In most developing countries, crop sales represent a means of improving the nutritional status of rural households. However, the expected effect of farm income may or may not be achieved, depending on who controls it. In this study, we use panel data on rural households in Burkina Faso to analyze the effect of the wives’ share of farm revenue on nutritional outcomes. The estimates show that raising wives’ share of farm revenue increases household food demand and nutrition quality. Moreover, the effect of the wives’ share of farm revenue on household nutrition is greater than the effect of the overall income per capita, which indicates that the intrahousehold distribution of farm income affects household nutritional status. We also show that increase in food expenditure and, more specifically, reallocation of the budget toward highly nutritious foods could represent a channel through which the control of farm revenue by women improves the household dietary quality. These findings imply that facilitating women's access to productive resources, such as land and labor‐saving technologies, could be the fastest way to improve household food and nutritional security.
We use a TVECM to analyze the nature of price relationship and adjustment between local markets of cowpea in Burkina Faso. First, the estimated thresholds suggest that not only transaction costs between central market and secondary markets are asymmetric but also higher for producing markets. Second, the sign and the amplitude of adjustment parameters are consistent with the spatial equilibrium even if prices respond quickly to positive shocks than negative shocks. Finally, the distribution of observations across different trade regimes suggests that markets are well performing in the sense that they display fewer violations of competitive spatial equilibrium.
It is widely expected that agriculture would contribute to farmers’ food security and nutrition in developing countries. However, studies that directly explore the link between agricultural productivity and micronutrients intake by farmers are scarce. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap by exploring two key channels by which agricultural production can influence dietary outcomes: a food consumption pathway and a cash revenue pathway. To achieve this, we used three-years panel data of rice farmers collected in the Vakinankaratra region of Madagascar. The results suggest that rice yield is positively and significantly associated with farmers’ calorie and micronutrients intake, though the observed elasticities are low. Secondly, raising rice yield has a positive significant impact not only on rice consumption but also on the share of the output sold and the cash revenue from rice sales. Lastly, the results suggest that households with higher cash revenue from rice sales purchase more nutritious foods. Therefore, we conclude that the market represents the channel through which increased rice yield translates into improved micronutrient intake. The findings of this study imply that in order to improve farm households’ nutrition through agricultural production, interventions that target yield enhancement should be accompanied by market access measures.
This paper analyzes the relationship between crop output market and the use of modern inputs of farmers in developing countries. For this purpose, we used a large-scale household dataset collected in rural Burkina Faso. We found evidence that crop output market integration matters in farmer decision to adopt modern inputs. More specifically, an increase of the spatial price dispersion by 10% is significantly associated with a decrease of the probability of using modern inputs by 4%. However, price volatility affects neither the decision to use of the modern nor the intensity of adoption. Our finding implies that in order to succeed, agricultural interventions that target the adoption of modern inputs should be accompanied with market development measures.
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