Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...
Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ... Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...
The largest cost items are schools (21 percent of the total), storage facilities (10 percent), and travel costs (9 percent) (see Table 4.3.37). Travel costs refer to the expenses associated with trips by GV officials to meetings with other participants in the cotton system such as the USPP, the UDP, and SONAPRA. Overall, social investments represent about 38 percent of the total. This includes road improvement, schools, payment of teacher salaries, and contributions to local health centers. In many cotton producing areas, GV expenditure has served as an important supplement to public expenditure social services. 4.3.8 Problems and perceptions of GVs In the last section of the questionnaire, GV representatives were asked about various types of problems the GV may have experienced in the last year. Input availability The first topic concerns the availability of inputs. The GVs were asked if they received all the inputs that they ordered. In general, few GVs experienced any problems of this type. Less than 6 percent did not receive all the pesticides and herbicides they ordered, and 11 percent did not receive the full quantity of fertilizer requested. The problem was somewhat more common in the case of cotton seed: 14 percent of the GVs received less than the amount of cotton seed they ordered. Problems of input availability were quite rare in Borgou, but somewhat more common elsewhere (see Table 4.3.38). Shortages of fertilizer and pesticide were attributed to the supplier not having sufficient stocks, whereas the respondents did not know why herbicides and cotton seed supplies were inadequate. Late delivery wasn’t a common explanation. The response of those GVs facing inadequate deliveries of fertilizer was split: in some cases, the GV purchased elsewhere, in others the members bought it elsewhere, and in others the members simply used less fertilizer. When facing inadequate supplies of cotton seed, GV members obtained cotton seed elsewhere. 127
Input quality GV representatives were also asked about the quality of inputs. Very few GVs complained about the quality of herbicide (4 percent) and cotton seed (6 percent). Complaints about quality were somewhat more common in the case of fertilizer (15 percent), particularly in Atacora and Zou. The most common complaints about quality concerned pesticides. Over half the GVs in the sample reported that the pesticides were of poor quality, with the percentage being highest in Atacora (71 percent) and Borgou (67percent) (see Table 4.3.39). The problem with the pesticides was that they were ineffective (86 percent of those complaining), while fertilizer problems were attributed to both ineffectiveness (48 percent) and counterfeit products (38percent). In the vast majority of cases where the quality was low, the GV members had no choice but to accept the inputs. Farmers declining to take delivery on orders A third input problem discussed is whether GV members took delivery on the inputs they ordered through the GV. This appears to be a small but not negligible problem. The number of GVs reporting this problem ranged from 4 to 9 percent, depending on the input. The number of members refusing to buy all they had ordered is less than 5 percent overall, but among GVs reporting the problem 29 percent of the members are implicated. In other words, most GVs (83 percent) had no problem in this regard, but those that did often had more than the quarter of the members defaulting on orders (see Table 4.3.40 and 4.3.41). When asked about the reasons for this behavior, GV representatives attributed it to members ordering more than they needed. Few blamed it on weather being more adverse than expected. In the case of herbicides, pesticides, and cotton seed, the GVs generally stored the surplus for distribution the following year. In the case of fertilizer, which is more bulky, more effort was made to sell it elsewhere or return it to the supplier. Credit repayment A fourth problem concerns the repayment of input credits to the GV. Normally, the cost of inputs in deducted from the cotton payments at harvest time. About one half of the GV say that some members defaulted on their input credit, but these defaulters represent just 5 percent of all GV 128
- Page 84 and 85: Surprisingly, the value of sales as
- Page 86 and 87: Finally, proximity to an all-season
- Page 88 and 89: Changes in crop marketing In this s
- Page 90 and 91: Poor households are more likely to
- Page 92 and 93: it is clear that virtually all grow
- Page 94 and 95: production to total expenditure is
- Page 96 and 97: a significant number of household (
- Page 98 and 99: non-food spending. These are follow
- Page 100 and 101: Larger farms are associated with hi
- Page 102 and 103: This would not be surprising in lig
- Page 104 and 105: Female-headed households appear to
- Page 106 and 107: poorest expenditure category to jus
- Page 108 and 109: headed household were more likely t
- Page 110 and 111: Households in every expenditure cat
- Page 112 and 113: An important result of this analysi
- Page 114 and 115: oad network, although those citing
- Page 116 and 117: questions posed by the IFPRI-LARES
- Page 118 and 119: With regard to cotton marketing, al
- Page 120 and 121: Village leaders were asked to ident
- Page 122 and 123: Marketing patterns Village leaders
- Page 124 and 125: 4.3: Results of the Bénin Survey o
- Page 126 and 127: 4.3.2 Survey methods At the time of
- Page 128 and 129: officers have CM2 certificates. Thi
- Page 130 and 131: Suppliers The GV representatives we
- Page 132 and 133: Cotton area per GV ranges from 145
- Page 136 and 137: members and 10 percent of the membe
- Page 138 and 139: Table 4.1.1-Description of sample o
- Page 140 and 141: Table 4.1.7-Age, education, and lit
- Page 142 and 143: Table 4.1.13-Ethnic background of h
- Page 144 and 145: Table 4.1.19-Importance of each sou
- Page 146 and 147: Table 4.1.25-Number of plots and ar
- Page 148 and 149: Table 4.1.31-Land tenure by expendi
- Page 150 and 151: Table 4.1.37-Change in labor alloca
- Page 152 and 153: Table 4.1.42-Seed use by sex of hea
- Page 154 and 155: Table 4.1.47-Perceived change in av
- Page 156 and 157: Table 4.1.54-Share of producers of
- Page 158 and 159: Table 4.1.59-Fertilizer use by farm
- Page 160 and 161: Table 4.1.64-Characteristics of fer
- Page 162 and 163: Table 4.1.69-Change in fertilizer a
- Page 164 and 165: Table 4.1.75-Allocation of labor by
- Page 166 and 167: Table 4.1.82-Allocation of labor by
- Page 168 and 169: Table 4.1.89-Change in credit avail
- Page 170 and 171: Table 4.1.94-Percent of households
- Page 172 and 173: Table 4.1.98-Percent of households
- Page 174 and 175: Table 4.1.102-Area allocation by cr
- Page 176 and 177: Table 4.1.106-Area allocation by cr
- Page 178 and 179: Table 4.1.110-Marketed share of out
- Page 180 and 181: Table 4.1.114-Marketed share of out
- Page 182 and 183: Table 4.1.117-Regression for market
The largest cost items are schools (21 percent of the total), storage facilities (10 percent), and travel<br />
costs (9 percent) (see Table 4.3.37). Travel costs refer to the expenses associated with trips by GV<br />
officials to meetings with other participants in the cotton system such as the USPP, the UDP, and<br />
SONAPRA.<br />
Overall, social investments represent about 38 percent of the total. This includes road improvement,<br />
schools, payment of teacher salaries, and contributions to local health centers. <strong>In</strong> many cotton<br />
producing areas, GV expenditure has served as an important supplement to public expenditure<br />
social services.<br />
4.3.8 Problems and perceptions of GVs<br />
<strong>In</strong> the last section of the questionnaire, GV representatives were asked about various types of<br />
problems the GV may have experienced in the last year.<br />
<strong>In</strong>put availability<br />
The first topic concerns the availability of inputs. The GVs were asked if they received all<br />
the inputs that they ordered. <strong>In</strong> general, few GVs experienced any problems of this type. Less than<br />
6 percent did not receive all the pesticides and herbicides they ordered, and 11 percent did not<br />
receive the full quantity of fertilizer requested. The problem was somewhat more common in the<br />
case of cotton seed: 14 percent of the GVs received less than the amount of cotton seed they<br />
ordered. Problems of input availability were quite rare in Borgou, but somewhat more common<br />
elsewhere (see Table 4.3.38).<br />
Shortages of fertilizer and pesticide were attributed to the supplier not having sufficient stocks,<br />
whereas the respondents did not know why herbicides and cotton seed supplies were inadequate.<br />
Late delivery wasn’t a common explanation.<br />
The response of those GVs facing inadequate deliveries of fertilizer was split: in some cases, the<br />
GV purchased elsewhere, in others the members bought it elsewhere, and in others the members<br />
simply used less fertilizer. When facing inadequate supplies of cotton seed, GV members obtained<br />
cotton seed elsewhere.<br />
127
Change language