack of competition among agro-dealers. Our results suggest that highly aggregated and/or simplified measures of market access fail to reflect important heterogeneity in the market access conditions faced by farmers; a better understanding of distribution networks and competition is needed.

Digital Technology and Services for Sustainable Agriculture in Tanzania: A Literature Review

“…The subject aligns with the United Nations SDGs, such as eradicating poverty and hunger, sustainable cities and communities, climate action and reducing inequality [9]. Developing new digital comprehensive artifacts could solve the existing problems of digital exclusion of smallholder farmers, such as access to credit, farming knowledge, farm inputs, government services and control, and the market for their products [17][18][19][20]. Responsible agriculture actors could adopt the artifact according to their country context.…”

Agripreneurship as a panacea for food security in Tanzania: A systematic review

“…Entrepreneurship education is among the long-standing strategies that can be used to increase agriculture production and commercialization. Farmers in Tanzania should be taught commercial practices such as marketing, networking, farm accounts, distribution, and competition [ 41 , 51 ]. Further, entrepreneurship education needs to go further to focus on modern farming practices, the solidification of land tenure security, the formation of substantial agricultural organizations, land rights, and productivity investments among producers in local rural areas for the sake of food security in society [ 27 , 31 ].…”

“…Tanzania, just like other East African countries, is a victim of food insecurity as it has not achieved stable agriculture production and food security. This, among others, is largely attributed to the low level of food production, which is the result of challenges such as deprived agriculture infrastructures, unreliable markets, poor access to agriculture credits, low number of agro-dealers operating in rural areas, fluctuation of food prices, adverse weather conditions, poor drainage, and inadequate irrigation [ 30 , 35 , 51 ].…”

“…Other measures by the Tanzanian Government include the establishment of the Agricultural Development Bank, the National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme, the Agriculture Sector Development Programme, and the Fertilizer Bulk Procurement System [ 35 , 51 ]. These initiatives are aimed at increasing agricultural production by creating attractive investment opportunities and thereby strengthening food security in the country.…”

Maize varietal replacement in Eastern and Southern Africa: Bottlenecks, drivers and strategies for improvement

“…The strategy revolves around continuing to ‘‘milk’’ the variety while finding a suitable replacement, which in most cases does not come easily. For example, market-dominant varieties like H614D in Kenya, released in 1986 ( Spielman and Smale, 2017 ) is still being marketed, albeit at a reduced rate ( Rutsaert et al, 2019 ). Research shows that removal of market-dominant products takes several years ( Avlonitis et al, 2000 ).…”