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

meat, and the small share allocated to staples all reflect the relatively high income of households in
Atlantique.
In Mono, maize, fish, and tomatoes are the largest items in the food budget. Maize alone accounts
for one-third of the food budget, the highest figure among the six departments. Spending on the
non-maize staples is less in Mono than in any other department. Fish expenditure is more
important in Mono than in any other department except for Ouémé (see Table 4.1.143).
In Ouémé, the most important items in the food budget are fish, maize, rice, and cassava flour.
Ouémé leads the other departments in its spending on fish and cassava flour. Cooking oil also
appears more prominently in the food budgets of households in Ouémé.
The diets of households in Zou represent a mix between northern and southern patterns. The
importance of yam and sorghum/millet is less than in Atacora and Borgou but more than in the
southern departments. Zou is also notable for its relatively high consumption of cassava products
(include roots and flour) and relatively low consumption of vegetables (see Table 4.1.143).
Food expenditure by expenditure category How does the composition of the food
budget change as per capita expenditure rises? For some foods, the share of the food budget
declines. This is particularly true to staple foods such as maize, sorghum/millet, and yams. For
example, the food share of maize is falls from 24 percent in the lowest expenditure category to 12
percent in the highest expenditure category. The share allocated to yams and sorghum/millet
declines by more than half across expenditure categories (see Table 4.1.144).
The proportion of the food budget allocated to high-value commodities rises with expenditure. For
example, the share allocated to rice, tomatoes, meat, fish, dairy, and beverages rises across
expenditure categories. These patterns reflect an international pattern in food consumption: as
income rises, diets become more diversified, with households moving away from staples toward
“luxury” foods that have a higher cost per calorie (see Table 4.1.144).
Non-food expenditure
The average value of non-food purchases among farm households in Bénin is 343 thousand
FCFA per household or 42 thousand FCFA per capita. Social events, such as weddings and
funerals, and “leisure and other” are the two largest categories, each accounting for 18 percent of
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