Price expectations of sheep and goats by producers and intermediaries in Quetta market, Pakistan

Abstract

Analysis of producers' and intermediaries' livestock price expectations was used to describe the market in Quetta, the largest livestock market in the highlands of Balochistan Province, Pakistan, and to identify factors that determine price expectations of small ruminants. A total of 4800 expected prices for sheep and goats were collected from producers and market intermediaries at monthly intervals between January 1991 and December 1992. In addition to the expected price of the animal, liveweight, species, sex, breed, body condition (fatness), calendar day and month were recorded, and whether data were collected on a meat or meatless day. Monthly rainfall data were also collected. Models of goat and sheep price expectations were built to compare the similarity of the behaviour of producers and intermediaries.Results indicated that producers and intermediaries expected high prices from November to January and during religious holidays. They expected premiums and discounts related to animals' attributes. Liveweight and seasonality had the strongest effect on prices. Rainfall in the current and previous month was positively related to seller's expected prices suggesting that livestock are retained to take advantage of favourable grazing conditions. The models of priee expectations showed that producers adjusted expected goat prices (p s 0.10) for seasonality, liveweight, body condition, age, sex and breed, while they adjusted sheep prices for seasonality and liveweight only. High pay-offs could be expected if extension efforts focused on factors that determine sheep meat quality; however, the retail ceiling price of meat and the lack of grading are a disincentive to work in this direction.Seasonality of supply and demand is important in determining prices and this study provides baseline information for market scheduling; however, scheduling of sales of transhumant pastoralists may be difficult to achieve. Further investigation is justified to understand the gap in marketing knowledge between producers who sell in the villages and those who sell in Quetta.Livestock production and marketing constraints have been identified as the major factors that limit animal offtake in the highlands of Balochistan Province, Pakistan (Nagy et aI., 1991). * Corresponding author. Elsevier Science B.V. SSDl 0169-515 0(94)(J0020-3Research and extension services, when available, have focused on the biological aspects of production such as de-worming, vaccination, supplemental feeding and breeding. However, other aspects that affect animal offtake such as the grazing rights of pastoral and agro-pastoral production systems, the existence of a ceiling price on re- !lOA. Rodriguez et al. / Agricultural Economics /2 (/995) [79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]

Assessing the value of castrated and intact male goat attributes in livestock markets of Pakistan

“…It suggests that goat producers can obtain higher prices for heavier male goats and is especially true for religious occasions. Several studies reported a significant effect of live weight on prices (Rodriguez et al, 1995;Knights et al, 2005;Dossa et al, 2008;Naanep et al, 2012;Srinivas et al, 2013).…”

“…Many studies used survey data under the revealed preference approach to relate price to goat attributes and characteristics of the buyers and sellers (Andargachew and Brokken, 1993;Rodriguez et al, 1995;Jabbar, 1995Jabbar, , 1998Knights et al, 2005;Ayele et al, 2006;Teklewold et al, 2009;Naanep et al, 2012;Srinivas et al, 2013;Terfa et al, 2013;Woldu et al, 2016). However, these studies ignored the castration attribute of the male goat, which improves meat and carcass quality (Needham et al, 2017), reduces aggressive behavior (ESGPIP, 2008), overcomes undesirable odor in meat (Kebede et al, 2008) and unwanted noise at the breeding time.…”

“…Many studies used survey data under the revealed preference approach to relate price to goat attributes and characteristics of the buyers and sellers (Andargachew and Brokken, 1993; Rodriguez et al. , 1995; Jabbar, 1995, 1998; Knights et al.…”

Incorporating artificial intelligence in microsimulation

“…This means that only products are differentiated, while the markets, buyers and sellers are not. In most empirical studies, however, linear regression models have been used with product as well as market and market agent attributes as variables implying the existence of elements of non-competitiveness in the relevant product market being investigated (Brorsen et al 1984;Francis, 1990;Andargachew and Brokken, 1993;Parker, 1993;Parker and Zilberman, 1993;Williams et al 1993;Oczkowski, 1994;Rodriguez et al 1995). While the hedonic method has been criticised for its assumptions, its inability to capture off-site benefits and difficulty in isolating marginal changes, it none the less provides a valuable tool for valuing certain types of environmental improvement and degradation (Halstead et al 1997).…”