IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/afma12/159429.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Impact of ICT-based Market Information Service Projects on Smallholder Farm Input Use and Productivity in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Ochieng’, Sylvester O.
  • Okello, Julius J.
  • Otieno, David J.

Abstract

Information asymmetry has traditionally constrained smallholder farmers’ access to markets. Past studies indicate that it contributes to low adoption of modern agricultural technologies that have the capacity to enhance the productivity of smallholder farms. Low use of inputs results in low farm productivity, which curtails the transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture, hence perpetuating the detention of smallholder farmers in the low equilibrium poverty trap. The desire to improve farmers’ access to markets has seen the emergence of a number of projects that employ Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in the provision of market information. However, little is known about the effects of such projects on smallholder agriculture, particularly in developing countries. The present study evaluates the impact of participation in an ICT-based market information service (MIS) project on farm input use (e.g. fertilizer, purchased seed, purchased manure, pesticides, labour etc.), labour and land productivity in Kenya. It employs propensity score-matching technique on cross-sectional data of 375 farmers from Bungoma, Kirinyaga and Migori counties in Kenya. The study finds that participation in an ICT-based MIS project has a positive and significant impact on the quantity of seeds and fertilizers used and improves land and labour productivity. Specifically, participants in an ICT-based project spent between Kshs 282.45 and 359.21 and Kshs 952.67 and 1035.10 more than non-participants on purchased seed and fertilizer per acre, respectively. Additionally, participants in the ICTbased MIS project have relatively higher land productivity (between Kshs 7,007.14 and 8,605.84) per acre than non-participants. Participation in an ICT-based MIS project also increases labour productivity by between Kshs 367.46 and Kshs 406.95 per acre. However, participation in an ICT-based MIS project has a negative and significant impact on the use hired, family and total labour. Participants in the ICT-based project use less labour by between 6.10 and 6.46, 7.95 and 13.49, and 15.68 and 21.96 man-days per acre for hired, family and total labour, respectively. The study discusses the implications of these findings for policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ochieng’, Sylvester O. & Okello, Julius J. & Otieno, David J., 2012. "Impact of ICT-based Market Information Service Projects on Smallholder Farm Input Use and Productivity in Kenya," 2012 Eighth AFMA Congress, November 25-29, 2012, Nairobi, Kenya 159429, African Farm Management Association (AFMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:afma12:159429
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.159429
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/159429/files/Impact%20of%20ICT-based%20Market%20Information.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.159429?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. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    2. Ruttan, Vernon W., 1987. "Induced innovation and agricultural development," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 196-216, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Becerril, Javier & Abdulai, Awudu, 2010. "The Impact of Improved Maize Varieties on Poverty in Mexico: A Propensity Score-Matching Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1024-1035, July.
    5. Hujer, Reinhard & Caliendo, Marco & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2004. "New evidence on the effects of job creation schemes in Germany--a matching approach with threefold heterogeneity," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 257-302, December.
    6. Ruttan, Vernon W. & Hayami, Yujiro, 1971. "Technology Transfer And Agricultural Development," Staff Papers 13993, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    7. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    8. Jenny Aker, 2008. "Does Digital Divide or Provide? The Impact of Cell Phones on Grain Markets in Niger," Working Papers 154, Center for Global Development.
    9. Okello, Julius Juma, 2010. "Does use of ICT-based market information services (MIS) improve welfare of smallholder farm households: Evidence from Kenya," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61251, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Jakob Svensson & David Yanagizawa, 2009. "Getting Prices Right: The Impact of the Market Information Service in Uganda," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 435-445, 04-05.
    11. Kuyiah, Joanne Wasswa & Obare, Gideon A. & Herrero, Mario & Waithaka, Michael M., 2006. "Agriculture, Income Risks and Rural Poverty Dynamics: Strategies of Smallholder Producers in Kenya," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25596, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Kizito, Andrew M., 2009. "Estimating the Benefits from Improved Market Information," Graduate Research Master's Degree Plan B Papers 48844, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    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. Zhang, Lin & Findeis, Jill L., 2010. "Intra-Household Time Allocation and Labor Migration Decisions in Rural South China," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61520, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Ogutu, Sylvester O. & Okello, Julius J. & Otieno, David J., 2013. "Impact of Information and Communication Technology-based Market Information Services on Smallholder Farm Input Use and Productivity: The Case of Kenya," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 157770, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    3. Mehta, Shefali V. & Homans, Frances R. & Haight, Robert G. & Polasky, Stephen, 2005. "Optimal Bioeconomic Management Strategies for Prevention and Control of Invasive Alien Species," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19505, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Chen, Susan E. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M. & Snyder, Samantha D., 2007. "Does Where We Live Matter? Understanding the Link Between Obesity and the Market for Food," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon 9682, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. Elton Mykerezi & Bradford F. Mills, 2008. "The Wage Earnings Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 173-187, July.
    6. Ibendahl, Gregory A. & Norvell, Jonathan, 2005. "When to Replace Machinery Under Accelerated Deprecation Laws," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 9351, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Keeney, Roman & Hertel, Thomas W., 2006. "Supply Response in Agriculture: Farm-Level and Sector-Wide Adjustment Reconciled," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21179, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Shane, Mathew & Roe, Terry L. & Langrock, Ines, 2004. "Exchange Rates, Foreign Income, and U.S. Agricultural Trade," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20042, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Ochieng, Sylvester O. & Okello, Julius J. & Otieno, David J., 2013. "Impact of Information and Communication Technology-based Market Information Services on Smallholder Farm Input Use and Productivity: The Case of Kenya," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 161454, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    10. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Okello, Julius Juma & Otieno, David Jakinda, 2014. "Impact of Information and Communication Technology-Based Market Information Services on Smallholder Farm Input Use and Productivity: The Case of Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 311-321.
    11. repec:ags:mididp:152396 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Staatz, John M. & Kizito, Andrew M. & Weber, Michael T. & Dembele, Niama Nango, 2011. "Evaluating the Impact on Market Performance of Investments in Market Information Systems: Methodological Challenges," Staff Paper Series 108184, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    13. Kizito, Andrew M. & Donovan, Cynthia & Staatz, John M., 2012. "Impact of Agricultural Market Information Systems Activities on Market Performance in Mozambique: Mozambique Country Report," Food Security International Development Working Papers 169572, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    14. Hailemariam Ayalew & Dagim G. Belay, 2020. "The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange and Spatial Price Dispersion: Disentangling Warehouse and Price Information effects," IFRO Working Paper 2020/01, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    15. Melia, Elvis, 2019. "The impact of information and communication technologies on jobs in Africa: a literature review," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2019, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    16. Rob Kuijpers, 2019. "Value Chain Development as Public Policy: Conceptualization and Evidence from the Agri-Food Sector in Bangladesh," LICOS Discussion Papers 41419, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    17. Raoul Herrmann & Ephraim Nkonya & Anja Faße, 2018. "Food value chain linkages and household food security in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 827-839, August.
    18. Ariane Zingiro & Julius Okello & Paul Guthiga, 2014. "Assessment of adoption and impact of rainwater harvesting technologies on rural farm household income: the case of rainwater harvesting ponds in Rwanda," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1281-1298, December.
    19. Ali, Akhter & Hussain, Imtiaz & Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Erenstein, Olaf, 2018. "Laser-land leveling adoption and its impact on water use, crop yields and household income: Empirical evidence from the rice-wheat system of Pakistan Punjab," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 19-32.
    20. N'dri, Lasme Mathieu & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2020. "Financial inclusion, mobile money, and individual welfare: The case of Burkina Faso," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    21. Ogada, Maurice Juma, 2012. "Forest Management Decentralization in Kenya: Effects on Household Farm Forestry Decisions in Kakamega," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126319, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Farm Management; Productivity Analysis;

    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:ags:afma12:159429. 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: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afmakea.html .

    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.