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ABSTRACT: Market participation is both a cause and a consequence of economic development. Markets offer households the opportunity to specialize according to comparative advantage and thereby enjoy welfare gains from trade. Recognition of the potential of markets as engines of economic development and structural transformation gave rise to a market-led paradigm of agricultural development during the 1980s (Reardon and Timmer, 2006) that was accompanied by widespread promotion of market liberalization policy agendas in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other low-income regions. Furthermore, as households’ disposable income increases, so does demand for variety in goods and services, thereby inducing increased demand-side market participation, which further increases the demand for cash and thus supply-side market participation. The standard process of agrarian and rural transformation thus involves households’ transition from a subsistence mode, where most inputs are provided and most outputs consumed internally, to a market engagement mode, with inputs and products increasingly purchased and sold off the farm (Timmer, 1988; Staatz, 1994).
Labor: Supply & Demand eJournal. 05/2011;
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ABSTRACT: Institute of Agricultural Research of Mozambique Directorate of Training, Documentation, and Technology Transfer
Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers. 01/2009;
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ABSTRACT: This brief summarizes detailed analysis of the determinants of household crop income in rural Mozambique from 2002 to 2005. Increased crop income is associated with increases in household land area, use of animal traction, crop diversification into tobacco or cotton, access to market price information, and access to extension agents (for tobacco/cotton growers). Decreases in crop income are associated with drought. Results demonstrate that there are both public and private investments that can enhance farmers’ ability to increase crop income and avoid losses. Priority investments include: development and dissemination of drought-resistant varieties for maize and cassava, conservation farming, animal traction, market information, access to high-value crops and small-scale irrigation.
Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs. 01/2009;
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ABSTRACT: This brief summarizes detailed analysis of the determinants of household crop income in rural Mozambique from 2002 to 2005. Increased crop income is associated with increases in household land area, use of animal traction, crop diversification into tobacco or cotton, access to market price information, and access to extension agents (for tobacco/cotton growers). Decreases in crop income are associated with drought. Results demonstrate that there are both public and private investments that can enhance farmers’ ability to increase crop income and avoid losses. Priority investments include: development and dissemination of drought-resistant varieties for maize and cassava, conservation farming, animal traction, market information, access to high-value crops and small-scale irrigation.
Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs. 01/2009;
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Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers. 01/2008;
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ABSTRACT: As indicated by the title, this paper is an update of Research Paper 60E. While some of the wording and material are very similar to that paper, this new paper updates nearly all figures, and also deals in more detail with selected topics. Of special focus in this paper is demonstrating, explaining the reasons for, and assessing the importance of the very high prices of food staples in Mozambique. Mozambique’s food production and marketing system faces a huge set of challenges now and over the next decade, driven by structural constraints, population and income growth, and a rapidly rising urban share of population. We examine this challenge through the lens of the country’s primary staple, maize, focusing primarily on the central and southern regions of the country.
02/2007;
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ABSTRACT: Poverty is widespread in Mozambique, particularly in rural areas where the highest proportion of the population lives and work. Livelihood strategies among rural HHs in the Zambezi Valley are predominantly based on agricultural activities, but income diversification is increasingly important. Cash income from agriculture comes predominantly from tobacco and cotton production. Due to cash constraints and poor access to input and credit by farmers, and high demand from buyers to meet quality and volume requirements, contract faming is the dominant form in the organization of transactions in those cash cropping sectors. The selective nature of CF implies that not all HHs may have the chance to directly participate in these schemes; some HHs are excluded. A key question, then, is how large and widespread the indirect income effects of these schemes are, compared to the direct effects. The answer to these questions has a lot to say about the poverty reduction effects of such crops, and may generate insights about policies and programs to enhance these effects.
02/2007;
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ABSTRACT: Livelihood strategies among rural HHs in the Zambezi Valley are predominantly based on agricultural activities, but income diversification is increasingly important. Cash income from agriculture comes predominantly from tobacco and cotton production. Due to cash constraints and poor access to input and credit by farmers, and high demand from buyers to meet quality and volume requirements, contract farming (CF) is the dominant form in the organization of transactions in those cash cropping sectors.
02/2007;
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ABSTRACT: The challenge that faces Mozambique’s government is to design poverty reduction and rural development strategies that deliver three-dimensional growth: rapid growth to reduce poverty incidence quickly, sustainable growth to ensure that people permanently escape poverty, and broad-based growth to ensure that as many families as possible benefit from it. The specific objectives of this paper are: 1. To compare the level, sources, and distribution of rural household incomes in 1995-96 and 2001-02. To achieve this objective, the paper answers questions such as how have rural incomes changed over the six year period; how much have the poorest of the poor benefited; and have rural incomes grown evenly over the whole country or have some areas grown faster than others? 2. To compare the level and composition of agricultural income in 1995-96 and 2001-02. The paper considers the importance of agriculture relative to non-farm activities as a source of rural income, and the mix of agricultural activities, for different income groups. 3. To identify priorities for enhancing agriculture’s contribution to rural economic growth and poverty reduction in the medium term.
02/2006;
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ABSTRACT: With cotton sector reform in much of SSA a decade old, it is now possible to review the empirical record and begin drawing lessons from experience. This paper assesses the record of five countries in southern and eastern Africa: Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. In four of these countries, cotton is the first- or second most important smallholder cash crop; only in Uganda does it substantially lag other cash crops. The focus on the course of reform in each – initial conditions, key elements of the reform, and institutional response to it – and attempt to draw lessons for policy makers, donors, and researchers. the paper begins by outlining the challenges faced by cotton production and marketing systems. Next a review the range of pre-reform institutional responses to these challenges, before discussing the reform process in each country and reviewing the evolving institutional response to it. Finally, assess the performance that each country has achieved and attempt to relate this to its initial conditions and subsequent institutional responses, and closing by outlining lessons for strategies to improve cotton systems in SSA.
02/2006;
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ABSTRACT: This paper demonstrates that income survey data can be very informative in explaining the variation across households in the incidence and severity of absolute poverty using a rural household income data set for Mozambique. Results from regression analysis of the sources of variation are used to simulate the impact of alternative agricultural interventions or strategies on rural poverty. Complementarities in the insights gained from consumption expenditure and income surveys may justify the collection and analysis of both types of information, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, the one region of the world where the incidence of poverty is increasing.
02/2006;
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ABSTRACT: Summary This study tests the null hypothesis that it is sufficient to interview only the household head to obtain accurate information on household income. Results show that using a husband's estimate of his wife's income does not produce statistically reliable results for poverty analysis. Estimates of the wife's income provided by the husband and wife are in agreement in only 6% of households. While limiting interviews to one person has the advantage of reducing the time and expense of household surveys, this appears detrimental in terms of accuracy, and may lead to incorrect conclusions on the determinants of poverty.
International Association of Agricultural Economists, 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia. 01/2006;
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Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers. 01/2006;
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Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers. 01/2006;
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ABSTRACT: This paper assesses the record of five countries in southern and eastern Africa: Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. The paper focuses on the course of reform in each – initial conditions, key elements of the reform, and institutional response to it – and draws lessons for policy makers, donors, and researchers.
Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security International Development Working Papers. 01/2006;
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ABSTRACT: This work was carried out as a monitoring activity for the seed commercial sector. The commercial sector of seed is examined, in order to identify the incidence of market failure, and assess the need of specific public investments. It was found that: 1) there is no available data sets on seed sector; 2) although new rules were created to motivate the seed sector, there is still need for creation of places for companies’ registration. There is also need for the creation of lower category for classification for local origin seed; 3) there is limited demand for certified seed; 4) there is a weak linkage between the seed companies, group of seed producers, and the public sector initiatives which provide incentives for use of certified seed; however, there is a noticeable interest in producing seed by farmers; 5) the existence of one more seed company in the market, increased the competition in the sector, and increased the number of variety of seed to be chosen by the farmers. However, it is necessary to improve and simplify the procedures for companies’ registration, in order to increase the competition and the exposure of farmers to different alternatives for better choices. It is also necessary to undertake national campaigns in order to emphasize the potential benefits of new seed varieties. The new approach of seed distribution through agents must be monitored in order to play an important role in availability and diffusion of new varieties among the farmers.
02/2004;
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Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Food Security Collaborative Working Papers. 01/2004;
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ABSTRACT: Cotton is one of the most important smallholder cash crops in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). How to ensure input supply, credit recovery and competition is a subject of intense policy debate. This paper examines the performance of cotton sector development policies in Mozambique and Zambia. Both countries face the challenge of organizing input supply to farmers in the absence of rural credit markets, and competing in international markets distorted by production subsidies in developed countries. Both countries privatized cotton ginning in the 1990s. Emerging from civil war, Mozambique established geographical monopolies to interlink input and output markets and facilitate credit recovery. In Zambia, the government completely liberalized the cotton sector, forcing the private sector to deal with the problem of input distribution and credit recovery by itself. Despite being landlocked, Zambia's cotton sector has achieved better performance in terms of both value of cotton output per hectare and smallholder share of world market prices. An analysis of the institutional and technical factors behind the two countries' performance provides insights to guide the design of public/private partnerships relevant to many SSA countries.
02/2003;
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02/2003;
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ABSTRACT: This document argues that from the existing inequalities in the subsistence farming sector, there are great opportunities for this sector to grow, through policies that directly influence the richest and most dynamic part of this sector, without excluding the great number of farmers. The richest and most dynamic part of subsistence farming sector is more likely to take advantage of any intervention focused on agricultural productivity. Four factors suggesting that there could have been significant effect on poverty are emphasized: 1) the indirect effects of the highest group growth could have positive impact in whole rural economy, including households in worst conditions; 2) even the highest group in the subsistence farming sector is poor. Thus, the direct effects in this group reduce the poverty; 3) for any structural transformation of the economy, it usually takes long period of time for a country to escape from poverty, and it is always associated with progressive exit of household from agriculture to be employed in other sectors of economy. Finally, it is recognized that an improvement in access to education and healthy services, as well as the access to credit, local and international markets by the rural households plays a fundamental role in the strategy of rural development for poverty reduction. It is also recognized that more investments in infrastructure, mainly the access roads, play a fundamental role on poverty reduction.
02/2003;
