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

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