Transaction Costs, Information Technologies, and the Choice of Marketplace among Farmers in Northern Ghana

Zanello, Giacomo; Srinivasan, C. S.; Shankar, Bhavani

doi:10.1080/00220388.2014.903244

Cited by 36 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The case of avocado farmers in Kenya for farmers, particularly those located in remote areas (Hiroyuki et al, 2010;Zanello et al, 2012). The finding that gender of the manager significantly influences avocado income could be attributed to differential access to resources that are necessary for producing high-quality fruits for the export market as has been well documented in a number of studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (Quisumbing, 1995).…”

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confidence: 82%

Does contract farming improve smallholder income? The case of avocado farmers in Kenya

Mwambi

Oduol

Mshenga

et al. 2016

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies

121

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.*Related content and download information correct at time of download. Mwanarusi SaidiDepartment of Crop, Horticulture and Soil Science, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya Abstract Purpose -Contract farming (CF) is seen as a tool for creating new market opportunities hence increasing incomes for smallholder farmers. Critics, however, argue that CF is likely to pass risks to small scale farmers, thus favouring large scale farmers at the expense of smallholder farmers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of CF on smallholder farmers' income using a case study of avocado farmers in Kandara district in Kenya. Design/methodology/approach -The study uses data collected from 100 smallholder avocado farmers in Kandara district in Kenya and employs an instrumental variable model (Probit-2SLS) to control for endogeneity in participation in the contract and examine the effect of CF on household, farm and avocado income. Findings -The results indicate that participation in CF is not sufficient to improve household, farm and avocado income. Question remains regarding efficient implementation of CF arrangements to promote spill over effects on other household enterprises.Research limitations/implications -The research was carried out using farmers in Kandara district in Kenya as a case study, findings might therefore not reflect the status of CF in all countries. Originality/value -The paper contributes to the growing debate on the effect of value chain upgrading strategies such as contracting on smallholder farmers' welfare. The form of contracting studied in this paper differs from the standard contracts in that the key stakeholders (producers) are loosely enjoined in the contract through officials of their groups.

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mentioning

confidence: 82%

Does contract farming improve smallholder income? The case of avocado farmers in Kenya

Mwambi

Oduol

Mshenga

et al. 2016

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…These support services provide an enabling environment for the uptake of improved technologies by lowering transaction costs associated with the search for information on markets and new technologies. Transaction costs associated with poor infrastructure and inadequate access to market information increase input prices, on the one hand, and lower output prices, on the other, thereby reducing farmers' profit margins and hence act as barriers to adoption of improved technologies (Zeller et al 1998;Hiroyuki et al 2010;Jack 2011;Zanello et al 2012). Thus, adoption of CAWT is likely to be high where the associated transaction costs are deemed to be low.…”

Section: Agroforestry-based Conservation Agriculture Project In Kenyamentioning

confidence: 94%

Does strengthening technical capacity of smallholder farmers enhance adoption of conservation practices? The case of conservation agriculture with trees in Kenya

et al. 2015

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Despite decades of agricultural extension programmes, participatory research projects and efforts to encourage knowledge integration and sharing, few smallholder farmers are adopting natural resource management (NRM) practices. Using an agroforestry (AF)-based conservation practice known as conservation agriculture with trees as a case study, this study aims at contributing to the growing debate that a properly designed training programme enhances adoption of knowledge intensive NRM practices by providing resource poor farmers with the opportunity to learn, test and adapt such practices to suit their resource needs. To control for endogeneity in participation in training and assess the effect of training on adoption, we estimate an instrumental variable probit model using cross sectional data collected in 2013 from 198 farm households in Machakos district in Kenya. One key message emanating from the study, which is critical for development practitioners who are keen on up-scaling AF based conservation practices through training, is that strengthening technical capacity of smallholder farmers is necessary but it is not in itself sufficient to stimulate adoption of conservation practices. Instead, institutional factors like good road infrastructure that help reduce transaction costs associated with the search for information on technologies and markets and resource endowments in form of labour and land provide synergistic effects. Consequently, complementary strategies such as the introduction of cost effective labour saving technologies and the provision of enabling environment through public-private partnerships for farmers to access the technologies and inputs that are critical for implementing the skills acquired during the training are prerequisites for adoption.

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“…Such scholars showed that mobile phones resulted in reduced price dispersion across markets (e.g. Aker, 2008;Tack & Aker, 2014) and increased crop prices, presumably due to increased bargaining power (Lee & Bellemare, 2013;Zanello, Srinivasan & Shankar, 2014). Some authors found that the mobile phone led to increased market participation by farmers, but only for perishable crops (Muto & Yamano, 2009;Egyir et al, 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Remarkably, mobile phones do not influence farmers' bargaining position, contrarily to quantitative research such as Lee and Bellemare (2013) and Zanello et al (2014). Those authors studied correlations between mobile phones and crop-prices and market participation respectively.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Mobile Phone Use and IKSL's Audio Messages on the Asset Base of Poor Farmers in Lucknow, India

Baardewijk

2017

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

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Mobile phones have the potential to improve the lives of poor farmers, in particular in combination with specifically designed mobile phone-based services (m-services) that provide agricultural information. Most impact studies have measured the economic effects of mobile phones, while disregarding how these effects have come about. Therefore, this study takes a qualitative approach in order to discover the various ways in which poor farmers' livelihoods are influenced by mobile phone use. A case study is based on the impact of an mservice by the Indian company IKSL, which sends daily audio messages with information regarding agriculture. 45 in-depth interviews were held with a mixed group of farmers living around Lucknow, India. The used framework is based on Duncombe's (2014) suggestions to improve the livelihoods approach, in which three asset classes are distinguished: network-, cognitive-and resource based assets. Most direct impact of mobile phones is the strengthening of social networks. Cognitive assets were also improved, due to access to more timely and accurate knowledge, which in turn leads to enhanced productivity (resource-based assets)-particularly for green SIM owners. Moreover, the mobile phone resulted in lower transaction costs which led to improvements of marketing in various ways. This research contributes to the understanding of the impact of mobile phones on poor farmers and tests the suitability of Duncombe's (2014) framework. Moreover, striking results were found that contrast previous held assumptions by scholars of ICT4D. Whereas previous scholars assumed that mobile phone use leads to a better bargaining position and increased market participation of farmers, no evidence of these effects was found in this research.Keywords: ICT4D, mobile phone, m-service, agriculture, poverty, India, assets 1.INTRODUCTION The rapid spread of mobile phones in developing countries has been regarded by scholars as an opportunity for the improvement of the position of poor farmers (Aker, 2011). Not only does the adoption of mobile phones potentially improve the livelihoods of poor farmers (de Silva et al., 2011), the use of specific services for mobile phones (m-services) can solve problems related to areas such as health, finance and agriculture (Qiang et al., 2011). Agricultural m-services use SMS, phone calls or apps to provide farmers with crop-rates, weather information and other farming-related information. Although the use of mobile phones and m-services specifically can enhance farmers' livelihoods, impact assessments show mixed results (Duncombe, 2012). It is uncertain what causes the mixed results, partly due to their quantitative nature. A recent article by Burrell and Oreglia (2015) provides an elaborate critique on such quantitative approaches. Their main point is that research on the use of ICT for development (ICT4D) is based too much on abstract economic models. ICT4D research often overemphasises the value of market information for farmers and consequently overestimates the effect ...

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Transaction Costs, Information Technologies, and the Choice of Marketplace among Farmers in Northern Ghana

Cited by 36 publications

References 19 publications

Does contract farming improve smallholder income? The case of avocado farmers in Kenya

Does contract farming improve smallholder income? The case of avocado farmers in Kenya

Does strengthening technical capacity of smallholder farmers enhance adoption of conservation practices? The case of conservation agriculture with trees in Kenya

The Impact of Mobile Phone Use and IKSL's Audio Messages on the Asset Base of Poor Farmers in Lucknow, India

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