G. J. Scott (editor) Prices, Products, and People. Analyzing Agricultural Markets in Developing Countries Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, Colorado, 1995 (in co-operation with the International Potato Centre). ISBN: 1 55587 609 9, 495 pp., Price: $39.95/ 31.95

In the wake of the failure of the Cancun Summit, the paper argues for a new approach to negotiations in the agricultural sector by developing countries. The paper emphasises that piecemeal efforts to address agricultural issues facing developing countries need to be given up in favour of concepts that are more structural and give a greater profile to the special and distinctive characteristic of the agrarian economies in the developing world. The paper advances the notion of ecosystemic multifunctionality to argue for special and differential position for the agriculture sector in developing countries like India. It is argued that this concept would be beneficial to developing countries in their quest for world agricultural markets that are sensitive to livelihood and food security issues. The post-Cancun phase of negotiations could go a long way, in case a negotiation stance based on the concept of ecosystemic multifunctionality takes root.

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Agricultural Markets in Developing Countries

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics ◽

10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2048 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 196-202

Author(s):

Christopher B. Barrett ◽

Emelly Mutambatsere

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Agricultural Markets

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Spatial price transmission analysis in Ghanaian agricultural markets: Does the data frequency improve our estimation?

Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences ◽

10.4102/jef.v4i2.322 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 301-316

Author(s):

Joseph Amikuzuno

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

High Frequency ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Price Transmission ◽

Price Adjustment ◽

High Frequency Data ◽

Agricultural Markets ◽

Frequency Data ◽

Monthly Data ◽

Data Frequency

Unavailability of high frequency weekly or daily data compels most studies of price transmission in developing countries to use low frequency monthly data for their analyses. Analysing price dynamics, especially in agricultural markets, with monthly data may however yield imprecise price adjustment parameters and lead to wrong inferences on price dynamics. This is because agricultural markets in developing countries usually operate daily or weekly, not monthly, as implied by the market analysts who use low frequency data. This paper investigates the relevance of data frequency in price transmission analysis by using a standard and a threshold vector error correction model to estimate and compare price adjustment parameters for high frequency semi-weekly data and low frequency monthly data obtained from five major fresh tomato markets in Ghana. The results reveal that adjustment parameters estimated from the low frequency data are higher in all cases than those estimated from the high frequency data. There is reason to suspect that using low frequency data, as confirmed in some literature, leads to an overestimation of the price adjustment parameters. More research involving a large number of observations is however needed to enhance our knowledge about the usefulness of high frequency data in price transmission analysis.

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Use of Information and Communication Tools and Services by Rural Grain Traders

Technology, Sustainability, and Rural Development in Africa ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-3607-1.ch011 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 152-167

Author(s):

Julius Juma Okello

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Information Service ◽

Agricultural Markets ◽

Market Information ◽

Poor Access ◽

Information And Communication ◽

Ict Tools ◽

Development Agents ◽

New Generation

Poor access to agricultural market information is a major factor constraining the performance of agricultural markets in developing countries. The search for new strategies for resolving this constraint has led to several ICT-based market information service (MIS) projects in developing countries. At the same time, the rapid penetration of new generation ICT tools (especially mobile phones) has resulted in wider application of these tools in agriculture. This paper examines the use of ICT tools and ICT-based services by rural grain traders in Kenya. It is based on data collected from 204 traders in Western and Rift Valley regions of Kenya. The study finds widespread use of ICT tools by grain traders. It also finds that the tools are used by grain traders to obtain market information, including information on price, volume, and where to source and sell grains, among others. The implications of these findings are that market development agents must focus on removing constraints limiting the use of ICT tools in rural areas. Spurring greater use of ICT tools has the potential to reduce transaction costs and improve the performance of rural agricultural markets.

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