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

Fertilizer
Half of the farm households in Benin use fertilizer.
Fertilizer use is highest in the cotton zones of Borgou and Zou and lowest in Atlantique.
The percentage of households using fertilizer does not vary by income level.
Almost all (97 percent) cotton growers use fertilizer, and 24 % of other farmers.
Growing cotton facilitates fertilizer use on other crops. Maize is fertilized by 59 percent of
cotton growers, but just 18 percent of other farmers.
About 87 percent of the fertilizer is bought by cotton farmers, but only 65 percent is used on
cotton field. Thus, 25 percent of the fertilizer bought by cotton farmers is “diverted” to other
crops, mainly maize.
In the cotton zone, fertilizer is purchased on credit from SONAPRA through the GV.
Elsewhere, fertilizer is purchased on a cash basis from traders and others.
Farmers are evenly split on whether the availability of fertilizer has increased or decreased.
Positive assessments tend to come from the cotton zone.
More farmers report increased fertilizer use than report declining use. Use appears to have
increased on cotton, maize, and vegetables, but declined on yams and manioc.
Pesticides
About 42 percent of farm household use pesticides.
Almost all (87 percent) of the pesticides are used on cotton, and 7 percent on cowpeas.
Growing cotton facilitates pesticide use: cotton growers are more likely to apply pesticides to
their cowpeas than other farmers are.
Access to credit
About one third of the farm households received a loan in the 12 months before the survey,
half from the formal sector (mainly CLCAM) and half from the informal sector (mainly
friends and family). The average loan is 115 thousand FCFA.
The most common purpose of the loan was to pay hired laborers.
Most households (73 percent) report no change in availability of credit, but those seeing an
improvement (17 percent) exceeded those seeing deterioration (7 percent).
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