IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v33y2008i4p318-328.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smallholder market participation under transactions costs: Maize supply and fertilizer demand in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Alene, Arega D.
  • Manyong, V.M.
  • Omanya, G.
  • Mignouna, H.D.
  • Bokanga, M.
  • Odhiambo, G.

Abstract

This paper assessed the effects of transactions costs--relative to price and non-price factors--on smallholder marketed surplus and input use in Kenya. A selectivity model was used that accounts for the effects of transactions costs, assets, technology, and support services in promoting input use and generating a marketable surplus. Output supply and input demand responses to changes in transactions costs and price and non-price factors were estimated and decomposed into market entry and intensity. The results showed that while transactions costs indeed have significant negative effects on market participation, institutional innovations--such as group marketing--are also emerging to mitigate the costs of accessing markets. Output price has no effect on output market entry and only provides incentives for increased supply by sellers. On the other hand, both price and non-price factors have significant influence on adoption and intensity of input use. Overall, the findings suggest that policy options are available other than price policies to promote input use and marketed surplus. The paper concludes with implications for policy to induce greater input-output market participation among smallholders in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Alene, Arega D. & Manyong, V.M. & Omanya, G. & Mignouna, H.D. & Bokanga, M. & Odhiambo, G., 2008. "Smallholder market participation under transactions costs: Maize supply and fertilizer demand in Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 318-328, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:33:y:2008:i:4:p:318-328
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-9192(07)00068-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nigel Key & Elisabeth Sadoulet & Alain De Janvry, 2000. "Transactions Costs and Agricultural Household Supply Response," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 82(2), pages 245-259.
    2. Coady, David P, 1995. "An Empirical Analysis of Fertilizer Use in Pakistan," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 62(246), pages 213-234, May.
    3. Staal, Steven & Delgado, Christopher & Nicholson, Charles, 1997. "Smallholder dairying under transactions costs in East Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 779-794, May.
    4. Ephraim Nkonya & Ted Schroeder & David Norman, 1997. "Factors Affecting Adoption Of Improved Maize Seed And Fertiliser In Northern Tanzania," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-3), pages 1-12.
    5. 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.
    6. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, Marcel & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behaviour with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explained," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(409), pages 1400-1417, November.
    7. Holloway, Garth & Nicholson, Charles & Delgado, Chris & Staal, Steve & Ehui, Simeon, 2000. "Agroindustrialization through institutional innovation: Transaction costs, cooperatives and milk-market development in the east-African highlands," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 279-288, September.
    8. Jayne, T. S. & Jones, Stephen, 1997. "Food marketing and pricing policy in Eastern and Southern Africa: A survey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(9), pages 1505-1527, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:jfpoli:v:33:y:2008:i:4:p:318-328. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.