Optimal user charges and cost recovery for roads in developing countries

The optimal charge for road use is equal to variable costs for road maintenance, together with the costs road users impose on other road users and on the rest of society. One persistent question raised about such charges is what impact they have on cost recovery. The theoretical literature argues that if there are constant returns to scale in road construction and in road use, the optimal user charge will recover the capital costs of the road network and the total expenditures on road maintenance. Empirical estimates for such a system of road user charges in Tunisia similarly suggest that they would generate twice the revenues currently spent on roads. The authors examine these issues from both theoretical and practical perspectives. They conclude that there are substantial economies of scale in both road construction and road use. Also, road maintenancecosts include a number of fixed costs that do not vary with traffic. Moreover, since roads cannot be smoothly adjusted to traffic, marginal costs for the entire road network are significantly lower than average costs in most developing countries, unless capacity is artificially constrained by environmental or other constraints. Under these conditions, optimal user charges result in a substantial financial deficit. The authors also address the question of how this deficit should be financed.Roads&Highways,Economic Theory&Research,Water Supply and Sanitation Finance,Airports and Air Services,Public Sector Economics&Finance

Rural African women’s accessibility to resources for food production in the North West region of Cameroon

Globalization has made agriculture more competitive in a way that access to and control of farm resources is extremely important. This study examines rural women’s access to farm resources in arable small-scale food production in the North West Region of Cameroon. Using a multistage sampling technique a total of 1,120 rural women farmers were surveyed in order to capture their socioeconomic characteristics and access to arable land, agricultural inputs, agricultural extension information and source of finance and involvement in food production in smallholder production systems. All data collected was subjected to descriptive statistics. The results showed that rural women have access to arable land through their families but they do not control arable land. They have access to agricultural inputs but lack rural feeder roads and access to agricultural extension information and/or services. Rural women farmers lack finances and mostly access finance for arable agriculture from traditional social groups and their husbands to solve additional constraints of poor soils, pests and diseases. The rural women are involved in major crop production activities (land preparation (ploughing/ridging), sowing, weeding, harvesting and storage) which necessitate access to and control of farm resources but have limited access to resources in order to be efficient and competitive. Because of limited control of farm resources, they are not involved in decision-making, which usually translates into lateness in carrying out farm operations and consequently low yields. Access to land resources by rural women is controlled by cultural and technical factors. Boosting crop production will require that efforts are made socially and technically to remove the afore-mentioned barriers in the acquisition of farm resources. Therefore, agricultural production policies and programs should establish direct linkage between agricultural extension information and/or services, and rural women farmers, and provide incentives to rural women involved in arable small-scale agricultural production in order to maintain a steady growth rate of food production.Key words: Women, access, inputs, finance, service