IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cmpart/198525.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Analysis of Effectiveness of Modern Information and Communication Technologies on Maize Marketing Efficiency in Lilongwe and Dedza Districts and Selected Markets of Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Tione, Sarah Ephridah

Abstract

Government of Malawi has been promoting initiatives like Malawi Agriculture Commodity Exchange (MACE) that aim at reducing information asymmetry among market players especially smallholder farmers. Using co-integration error correction models, the study assessed effectiveness of modern ICT based market interventions on improving maize marketing efficiency in Malawi. Considering that efficient markets are integrated markets when price difference is only a factor of transaction costs, TAR models assessed price transmission speed in pre – ICT and post – ICT periods. Using logit model, the study further identified socioeconomic factors influencing use of modern ICTs among smallholder farmers. Of the sampled households, only 18 percent used modern ICTs because of high initial capital cost, illiteracy and lack of awareness on the modern ICTs. Based on the logit model results, the significant socioeconomic factors that highly influenced use of modern ICTs were physical asset wealth and gender of the household head. The spatial integration results show that markets in Malawi were integrating. The results of TAR models in pre – ICT and post – ICT periods show that ICT based market interventions have positively influenced market integration and price transmission. Thus, modern ICTs have contributed to the reduction of search transaction costs leading to improved marketing efficiency. Based on the results, the study recommends the need to increase awareness on ICT based market interventions to all gender groups and to improve market infrastructure in the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Tione, Sarah Ephridah, 2011. "Analysis of Effectiveness of Modern Information and Communication Technologies on Maize Marketing Efficiency in Lilongwe and Dedza Districts and Selected Markets of Malawi," Research Theses 198525, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cmpart:198525
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.198525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/198525/files/Sarah%20Thesis%20as%20of%2010th%20July%20%202011.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.198525?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Balke, Nathan S & Fomby, Thomas B, 1997. "Threshold Cointegration," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(3), pages 627-645, August.
    2. Renkow, Mitch & Hallstrom, Daniel G. & Karanja, Daniel D., 2004. "Rural infrastructure, transactions costs and market participation in Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 349-367, February.
    3. Barry K. Goodwin & Nicholas E. Piggott, 2001. "Spatial Market Integration in the Presence of Threshold Effects," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(2), pages 302-317.
    4. Barrett, Christopher B. & Swallow, Brent M., 2006. "Fractal poverty traps," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1989. "Financial Markets and Development," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 5(4), pages 55-68, Winter.
    6. Barrett, Christopher B., 2008. "Smallholder market participation: Concepts and evidence from eastern and southern Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 299-317, August.
    7. Francesco Goletti & Suresh Babu, 1994. "Market liberalization and integration of maize markets in Malawi," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(2-3), pages 311-324, December.
    8. Madhusudan Ghosh, 2003. "Spatial Integration of Wheat Markets in India: Evidence from Cointegration Tests," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 159-171.
    9. Goletti, Francesco & Babu, Suresh, 1994. "Market liberalization and integration of maize markets in Malawi," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 11(2-3), pages 311-324, December.
    10. Christopher B. Barrett & Jau Rong Li, 2002. "Distinguishing between Equilibrium and Integration in Spatial Price Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(2), pages 292-307.
    11. Herath, P. H. M. U. & Takeya, Hiroyuki, 2003. "Factors determining intercropping by rubber smallholders in Sri Lanka: a logit analysis," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 159-168, October.
    12. Uchezuba, David Ifeanyi, 2005. "Measuring market integration for apples on the South African fresh produce market: a threshold error correction model," Master's Degree Theses 28065, University of the Free State, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    13. Tjalling Dijkstra & Matthew Meulenberg & Aad van Tilburg, 2001. "Applying marketing channel theory to food marketing in developing countries: Vertical disintegration model for horticultural marketing channels in kenya," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(2), pages 227-241.
    14. Robert Jensen, 2007. "The Digital Provide: Information (Technology), Market Performance, and Welfare in the South Indian Fisheries Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 879-924.
    15. Deon Filmer & Lant Pritchett, 2001. "Estimating Wealth Effects Without Expenditure Data—Or Tears: An Application To Educational Enrollments In States Of India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(1), pages 115-132, February.
    16. Mesbah Motamed & Kenneth A. Foster & Wallace E. Tyner, 2008. "Applying cointegration and error correction to measure trade linkages: maize prices in the United States and Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(1), pages 29-39, July.
    17. Kindie Getnet & Wim Verbeke & Jacques Viaene, 2005. "Modeling spatial price transmission in the grain markets of Ethiopia with an application of ARDL approach to white teff," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 33(s3), pages 491-502, November.
    18. Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2007. "Modelling trends in food market integration: Method and an application to Tanzanian maize markets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 112-127, February.
    19. Reuben Abraham, 2007. "Mobile Phones and Economic Development: Evidence From the Fishing Industry in India," Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press, vol. 4(1), pages 5-17, October.
    20. Bob Baulch, 1997. "Transfer Costs, Spatial Arbitrage, and Testing for Food Market Integration," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(2), pages 477-487.
    21. Steven Were Omamo, 1998. "Farm-to-market transaction costs and specialisation in small-scale agriculture: Explorations with a non-separable household model," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 152-163.
    22. Christopher B. Barrett, 1996. "Market Analysis Methods: Are Our Enriched Toolkits Well Suited to Enlivened Markets?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(3), pages 825-829.
    23. Bob Baulch, 1997. "Testing for food market integration revisited," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 512-534.
    24. Alex Winter‐Nelson & Anna Temu, 2005. "Impacts of prices and transactions costs on input usage in a liberalizing economy: evidence from Tanzanian coffee growers," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 33(3), pages 243-253, November.
    25. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1989. "Markets and Development," NBER Working Papers 2961, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Asfaw, Abay & Admassie, Assefa, 2004. "The role of education on the adoption of chemical fertiliser under different socioeconomic environments in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 215-228, May.
    27. Abdulai, Awudu, 2000. "Spatial price transmission and asymmetry in the Ghanaian maize market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 327-349, December.
    28. Peter S. Sephton, 2003. "Spatial Market Arbitrage and Threshold Cointegration," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 1041-1046.
    29. Gary Schnitkey & Marvin Batte & Eugene Jones & Jean Botomogno, 1992. "Information Preferences of Ohio Commercial Farmers: Implications for Extension," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 74(2), pages 486-496.
    30. Anderson, John D. & Ward, Clement E. & Koontz, Stephen R. & Peel, Derrell S. & Trapp, James N., 1998. "Experimental Simulation Of Public Information Impacts On Price Discovery And Marketing Efficiency In The Fed Cattle Market," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 23(1), pages 1-17, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tione, S. E. & Katengeza, Samson P. & Mangisoni, Julius H., 2013. "Analysis of Effectiveness of Modern Information and Communication Technologies on Maize Marketing Efficiency in Selected Markets of Malawi," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 161447, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    2. Mayaka, Venny K., 2013. "An Assessment Of Dry Beans Market Integration In Selected Markets In Kenya," Research Theses 157599, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    3. Burke, William J. & Myers, Robert J., 2014. "Spatial equilibrium and price transmission between Southern African maize markets connected by informal trade," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 59-70.
    4. Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel, 2017. "The analysis of market integration and price transmission – results and implications in an African context," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 83-96, April.
    5. Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2007. "Modelling trends in food market integration: Method and an application to Tanzanian maize markets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 112-127, February.
    6. Rahman, Mohammad Chhiddikur, 2020. "Welfare Impact of Asymmetric Price Transmission on Bangladesh Rice Consumers," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 242248, July.
    7. Rahman, Mohammad Chhiddikur, 2018. "Welfare Impact of Asymmetric Price Transmission on Bangladesh Rice Consumers," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 251114, July.
    8. Ebata, Ayako & Pacheco, Pamela Alejandra & Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan von, 2015. "Distance to market and farm-gate prices of staple beans in rural Nicaragua," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211582, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Stephens, Emma C. & Mabaya, Edward T., 2008. "Spatial Price Adjustment with and without Trade," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6538, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Listorti, Giulia & Esposti, Roberto, 2012. "Horizontal Price Transmission in Agricultural Markets: Fundamental Concepts and Open Empirical Issues," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, April.
    11. Myers, Robert J., 2013. "Evaluating the effectiveness of inter-regional trade and storage in Malawi’s private sector maize markets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 75-84.
    12. Sekhar, C.S.C., 2012. "Agricultural market integration in India: An analysis of select commodities," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 309-322.
    13. Ihle, Rico & von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan, 2008. "A Comparison of Threshold Cointegration and Markov-Switching Vector Error Correction Models in Price Transmission Analysis," 2008 Conference, April 21-22, 2008, St. Louis, Missouri 37603, NCCC-134 Conference on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management.
    14. Ebata, Ayako & Velasco, Pamela & von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan, 2015. "Distance to market and farm-gate prices of staple beans in rural Nicaragua," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 197540, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    15. Ankamah-Yeboah, Isaac, 2012. "Spatial Price Transmission in the Regional Maize Markets in Ghana," MPRA Paper 49720, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Sahito, Jam Ghulam Murtaza, 2015. "Market integration of wheat in Pakistan," Discussion Papers 72, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Center for international Development and Environmental Research (ZEU).
    17. Cudjoe, Godsway & Breisinger, Clemens & Diao, Xinshen, 2010. "Local impacts of a global crisis: Food price transmission, consumer welfare and poverty in Ghana," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 294-302, August.
    18. Amikuzuno, Joseph & Ogundari, Kolawole, 2012. "The Contribution of Agricultural Economics to Price transmission Analysis and Market Policy in Sub-Sahara Africa: What Does the Literature Say?," 86th Annual Conference, April 16-18, 2012, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 134754, Agricultural Economics Society.
    19. Sanogo, Issa & Maliki Amadou, Mahamane, 2010. "Rice market integration and food security in Nepal: The role of cross-border trade with India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 312-322, August.
    20. Ijambo, Bertha Deshimona, 2017. "An econometric analysis of spatial market integration and price formation in the Namibian sheep industry," Research Theses 334744, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:cmpart:198525. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agriculturaleconomics.net .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.