Does access to improved grain storage technology increase farmers' welfare? Experimental evidence from maize farming in Ethiopia

IF 3.4 2区 经济学 Q1 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY
Betelhem M. Negede, Hugo De Groote, Bart Minten, Maarten Voors
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Seasonal price variability for cereals is two to three times higher in Africa than on the international reference market. Seasonality is even more pronounced when access to appropriate storage and opportunities for price arbitrage are limited. As smallholder farmers typically sell their production after harvest, when prices are low, this leads to lower incomes as well as higher food insecurity during the lean season, when prices are high. One solution to reduce seasonal stress is the use of improved storage technologies. Using data from a randomised controlled trial, in a major maize-growing region of Western Ethiopia, we study the impact of hermetic bags, a technology that protects stored grain against insect pests, so that the grain can be stored longer. Despite considerable price seasonality—maize prices in the lean season are 36% higher than after harvesting—we find no evidence that hermetic bags improve welfare, except that access to these bags allowed for a marginally longer storage period of maize intended for sale by 2 weeks. But this did not translate into measurable welfare gains as we found no changes in any of our welfare outcome indicators. This ‘near-null’ effect is due to the fact that maize storage losses in our study region are relatively lower than previous studies suggested—around 10% of the quantity stored—likely because of the widespread use of an alternative to protect maize during storage, for example a cheap but highly toxic fumigant. These findings are important for policies that seek to promote improved storage technologies in these settings.

Abstract Image

获得改良的粮食储存技术是否会增加农民的福利?埃塞俄比亚玉米种植的实验证据
非洲谷物价格的季节性变化比国际参考市场高出两到三倍。当获得适当储存和价格套利的机会有限时,季节性就更加明显。由于小农通常在收获后价格较低时出售他们的产品,这导致收入较低,以及在价格较高的淡季粮食更无保障。减少季节性压力的一个解决方案是使用改良的储存技术。我们利用随机对照试验的数据,在埃塞俄比亚西部的一个主要玉米种植区研究了密封袋的影响,这种技术可以保护储存的谷物免受虫害,从而延长谷物的储存时间。尽管价格具有很大的季节性--收获季节的玉米价格要比收获后高出 36%,但我们没有发现任何证据表明密封袋改善了福利,只是由于使用了这些密封袋,用于销售的玉米的储存期略微延长了 2 周。但这并没有转化为可衡量的福利收益,因为我们发现任何福利结果指标都没有发生变化。造成这种 "近乎零 "效应的原因是,在我们的研究地区,玉米储存损失比以前的研究表明的要低--约为储存量的 10%--这可能是因为在储存期间广泛使用了保护玉米的替代品,例如廉价但剧毒的熏蒸剂。这些发现对于在这些环境中推广改进储存技术的政策非常重要。
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来源期刊
Journal of Agricultural Economics
Journal of Agricultural Economics 管理科学-农业经济与政策
CiteScore
7.90
自引率
2.90%
发文量
48
审稿时长
>24 weeks
期刊介绍: Published on behalf of the Agricultural Economics Society, the Journal of Agricultural Economics is a leading international professional journal, providing a forum for research into agricultural economics and related disciplines such as statistics, marketing, business management, politics, history and sociology, and their application to issues in the agricultural, food, and related industries; rural communities, and the environment. Each issue of the JAE contains articles, notes and book reviews as well as information relating to the Agricultural Economics Society. Published 3 times a year, it is received by members and institutional subscribers in 69 countries. With contributions from leading international scholars, the JAE is a leading citation for agricultural economics and policy. Published articles either deal with new developments in research and methods of analysis, or apply existing methods and techniques to new problems and situations which are of general interest to the Journal’s international readership.
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