Oliver L.E. Mbatia

Using ICT to Integrate Smallholder Farmers into Agricultural Value Chain: The Case of DrumNet Project in Kenya

This article examines an ICT-based intervention (known as the DrumNet project) that has succeeded in integrating smallholder-resource and poor farmers into a higher value agricultural chain. The article assesses the design of the project, and how it resolves the smallholder farmers’ idiosyncratic market failures and examines member-farmers’ marketing margins. The article finds that the design of the DrumNet project resolves smallholder farmers’ credit, insurance and information market failures and enables them to overcome organizational failure. The article concludes that successful ICT-based interventions for integrating farmers into higher value agricultural value chains require an integrated approach to tackling smallholder farmers’ constraints. The findings have implications for the design of future ICT-based interventions in agriculture.

Determinants of Farmers’ Participation in Formal Credit Markets in Rural Rwanda

Abstract Access to credit is a necessary ingredient for policies aiming at transforming rural economies, particularly for a largely subsistence agricultural economy such as Rwanda. Despite the increasing number of formal financial institutions penetrating rural areas in the country, access to credit among the majority of agricultural households remains limited. This study assesses micro-level factors influencing Rwandan farmers’ participation in formal credit markets as borrowers, using Rwamagana District as an illustrative case. Survey data of 185 farm households were employed in a binary Logit regression analysis. The results reveal that the likelihood of farmers participating successfully in formal credit markets increases with education, off-farm incomes, and agricultural extension, and decreases with the presence of informal financial systems in the neighbourhood. The study concludes with key rural development policy recommendations.

Analysis of competition in the wholesale and retail markets for fish in Kisumu, Kenya

This study analyses competition in the wholesale and retail fish marketing system in Kisumu, which is Kenyas largest fish market. It is based on cross sectional and time series primary data collected in a survey involving 88 retailers and 47 wholesale traders of fish in the town. Stratified random sampling method was used in selecting the respondents, Concentration ratios, Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients are derived and evaluated for both markets. They demonstrate that market shares are unequally distributed among the wholesalers and retailers. The Gini coefficients are 0.37 and 0.45 for the whole and retail markets respectively. Based on a Gini coefficient cut-off level of 0.4, it is concluded that the wholesale fish market exhibits effective competition while the retail outlet has oligopolistic tendencies. The implication of this level of competition to price efficiency is discussed. Intervention measures to enhance competition in the market are recommended.