Traditional Food Crop Marketing in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does Gender Matter?

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Specialization and commercialization of agricultural production is seen as a key to lift small-scale farmers in developing countries out of poverty. While participation in high-value markets has been shown to be beneficial for farmers, especially the smallest and least endowed farmers are often excluded from these markets due to high transaction costs. In this context, marketing traditional food crops poses an important income alternative. The present study aims to contribute to the scarce literature on traditional food crops by analyzing the factors influencing (a) the households' decision to participate in the finger millet market and (b) the selling prices obtained by the household. A special focus of our analysis lies on the role of gender and collective action. Based on household data from 270 finger millet producers, a probit model on market participation and a linear regression model on the selling price are estimated. Results show that participation in a finger millet group positively influences the decision to market finger millet. While female household members who do not participate in a group are disadvantaged in terms of selling prices, there is no gender effect on selling prices if a female household member participates in a finger millet group. Terms of use: Documents in Abstract

Farmers’ Perception on Irrigation Farming and the Factors Influencing Access to and Size of Irrigable lands in Northern Region, Ghana

“…Despites Ghana's economic development in recent times, poverty and food insecurity continuous to be high in the northern parts of the country than the southern parts [6]. This is not isolated to only Ghana since [7] reported that poverty is persistent among many small scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The high dependence on agriculture by northern households predisposed them more to the negative consequences of climate change on food security.…”

Smallholder Food Marketing Behaviour

“…Collective bargaining for example in farmer groups could reduce the number of middle men hence increase the farmers' share of the consumer price (Gruère et al, 2009). For instance, in Kenya female farmers who participate in groups, bulk their harvest and sell directly to the large trader, obtain higher prices for millet (Handschuch and Wollni, 2015). Moreover, lack of social capital and highlevel organization to strengthen internal and external relations with farmer groups and market chain actors equally influence individual marketing behaviour which in turn affect farmers' sales prices (Fafchamps and Minten, 2001;Kaganzi et al, 2009) Limited credit availability is another barrier to grain trade competition.…”

Tapping the Potential of Neglected and Underutilized Food Crops for Sustainable Nutrition Security in the Mountains of Pakistan and Nepal

“…There is some evidence (from Nairobi, Kenya) that the demand for finger millet among urban households increased significantly due to awareness of the nutritional value of finger millet and the importance of healthy eating [61,62]. This increase in demand has opened new marketing opportunities for finger millet in Kenya, resulting in higher prices of this traditional crop in Kenya than prices for maize or other cereals [62]. It is expected that these price incentives will motivate Kenyan farmers to expand their cultivation of finger millet.…”