Report on a pilot study to crowdsource farmgate prices for legumes in southern Malawi

Abstract

Little is known about farm gate prices in Malawi since data on the price trends are inconsistently collected. Yet this is important information for assessing the performance of agricultural markets. This report summarizes the findings from a pilot study to crowdsource farm gate prices for pigeon peas and chickpeas through the Farm Radio Trust (FRT) platform. In a series of radio 'jingles' and short message service (SMS) 'pushes', farmers were invited to report the prices and locations at which they had sold their pigeon peas and chickpeas to a toll-free number or using SMS. The phone numbers of farmers who responded were entered into a weekly draw with the possibility of winning a MWK25,000 coupon redeemable at a major agricultural input dealer. Between August 15, 2019 and November 1, 2019, 637 farmers called or sent short message service (SMS) texts to a toll-free number to report their sales, volume sold, and the type of buyer and location for sales of pigeon peas or chickpeas during the 2019 marketing season. At the end of the pilot, a follow up telephone survey of 468 of the 637 farmers was conducted to obtain detailed information on farmers' production and marketing activities that were not captured in the initial phone calls. Findings show that pigeon pea and chickpea farming is dominated by men and is highly commercialized, with about 79 percent of production sold. Less than 8 percent of farmers reported sales at prices equal to or above the minimum farm gate prices announced by the Government at the beginning of main harvest season. Most of the products were sold to vendors and manufacturers, while a small proportion was sold directly to consumers who usually offered better prices than vendors and manufacturers. Farmers mainly depended on buyers for price information and less than one-half of those interviewed in the follow up survey were aware of the ruling minimum farm gate prices. Buyers mainly purchased at below these minimum prices in an environment with limited market access with fluctuating production and prices. This suggests that price support to the legume producers does not guarantee better producer prices. As long as minimum farm gate prices remain unenforceable, they need to be reformed (if not eliminated) as they are not delivering the intended benefits to smallholder farmers.

Report on a study to crowdsource farmgate prices for maize and soybeans in Malawi

“…The results of this study are in line with findings from an earlier crowdsourcing study for pigeon peas and chickpeas in southern Malawi between August and October 2019 (Ochieng 2019). Both studies confirm that official minimum farmgate prices are weakly enforced and are therefore ineffective in guaranteeing minimum prices to farmers.…”