Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...

The questionnaire was developed by IFPRI in mid-1999. It was then field-tested and revised
extensively in collaboration with LARES in October 1999. Data collection was carried out from
November 1999 to February 2000, under the supervision of LARES.
Because of the relatively small number of observations, we do not provide results at the department
level. Instead, some of the results are presented for three regions: North, Center, and South. The
North is defined as the departments of Atacora and Borgou; the Center includes Zou; and the South
covers Atlantique, Ouémé, and Mono.
4.2.2 Transportation infrastructure
For the purposes of this report, transportation infrastructure is defined as the length and quality of
the road network and the number and availability of various means of transportation. The quality
of the transportation infrastructure affects the markets for all commodities but it is particularly
important in agricultural markets for two reasons. First, agricultural commodities have a low
value/bulk ratio, implying that the cost of transporting these goods is a relatively large proportion of
the final consumer price. For example, the cost of transportation accounts for a much smaller
portion of the price of soap, radios, or cloth than of maize or manioc. Second, seasonal variation in
agricultural production creates an additional burden on transportation infrastructure during the
harvest period. In Bénin, the cotton harvest reduces the availability of vehicles for other
agricultural commodities.
Road network
Village leaders were asked about the length of different types of roads within their villages.
The results indicate that the average village has 29 kilometers of roads, but most of this consists of
pistes, unmaintained narrow dirt roads that are little more than paths. Just 6 kilometers (21 percent)
of the total are all-season roads and just 1 kilometer is paved. The length of the roads is greatest in
the north and least in the south, although these figures do not take into account the geographic size
of the village. Villages tend to be larger in the more sparsely populated north. Dry-season and
pistes become impassable an average of three months of the year (see Table 4.2.1).
Respondents were also asked to assess the changes in road quantity and quality in their villages
since 1992. A large majority (85 percent) reported that there had been no change in the length of
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