Output Market Research Articles

Farmers’ Choice for Output Marketing Channels of Cauliflower in Himachal Pradesh, India: A Multinomial Logit Model Analysis

The market channel choice are the contributing issues which has impact on production and sales of cauliflower crop. Despite their importance, yet adequate research has not been carried out on it, particularly in hill regions of India. Considering this, the present study focuses on the factors affecting cauliflower farmers’ choice of output marketing channels and what level their market choice influences the market participation in Himachal Pradesh. The field survey was employed on a sample of 200 farmers through field interviews based on a structured questionnaire. The multinomial logistic regression model was employed to determine the factors influencing farmers’ choice for output marketing channels. The finding of this paper reveals that there are five output marketing channels used by cauliflower growers in the study area, producer-retailer-consumer (1%) followed by producer-retailer-consumer (2.50%) producer-commission agent-retailer-consumer (39%), local trader-wholesaler-retailer-consumer (24%) and producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer (33.50%) respectively. Further, the empirical results shows that education, farm income, experience, market distance market information found to be significant at 1%, 5% and 10% significant level which affects farmers choice to choose marketing channel. However, slows sale slow sales of cauliflower crop in marketing Channel-A affects farmers choice to participate in other marketing channels such as Channel-B, D and E. Moreover, the study concluded with the suggestion for development of suitable institutional support programmes, such as public–private partnerships, to better connect farmers to markets.

Correction to: Informal input sector and its impact on output market competitiveness

Correction to: Informal input sector and its impact on output market competitiveness

Informal input sector and its impact on output market competitiveness

Informal input sector and its impact on output market competitiveness

Price Transmission Between Input and Output Markets: The Covid-19 Effect on Laying Hens’ Industry in Indonesia

Corn and poultry are two strategic commodities supporting food security and highly dependent on one another. This study analyses the short-term and long-term relationship between the price variables for eggs, broiler, and corn. It determines the effect of COVID-19 at the producer and consumer levels on the price of eggs in 28 provinces in Indonesia using the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PARDL) – Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach. The PARDL estimation showed a short-term relationship between egg, broiler, and corn price variables at the producer and consumer levels, and this is shown by a significant positive and negative relationship in several provinces. There is a substitution relationship between laying hens and broiler in North Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, Banten, West Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, and West Papua, while the complementary relationship only occurs in Bali. In addition, the Indonesian laying hen industry should be supported by integrated policies from upstream to downstream. This is a policy of the lowest and the highest retail price and those that regulates the creation of corn supply balance inputs as the main feed for laying hens. Keywords: corn, COV-19, laying hens, PARDL, price transmission

Voluntary carbon neutral programs. Adoption and firms’ strategies

Voluntary Carbon Neutral (CN) programs promote the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions of participants. The main objective of this article is to review the literature about firms' behavior in connection to CN programs, paying particular attention to the adoption decision and the firms' strategies to meet the CN requirements. As an additional aim, we analyze the economic rationale behind the firms' decisions by connecting our literature review to a simple model based on the standard microeconomic theory of the firm. We model the firm's decision as a three-stage problem which includes, first, the adoption (or not) of a voluntary CN program, second, the selection of strategies to become CN (if the program is adopted) and third, the usual price and quantity decisions in the output market. The model helps understand some results found in the literature, such as why some activity sectors are more prone than others to adopt the CN certification. It also provides an explanation for the fact that these voluntary programs tend to be adopted by firms that are large, innovative, and more concerned about intergenerational equity and environmental preservation.

Development of Improved Groundnut Varieties for Dietary Upliftment among Households in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Low dietary diversity is one of the major causes of malnutrition in Kenya. As a result, the government of Kenya and its partners have promoted the uptake of plant based legumes such as Improved Groundnut Varieties to offer solution to the rising cases of poor nutrition. Understanding the impact of Improved Groundnut Varieties on dietary diversity is critical but evidence shows that it’s not yet explored. This study sought to estimate the impact of Improved Groundnut Varieties (IGVs) on dietary diversity among smallholder farmers in Homa Bay County, Kenya. The study used multi-stage sampling procedure where the sub-counties and wards were purposively selected. The villages and respondents were selected using simple random sampling. Cross-sectional data was collected through interview schedules on a random sampling of 384 households. Both descriptive statistics and econometric methods, Propensity Score Matching method were used. The results pointed out that Improved Groundnut Varieties had a positive and significant impact on the diets of the farmers. Households cultivating IGVs had better dietary diversity non-adopters. Overally, this study recommends sensitization of farmers to adopt IGVs and the need for the government to facilitate extension service provision, trainings and access to credit to increase yields and incomes. Again, the study recommends formation of farmers groups that are business hubs as opposed to social welfare to enhance bargaining power and access to inputs and outputs market. Additionally, there is need for intersectoral collaboration between agriculture and health sector to sensitize farmers on the importance of diversifying diets and consuming the crops grown in the farms.

Understanding Farmer Producer Company (FPC) Ecosystem in Assam: Issues and Challenges

The agriculture sector, which continues to be pivotal to sustainable growth and development, has been recently mobilising farmers into member-owned producer organisations, or Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) to enhance production, productivity and profitability of agriculturists, especially the small and marginal farmers in the country. The FPCs, which have been brought in for improved transparency and access to the input and output market with higher negotiating powers leading to sustainability of the small and marginal farmers, are said to provide higher legitimacy and credibility in the immediate business environment. Though Assam too is not behind in forming FPCs, challenges and issues abound. Majority of these FPCs are in the nascent stage of their operations with shareholder membership ranging from more than 500 farmers to over 1500 farmers. It is also seen that from capacity building to taking up business operations, many issues need to be addressed in these FPCs. These FPCs are in need of support in technical handholding and provision of adequate capital and infrastructure facilities including market linkages for sustaining their business operations. The present paper tries exploring and understanding the ecosystem of the FPCs in Assam, which are focussing on small and marginal farmers, and delving into the issues and challenges faced by the FPCs in the state and the possible ways out. JEL Classification: Q13

Political manipulation of urban land markets: Evidence from China

Over the last forty years, China has experienced extraordinary growth under output market reforms, but the growth rates are now tapering off. Reforms in factor markets and city governance have been much slower and are viewed as having the potential to yield considerable efficiency gains. In this paper, we explore this possibility, tackling the key issues of local political manipulation of land markets and objectives of local leaders, constraints on the local budgetary process to finance infrastructure and capital market favoritism of certain cities. We use a structural general equilibrium model with trade and migration frictions, based on prefecture level data. We model the political process of land misallocation within cities which drives up housing prices and estimate city-by-city local leaders’ preferences over economic performance versus residents’ welfare. Counterfactual analysis shows that equalizing capital prices across cities, changing the political scorecard for city leaders to reward just maximization of local consumer welfare, and relaxing local budget constraints together increase welfare of consumers and returns to capital by 13.7% and 2.25% respectively. Housing prices would decline in almost all cities; and the reforms would reduce the current excessive, often showcase investment in local public infrastructure by 49% nationally. These reforms would significantly reduce the population of favored cities with low capital costs like Tianjin and Beijing and raise the population of cities with high costs of capital and low local-leader weights on consumer welfare like Shenzhen and Dongguan.

English

Agricultural commercialization raises farm incomes and improves living standards in African farming populations. Despite its importance, it remains low in Africa. Limited studies in agricultural commercialization have explored different tools for analysis given the agricultural commercialization indicators with zeros and fractions. This paper addresses methodological issue and adds literature on factors affecting agricultural commercialization. Agricultural commercialization is explored in Zhombe North Rural District using 2017/2018 cross-sectional data collected from 165 households. The zero-inflated beta regression model was used to find the drivers of agricultural commercialization. Crop output market participation share served as a proxy for agricultural commercialization. Land size, fertilizer use, use of credit, and certified seed proportion had significant positive effects on agricultural commercialization. In contrast, household head age, food cropping land size, and off-farm employment significantly influenced agricultural commercialization. The results for the model are similar to the results in previous studies using the Tobit model. The study recommends policies that promote the availability and usage of inputs to improve agricultural commercialization in the study area. Key words: Agriculture, commercialization, smallholder farmers, zero-inflated beta regression.

The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on market integration: Evidence from vegetable farmers in Pakistan

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the agriculture sector and farming communities to unprecedented risks. This study investigates the impact of the pandemic, identifying the suggestions of community elders for effective resilience via in-depth interviews (IDIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). We also examine determinants of vegetable farmers' inputs and outputs market participation using a binary logit model. The findings reveal poor business owners’ support, difficulties accessing inputs and outputs markets, non-availability/shortage of inputs recommended by extension services, and poor access to mechanizations. Labor shortages, lack of access to agricultural credit, and lack of information on innovations and markets are also barriers to market integration of farming communities in Pakistan. Results of the logit model show that farming experience and support from market owners drive the participation of both the inputs and outputs market. Similarly, ownership of personal vehicles and the availability of farm machinery drive the participation of farmers in outputs markets. Various strategies are suggested to mitigate the risks of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the establishment of inputs and outputs markets, strategies for transportation, access to information, and farm machinery at the local level.

From staple food to market-oriented crop: commercialization level of smallholder teff (Eragrostis teff) growers in Jamma District, Ethiopia

IntroductionIn countries like Ethiopia where the selling of staple food crops is the common way of earning cash income; the concept of agricultural commercialization is never restricted to cash crops. Among the staple food crops, teff is becoming a market-oriented crop in Ethiopia. This paper investigated the challenges, opportunities, and intensity of teff commercialization in the study area.MethodsData were collected from 155 randomly selected teff growers, four focus group discussion participants encompassing both women and men farmers, and twelve key informant interviewees from the local leader, development agents, and head of the Woreda agriculture office. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Value of teff sale, Crop Output Market Participation Index (COMPI), double hurdle model, and qualitative data analysis.ResultsThe average teff commercialization in terms of the value of teff sale by sample households was 6005 ETB (Ethiopian Birr). The double hurdle model result revealed that sex of the household head, application of agricultural inputs, and row sowing technology positively affected the commercialization decision of farmers in the teff output whilst the size of land allocated to teff, chemical fertilizer, row sowing technology, and frequency of contact with extension agents positively influenced the intensity of teff commercialization. Adjunct to this high input price, lack of input availability, and frost were identified as major hinders to teff production in the study area.ConclusionsThe finding of this study showed that there is a direct relationship between agricultural inputs utilization for teff and farmers’ decision to commercialize it and the level of its commercialization. Therefore, the timely provision of agricultural inputs and possible subsidization of these inputs will increase the productivity of teff since farmland expansion is unthinkable due to scarcity of land. Moreover, the District office of agriculture should collaboratively work with the nearby research centers to reduce the problem of frost by introducing a frost-resistant variety.

Determinants of the Use of Motorcycle Means of Transport Among Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Sotik Sub-County, Kenya

The poor state of roads and the financial inability of many smallholder dairy farmers to afford better means of transport have led more smallholder dairy farmers to rely mainly on motorcycles as a relatively accessible means of transport to access the market. This study, therefore, sought to establish the determinants of the use of motorcycle means of transport among smallholder dairy farmers in Sotik Sub-County, Kenya. The Rational Choice Theory guided this study. A sample size of 384 smallholder dairy farmers was selected to participate in the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire. The primary data were analysed using STATA. The Standard Poisson model results revealed that age, education, and marital status of the household head, herd size, road condition, milk volume, distance to milk output market, and household size were significant contributors to the use of motorcycle services. These findings suggest that the county government could facilitate the development of innovative organisational structures such as cooperatives and other forms of producer groups. The improvement of road infrastructure, milk collection and milk processing units of suitable capacity could help to increase market access and enhance output milk market participation. Keywords: Motorcycle services, motorcycle means of transport, smallholder dairy farmers, and Standard Poisson model DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-14-03 Publication date: July 31 st 2022

Constraints in Operationalizing FPOs in Punjab and Strategies to Mitigate Them

Background: Majority of the Farmer in Punjab is of small holders and these farmers face a lot of problems in the process of inputs as well as output marketing. In order to provide solutions to the marketing problems of the such small holder farmers the union government came up with the idea of strengthening or initiating the formation of self-help groups, farmer interest groups, farmer cooperatives and clubs etc. for further integrating these entities into the farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). Methods: For this study data were collected from 150 randomly selected respondents belonging to functional as well as non-functional FPOs. Garrett’s ranking technique was used to identify the most important constraints faced in the process of running FPOs. Result: This study attempted to identify the constraints in the process of operationalizing the FPOs in Punjab and it was found that managerial, socio-psychological, economic and marketing constraints were the major ones. Moreover, lack of trust, cooperation, financial crunch, lack of business management skills, unequal work delegation, ineffective group leadership, delayed payments were the major constraints. Mitigation strategies adopted by the executives of the FPOs were transparency of records, strong association with resource institutes, participatory decision making, efficient conflict management etc. The suggestions of the respondents for making FPOs more vibrant and sustainable were accountability of the resource institutes, capacity buildings of the stakeholders, dissemination of awareness about the functioning of FPOs among the members etc.

Technical Efficiency of Tef Producers: Evidence from West Shewa, Ethiopia

Tef ( Eragrostis tef ) is a major staple food crop and is important for generating farm income in Ethiopia and cultivated by more than 6.9 million farmers. The objectives of the study were to measure the level of technical efficiency and identify factors that cause efficiency differences among tef cultivating farmers in West Shewa, Ethiopia. The study was conducted based on the data obtained from 206 randomly selected households. For the analysis, both descriptive statistics and econometric models were used. A Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production model with the inefficiency effect was used to simultaneously estimate technical efficiency and identify the determinants of efficiency variations among tef producer farmers. The maximum likelihood estimates of stochastic frontier production showed that tef output was positively and significantly influenced by areas cultivated, and negatively affected by the increased seed rate and labour used. The estimated mean technical efficiency of sampled households in the study area was 84.3%, this shows that it is possible to raise tef output by about 15.7% without using additional inputs and by employing inputs on hand efficiently and there is a room to increase the output from the existing input combinations if farmers operate in an efficient manner. Livestock owned, use improved tef seed and proximity to the district market were found to negatively and significantly affect the technical inefficiency of tef producing farmers. Thus, stakeholders engaged in agriculture should emphasize on resources of farmers and the proximity to input and output market to improve the efficiency level of those less efficient farmers. Keywords: Stochastic frontier analysis; Technical efficiency; Tef ; West Shewa DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-9-03 Publication date: May 31 st 2022

Poultry Value Chain in Two Medium-Sized Cities in Kenya; Insights From Cluster Theory

Poultry is an attractive enterprise among urban smallholder farming households and is the most common livestock reared for home consumption and sale. By combining cluster and value chain approaches, the study analyses the operation of poultry value chain in medium-sized cities of Thika and Kisumu, Kenya. The study draws on a survey of 312 urban poultry producing households as well as qualitative interviews with key stakeholders in the urban poultry value chain. Spot market is the predominant governance structure in the poultry value chain in Thika and Kisumu. Farmers and traders employ various upgrading mechanisms to maintain their competitiveness. However, some producers and traders engage in illegal activities such as theft of poultry, illegal slaughtering, and sale of adulterated low-quality poultry feed. Results also show that poultry producers in Thika enjoy the benefits of being located in a cluster of feed millers and close proximity to output market.

Factors Affecting Women Labor Utilization in Staple Crops Value Chains Activities in Southeast Nigeria

This paper identified socioeconomic, institutional and technological factors affecting women labor utilization in an on-farm and less rewarding staple crop value chain activities such as clearing, cultivation, planting and weeding compared to more rewarding off-farm post-harvest activities that facilitate input and output market such as threshing, shelling, processing, storage and marketing using data collected from 400 randomly selected women farmers in southeast Nigeria during 2019/20 crop year. Multinomial-logit results show that complementary input such as the use of credit, hired labor, fertilizers, agrochemicals, more land, adult men/women and extension services had a negative relationship with women’s engagement in less rewarding farm operations. The constraint militating against women’s labor utilization in staple crop value chain activities were lack of storage facilities, lack of credit, lack of improved input, poor road network and land tenure problems. The paper recommends institutional framework through extension education, technology-supply industries, financial institutions, improved road network to enhance women’s labor engagement in more beneficial value chains activities such as post-harvest operations since women farmer selling to the market are more rewarding than engagement in clearing, cultivation, planting and weeding so that more women will participate in the market.

About the Governance Efficiency of Agricultural Farms. The Case of Bulgaria

The New Institutional Economics framework is incorporated and a practical approach for assessing the level and factors of governance efficiency of Bulgarian farms suggested. The evaluation is made on the basis of original micro-data collected by the managers of typical farms of different type and location. The "Nature of the problems in effective organization for major class farm transactions for securing needed factors of production and output marketing" is used as an indicator for the comparative efficiency and adaptability of individual farms. The study found that the governance efficiency of farms is at a Good level but 60% of all holdings are with a Low efficiency. Major factors for inferior governance efficiency of farms are unsatisfactory efficiency in supply of necessary labor, innovations and know-how, and funding. There is a huge variation in the level and factors of governance efficiency of farms with different juridical types and sizes as well as in the share of farms with different levels of efficiency in each group. A strong correlation is found between the level of governance efficiency of farms, and diverse critical internal and external market, technological, institutional, personal, etc. factors. There is a big discrepancy between the “new” assessment of Governance efficiency with dominating traditional approaches for farm efficiency assessments based on factors' productivity. There was an improvement in the overall governance efficiency of farms during 2016-2020 but the share of efficient farms significantly declined during the period. 

Refugee inflows, surplus farm labor, and crop marketization in rural Africa

This paper sheds light on the structure of factor and output market frictions to investigate long-term effects of refugee inflows on host farmers. Combining a canonical agricultural household model, the natural experimental setting of mass refugee inflows into Tanzania in the early 1990s, and longitudinal panel data from the host economy, I show that refugee inflows cause market-specific gains and losses. Refugee inflows tighten the off-farm labor market participation constraint, implying an increase in surplus farm labor and labor market inefficiency. On the other hand, I observe a positive impact on the transition from subsistence to crop marketization. This transition is revealed to be primarily due to a reduction in fixed transaction costs around refugee camps, not due to an increase in consumption demand by refugees. While the overall impact on agricultural labor productivity is negative, the “surplus farm labor effect” and the “crop marketization effect” act in opposite directions.

Experience of and use of compassion (Codonopsis javanica (Blume) Hook.F & Thoms) of ethnic Minority Communities in Van Ho District, Son La Province

This study was conducted with the aim of summarizing and evaluating the experiences of ethnic minority communities in the process of exploiting and using Codonopsis javanica (Blume) Hook.F & Thoms in Van Ho district, Son La province. The research method community interview is applied, the interviewees are those who directly use, exploit, trade and the village heads, healers, mothers, interviewed 80 households in total. The data processing method calculates the percentage based on the answer sheet and notebook. The results show that, 100% of the surveyed households know, can recognize and use C. javanica. This is a fairly popular product locally, but now the quantity is not much. The community clearly describes the growing place, morphology, season, knows how to use the product for health care and trade; 100% harvesting activities are carried out from the wild, breeding activities have not been carried out, only 6.25% of households have tried sowing seeds and only 2.5% of households have tried to plant some C. javanica around the house; 87.5% of mining households are to sell for income; 86.25% of interviewed households want to learn more experience in propagation and planting but only 75% of them are willing to plant if the output market is stable. Experience in commercializing the product is not available, the community only brings the harvested products to the local market or shops to resell. The results from this study show that the local community has a good source of knowledge about C. javanica, but it has not been exploited and applied to conservation and sustainable development of the species. Therefore, this is an issue that needs attention and support, combining both local and technical knowledge, both in terms of the output market so that C. javanica becomes a strength in supporting household economic stability.

Effect of Market Access on the Adoption of Sustainable Soil Management Practices in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study examined the effect of market access on the adoption of sustainable soil management practices by farmers in the study area. Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers; identified the sustainable soil management practices adopted by the farmers; determined factors influencing the choice of sustainable soil management practices used; determined the relationship between market access and the adoption intensity of sustainable soil management practices and identified constraints faced in adopting sustainable soil management practices. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to collect data from one hundred and fifty (150) farmers. Thereafter, data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate probit regression. The findings revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 45 years, with a mean household size of about 6 members. Majority (69.6%) of the respondents had formal education and a mean year of experience of about 18. The study also revealed that all the respondents had access to one form of market or the other for purchase of inputs and sales of their products. In addition, the mean distance covered from farm to home was less than 5 kilometres for most of the respondents while the distance from home to major market and farm to major market was between 5 and 10 kilometres. The most popular sustainable soil management practices adopted by the farmers were the use of chemical fertilizers, crop rotation and intercropping. Furthermore, the multivariate probit regression model showed that age of the respondents, educational level, farm size, household size, farming experience, farm income, awareness of sustainable soil management practices, average distance to the input market, average distance to the output market, average price of product, average price of input for each practice, subsidies on input for each practice, significantly influenced the adoption of sustainable soil management practice by farmers. Also, it was found by the study that inadequate fund is the major constraint faced by the respondents in adopting sustainable soil management practices.