Information Service and Integration of Maize Markets in Togo

Koffi Yovo

doi:10.4236/me.2015.62023

Abstract

In the framework of liberalization policies, a market information service (SIM) was created in 2008 in Togo. This public service entrusted in collecting and disseminating information about the mercurial of agricultural products aimed to improve the spatial integration of agricultural markets through the development of arbitrage. This paper assesses the impact of price dissemination on the spatial integration of maize markets. To this end, the weekly retail maize prices collected from 13 markets for the period without service (2003-2007) and the period with service (2008-2012) are considered. The results show that the impact of price dissemination on the spatial integration of maize markets is mitigated. By reference to Lome, neither rural markets nor northern markets have significantly improved their level of long-term and short-term spatial integration. To improve the efficiency of the service, it is necessary to understand the need of the sector’s stakeholders in order to revise the current format of the market information service.

Highlights

In the past few years, most governments of the developing countries reduced their level of intervention on the market of the agricultural products
The objective of this work is to analyze the process of integration of maize markets in Togo in order to understand how it was affected by the diffusion of prices
Results is analyzed in accordance with the methodology in five steps namely the unit root test, co-integration test, the causality test, the test of endogeneity and short-term integration test

Summary

Introduction

In the past few years, most governments of the developing countries reduced their level of intervention on the market of the agricultural products. Many economists saw a means in this policy of deregulation to improve the effectiveness of the markets whose mechanism was disturbed by the strong public intervention. For this purpose, the market of cereals and that of maize was liberalized in Togo in 1987. The policy of liberalization is based on the principle that coordination by the market without any direct control of the government is a more effective organization. This policy aims to remove the various dysfunctions to make competition more dynamic in order to ameliorate the efficiency of the markets by facilitating arbitrage.

Objectives

Methods

Results