Between July 2013 and February 2014, maize was the primary crop sold by monitored farmers, counting 114 Mt (two thirds of total supplies). Western municipalities were the main sales area and absorbed 82% of marketed volumes for any commodity.
Access to multiple marketing channels was limited for farmers in the data sample: nearly half of farmers did not record any sales during the reporting period; 80% of the remaining farmers relied on only one or two marketing channels for selling their produce.
P4P-supported contracting involved 4 sampled lead farmers only (20% of the sample), who globally provided 80 Mt of crops (43% of total sales) during harvesting and lean season.
The analysis of sale trends suggests that there was no clear relationship between price differences among selling points and marketing decisions, even when more options were available to single farmers. The farm gate was the main channel for maize during harvest, despite prices being equal or lower than at other points of sale. This affirmation seems coherent with the circumstance that selling at the farm gate minimizes transaction costs for smallholders.
| Document | File |
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| Farm-Gate Price Monitoring, March 2015 |
PDF | 1.03 MB
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